Free CLEP Western Civilization I Exam Practice Questions

1. Which of the following was NOT developed by the Phoenicians?
  1. Purple dye.
  2. Sailing technology.
  3. The alphabet.
  4. Metalworking.
  5. The ziggurat.
2. The first coin-based economy was established by which of the following people?
  1. Phoenicians.
  2. Egyptians.
  3. Hebrews.
  4. Lydians.
  5. Babylonians.
3. Which of the following statements are not true of Minoan culture?
  1. The name honors King Minos.
  2. Its capital was in Knossos on the island of Crete.
  3. Minoan culture was overtaken by the Athenians.
  4. Its capital was a maze-like structure of many chambers.
  5. Much of our knowledge of Minoan culture comes from reconstructed wall paintings.
4. The word democracy comes from two Greek root words meaning what?
  1. People and rule.
  2. People and vote.
  3. City and state.
  4. Tyrant and overthrow.
  5. People and freedom.
5. Which of the following refers to the slave class of ancient Sparta?
  1. Helots.
  2. Hoplites.
  3. Ephorate.
  4. Metics.
  5. Archon.
6. What was the Athenian Draco known for?
  1. His severely punitive legal system.
  2. His great reforms of the legal system.
  3. Leading Athenians into defeat in Sicily.
  4. Incurring the resentment of other city-states by amassing too much power.
  5. His comedic plays.
7. Which of the following is not a significant event in the Persian Wars?
  1. Persia invaded the Greek mainland.
  2. Persians were driven back at the battle of Marathon.
  3. The Greek forces vastly outnumbered the Persians.
  4. The Persians attacked Athens.
  5. Athens and Sparta unified their forces to defeat the Persians.
8. Which of the following is NOT an event associated with the golden age of Pericles?
  1. Philosophy flourished under thinkers such as Socrates.
  2. The Acropolis was reconstructed.
  3. Many great plays were written and performed by tragedians such as Aeschylus and Sophocles.
  4. The Iliad and Odyssey were written.
  5. The study of history flourished under such historians as Herodotus and Thucydides.
9. Which of these factors did not contribute to the escalation of the Peloponnesian Wars?
  1. Athens had amassed great power, which threatened other Greek city-states.
  2. Athens had created a monopoly on sea trade in the region.
  3. Several city-states formed an alliance with Sparta to keep Athens’s power in check.
  4. Athens invaded Sparta.
  5. The Spartans invaded Attica, near Athens, in 431 B.C.
10. Which of the following statements are true of BOTH the Iliad and the Odyssey?
  1. Both deal with the Trojan War or its aftermaths.
  2. Both focus primarily on the character Odysseus.
  3. Both are attributed to a poet named Homer.
  4. Both were written around 700 B.C.
  5. Both were based on an oral tradition of bards reciting poems to audiences.

Infographic explaining western civilization I CLEP exam