Q 01/05

Who founded the Achaemenid Persian Empire in 550 BC?

A) Cambyses II

B) Darius the Great

C) Cyrus the Great

D) Xerxes I

Answer · why

C) Cyrus the Great

He rose from Persis to defeat Media, Lydia and Babylon and is honoured in Judaism for ending the Babylonian captivity.

Q 02/05

Roughly how large was the Achaemenid Empire at its peak, making it the largest empire of its time?

A) 5.5 million km²

B) 7 million km²

C) 9 million km²

D) 12 million km²

Answer · why

A) 5.5 million km²

It stretched from the Balkans and Libya to the Indus Valley.

Q 03/05

Which conqueror annexed the entire Achaemenid Empire in 330 BC?

A) Hannibal Barca

B) Alexander the Great

C) Seleucus I Nicator

D) Julius Caesar

Answer · why

B) Alexander the Great

His campaign had begun in 336 BC; after his death most of the territory fell to the Seleucids and Ptolemies.

Q 04/05

The empire is named after which ancestor of the dynasty, a minor 7th-century ruler of Anshan?

A) Arsames

B) Teispes

C) Hystaspes

D) Achaemenes

Answer · why

D) Achaemenes

His name, Haxamanis, means roughly 'having a friend's mind'; no text before Darius mentions him.

Q 05/05

Cyrus's first great conquest, in 550 BC, was of which empire, ruled by Astyages?

A) The Medes

B) The Babylonians

C) The Lydians

D) The Elamites

Answer · why

A) The Medes

He captured King Astyages, his own grandfather according to Herodotus, and styled himself his successor.