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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What problem soon arises for Athens?
(a) They have a large number of military desertions.
(b) The treasury is rapidly being depleted.
(c) Their triremes begin needing major repairs.
(d) They begin having to travel farther for supplies.

2. What catastrophic event leads to the revolt of the Helots?
(a) A wildfire in Sparta
(b) An earthquake in Sparta
(c) A tidal wave in Sparta
(d) A famine in Sparta

3. What is the stated purpose of Book One of Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War?
(a) To discuss the daily life of people in Sparta and Athens.
(b) To establish background and attempt to examine the causes of the war.
(c) To establish the credentials of Thucydides as a historian.
(d) To show the importance of Corinth in the Peloponnesian War.

4. What happens between Sparta and Athens in 423 BC?
(a) The exchange of prisoners of war
(b) A time out to bury their dead
(c) A major battle in Attica
(d) A truce of sorts

5. What distant event at this time would later prove important in the Peloponnesian War?
(a) Sicily invades Sparta.
(b) Syracuse invades Messana.
(c) Sicily and Syracuse sign a defense pact.
(d) Sparta invades Syracuse.

6. What is the major blow to Athens from the Mytilene revolt?
(a) A potential blockade of Athenian waterways
(b) The defection of thousands of soldiers from Lesbos
(c) Vast sums of tribute money no longer available
(d) The loss of triremes supplied by the island of Lesbos

7. Who is the first Athenian to suggest fortifying Pylos?
(a) Nicias
(b) Demosthenes
(c) Cleon
(d) Brasidas

8. In 424 BC, how does Sparta change its military methods?
(a) They formalize defensive units of archers and cavalry.
(b) They add extra soldiers to their infantry.
(c) They invent the catapult.
(d) They become more proficient sailors.

9. Why is Athens in a superior position at the start of the war?
(a) Because Athens is built on an unassailable mountaintop.
(b) Because her her allies are more numerous, richer, and better positioned to prosecute hostilities against the largely agrarian Spartans.
(c) Because Athens has the largest army in the world at that time.
(d) Because the Athenian army is better trained and more rugged.

10. How are Spartan envoys able to get through the Athenian blockade of Mytilene?
(a) In those days, envoys are always given safe passage.
(b) They disguise themselves as merchant ships.
(c) They infiltrate the Athenians and get into the city.
(d) They go around and come in on the back side of Lesbos.

11. Where are Spartan ground forces marooned after the battle for Pylos?
(a) In Crete
(b) On the island of Sphacteria
(c) In Sicily
(d) On Lesbos

12. Where is the fourth major area where much of the early activity takes place?
(a) Kosovo
(b) Thrace
(c) Kurdistan
(d) Macedon

13. How might the Spartan envoy to the Athenians have changed history?
(a) If Sparta offers to cede land, the war would end.
(b) If Sparta's offer for peace is accepted, the war would end.
(c) If the Spartan envoy is not assassinated, the war would end.
(d) Is Sparta surrenders Brasias, the war would end.

14. What natural phenomenon takes place in Italy in 426 BC?
(a) Mt. Aetna eruptes.
(b) A tsunami hits southern Italy.
(c) A meteor creates a vast crater in Italy.
(d) Heavy rains and floods come that year.

15. What is Thucydides' conclusion about the ravages of the war?
(a) It is tempered on both sides by benevolence.
(b) It is dehumanizing.
(c) It is misrepresented on both sides.
(d) It is something to be glorified.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is detailed in Book Two?

2. After the prominent Spartan general, Pausanias, briefly becomes politically powerful, what causes his defeat?

3. Where is is the Peloponnesus itself?

4. Why does Thucydides say that Sparta chose to go to war against Athens?

5. Where is the initial confrontation between Sparta and the Athenians?

(see the answer keys)

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