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Quiz about Pylos and Sphacteria
Quiz about Pylos and Sphacteria

Pylos and Sphacteria Trivia Quiz


In 425 BC, during the Peloponnesian War, an Athenian general saw a weak spot in Sparta's defenses and sought to exploit it. Even by ancient standards it was a small affair--but with big potential consequences. Test your knowledge of these battles.

A multiple-choice quiz by Craterus. Estimated time: 6 mins.
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Author
Craterus
Time
6 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
392,965
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
15
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
10 / 15
Plays
131
Awards
Top 35% Quiz
- -
Question 1 of 15
1. In 425 BC Athens sent out a fleet of ships to assist allies in Sicily and southern Italy. Athens named three commanders of the fleet, one of whom was a famous tragedy playwright. Who was this warrior-artist? Hint: Oedipus of Colonnus. Hint


Question 2 of 15
2. Also along with the fleet was another Athenian leader who proved to be one of the city's most resourceful and imaginative commanders during the war. Name him.
Hint: With a name like that, the "people" must have loved him.
Hint


Question 3 of 15
3. As the Athenian fleet wound its way up the southwestern coast of the Peloponnese, another of the Athenian commanders, Demosthenes, wanted to stop, fortify and man a small, deserted and seemingly insignificant peninsula named Pylos. Why?
Hint: Think in politico-military, not economic, terms.
Hint


Question 4 of 15
4. The Athenians began to fortify and man Pylos. What was the main Spartan army under King Agis doing at that time? Hint: Similar to slash and burn. Hint


Question 5 of 15
5. King Agis ignored the Athenian landing at Pylos.


Question 6 of 15
6. The Spartans quickly assessed the situation and sent a force of around 420 hoplite warriors (heavy infantry)to a nearby, and by all appearances just as useless, island south of Pylos named what? Hint


Question 7 of 15
7. The Spartans had numerical superiority on both land and sea in the area and things appeared to be going their way, when they decided to attack Demosthenes' force on Pylos. What happened with the Spartan attack? Hint


Question 8 of 15
8. After the attack, things took a radical change in fortunes for the Athenians and Spartans. What happened next? Hint: Oopsy for the long-haired, red-caped guys who lived nearby. Hint


Question 9 of 15
9. With the Spartan force on Spacteria trapped, and the Athenian navy around, the Spartan government sent a very high level delegation to the area to assess the situation. Why was the Spartan government so worried about the small 420 man force on Sphacteria?
Hint: Think Spartan voting rights
Hint


Question 10 of 15
10. A Spartan delegation quickly arrived at Pylos and asked for a temporary truce-- which was given with very strict terms. They then hurried off to Athens. What did the Spartan delegation ask for at Athens ? Hint


Question 11 of 15
11. One prominent Athenian hard-line politician rejected the Spartan offer for peace unless harsher demands were met. When the Spartans asked for some privacy to consider his demands, the Athenian hawk said no, that it must be done publicly, which the Spartans could not do for diplomatic reasons. Who was this implacable foe of Sparta?
Hint: It wasn't the tragedian and he did not have an "Age" named after him.
Hint


Question 12 of 15
12. With peace talks in Athens at an end, the war back at Pylos and Sphacteria continued. What did the Athenians accuse the Spartans of? Hint


Question 13 of 15
13. The Athenian war hawk Cleon now joined Demosthenes as the other commander at Pylos/Sphacteria. After a fire destroyed the woods on Sphacteria and altered troop dispositions, Spartan troop numbers and terrain became more obvious to the Athenians, a land attack on the Spartans was pressed. What was the deciding factor in the outcome of the battle?
Hint: The Spartan spear was only 8 feet long and was generally not thrown.
Hint


Question 14 of 15
14. When the Spartans surrendered at Sphacteria, what did the Athenian historian Thucydides say of this event in his history of the Peloponnesian War? Hint


Question 15 of 15
15. What became of Demosthenes' original master plan of confronting Sparta with a Messenian revolt from a base at Pylos? Hint



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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. In 425 BC Athens sent out a fleet of ships to assist allies in Sicily and southern Italy. Athens named three commanders of the fleet, one of whom was a famous tragedy playwright. Who was this warrior-artist? Hint: Oedipus of Colonnus.

Answer: Sophocles

Born in 497, by the time of this expedition the tragedian who dethroned the great Aeschylus as the greatest man of letters in Athens would have been 72 years old. In Athens, where participation in affairs of state was expected, other public intellectuals like Socrates also fought with bravery in the Peloponnesian War.
The other named commanders were Eurymedon and Pythodorus, the latter of which was already in the area of Sicily.
2. Also along with the fleet was another Athenian leader who proved to be one of the city's most resourceful and imaginative commanders during the war. Name him. Hint: With a name like that, the "people" must have loved him.

