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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Why is it necessary for triremes to come ashore often?
(a) The triremes have no bathroom facilities.
(b) The crews need space to cook, sleep and relax.
(c) The triremes need some of the weight reduced.
(d) The boats have to be repaired often.

2. How do the Spartans react about their marooned troops?
(a) Spartans accept that their troops are lost.
(b) Spartans at home, eager to save their men, send peace envoys from Pylos to the Athenians.
(c) Spartans recall troops from Corcyra to march against Pylos.
(d) Spartans charge Pylos on the blind side.

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

4. At the time Athens is gaining control in Lesbos, what is happening in Plataea?
(a) Plataea is defeated by an Athenian attack.
(b) Plataea finally capitulates and the Spartans execute all of the surviving forces.
(c) Plataea declares itself neutral.
(d) Plataea holds off the Spartans until Athenian forces arrive.

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

Short Answer Questions

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

2. By the end of Book Two, how widespread is the war?

3. Which government did Sparta seek to form an alliance with in spite of earlier conflicts?

4. Book One concludes in the winter before hostilities erupt. What date is given by modern scholars for this time?

5. Who are the Athenian hoplites?

Short Essay Questions

1. What might have ended the Peloponnesian war after the battle of Pylos?

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

3. What was the significance of the Mytilenean revolt against Athens?

4. What was happening in 432 BC between Athens and Sparta and what was its true purpose?

5. What was Thucydides' reaction to the aftermath of the Corcyran revolt?

6. After the battle for Pylos, what happened to the Spartan survivors?

7. In 426 BC, what prevented the annual invasion of Attica by the Peloponnesian forces?

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

9. What notable action did the Athenian fleet take in 425 BC on its way to Sicily?

10. What happened to the Spartan fleet dispatched to Mytilene?

(see the answer keys)

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