CYRUS THE GREAT AND ALEXANDER THE GREAT, AND “PREPARATORY GREEK COURSE IN ENGLISH.”
BY A. M. MARTIN,
General Secretary C. L. S. C.
FIFTY QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ON THE HISTORY OF CYRUS THE GREAT.
1. Q. How has the conquest of Cyrus been characterized? A. As the starting-point of European life.
2. Q. As an individual, of what does Cyrus stand out as the representative? A. Of the East.
3. Q. Of what empire was he the founder? A. The Persian empire.
4. Q. Where was the Persian empire situated? A. In Asia, between the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea.
5. Q. At what date did the Persian empire attain to great magnificence? A. About five hundred years before Christ.
6. Q. Contemporaneous with the Persian empire what republics flourished in the West? A. The republics of Greece.
7. Q. What two Greek historians have given us the history of Cyrus? A. Herodotus and Xenophon.
8. Q. How did Herodotus obtain his information for writing his history? A. By visiting the countries about which he wrote.
9. Q. What romance did Xenophon write, founded on the history of Cyrus the Great? A. The “Cyropædia.”
10. Q. Why may we assume that much Xenophon says about Cyrus is fiction? A. His narrative was apparently written for the purpose of conveying lessons in philosophy, morals, and military science, rather than that of stating historical facts.
11. Q. As what kind of a person does he portray Cyrus? A. As a model hero.
12. Q. What six empires or countries are specially associated with the life of Cyrus? A. Media, Persia, Lydia, Babylon, Judah and Scythia.
13. Q. When was Cyrus born? A. About six hundred years before Christ—B. C. 599.
14. Q. At the time of his birth who was king of Media? A. Astyages.
15. Q. Who was the king of Persia at this time? A. Cambyses.
16. Q. Whom did Cambyses marry? A. Mandane, the daughter of Astyages.
17. Q. What son was born to them? A. Cyrus.
18. Q. By reason of his dreams what did Cambyses fear? A. That Cyrus would usurp him.
19. Q. To whom did he give orders to have Cyrus destroyed? A. To Harpagus, an officer of his court.
20. Q. To whom did Harpagus deliver the child Cyrus, with orders to have him left in the forest and destroyed? A. A herdsman, Mitridates.
21. Q. What did Spaco, the wife of Mitridates, persuade her husband to do? A. To substitute Cyrus for her own dead child, and to expose the latter in the forest.
22. Q. About what age was Cyrus when he was discovered by his grandfather and restored to his mother? A. About ten years of age.
23. Q. What revenge did Astyages take upon Harpagus for not carrying out his instructions to have Cyrus destroyed? A. He made a feast to which he invited Harpagus, and after giving him of the flesh of his own son to eat, displayed to him his mutilated remains.
24. Q. In what manner did Harpagus seek to revenge himself against Astyages? A. He plotted the overthrow of his government by fostering discontent at home, and inciting Cyrus to attempt the conquest of his grandfather’s kingdom.
25. Q. When Cyrus made the attempt what was the result? A. Astyages was defeated, and Cyrus was established on the throne of the united kingdom of Media and Persia.
26. Q. What prominent empire or kingdom existed in Asia Minor at the time of Cyrus, of which Crœsus was the king? A. Lydia.
27. Q. For what was Crœsus celebrated? A. For his great wealth.
28. Q. With whom did Crœsus ally himself and attempt the conquest of the Persian empire? A. With the Lacedæmonians.
29. Q. When the two armies met at Pteria, in the eastern part of Asia Minor, what was the result of the battle that ensued? A. The conflict was continued all day, and at night each army withdrew from the field.
30. Q. What did Crœsus do after the battle? A. Thinking Cyrus was repulsed he returned to Lydia for fresh recruits, dismissing his army on the way, intending to renew the invasion in the spring.
31. Q. What course did Cyrus pursue? A. He followed after Crœsus, and forced him to renew the contest under the walls of Sardis.
32. Q. What did Cyrus oppose to the cavalry of Crœsus? A. His transport camels.
33. Q. What was the result? A. The camels threw the cavalry into confusion, and Crœsus met with overwhelming defeat, which was soon followed by the capture of Sardis and the taking of the king prisoner.
34. Q. What great empire in Asia was yet unconquered by Cyrus? A. Babylon.
35. Q. What river flowed through the city of Babylon? A. The river Euphrates.
36. Q. Who was king of Babylon when Cyrus attempted its conquest? A. Belshazzar.
37. Q. In what manner did Cyrus capture the city? A. He turned the Euphrates from its course, and marching his army by the dry bed of the river under the walls, surprised Belshazzar at a feast, and gained full possession of the city.
