Thucydides Study Questions, book 4 (selections)
Due: November 5.
If students are pressed for time, they may skip reading sections 49-135 of book 4.
Illustration: "Mourning Athena" Relief from Athenian Acropolis, showing Athena reading a stele, perhaps containing inscribed names of war dead, arranged by tribes. Marble, 470-460 BCE. hieght 0.54 m (21 1/2 inches) Acropolis Museum, Athens, #695
Note that the folds of her peplos follow her leaning stance, rather than falling vertically, as gravity demands. Note the fold over her raised left heel, which emphasizes that her weight rests on her right foot.
Possible interpretations: Maybe this is a dedication of a victorious athlete; maybe the dedication of the stone mason who completed the fortification of the Acropolis under Kimon in the late 460's. Maybe a boundary marker for Athena's sanctuary on the Acropolis; maybe the stele represents the power of the written word or the power of the decree in Athens, which even Athena, the city's proctress, stops to read.
[#8 in THE GREEK MIRACLE: CLASSICAL SCULPTURE FROM THE DAWN OF DEMOCRACY. THE FIFTH CENTURY B.C., ed. Diana Buitron-Oliver. National Gallery of Art, Washington 1992]
Thucydides Book 4: The Amazing Story of Spartan Surrender; the Triumph of Kleon at Pylos/Koryphasion/Sphacteria
SEE THE MAP OF THE SITE BELOW.
1. Where is Pylos? Find Pylos on a handy map of Greece, and point out two places close to it, and say where they are in relation to it. How did the Athenians happen to take Pylos/Koryphasion? 4.1-4
2. What advantages did possessing the site of Pylos have for the Athenians? 4.1-4 SEE THE MAP OF THE SITE BELOW.
3. How did the Athenians come to fortify Pylos/Koryphasion? 4.1-4 SEE THE MAP OF THE SITE BELOW.
4. What was the immediate reaction of the Spartiates to the Athenian capture of Pylos (4.5), and what were their expectations when they finally came to attack the place? 4.5
5. How did Demosthenes prepare his Athenian troops for the Lacedaemonian attack on Pylos? 4.9
6. What arguments did Demosthenes use to encourage his men to resist the Spartan attack, and how effective were his words? 4.10-11
7. How did the Spartiate commander Brasidas lead the attack? How effective was his generalship? 4.11-12
8. What does Thucydides say was so remarkable about the first battle between Athenians and Spartans at Pylos? 4.12
9. How did the Athenians turn the tables on the attacking Spartans and manage to trap them on the island of Sphacteria? 4.8, 4.14
10. When the Spartans get a truce and send ambassadors to Athens to ask for their men's release, what arguments do they use? 4.17-20
11. When the Spartans get a truce and send ambassadors to Athens to ask for their men's release, what do they offer to the Athenians to try and make them agree? 4.17-20
12. Why did the Athenians not accept the Spartan offer of a truce? Who was Kleon? What is the Greek word for "a popular leader"? 4.21
13. How did Kleon get the Lacedaemonians to leave Athens without accomplishing their goal? 4.22
14. What kinds of difficult conditions did the Athenians face while besieging the Spartans and being besieged themselves? 4.26
15. What kinds of sneaky ways did the Lacedaemonians try to get supplies to their trapped men on the island of Sphacteria? 4.26
16. What kind of trouble was Kleon in as the siege of Sphacteria dragged on? How did he attept to get out of trouble? 4.27
17. How did Kleon's bluster get him the generalship to attempt to capture the Spartans at Sphacteria? 4.28
18. Why were the Athenians happy when Kleon promised to bring the Lacedaemonians alive to Athens or kill them -- within twenty days? 4.28
19. How did a careless campfire accident change Kleon's strategy against the Lacedaemonians trapped on the island of Sphacteria? 4.30
20. Why did the Athenian general Demosthenes plan to use long-range weapons against the Lacedaemonians? What kinds of weapons did he plan to use? What was his strategy? 4.32-33
21. What was visibility like on Sphacteria during the battle? What effect did that fact have? 4.34
22. Why does Thucydides mention the battle of Thermopylae when describing the battle of Sphacteria? What is the point? 4.36
23. What kinds of consultations had to take place before the Lacedaemonians on the island would surrender to the Athenians? 4.38
24. What did the Hellenes find to be "the most unexpected thing in the war," and why? 4.39
25. What did the Athenians plan to do with the captured Spartan soldiers, and what was the Lacedaemonian reaction? 4.41
26. How did the Corcyrean democrats treat their oligarchic prisoners who had been turned over to the Athenians' protection? 4.46-48
27. How and when did Cleon finally die? (5.10)
28. What was the consequence of Kleon's death? (5.15-16)
29. How would you characterize Kleon as Thucydides portrays him in Book 4? (cite at least two passages)
30. Were the Athenians wise or unwise to refuse the Spartan offer of peace after the capture of the Spartans on the island? Why?
If students are pressed for time, they may skip reading sections 49-135 of book 4
Here is a map of Sphacteria/Pylos:
