Q 01/05

The Phoenicians grew rich on Tyrian purple, a dye extracted from the glands of which animals?

A) Sea snails

B) Cuttlefish

C) Sea urchins

D) Jellyfish

Answer · why

A) Sea snails

Sea snails gave so little dye that twelve thousand of them yielded only enough to colour the trim of a single garment. That scarcity made purple cloth...

Q 02/05

Which Phoenician princess, carried off by Zeus disguised as a bull, is thought to have given a continent its name?

A) Andromeda

B) Ariadne

C) Europa

D) Pasiphae

Answer · why

C) Europa

Europa was carried across the sea to Crete, where she became the island's first queen and the mother of King Minos.

Q 03/05

According to Herodotus, Phoenician sailors hired by Egypt's Pharaoh Necho II spent three years doing what?

A) Seeking the Nile's source

B) Exploring the Black Sea

C) Voyaging to India

D) Sailing around Africa

Answer · why

D) Sailing around Africa

Sailing around Africa put the sun on the crew's right-hand side, a detail Herodotus refused to believe. It is exactly what sailors see south of the Eq...

Q 04/05

Which general from the Phoenician colony of Carthage marched war elephants over the Alps to invade Italy?

A) Hamilcar

B) Hasdrubal

C) Hannibal

D) Himilco

Answer · why

C) Hannibal

Hannibal left Iberia with 37 elephants, and about 30 of them survived the march to fight in his first major victory in Italy.

Q 05/05

Which conqueror captured the Phoenician island city of Tyre by building a causeway out to its walls?

A) Alexander the Great

B) Cyrus the Great

C) Antiochus the Great

D) Darius the Great

Answer · why

A) Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great needed seven months to take the city, and sand piling up against his causeway has joined the old island to the mainland ever since...