Memorize these and you could recognize 23.5% of all Ancient History clues.
| # | Answer | Appearances | Sample Clue |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alexander the Great | 28 | The Seleucid Kingdom which once stretched from Thrace to India was a fragment of his empire |
| 2 | Julius Caesar | 17 | General & statesman who adopted the solar year for the Roman calendar |
| 3 | Egypt | 14 | Menes, who ruled some 3000 years B.C., was first known king of this country |
| 4 | Socrates | 12 | Called "unattractive & short" he was convicted of corrupting the young in 399 B.C. |
| 5 | the Lighthouse at Alexandria | 12 | A fire burned day & night at the top of this ancient wonder |
| 6 | Sparta | 11 | People of this Greek city left sickly babies to die in the Talyetos Mts. |
| 7 | Hammurabi | 10 | Shared ideas like "eye for an eye" indicate both the Mosaic code & this Babylonian's have a common source |
| 8 | Carthage | 10 | Roman statesman Cato closed every speech, regardless of subject, by saying this must be destroyed |
| 9 | Confucius | 9 | He's known to most by this Latin adaptation of his Chinese title, Kung Fu-Tzu |
| 10 | the Colossus of Rhodes | 9 | Made of bronze & honoring the sun god Helios, it stood about 100 feet high in the harbor of a Greek island |
| 11 | the Phoenicians | 8 | Seafaring people who passed their alphabet on to the Greeks &, eventually, to us |
| 12 | the Hanging Gardens of Babylon | 8 | It's believed King Nebuchadnezzar II built this ancient wonder to please his wife |
| 13 | Rome | 8 | The satirist Juvenal complained that all this city's people wanted was bread & circuses |
| 14 | Nero | 8 | He recited verses about Troy aflame, not fiddling as alleged, while watching Rome burn |
| 15 | Aristotle | 8 | Considered 1st universal genius, this student of Plato believed goats breathed through their ears |
| 16 | Aristophanes | 8 | Greek audiences buzzed with laughter when this playwright stung the legal system with "The Wasps" |
| 17 | Troy | 7 | A Euripides play tells the sufferings of Hecuba & the other women of this city who are taken into slavery after its fall |
| 18 | Sophocles | 7 | "The greatest griefs are those we cause ourselves", wrote this playwright in "Oedipus Rex" |
| 19 | Euclid | 7 | This man said, "There is no royal road to geometry" |
| 20 | Babylon | 7 | The ancient Greek Strabo said that this city's Hanging Gardens were watered from the Euphrates River |
| 21 | the Parthenon | 6 | Partheneia were "maiden songs" & this was the "Temple of the Maiden" |
| 22 | Plato | 6 | His "Symposium" mentions that philosophy & gymnastics are "inimical to tyranny" |
| 23 | Cleopatra | 6 | The last person in the Ptolemaic line who ruled Egypt |
| 24 | China | 6 | By 221 B.C. the Ch'in state had defeated the Ch'u to form this country's 1st unified empire |
| 25 | Assyria | 6 | This ancient country was named for Ashur, their primary god |
| 26 | the Pyramids | 6 | Though there are about 75 of these, some lists only include one of them |
| 27 | Thebes | 5 | 2 famous cities, one in Greece, the other a capital of ancient Egypt, were both named this |
| 28 | the Persian Empire | 5 | Cyrus the Great founded this empire by conquering Lydia & Babylonia in the 6th century B.C. |
| 29 | the Mausoleum | 5 | Some sculptures from this marble tomb at Halicarnassus are in the British Museum in London |
| 30 | Spartacus | 5 | This Thracian slave & gladiator was finally defeated by Crassus in 71 B.C. |
| 31 | Sappho | 5 | Plato called her "The Tenth Muse" |
| 32 | Plutarch | 5 | This ancient biographer linked various great Greeks & Romans into 23 pairs in his "Parallel Lives" |
| 33 | Phoenicia | 5 | The name of this country noted for its sailing is merely Greek for "Canaan" |
| 34 | Persia | 5 | Cambyses II of this country ruled Egypt during its 27th dynasty |
| 35 | Nefertiti | 5 | In life, she was the wife of Akhenaton; in death, she's more famous for her bust |
| 36 | Homer | 5 | About all that is accepted about this author is that he was blind & wrote the "Iliad" & the "Odyssey" |
| 37 | Hippocrates | 5 | He said, "As to diseases make a habit of two things—to help or at least to do no harm" |
| 38 | Herodotus | 5 | This father of history reports that the ancient Etruscans were originally Lydians |
| 39 | Crete | 5 | One of the earliest indoor bathrooms has been found on this Greek island |
| 40 | Constantine | 5 | 11 rulers of the Byzantine Empire, including the first & last, bore this name |
| 41 | Archimedes | 5 | He is associated with the lever, the water screw & displacement |
| 42 | Delphi | 5 | In 279 B.C. the Celts attacked this sacred site in Greece on the slope of Mount Parnassus; should have seen that coming |
| 43 | Virgil | 4 | Roman poet Publius Vergilius Maro, born in 70 B.C. near Mantua, is better known by this name |
| 44 | Turkey | 4 | The Trojan War on which Homer based his epic took place in what is now this country |
| 45 | the Persians | 4 | The Medes were allied in a dual empire with these people |
| 46 | the Mayans | 4 | A jar with a screw-on top has been found in tomb of this ancient Central American culture |
| 47 | the Euphrates | 4 | This river flowed through the city of Babylon but has since shifted its course |
| 48 | the Etruscans | 4 | Rome was ruled by these non-Latin neighbors from the late 7th century B.C. to about 509 B.C. |
| 49 | Solon | 4 | This man whose law code replaced Draco's was called one of the Seven Wise Men of Greece |
| 50 | Midas | 4 | Known in Greek mythology for his treasures of gold, this Phrygian king really existed |