Thucydides Book 3 81-85 Stasis on Corcyra
1. How, and why did the oligarchic sympathizers at Corcyra commit suicide? (90)
2. What were three of the reasons that there was so much killing on Corcyra? (90)
3. How did the centrality of stasis change the way people used language during the Peloponnesian War? (90-91)
4. What does Thucydides consider to be the cause of all the evil stasis that beset the Greeks during this war? (92 and 93) How did the parties cloak their evil intentions? (92)
5. What happened to those citizens who refused to side with one stasis or another? (92)
6. How did the Corcyrean democrats treat their oligarchic prisoners, who had been turned over to the Athenians' protection? (94-95)
Thucydides Book 4 (84-87) Acanthus and Melos
7. What arguments does the Spartan general Brasidas use to convince the people of Acanthus to rebel against Athens? What is Thucydides' opinion of Brasidas as a speaker? (97-99)
8. What important event on the island of Sphacteria was a turning point in the war? When did this happen, and what was Cleon's role? (100)
10. What important events at the site of Amphipolis were a turning point in the war? When did these events take place, and what were the roles of Thucydides, Cleon, and Brasidas? (100-101)
11. What opinion about oracles does Thucydides give in his second preface, and how does it compare or contrast with his opinions elsewhere about oracles? (101)
12. What personal qualifications does Thucydides give for writing about the War? (101-102)
13. In the Melian Dialogue, what is said about Justice?
14. In the Melian Dialogue, what is said about Hope?
15. In the Melian Dialogue, what is said about the gods?
16. What did the Athenians do the Melians?
Thucydides' History Book 6-7-8 The War in Sicily/The Sicilian Disaster
17. Why did the Athenians launch the expedition against Sicily?
18. Why was Nicias opposed to the Sicilian Expedition? Give at least three of his arguments. (113-117)
20. Why, according to Thucydides, was Alcibiades eager to support and lead the Sicilian Expedition? (116-117)
21. What reasons does Alcibiades give the Athenians for supporting him as commander, and in favor of the Sicilian Expedition? (117-120)
22. How does Nicias' speech about the magnitude of the Expedition backfire? (120-123)
23. What two alleged acts of impiety at Athens imperiled the Sicilian Expedition, and who was blamed for them? What does 'hermokopia' mean? (123)
24. Thucydides interrupts his narrative to give an account of Aristogeiton and Harmodius. What is the reason for this digression, and what does this tell us about Thucydides as an historian? (125)
25. What are Thucydides' three main points in telling the Harmodius and Aristogeiton story? What does "tyrannicide" mean?(126)
26. How did the Athenians deal with those implicated in the Hermokopia? (332-333)
27. What advice did Alcibiades give to the Spartans to help them in the War against the Athenians? (127)
28. How does Alcibiades justify to the Spartans the fact that he is working against his own country? (127-128)
30. What problems did the Athenians encounter when fighting the Syracusans at night? (130-134)
31. In addition to being besieged by their enemies, what problem afflicted the Athenian troops? (134)
32.Why did Nicias not want to accept Demosthenes' good advice to leave Syracuse, and what does this tell us about the character of the Athenians back in Athens? (134-135)
33. What fatal weakness did Nicias show -- in relation to the eclipse? (137)
34. What emotions possess the Athenians in section 55? (138-139) How do these compare to those in the great battle that follows (sections 71-71, pages 143-144) (Note how Thucydides concentrates on emotions more and more in this book.)
35. What emotions possess the Syracusans in section 56? (139) How does this contrast with those of the Athenians in the previous section?
36. Why were the Syracusans too drunk to follow up their victory over the Athenians right away? How does the Syracusan Hermocrates use dolos to compensate for this weakness? (144)
37. What emotions does Thucydides describe as the Athenians leave their camp to retreat by land? How do these contrast with the splendor and glory of their setting out? (145-146)
38. Why does Nicias say that the Athenians should find that the gods will be kind to them? (146-147)
40. Why does Nicias tell his men that they are a city wherever they sit down? (147), and conclude that "It is the men, you see, and not the walls or empty ships, that are the city." (147)
41. How did Nicias and Demosthenes die?
42. Why did Nicias turn himself over to the Spartans rather than to the Syracusans? (151-152)
What was Thucydides' attitude towards Nicias? (152)
43. Why does Thucydides call the Sicilian disaster the greatest action
in all of Greek history? (152-153)
44. What were the emotions of the Athenians in Athens when the news of the Sicilian disaster arrived there? What actions did they take? (153-154)