World History up to 1500: Mediterranean Peoples Q&A

Question: What were the three major Phoenician cities and where were they located?
Answer: The three major Phoenician cities were Tyre, Sidon, and Carthage. Sidon and Tyre were located in the eastern Mediterranean in today’s Lebanon. Carthage was located in North Africa in what is now Tunisia.

Question: What evidence suggests that Minoan civilization was conquered by the Mycenaeans?
Answer: Sometime around 1500 BCE, the palaces on Crete, originally built by Minoans, were destroyed and later rebuilt. Around the same time, a new script, Linear B, emerged in places where Linear A had been dominant before. Since we know that Linear B was produced by the Mycenaeans, we can deduce that Mycenaean civilization eclipsed and eventually conquered Minoan civilization.

Question: What were Athens’s and Sparta’s expectations of their respective allies before and during the Peloponnesian War?
Answer: Sparta’s allies in the Peloponnesian League were expected to have the same friends and enemies as Sparta. Athens’s allies in the Delian League were in the same position but were also expected to pay tribute to Athens or supply ships and troops to fight for Athens and the League.

Question: In what ways did the efforts of Philip II ultimately lead to the success of Alexander the Great?
Answer: Philip II was able to unite the Greeks under his rule while Alexander was still a young man. He did this by assembling a formidable army made up of commoners and aristocrats. It was also Philip’s idea to take the fight to Persia. By the time Philip was assassinated in 336 BCE, Alexander had almost everything he needed to launch his Persian expedition.
"Why was there a period of wars following Alexander’s death in 323 BCE?",alexander died without leaving an heir to succeed him. His generals and members of his court fought with each other to divide up the empire.

Question: How did the plebeians win concessions from the ruling patricians during the Struggle of the Orders?
Answer: Hostile neighbors surrounded the city-state of Rome. During the Struggle of the Orders, the plebeians went on strike and refused to fight to defend the city unless they received concessions.

Question: What did Augustus actually accomplish with his efforts to “restore” the Republic?

Answer: Augustus’s declaration that he had “restored” the Republic was essentially a sham. While he appeared to allow the Senate and other republican institutions to function, he assumed enormous power. He had in fact inaugurated the Roman Empire with himself as emperor.

Question: During the wars between the members of the Second Triumvirate, what advantage did Octavian enjoy over his rivals?

Answer: As the adopted son and heir of Julius Caesar, Octavian had the loyalty of Caesar’s soldiers, whereas the other two men did not.