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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Book 6.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How successful is Sparta's land and sea attack on Pylos?
(a) They destroy the Athenian stronghold.
(b) It is better on land than at sea.
(c) Demosthenes is able to hold them off.
(d) It comes to a complete stalemate.

2. What happens during the winter of 423 BC on the part of Sparta?
(a) Brasidas gets ill and dies.
(b) The Helots mount a successful counterattack on Sparta.
(c) Brasidas mounts an unsuccessful attempt to recapture Potidaea.
(d) Many of the spartan soldiers freeze to death in the mountains.

3. What is the significance of Thucydides' inclusion of the story of Aristogiton and Harmodius?
(a) It has nothing to do with either Athens or Sparta.
(b) It is a nearly unique authorial digression from the history of the war itself.
(c) It is an important event that is glossed over lightly.
(d) It is a strange inclusion of Greek superstition.

4. Who owns the Helots?
(a) The Persian who farms them out to Sparta.
(b) Individual Spartan citizens
(c) The Spartan merchants
(d) The Spartan state

5. How does Thucydides picture certain charismatic generals during the years of the Peloponnesian War?
(a) Able single-handedly to turn the fortunes of the people they serve.
(b) A lot of talk and no action
(c) Of little significance to the outcome of the war
(d) Men who have great personalities but little war experience.

Short Answer Questions

1. What major battle occurs in the winter of 415 BC?

2. How do scholars from other disciplines consider the value of Thucydides' work?

3. What military involvement in 416 BC is hotly argued in Athens?

4. Stylistically speaking, what is the quality of Thucydides' text?

5. What notable Spartan is wounded at Pylos?

(see the answer key)

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