91 pages • 3 hours read
ThucydidesHistory of the Peloponnesian War
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During Reading
Reading Questions & Paired Texts
Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.
Book 1
Reading Check
1. Which two city-states fight in the Peloponnesian War?
2. What is the name of the treaty the Spartans and their allies accuse Athens of breaking?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What reason does Thucydides give for writing about the Peloponnesian War?
2. What was the true cause of the Peloponnesian War, according to Thucydides?
Paired Resource
- This timeline includes the key events before and up to the end of the Peloponnesian War.
- This connects to the theme of History as a Repeating Cycle.
- How do the Athenians and Spartans increasingly become a threat to one another as they increase their power and influence? Is a confrontation between these two powers inevitable?
Book 2
Reading Check
1. Where does a plague break out in 430 BCE?
2. What is Pericles’s policy to oppose the Spartans?
3. Why do the Spartans besiege Plataea in 429 BCE?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why does Pericles claim in his funeral oration that Athens should be admired?
Paired Resource
“The Plague of Athens” by Lucretius
- This link includes Lucretius’s poetic interpretation of the plague of Athens, from the end of his didactic epic On the Nature of Things.
- This connects to the theme of Nature, Chance, and Human Decision-Making.
- How do Lucretius’s and Thucydides’s depiction of the effects of plague comment on human nature?
Book 3
Reading Check
1. How do the Athenians initially vote to punish the Mytilenians for their revolt in 427 BCE?
2. How does the siege of Plataea end?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What are the social consequences of the civil war in Corcyra? What conclusions about human nature does Thucydides draw from these consequences?
Paired Resource
“The Mytilenian Debate and Us” by Ejaz Haider
- This article from the Tribune discusses the relevance of the Mytilenian Debate to 21st-century conflicts.
- This connects to the themes of Nature, Chance, and Human Decision-Making and History as a Repeating Cycle.
- Why is the Mytilenian Debate still relevant today? What lessons can we learn from this debate and Thucydides’s reflections on it?
Book 4
Reading Check
1. Which Athenian statesman convinces the Athenians to reject the Spartans’ peace offer in 425 BCE?
2. Whom do the Athenians fight against at the Battle of Delium?
3. Why is Thucydides exiled from Athens after the loss of Amphipolis?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Athens and Sparta agree to a one-year armistice in 423 BCE. What are each side’s motivations in this agreement?
Book 5
Reading Check
1. Which battle in 422 BCE are Brasidas and Cleon killed in?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. How does Argos contribute to the mounting tensions between Athens and Sparta following the Peace of Nicias?
2. Why do the Athenians sack Melos? What does the sack of Melos and the preceding “Melian Dialogue” reveal about Athenian policies at this time?
Paired Resource
“Genocide in the Ancient World” by Gerard Mulligan
- This article discusses what constitutes genocide and how it was practiced in the ancient world. It includes an overview of the Roman genocide of Carthage and the Athenian genocide of Melos, as well as a related video.
- This connects to the theme of Nature, Chance, and Human Decision-Making.
- What is genocide? What were the motivations behind the Athenian genocide of Melos?
Book 6
Reading Check
1. What is the name of the principal supporter of the Sicilian Expedition in Athens?
2. Who is Hermocrates?
3. Why is Alcibiades recalled from the Sicilian Expedition?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why do the Athenians decide to invade Sicily?
2. What is Hermocrates's role in the Sicilian Expedition?
Book 7
Reading Check
1. Who is the general the Spartans send to Syracuse?
2. What happens to Nicias and Demosthenes after the Sicilians defeat the Athenians?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why is the Spartans’ fortification of Decelea so dangerous to Athens?
2. What does Nicias’s defeat at Sicily reveal about his character and ability as a general?
Book 8
Reading Check
1. What non-Greek eastern power do the Spartans seek an alliance with in 411 BCE?
2. Why is it obvious that Thucydides’s History of the Peloponnesian War is unfinished?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why does Alcibiades defect to Persia? What strategy does he suggest Persia pursue?
2. Who are the Four Hundred? Why are they important?
3. How does the Battle of Cynossema in 411 BCE impact Athens’ morale?
Recommended Next Reads
Histories by Herodotus
- This link contains a translation of Herodotus’s account of the war between the Persian empire and the Greek city-states, composed around 440 BC.
- Shared themes include Nature, Chance, and Human Decision-Making and History as a Repeating Cycle.
- Histories on SuperSummary
Trojan Women by Euripides
- This tragedy explores the plight of the women of Troy after the conquest of their city. It is thought of as a reflection on the Athenian sack of Melos.
- Shared themes include Nature, Chance, and Human Decision-Making.
