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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What occurs between Athens and Sparta during the winter of 422 BC?
(a) They redraw the map of Greece.
(b) Diplomatic negotiations continue throughout the winter.
(c) Athens and Sparta set up their defenses for the next year.
(d) Athens and Sparta first sign a peace treaty and then develop an alliance of sorts.

2. What is Alcibiades able to do in the Peloponnesus?
(a) Create an Athenian-dominated, anti-Spartan alliance.
(b) Establish new strongholds
(c) Surround Sparta
(d) Form a successful naval blockade

3. What ultimatum does Athens give to Melos?
(a) Surrender supporters of Sparta or face the consequences
(b) Join the Delian League or remain neutral
(c) Pay tribute or be wholly destroyed
(d) Build triemes for Athens or face an embargo

4. Who are the main antagonists over the military strategy in 416 BC?
(a) Alexander and Phillip
(b) Nician and Alcibiades
(c) Thucydides and Cleon
(d) Brasias and Pericles

5. What are many Syracusans advocating prior to the arrival of Gylippus?
(a) Calling for spartan intervention
(b) Joining the Delian League
(c) A settlement with Athens
(d) Abandoning the region

6. What happens to the Athenian attack on Amphipolis?
(a) Sparta is there waiting for the Athenians.
(b) The Athenians easily win.
(c) It fails.
(d) The Athenians are surprised by ambush.

7. How do scholars generally explain the contradictions in Thucydides' text?
(a) Much of the manuscript is lost and Thucydides forgets what he has said earlier.
(b) Over time. he revises his opinions and understanding but does not always update all relevant textual passages.
(c) Correctly analyzed, what appears to be contradictions are actually not.
(d) Thucydides seems to have a great deal of trouble making up his mind.

8. What charismatic individual rises to prominence in 420 BC?
(a) Socrates
(b) Nicias
(c) Pericles
(d) Alcibiades

9. Why does Thucydides create his own chronology for his history?
(a) He clearly intends it for a wider readership than just the Athenians.
(b) He is not sure of exact dates during the war.
(c) There is a unified calendar of which he does not approve.
(d) He wants to exert influence over the Grecian calendar.

10. What practice does Thucydides not value other than recognizing its effect on politics and the military?
(a) Casting lots
(b) Praying to Apollo
(c) Reading omens in the stars
(d) Visiting the oracles

11. What is happening to the once invincible hoplite phalanx?
(a) It is becoming ineffective against new weapons and tactics.
(b) It is becoming too expensive to mount.
(c) It is failing because it had been overused.
(d) It is no longer being used by the Athenians.

12. What military plan is put into effect in response to Nicias' request?
(a) Demosthenes commands a large group of hoplites who are taken to Syracuse by ship.
(b) Demosthenes prepares to lead a fleet to Sicily while another Athenian fleet raids along the Peloponnesus.
(c) Demosthenes becomes the first casualty of the naval war.
(d) Demosthenes declines to get involved in the war.

13. What removes Syracuse, Sicily, and Italy from the text of Thucydides' history?
(a) Athens' ultimate defeat of Syracuse
(b) Sparta turing its attention on Thrace
(c) The eruption of Mt. Aetna
(d) The defeat and rout of the Athenians

14. What unexplainable surprising event takes place with the patriotic Athenian army?
(a) The patriotic Athenian army makes a pact with Sparta.
(b) Civil war breaks out within the city of Athens led by Nicias.
(c) The army disbands leaving Athens open to attack.
(d) The patriotic Athenian army faction on Samos recalls Alcibiades and elects him general.

15. At first, what action by Athens signifies a lack of understanding of the defeat at Syracuse?
(a) They vote to build more ships and press forward with the war.
(b) They believe their allies will not desert them.
(c) They launch an attack on Sparta.
(d) They raise taxes and duties for military spending.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the relationship of Melos to Athens during the period of the peace of Nicias?

2. How does Thucydides write about important speeches and rhetoric during his time?

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

4. How does Thucydides picture certain charismatic generals during the years of the Peloponnesian War?

5. From a more historical point of view, how does the peace of Nicias seem to scholars?

(see the answer keys)

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