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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who negotiates with both sides--Sparta and Athens--after the defeat at Syracuse?
(a) Alcibiades
(b) Sicily's ambassadors
(c) Tissaphernes, the Persian satrap
(d) Demosthenes

2. Who arrives in Sicily and changes the course of the conflict with Athens?
(a) Myron
(b) Brasias
(c) Gylippus
(d) Agamemnon

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

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

5. Where is Thucydides writing his History of the Peloponnesian War?
(a) Underground Athens
(b) In exile
(c) In the Library of Alexandria
(d) In Sparta

6. What does Thucydides say about the new Peloponnesian triremes?
(a) They use less manpower to operate.
(b) They are lighter and can move faster in the water.
(c) They are the largest ships ever built up to that time.
(d) These triremes possess a reinforced prow with strengthened rams.

7. From a more historical point of view, how does the peace of Nicias seem to scholars?
(a) It appears to be a gradual cessation of hostilities.
(b) It seems to be misnamed for Nicias and should be credited to Cleon.
(c) It looks like a failed effort at diplomacy.
(d) It does not look like a peace at all.

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

9. When Alcibiades is eventually recalled for blasphemy, what does he do?
(a) He hires Socrates to defend him.
(b) He flees to Sparta.
(c) He tears up the summons.
(d) He goes to Alexandria.

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

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

12. What occurs between Athens and Sparta during the winter of 422 BC?
(a) Diplomatic negotiations continue throughout the winter.
(b) They redraw the map of Greece.
(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.

13. What happens in 411 BC to the Athenian democracy after the defeat at Syracuse?
(a) The democracy splits into three separate factions.
(b) Martial law is declared to restore order and democracy.
(c) All the leaders resign in helplessness.
(d) Athenian democracy collapses under the pressure of assassinations and military defeat.

14. What does Thucydides think of Athenian actions in Scione?
(a) To him, it is a necessary result of a difficult conflict.
(b) He approves of the severe measures taken by Athens.
(c) To him. it is an example of the degenerative influence of warfare upon civilization.
(d) He makes no mention of the Athenian actions.

15. After military setbacks, what disagreement arses between Nicias and Demosthenes?
(a) Demosthenes wants to withdraw but Nicias disagrees.
(b) Demosthenes feels they have enough troops but Nicias wants more.
(c) Demosthenes and Nicias cannot agree on a battle plan.
(d) They quarrel over who is the top commander.

Short Answer Questions

1. How was Thucydides like news reporters today?

2. What practice does Thucydides not value other than recognizing its effect on politics and the military?

3. What is happening to the once invincible hoplite phalanx?

4. Who incites the revolt of Chios?

5. What is commonly called the peace of Nicias by modern scholars?

(see the answer keys)

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