- Trojan Women on SuperSummary
Reading Questions Answer Key
Book 1
Reading Check
1. Athens and Sparta (Book 1, Chapters 1-23)
2. The Thirty Years Peace (Book 1, Chapters 66-88)
Short Answer
1. Thucydides says he chose to write about the Peloponnesian War because it was the most important war ever fought between the Greek city-states, involving virtually the entire Greek world. He believes this war can provide a lesson to future readers because human nature never changes and history often repeats itself. (Book 1, Chapters 1-23)
2. According to Thucydides, the true cause of the Peloponnesian War was Sparta’s fear of Athens’s growing power. This true cause is to be distinguished from the stated causes of the war, such as the Spartans’ claim that the Athenians broke the Thirty Years Peace. (Book 1, Chapters 1-23, Chapters 66-88)
Book 2
Reading Check
1. In Athens and other densely populated towns (Book 2, Chapters 47-56)
2. To avoid meeting the Spartans in battle on land (Book 2, Chapters 56-65)
3. Because they refuse to break their alliance with Athens (Book 2, Chapters 71-78)
Short Answer
1. Pericles praises Athens for its uniquely meritocratic government as well as its leadership in the arts and culture. For these contributions, Pericles proclaims Athens an “education for Hellas.” (Book 2, Chapters 34-46)
Book 3
Reading Check
1. By killing the male population (Book 3, Chapters 36-50)
2. With the Spartans razing the city, enslaving the women, and confiscating the land (Book 3, Chapters 51-68)
Short Answer
1. The civil war in Corcyra leads to political instability, social decline, and widespread criminal and immoral behavior. Thucydides reflects that human nature is often opportunistic and irrational, and that instability is a product of these dangerous attributes. (Book 2, Chapters 34-46)
Book 4
Reading Check
1. Cleon (Book 1, Chapters 1-23)
2. The Boeotians (Book 4, Chapters 89-101)
3. Thucydides failed to reach the city with reinforcements in time. (Book 4, Chapters 102-16)
Short Answer
1. Athens’s motivation for the armistice is their need to secure alliances in response to the military successes of the Spartan general Brasidas in Thrace. The Spartans need time to recover after suffering significant losses in war (such as at Sphacteria). (Book 4, Chapters 117-23)
Book 5
Reading Check
1. The Battle of Amphipolis (Book 5, Chapters 1-12)
Short Answer
1. Not wanting to be isolated, Argos negotiates first with Sparta (unsuccessfully) and then with Athens (more successfully). The Argives and Athenians increasingly infringe on Spartan interests in the Peloponnese, especially at Epidaurus and Mantinea. By 417 BCE, an oligarchic faction takes control in Argos and gives up the city’s alliance with Athens to make common cause with Sparta. (Book 6, Chapters 40-51, Chapters 63-83)
2. The Athenians sack Melos because the island does not agree to join Athens but prefers to remain neutral. In the “Melian Dialogue,” the Athenians argue that the Melians should do as they demand because the Melians are weaker than the Athenians. This shows that Athenian policy had come to be governed primarily by practical realpolitik at this time in history. (Book 5, Chapters 84-116)
Book 6
Reading Check
1. Alcibiades (Book 5, Chapters 8-32)
2. A Syracusan general (Book 5, Chapters 33-41, Chapters 73-88)
3. Because of his suspected involvement in the desecration of the hermae (religious statues) (Book 5, Chapters 8-32, Chapters 60-61)
Short Answer
1. Sicily was an extremely rich and fertile region, and the Athenians were convinced that conquering Sicily would give them valuable territory and influence. This added strength would give them a serious edge over the Spartans and also deprive the Spartans of a powerful potential ally (especially since many of the Sicilian Greeks were Dorians, like the Spartans). (Book 6, Chapters 40-51, Chapters 63-83)
2. This general encourages the Syracusans and other Sicilians to make suitable preparations for the Athenian invasion of Sicily. (Book 5, Chapters 33-41, Chapters 73-88)
Book 7
Reading Check
1. Gylippus (Book 7, Chapters 1-9)
2. They are put to death (Book 7, Chapters 72-87)
Short Answer
1. Decelea was an island within Athenian territory. This means that Sparta’s fortification of Decelea supplied them with a base within Athens’ borders. (Book 7, Chapters 19-30)
2. Nicias loses ground in Sicily because he is overly cautious and superstitious. These qualities lead to disaster, especially when Nicias delays the Athenian retreat from Sicily, thus giving the Spartans and Sicilians time to gain strength. (Book 7, Chapters 42-59)
Book 8
Reading Check
1. The Persians (Book 8, Chapters 6-44)
2. Because it ends mid-sentence while describing events from years before the end of the war (Book 8, Chapters 99-109)
Short Answer
1. Alcibiades defects to Persia after the Spartans become suspicious of him and order that he be put to death. Fleeing to the Persian statesman Tissaphernes, Alcibiades tells the Persians they should let the Spartans and Athenians wear each other out and then join forces with a weakened Athens. (Book 8, Chapters 45-98)
2. The Four Hundred are an oligarchic government who assume power in Athens in 411 BCE, highlighting the instability of Athens in the years following the disastrous Sicilian Expedition. The Four Hundred try unsuccessfully to make peace with Sparta and suffer a defeat in Euboea soon after, further weakening Athens’ position. They are deposed and replaced with the Five Thousand, another oligarchic government. (Book 8, Chapters 45-98)
3. The Athenian victory against the Peloponnesians at the Battle of Cynossema gives them confidence that they have regained their naval superiority after the heavy losses of the Sicilian Expedition. This success convinces many Athenians that they can win the war with Sparta. (Book 8, Chapters 99-109)
Related Titles
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