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Peloponnesian War - Quiz
Contributed by: Robinson
  • 1. Who is the primary historical source for most of the Peloponnesian War?
A) Thucydides
B) Xenophon
C) Plutarch
D) Diodorus Siculus
  • 2. In what year was Thucydides exiled from Athens?
A) 411 BC
B) 423 BC
C) 450 BC
D) 400 BC
  • 3. When does Thucydides' historical account end?
A) 431 BC
B) 404 BC
C) 411 BC
D) 423 BC
  • 4. Which author continued Thucydides' account in the first book of 'Hellenica'?
A) Xenophon
B) Plutarch
C) Diodorus Siculus
D) Ephorus
  • 5. Diodorus Siculus' account is believed to be based on the lost work of which historian?
A) Plutarch
B) Ephorus
C) Thucydides
D) Xenophon
  • 6. How many major commanders did Plutarch write biographies for in 'Parallel Lives'?
A) Six
B) Four
C) Eight
D) Two
  • 7. What is the primary focus of Plutarch's biographies?
A) Military tactics
B) Religious rituals
C) Character and morality
D) Economic policy
  • 8. Which Athenian playwright wrote comedic plays set during the war?
A) Ephorus
B) Aristophanes
C) Xenophon
D) Thucydides
  • 9. What is considered a limitation of Thucydides' speeches within his history?
A) They were written by his enemies
B) They are completely fabricated
C) They are too brief
D) They are his own interpretations
  • 10. Where did Thucydides settle after his exile?
A) Asia Minor
B) Sparta
C) Persia
D) The Peloponnese
  • 11. Which two artworks are mentioned as providing insight into civilian life during the war?
A) Peace and Lysistrata
B) Erechtheion temple and Grave Stele of Hegeso
C) Walls of Amphipolis and grave of Brasidas
D) Hellenica and Parallel Lives
  • 12. When was Diodorus Siculus' 'Bibliotheca historica' written?
A) First century AD
B) Fifth century BC
C) First century BC
D) Fourth century BC
  • 13. How long after the war ended did Xenophon write 'Hellenica'?
A) 100 years after
B) About 40 years
C) Immediately after
D) 10 years after
  • 14. What is the status of the historical value of Aristophanes' plays?
A) Little historical value
B) Primary evidence for military strategy
C) Highly accurate
D) The main historical source
  • 15. Who led the alliance opposing the Athenian-led Delian League?
A) Thebes
B) Sparta
C) Argos
D) Persia
  • 16. Which empire intervened in 413 BC to support Sparta?
A) Macedonian Empire
B) Roman Empire
C) Egyptian Empire
D) Persian Empire
  • 17. What was the initial phase of the Peloponnesian War called?
A) Decelean War
B) Archidamian War
C) Argive War
D) Ionian War
  • 18. Which Spartan king invaded Attica in 431 BC?
A) Pausanias
B) Leonidas
C) Lysander
D) Archidamus II
  • 19. Which city-state defeated Athens at Delium in 424 BC?
A) Argos
B) Thebes
C) Sparta
D) Syracuse
  • 20. What was the second phase of the war called?
A) Ionian War
B) Archidamian War
C) Argive War
D) Decelean War
  • 21. Where was the Argive alliance defeated in 418 BC?
A) Mantinea
B) Aegospotami
C) Delium
D) Sphacteria
  • 22. What was the target of the Athenian expedition between 415 and 413 BC?
A) Syracuse
B) Argos
C) Sparta
D) Thebes
  • 23. What final phase of the war began in 413 BC?
A) Peloponnesian War
B) Argive War
C) Archidamian War
D) Decelean War
  • 24. Who led the Spartan fleet that broke Athens's naval superiority?
A) Archidamus II
B) Brasidas
C) Lysander
D) Pericles
  • 25. Which decisive battle in 405 BC led to the fall of Athens?
A) Aegospotami
B) Mantinea
C) Sphacteria
D) Delium
  • 26. What was the name of the Spartan-style oligarchy installed in Athens?
A) The Peloponnesian Council
B) The Council of Five Hundred
C) Thirty Tyrants
D) The Delian League
  • 27. What war allowed Athens to regain its independence a decade after the Peloponnesian War?
A) Corinthian War
B) Ionian War
C) Archidamian War
D) Argive War
  • 28. How did the nature of Greek warfare change due to the war?
A) It became more formalised
B) It relied solely on mercenaries
C) It focused on naval battles only
D) It transformed into total war
  • 29. What was the primary political division between the two alliances?
A) Theocracy versus secularism
B) Democracy versus oligarchy
C) Monarchy versus republic
D) Imperialism versus isolationism
  • 30. Where was the treasury of the Delian League kept?