38. Q. To whom does the Bible narrative attribute the taking possession of Babylon? A. To Darius the Mede.
39. Q. How can this apparent contradiction be explained? A. On the probable theory that Darius held the sovereignty as the viceroy of Cyrus.
40. Q. How has a recently discovered inscription confirmed the truth of the Scripture narrative that Belshazzar was the king of Babylon at the time of its capture, although authorities in secular history give the name of Nabonnedus as the king? A. By proving that Nabonnedus, during the last years of his reign, associated his son, Bil-shar-uzur—which name is shortened to Belshazzar—with himself in the government, and allowed him the royal title.
41. Q. At the time of the capture of Babylon who were in captivity there? A. The Jews.
42. Q. How many years after the captivity did the restoration of the Jews to Jerusalem take place? A. Seventy years.
43. Q. One year after the taking of Babylon what proclamation did Cyrus issue? A. A proclamation allowing the Jews to return to Jerusalem, and rebuild their city and the Temple.
44. Q. After the conquest of Babylon of how large a territory did Cyrus find himself the sovereign? A. Nearly all of then known Asia.
45. Q. About how many years had he been engaged in these conquests? A. About thirty years.
46. Q. What northern tribe did he now try to conquer? A. The Massagetæ, one of the Scythian nations.
47. Q. By whom were they governed? A. By a queen named Tomyris.
48. Q. What was the result of the expedition? A. The Persian army was almost wholly destroyed, and the body of Cyrus was found among the slain.
49. Q. Who succeeded Cyrus to the throne of the Persian empire? A. His son Cambyses.
50. Q. What difficulties are experienced in tracing the connection between the secular history of the Persian domination and the narrative of the same epoch as given in the Bible? A. The proper names used to designate the same person are different in the secular and in the sacred histories, and the best scholars are not agreed in identifying the two.
II.—QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ON THE HISTORY OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT.
51. Q. In what year was Alexander the Great born? A. In the year 356 B. C.
52. Q. At what age did he commence, and at what age end his career? A. He commenced when about twenty years old, and died at thirty-two years of age.
53. Q. Where was his native country? A. On the confines of Europe and Asia.
54. Q. What were some of the characteristics of the Asiatic civilization? A. Wealth and luxury; vast cities and splendid palaces; and enormous armies, magnificently equipped.
55. Q. What were some of the characteristics of the European civilization? A. Energy, genius and force; strong citadels and military constructions; and compact bodies of troops, thoroughly disciplined.
56. Q. What were the names of Alexander’s father and mother? A. Philip and Olympias, the latter being the daughter of the king of Epirus.
57. Q. What great philosopher had charge of the education of Alexander? A. Aristotle.
58. Q. In what great battle did Alexander take part, when eighteen years of age? A. The battle of Chæronea.
59. Q. What befell Philip, the father of Alexander, at the celebration of the wedding of his daughter? A. As the military procession was moving toward the theater he was stabbed to the heart by Pausanias, an officer of the guard, and immediately expired.
60. Q. At the time of Philip’s death what great expedition had he been planning? A. An expedition into Asia.
61. Q. What did Alexander, as successor to Philip on the throne, determine as to this projected expedition? A. To carry it out as designed by his father.
62. Q. How large an army did he have when he at length marched into Asia? A. Thirty-five thousand men, five thousand being cavalry.
63. Q. At what place did Alexander first encounter the Persian army, and in how large force? A. At the river Granicus. The Persian force is stated to have been from two to six hundred thousand.
64. Q. What was the result of the battle? A. The army of Alexander crossed the Granicus in the face of the enemy, and entirely routed the Persian army.
65. Q. After marching further into Asia, who advanced to meet him? A. Darius, the king of Persia, with a vast army, equipped in great splendor.
66. Q. Where did the hostile armies meet, and how did the battle that ensued result? A. On the plains of Issus. The Persian army was defeated and routed, the king saving himself by precipitate flight.
67. Q. Where did Alexander meet his first obstruction in his march along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean? A. At the great and powerful city of Tyre.
68. Q. What followed the taking of Tyre by Alexander, after a long siege? A. The slaughter of the inhabitants, and it is said that Alexander crucified two thousand of them along the seashore.
69. Q. Into what country did Alexander soon after march, and what city did he there found? A. Into Egypt, and founded the city of Alexandria.
70. Q. After again returning to Asia, where did Alexander encounter the Persian army, and with what result? A. On the plain of Arbela, where fifty thousand men under Alexander defeated and routed the army of Darius of from five hundred thousand to a million men, leaving the bodies of three hundred thousand of the slain on the field.