Answer: Demosthenes

While his plans were not always successful, Demosthenes proved more than once that he understood the bigger strategic picture better than most.
Through the early part of the war, Demosthenes had attempted to increase Athens' ifluence around the Gulf of Corinth and its northern shore. While his campaign in Aetolia had proven disastrous, it was an imaginative attempt to outflank Sparta's allies along the Gulf's northern shore. He had succeeded brilliantly in the Arcarnian campaign, however.
3. As the Athenian fleet wound its way up the southwestern coast of the Peloponnese, another of the Athenian commanders, Demosthenes, wanted to stop, fortify and man a small, deserted and seemingly insignificant peninsula named Pylos. Why? Hint: Think in politico-military, not economic, terms.

Answer: The occupation of Pylos was a threat to Sparta's strategic flank

Pylos on the coast was just 45 miles from Sparta in the south central Peloponnese. While there was little of material value there, its location was in the land of the Messenians. The Spartans had conquered and subdued the Messenians in the late eighth century BC and used them as slaves (helots); the latter were absolutely vital to the Spartan economic and political system.

It was said, by one ancient historian, that the Messenians, who were Greek after all, hated the Spartans so much that they "would have eaten them raw." Demosthenes, who wanted to fortify and man Pylos with Messenian soldiers, knew if he was successful that the rest of Messenia might revolt against Spartan rule, and Sparta would be faced with a two front war. Given that Sparta had fought three wars with the rebellious Messenians in the space of 250 years, it was a good bet.
4. The Athenians began to fortify and man Pylos. What was the main Spartan army under King Agis doing at that time? Hint: Similar to slash and burn.

Answer: Laying waste to Attica

Annually during the war, the Spartan army under one of its kings would cross the isthmus into Attica, the agricultural hinterland around Athens, and attempt to destroy its crops and trees. As Victor Davis Hanson has pointed out, destroying crops and trees-- like grains, olive trees and grape vines was a form of economic warfare akin to World War II strategic bombing-- and was not as easy as it sounds.

But the Spartans really had no alternative plan. The Athenians refused to come out from behind their walls and fight what was considered the best army in Greece, relying instead on their navy and their own form of economic warfare.
5. King Agis ignored the Athenian landing at Pylos.

Answer: False

To the contrary, it appears that Agis understood the strategic threat posed by the landing immediately and hurried back Sparta as quickily as possible. It probably did not hurt that the campaign was not going well in Attica with wet weather plaguing the Spartans.
6. The Spartans quickly assessed the situation and sent a force of around 420 hoplite warriors (heavy infantry)to a nearby, and by all appearances just as useless, island south of Pylos named what?

Answer: Sphacteria

The Spartan plan was to have a force on Sphacteria, one on the mainland opposite Pylos and the Spartan navy was to control the harbor.
7. The Spartans had numerical superiority on both land and sea in the area and things appeared to be going their way, when they decided to attack Demosthenes' force on Pylos. What happened with the Spartan attack?

Answer: It was repulsed

Demosthenes accurately predicted exactly where the Spartans under the excellent commander Brasidas would attack and, because the Spartans could not bring all their forces to bear at once, repulsed them with a mere 60 men at the water's edge.

Note: It's not a little ironic that Demosthenes used a narrow piece of terrain to hold off a larger force, not unlike the way the Spartans did against the Persians at Thermopylae in 480 BC.
8. After the attack, things took a radical change in fortunes for the Athenians and Spartans. What happened next? Hint: Oopsy for the long-haired, red-caped guys who lived nearby.

Answer: Athenian fleet arrives, traps the Spartans on Sphacteria

After Demosthenes repulsed the Spartan attack on the beach, the Athenian fleet returned, surprised and defeated the Spartan fleet. Suddenly things looked very bad for the Spartan force on Sphacteria. They were on an island, with limited supplies, and the enemy controlled the waters around it.
9. With the Spartan force on Spacteria trapped, and the Athenian navy around, the Spartan government sent a very high level delegation to the area to assess the situation. Why was the Spartan government so worried about the small 420 man force on Sphacteria? Hint: Think Spartan voting rights

Answer: Many of the men were "Spartiates."

Many historians have concluded that the Spartan government was most concerned with the possible loss of the Spartiates. Spartiates were those Spartans who had been through the Spartan training system and met all requirements for being full citizens of Sparta, including at age 30 the right to vote in the Spartan Assembly.

Moreover, Sparta practised eugenics, did not have a high birth rate due to marriage practices and operated a rigorous cut-throat training method (the agoge) that produced the best warriors in Greece, but not very many of them. Thucydides said that 120 of those Spartans who survived the battle were of the "Spartan officer class." Thus they were a super-select group who were members of the best families and showed the most leadership skills. By some historians' count, these men constituted as much as 10 percent of the Spartan elite--a not inconsiderable number for Sparta.
10. A Spartan delegation quickly arrived at Pylos and asked for a temporary truce-- which was given with very strict terms. They then hurried off to Athens. What did the Spartan delegation ask for at Athens ?