A) Athens
B) Corinth
C) Sparta
D) Delos
  • 31. What is the name for the period of 50 years before the war described by Thucydides?
A) The Delian Century
B) Pentecontaetia
C) The Spartan Hegemony
D) The Greco-Persian Era
  • 32. Why did Sparta ask Athens not to reconstruct their walls after the Persians left?
A) To prevent Athens from becoming a naval power
B) To keep Athens vulnerable to land attack
C) To preserve the architectural beauty of Greece
D) Because the walls were built on Spartan territory
  • 33. Where did Athens settle the rebellious helots after they surrendered?
A) Naupaktos
B) Attica
C) Delos
D) Megara
  • 34. Which city did Athens form an alliance with in 459 BC to gain a foothold on the Isthmus of Corinth?
A) Persia
B) Boeotia
C) Megara
D) Aegina
  • 35. How did Athens fund its powerful fleet and massive public works?
A) Through donations from the Persian Empire
B) By taxing Spartan trade
C) By selling land on the island of Delos
D) Through tributes from subject states in the Delian League
  • 36. What was the result of the Second Persian invasion of Greece in 480 BC?
A) The Delian League was immediately disbanded
B) Sparta completely destroyed Athens
C) Athens became a vassal of the Persian Empire
D) Athens led a coalition to continue attacks on Persia
  • 37. In 440 BC, which powerful ally of Athens rebelled, testing the Thirty Years' Peace?
A) Corinth
B) Corcyra
C) Potidaea
D) Samos
  • 38. Which city-state was notably opposed to intervening against Athens during the crisis with Samos?
A) Thebes
B) Megara
C) Sparta
D) Corinth
  • 39. Which sea power, not allied to either Sparta or Athens, defeated Corinth in a naval conflict?
A) Corcyra
B) Amphipolis
C) Samos
D) Potidaea
  • 40. What decree imposed trade sanctions on Megarian citizens in 433/2 BC?
A) Megarian decree
B) Funeral Oration
C) Archidamian Proclamation
D) Thirty Years' Peace
  • 41. Who was the hawkish ephor whose opinion prevailed in the Spartan assembly to declare war?
A) Cleon
B) Archidamus II
C) Pericles
D) Sthenelaidas
  • 42. What did the citizens of Attica do to protect themselves during Spartan invasions?
A) Surrendered their farms
B) Moved inside the Long Walls
C) Hid in the mountains
D) Fled to the islands
  • 43. What disaster struck Athens in 430 BC, killing Pericles and many others?
A) An enemy siege breach
B) An earthquake
C) A plague
D) A massive famine
  • 44. Who was the Athenian general responsible for the initial defensive strategy of the war?
A) Pericles
B) Thucydides
C) Demosthenes
D) Cleon
  • 45. Which Athenian leader rose to power after Pericles, representing the hawkish, aggressive faction?
A) Brasidas
B) Cleon
C) Demosthenes
D) Archidamus II
  • 46. At which location did the Athenians fortify a post that exploited Spartan fear of helot revolts?
A) Pylos
B) Potidaea
C) Amphipolis
D) Samos
  • 47. What was the name of the island where Spartan soldiers were trapped by Athenian forces?
A) Attica
B) Sphacteria
C) Corcyra
D) Samos
  • 48. Which Spartan general marched to Thrace and captured the colony of Amphipolis?
A) Archidamus II
B) Sthenelaidas
C) Brasidas
D) Demosthenes
  • 49. What economic resource made Amphipolis highly valuable to Athens?
A) Grain supply
B) Gold deposits
C) Shipbuilding timber
D) Silver mines
  • 50. What was the final outcome for both Cleon and Brasidas at the Battle of Amphipolis?
A) Cleon was captured, Brasidas was killed
B) Both were killed
C) Both survived and signed a treaty
D) Both were exiled
  • 51. What was the result of the Battle of Mantinea?
A) A complete victory for the Spartans
B) A total collapse of the Peloponnesian League
C) A draw with no clear winner
D) A decisive victory for the Athenians
  • 52. Which ethnicity were the people of Syracuse?
A) Dorian
B) Argive
C) Ionian
D) Arcadian
  • 53. Who was the primary leader who encouraged the Sicilian Expedition?
A) Nicias
B) Alcibiades
C) Demosthenes
D) Gylippus
  • 54. What crime was Alcibiades charged with before the departure to Sicily?
A) Mutilating religious statues
B) Failure to follow military orders
C) Treason against Athens
D) Embezzlement of state funds
  • 55. Who was sent by Sparta to assist Syracuse?
A) Gylippus
B) Brasidas
C) Nicias
D) Agis
  • 56. What caused the final delay in the Athenian retreat from Syracuse?
A) A lunar eclipse
B) A disagreement between Nicias and Demosthenes
C) A storm at sea
D) A lack of supplies
  • 57. Approximately how many Athenian slaves were freed at Decelea?
A) 20,000
B) 5,000
C) 400
D) 100
  • 58. How many ships did the Athenians keep in reserve for last-resort situations?
A) 20,000
B) 100
C) 400
D) 5,000
  • 59. What kind of revolution occurred in Athens in 411 BC?
A) Democratic
B) Oligarchical
C) Theocratic
D) Monarchical
  • 60. Which battle took place in 410 BC where the Athenians obliterated the Spartan fleet?
A) Decelea
B) Syracuse
C) Syme
D) Cyzicus
  • 61. Why were the Athenians able to survive after the Sicilian disaster?
A) They had an unlimited emergency treasury
B) They received help from the Persians
C) Their foes lacked initiative
D) The Spartan fleet was destroyed by a storm
  • 62. What was the size of the emergency treasury in talents before it began to dwindle?
A) 20,000
B) 5,000
C) 1,000
D) 100
  • 63. What happened to the Ionian states that rebelled against Athens?
A) They became independent city-states
B) They were destroyed by the Spartans
C) Many rejoined the Athenian side
D) They formed a permanent alliance with Persia
  • 64. What region did Persia reconquer in 412 BC?
A) The Peloponnese
B) Attica
C) Thrace
D) Ionia
  • 65. Which satrap helped fund the Peloponnesian fleet?
A) Darius II
B) Amorges
C) Tissaphernes
D) Pharnabazus
  • 66. Why was Tissaphernes hesitant to take direct action against the Greeks?
A) He preferred perfidious negotiations
B) He was overthrown by Pharnabazus
C) He lacked funds
D) He was loyal to Athens
  • 67. What was the region governed by Pharnabazus?
A) Ionia
B) Caria
C) Hellespontic Phrygia
D) Lydia
  • 68. Which rebel did Athens support in Caria in 413 BC?
A) Tissaphernes
B) Alcibiades
C) Amorges
D) Darius II
  • 69. Which Persian prince was sent to Asia Minor to support the Spartans?
A) Darius I
B) Xerxes
C) Cyrus the Younger
D) Artaxerxes II
  • 70. What title was given to Cyrus the Younger in his role as general commander?
A) Strategos
B) Basileus
C) Satrap
D) Karanos
  • 71. Which naval battle in 406 BC led to the decline of Alcibiades in Athens?
A) Arginusae
B) Aegospotami
C) Notium
D) Salamis
  • 72. How many Spartan ships were lost at the Battle of Arginusae?
A) 25
B) 12
C) 70
D) 168
  • 73. What was the outcome for the six Athenian naval commanders following the Battle of Arginusae?
A) Exile
B) Imprisonment
C) Promotion
D) Execution
  • 74. Who was the Athenian general who fled to Cyprus after Aegospotami?
A) Callicratidas
B) Lysander
C) Alcibiades
D) Conon
  • 75. Who led the movement to restore democracy in Athens in 403 BC?
A) Philip II
B) Thrasybulus
C) Cyrus the Younger
D) Alexander the Great
  • 76. What happened on 12 March 1996 regarding Athens and Sparta?
A) A new war was declared between the two
B) The cities officially reunited under one government
C) A symbolic peace treaty was signed by the mayors
D) The ruins of the war were officially excavated
  • 77. Who is the author of 'The Peloponnesian War', a one-volume version of an earlier tetralogy?
A) George Cawkwell
B) Nigel Bagnall
C) Victor Davis Hanson
D) Donald Kagan
  • 78. Which work by Aristophanes is associated with the Peloponnesian War?
A) Lysistrata
B) The Frogs
C) The Wasps
D) The Clouds
  • 79. Which author wrote 'A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War'?
A) Godfrey Hutchinson
B) Victor Davis Hanson
C) Donald Kagan
D) Jennifer T. Roberts
  • 80. Who authored the book titled 'The Plague of War: Athens, Sparta, and the Struggle for Ancient Greece'?
A) Godfrey Hutchinson
B) Lisa Kallet
C) Jennifer T. Roberts
D) Nigel Bagnall
  • 81. Which author wrote 'Money and the Corrosion of Power in Thucydides'?
A) Donald Kagan
B) George Cawkwell
C) Herbert Heftner
D) Lisa Kallet
  • 82. Who wrote 'Attrition: Aspects of Command in the Peloponnesian War'?
A) J. E. Lendon
B) Victor Davis Hanson
C) Nigel Bagnall
D) Godfrey Hutchinson
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