71. Q. To what three cities did Alexander now march that surrendered on his approach? A. Babylon, Susa, and Persepolis, the capital of the Persian empire.
72. Q. To what position did Alexander now find himself elevated, at the age of twenty-six? A. To the summit of his ambition. Darius was dead, and he was the undisputed master of western Asia.
73. Q. For the following two or three years where did Alexander continue his expeditions and conquests? A. In Asia, meeting with a great variety of adventures.
74. Q. After his return to Babylon from an expedition into India how did he spend his time? A. In forming vast plans one day, and utter abandonment to all the excesses of dissipation and vice the next.
75. Q. What was the immediate occasion of his death? A. A prolonged carousal was followed by a violent fever, which soon terminated fatally.
76. Q. What became of the empire of Alexander after his death? A. It was for many years subjected to protracted civil wars, which resulted in its separation into numerous small kingdoms.
III.—QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ON “PREPARATORY GREEK COURSE IN ENGLISH,” FROM PAGE 172 TO END OF BOOK.
77. Q. Of what is the most famous passage in the Sixth Book of the “Iliad” descriptive? A. The parting of Hector and Andromache, his wife, bringing with her their little child.
78. Q. Who among the Greeks takes the honors of the seventh book of the “Iliad?” A. Ajax.
79. Q. What constitutes a prominent feature in the eighth book of the “Iliad?” A. Another account of the Olympian gods in council.
80. Q. Technically described, what is Homer’s verse? A. Dactylic hexameter.
81. Q. What is a dactyl? A. A foot of three syllables, of which the first is long and the other two short.
82. Q. In dactylic hexameter how many of these feet are there in a line? A. Six.
83. Q. Name a classic English poem written in dactylic hexameter? A. Longfellow’s “Evangeline.”
84. Q. What does the “Odyssey” mean? A. The poem of Odysseus, or Ulysses, king of the island of Ithaca.
85. Q. When Troy was taken for what place did Odysseus and his followers sail? A. Ithaca.
86. Q. On their way, to what land were they driven? A. That of the Cyclops, a savage race of one-eyed giants.
87. Q. Here, what did Odysseus do to the Cyclop Polyphemus? A. He put out the one eye of the monster, after he had eaten six of the hero’s comrades.
88. Q. What did Poseidon, the god of the sea and father of Polyphemus, do in revenge? A. He doomed Odysseus to wander far and wide over the sea to strange lands.
89. Q. When the “Odyssey” begins, ten years after the fall of Troy, where is Odysseus? A. In the island of Ogygia, at the center of the sea, where for seven years the nymph Calypso has detained him against his will.
90. Q. Meanwhile, what has befallen Penelope, the wife of Odysseus, in Ithaca? A. She has been courted by more than a hundred suitors, lawless, violent men, who feast riotously in the house of Odysseus as if it were their own.
91. Q. When Odysseus at length gets permission to sail from Ogygia, and starts on a raft, what occurs to him? A. Poseidon wrecks his raft, and he is thrown upon the island of the Phæacians, a rich and happy people near to the gods.
92. Q. Upon being entertained by the king of the Phæacians, what are the subjects of some of the adventures he relates? A. The enchantress Circe, the sweet singing Sirens, and the passage between Scylla and Charybdis.
93. Q. After Odysseus is taken back to Ithaca by a Phæacian crew, what is the fate of the suitors of Penelope? A. They are all slain in the palace by Odysseus, assisted by his son Telemachus and two trusty servants.
94. Q. What are some of the most noted translations of the Odyssey? A. Chapman’s, Pope’s, Cowper’s, Worsley’s, and Bryant’s.
95. Q. What part of the adventures of Odysseus does our author first give in an extended quotation from Worsley’s translation of the “Odyssey?” A. His stay in the country of the Phæacians.
96. Q. What was the name of the king of the Phæacians, frequently referred to in poetry containing classical allusions? A. Alcinous.
97. Q. Of what is the next extended quotation descriptive that is given by our author from Worsley’s translation of the “Odyssey?” A. The slaughter of the suitors of Penelope by Odysseus and his son.
98. Q. Of what are the remaining quotations given descriptive? A. Odysseus making himself known to Penelope, his wife, and to Laertes, his father.
99. Q. Who now intervenes to avert further bloodshed? A. Athene.
100. Q. In what manner is this accomplished? A. She stays the hand of Ulysses, raised in fell self-defense against the avenging kindred of the suitors, and enjoins a solid peace between the two parties at feud.
101. Q. In this appearance what familiar form does the goddess Athene assume? A. That of Mentor, ancient friend of Ulysses.