80 Ancient Persia Trivia Questions with Answers
80 public questions with answers, drawn from the well. How many can you answer?
What is the name of the great Sasanian vaulted hall at Ctesiphon?
Answer
Taq Kasra
What was the main royal residence of the Sasanian king at Firuzabad called?
Answer
The Palace of Ardashir
At which battle did Cyrus the Great defeat Babylonian forces in 539 BCE?
Answer
The Battle of Opis
What city served as the capital of the ancient Median Empire?
Answer
Ecbatana
What was the name of the Achaemenid royal road connecting Susa with Sardis?
Answer
The Persian Royal Road
At which battle did Athenian forces defeat the Persian army during Darius I’s first invasion of Greece?
Answer
Battle of Marathon
What imperial administrative language was widely used across the Achaemenid Persian Empire?
Answer
Imperial Aramaic
What famous clay document records Cyrus the Great’s conquest of Babylon in 539 BCE?
Answer
Cyrus Cylinder
Which Parthian king defeated the Roman army led by Mark Antony in 36 BCE?
Answer
Phraates IV
At which battle did Cyrus the Great defeat Croesus of Lydia around 547 BCE?
Answer
Battle of Thymbra
Which ancient Persian empire was ruled by the Arsacid dynasty from about 247 BCE?
Answer
Parthian Empire
Which Achaemenid prince led the Persian army defeated at the Battle of Cunaxa in 401 BCE?
Answer
Cyrus the Younger
At which battle did Parthian forces defeat the Roman army of Marcus Licinius Crassus in 53 BCE?
Answer
Battle of Carrhae
What title meaning “King of Kings” was used by ancient Persian monarchs?
Answer
Shahanshah
What was the main written language of the Sasanian Empire’s royal inscriptions?
Answer
Middle Persian
Which Achaemenid king was killed by his bodyguard in 465 BCE?
Answer
Xerxes I
Where is Darius I’s rock-cut tomb located?
Answer
Naqsh-e Rostam
Which city was the principal capital of the Sasanian Empire?
Answer
Ctesiphon
Who founded the Sasanian Empire of Persia in 224 CE?
Answer
Ardashir I