Answer: The Spartans asked for a treaty to end the Peloponnesian War

The initial truce allowed for the Spartans to re-supply their men on Sphacteria but in return they had to turn over their ships--around 50--to the Athenians for security. Because the Athenians completely controlled the sea around the island, the Spartans were completely at the former's mercy and had to agree. But once the Spartan delegation reached Athens, the delegates wanted to talk about a general peace to end the war.

They argued that Sparta had suffered a stroke of bad luck but its capacity to wage war was not damaged.

Hence it was better for Athens not to test the fates and chances of more war. It was here however that the domestic politics of Athens intervened.
11. One prominent Athenian hard-line politician rejected the Spartan offer for peace unless harsher demands were met. When the Spartans asked for some privacy to consider his demands, the Athenian hawk said no, that it must be done publicly, which the Spartans could not do for diplomatic reasons. Who was this implacable foe of Sparta? Hint: It wasn't the tragedian and he did not have an "Age" named after him.

Answer: Cleon

Cleon does not appear in history to be the most sympathetic of characters. His fellow Athenian, the historian Thucydides, has little good to say about him in his opus. Some believe that Cleon scuttled a chance for peace and guaranteed 20 more years of war.

But as Donald Kagan has argued, and the Spartans themselves stated, a peace treaty in 425 BC did nothing to impair Sparta's ability to make war down the road and thus Athens needed to take advantage of its negotiating leverage. In hindsight Thucydides appears right; but certainly the Athenian demos may have felt quite differently after six years of war already and little to show for it.
12. With peace talks in Athens at an end, the war back at Pylos and Sphacteria continued. What did the Athenians accuse the Spartans of?

Answer: Violating the Pylos truce by attacking Athenian fortifications

The Athenians played hardball and accused the Spartans of attacking their walls. The Spartans denied it. But as a result, the former refused to give the latter's ships back to them.
Things were becoming increasingly difficult for the Spartans on Sphacteria as food and supplies had to be smuggled on to the island. The supply situation was not much better for the Athenians either and so they pressed forward for a final battle.
13. The Athenian war hawk Cleon now joined Demosthenes as the other commander at Pylos/Sphacteria. After a fire destroyed the woods on Sphacteria and altered troop dispositions, Spartan troop numbers and terrain became more obvious to the Athenians, a land attack on the Spartans was pressed. What was the deciding factor in the outcome of the battle? Hint: The Spartan spear was only 8 feet long and was generally not thrown.

Answer: Spartan inability to come to grips with Athenian peltasts and archers

After making a surprise landing, the Athenians formed into multiple 200 man formations and the Athenian light infantry consisting of archers, javlineers and slingers harassed the heavy Spartan infantry. When the latter would charge, the former would retreat over the rocky terrain and the Spartans, in full armor, were gradually worn down as the day went on.

The Spartan force retreated to an old fort on the island but were flanked again by Messenian light troops who occupied high ground above and pelted the Spartans below them. Tired, thirsty and cornered, the Spartan commander was asked for the surrender of his men and-- shockingly to all Greece-- it was given.
14. When the Spartans surrendered at Sphacteria, what did the Athenian historian Thucydides say of this event in his history of the Peloponnesian War?

Answer: That the Spartan surrender was the most surprising event in the war

The Greek world could not believe that the Spartans, who had heroically died to a man at Thermopylae Pass against the Persians in 480 BC, had surrendered to anybody. All Greeks knew that the best army in all Greece, if not the world, was the Spartan army.
Thucydides also states the Athenian troops were afraid at first to come to grips in close-in fighting with the Spartans. But as they began to wear them down with their long distance weapons, their confidence increased.
One captured Spartan said the the Athenian "spindles" (arrows) could not tell the difference between a brave man and a coward and thus it was not a fair fight or a true reflection of Spartan bravery.
15. What became of Demosthenes' original master plan of confronting Sparta with a Messenian revolt from a base at Pylos?

Answer: It was largely put into effect for a while.

Athens manned Pylos and fomented a Messenian "revolution" in the Peloponnese. To the Spartans' credit, they did a good job of hiding the guerrilla war being waged and their weakness. They never gave up on getting Pylos and the captured Spartiates back and, after the Spartan victory at Amphipolis in 422 and the death of the war leaders on both sides, Cleon and Brasidas, those conditions were agreed upon at the Peace of Nicias in 421 BC. The Athenians also promised not to promote a Messenian rebellion and even to assist in putting it down. In the end, Sparta got the the Spartiates and Pylos back and the Messenians were put down and the war would resume--indirectly, at first-- in 418 at the Battle of Mantinea.
But other than the later Spartan navarch Lysander, Demosthenes had the clearest strategic vision in the war and the weaknesses of Athen's bitterest rival.
The plan of freeing the Messenian helots and breaking Spartan power would have to wait and be successfully taken up by the Theban General Epimonondas in 370-369 BC, when Messenia was declared free and Megalopolis was established.
One can conclude that Demosthenes' original vision inspired him.
Source: Author Craterus

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor bloomsby before going online.
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