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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did Sparta demand of her allies?

2. What is the major blow to Athens from the Mytilene revolt?

3. What complication does geographic scope add to the difficulty of reading Book One?

4. In 424 BC, how does Sparta change its military methods?

5. What event in ca 479 BC gives rise to a period of prominence in Athens?

Short Essay Questions

1. What effect did new technology have on the war?

2. What was Thucydides' attitude toward so-called supernatural occurrences?

3. What did Thucydides identify as the starting point of the war?

4. What indication by 428 BC suggested that military tactics were changing?

5. What was the only threat to Athenian power after the defeat of the invading Persians?

6. What effort did Sparta make to get the Athenians out of Pylos?

7. What was Sparta's advantage in the war?

8. What was the first major geographical area in the Peloponnesian War?

9. From the point of view of allies, how was Athens positioned in the war?

10. Rather than meet the Peloponnesian land forces head on, what was Pericles' recommendation?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write a paper describing the portions of the History of the Peloponnesian War that you found most interesting. Explain in detail why those passages intrigued you. Contrast those passages with others that you found dry or less interesting.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay about the contribution of Lesbos to the Athenian war cause. Include information from the chapter on Mytilene. In the paper, discuss how the goals and aspirations of the upper classes do not always coincide with the will of the rank and file population.

Essay Topic 3

Look up information on Pericles and Cleon. In a paper, discuss Thucydides' opinions of both men. Evaluate Cleon, an aristocrat, who became a champion of the working class. Since Thucydides was also born into aristocracy, is it possible that his bias against Cleon had more to do with social status than with political ideology? Compare Cleon to the Kennedy family of modern day America.

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