Ten From the Past Trivia Quiz

Answer: Richard I

Richard I (ruled 1189-1199) is most famous for his service in the Third Crusade (1189-1192) and as the antagonist of the Muslim leader Saladin. He is also part of the legend of Robin Hood, and appeared memorably at the end of the movie "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" (played by Sean Connery).

His shield with three lions has now become the heraldic symbol for England as a whole. Richard II ruled from 1377-1399, and Richard III from 1483-1485.

Answer: Gallia (France)

In 59 BC Julius Caesar was given the first of two five-year military commands in the region known as Gallia, or Gaul in English. Gauls had been a frequent threat to Roman Italy and had even attacked the city of Rome in 390 BC. Caesar's first-hand memoirs ("De Bello Gallico" or "On the Gallic War") tell the story of how he conquered and pacified the whole region.

As far as we know, he never visited Spain or crossed the Rhine into Germany which always remained outside Roman control. He did invade Britain in 55 and 54 BC but did not establish a permanent Roman presence there.

Answer: Crete

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) had made himself the sole ruler of France after the turmoil that followed the French Revolution in 1789 and then ruled as Emperor from 1804 to 1814. He was born on the French island of Corsica in the Mediterranean, first imprisoned on Elba off the coast of Italy, and finally after his defeat at Waterloo in 1815 on the island of St Helena in the South Atlantic.

Answer: Andrew Jackson

The war in question is the War of 1812, fought between the United States and the British colonies to the north - in what became Canada in 1867. The Americans and the British met in battle on January 8th, 1815 near New Orleans, where the Americans led by Andrew Jackson won a decisive victory. Unknown to both sides the Treaty of Ghent had been signed two weeks earlier on 24 December 1814, thus ending the war.

Answer: Cleopatra

After the death of Alexander the Great his empire broke up into large pieces, with Egypt taken over by his general Ptolemy who established the Ptolemaic dynasty there. This line of rulers, who were Greek by culture, lasted from 305 to 30 BC, when Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire. Queens of this dynasty took an active role in ruling the country and usually had the names of Cleopatra, Arsinoe, or Berenice. Cleopatra, the last real ruler of the country before the Roman conquest, was famous for her beauty, for her love affairs with Julius Caesar and Marc Antony, and for her suicide, allegedly from the bite of a poisonous asp.

Answer: Build the first Jewish temple

There is not much historical evidence for the life and career of David, the second king of Israel, apart from the accounts in the Bible, principally in the books of Samuel and Kings. His forty-year reign is dated by scholars to just after the year 1000 BC.

He was famous for many achievements - in addition to killing Goliath, making Jerusalem his capital, and making Solomon his heir, he is said to have written many of the Psalms in the Old Testament - but the building of the first temple in Jerusalem was left to his son Solomon.

Answer: Cortes

Hernan (or Hernando) Cortes was born in Spain in 1485 and died in 1547. The journeys of Columbus alerted the Spanish to the possibilities of wealth and conquest in the New World, and Cortes was one of many young men who came west to seek their fortune and make a name for themselves in the world.

He became mayor of Havana before being sent to establish a permanent Spanish presence in Mexico. In two short years (1519-1521) and with only 500 or so soldiers he brought about the fall of the Aztec Empire and was later named as Governor of Mexico by the King of Spain.

Answer: Southern Italy

Alexander (ruled 338 to 323 BC) came from Macedon to the north of Greece. It was the dream of his father Philip II to invade Persia as a response to Persia's attacks on Greece in the early fifth century BC. Thus his expeditions took him and his army east into what is today Turkey, Syria, Israel, Egypt, Iraq and Iran, Afghanistan, and finally into the northwest of India.

He did not venture to the west, where he would have had to confront the powerful nations of Rome and Carthage.

Answer: Alexandra

Alexandra, known as "Alix" as a child, was a Princess of Hesse and By Rhine in Germany and a grand-daughter of Queen Victoria. She married Tsar Nicholas II in 1894 shortly after his father Alexander III had died. The two were very devoted to one another and died together at the hands of murderers in 1918.

The other three choices listed above are the names of three of her daughters: Anastasia is believed by some to have survived the massacre of her family.

Answer: Elephants

The use of elephants in warfare seems to have begun in India, where Alexander the Great encountered them during his campaign in the 320s. Hannibal's use of elephants was not Rome's first meeting with elephants on the field of battle, as Pyrrhus king of Epirus in northwest Greece had employed them against the Romans in the battle of Heraclea (280 BC) in southern Italy.