OCR A-level Classical Civilisation · H408/34

Democracy and the Athenians

50 revision questions with answers for H408/34 Democracy and the Athenians in OCR A-level Classical Civilisation (spec H408). Practise with flashcards, a topic quiz, a random quiz across the course, 5 crosswords, or read every question and answer below. Not official OCR material.

All 50 questions and answers

Question 1 · Spec pp. 42–44
What was Solon's seisachtheia?
Answer:
The shaking off of burdens relieved debt and ended enslavement of Athenians for debt.
Question 2 · Spec pp. 42–44
Why did it fall short of some expectations?
Answer:
It did not provide wholesale redistribution of land. Balancing competing groups left grievances on both sides.
Question 3 · Spec pp. 42–44
How did Solon's property classes alter political opportunity?
Answer:
Eligibility for offices was linked to assessed wealth, allowing distinctions other than birth to shape participation.
Question 4 · Spec pp. 42–44
Why was Solon's system still unequal?
Answer:
The poorest citizens did not enjoy the same access to office as wealthier classes.
Question 5 · Spec pp. 42–44
What happened to Draco's laws under Solon?
Answer:
His new code replaced much of the earlier legislation while retaining homicide laws.
Question 6 · Spec pp. 42–44
How might legal reform advance popular power?
Answer:
Access to redress and appeal could give ordinary citizens a role in restraining magistrates.
Question 7 · Spec pp. 42–44
Why qualify claims about Solon's Council of 400?
Answer:
Ancient accounts attribute a council to Solon, but its early organisation and historical status are uncertain.
Question 8 · Spec pp. 42–44
How should its possible role be expressed?
Answer:
If established, it may have prepared business for the assembly. The conditional matters because the evidence is disputed.
Question 9 · Spec pp. 42–44
What were demes under Cleisthenes?
Answer:
Local units of citizen registration and identity.
Question 10 · Spec pp. 42–44
How did deme membership reshape political identity?
Answer:
A civic affiliation tied to a local community supplemented older networks of family and aristocratic influence.
Question 11 · Spec pp. 42–44
How were Cleisthenes' ten tribes constructed?
Answer:
Each combined trittyes drawn from city, coast and inland regions.
Question 12 · Spec pp. 42–44
Why combine different regions?
Answer:
It encouraged cooperation across local divisions and reduced the hold of existing regional factions.
Question 13 · Spec pp. 42–44
How was the Council of 500 organised?
Answer:
Fifty members from each of ten tribes helped prepare business and oversee administration.
Question 14 · Spec pp. 42–44
How did rotation broaden participation?
Answer:
Service was shared across tribes and citizens over time, giving more people practical experience of government.
Question 15 · Spec pp. 42–44
How did sortition differ from election?
Answer:
Sortition chose by lot among eligible candidates. Election involved a choice between candidates.
Question 16 · Spec pp. 42–44
Why elect generals while using lots for many offices?
Answer:
Military leadership demanded recognised experience. Election could select expertise but also favour prominent individuals.
Question 17 · Spec pp. 42–44
What was ostracism?
Answer:
A citizen could be required to leave Athens for ten years through a public vote, normally retaining property.
Question 18 · Spec pp. 42–44
Why is its attribution to Cleisthenes qualified?
Answer:
The measure is linked to his reforms in ancient tradition, but its first known use occurred later.
Question 19 · Spec pp. 42–44
What did Ephialtes' reforms change?
Answer:
They removed significant political and supervisory functions from the Areopagos and transferred responsibilities to popular bodies.
Question 20 · Spec pp. 42–44
Why was this significant for democracy?
Answer:
A council of former archons lost influence relative to institutions involving a broader citizen body.
Question 21 · Spec pp. 42–44
How did pay for jury service affect participation?
Answer:
It helped poorer citizens afford time away from earning a living.
Question 22 · Spec pp. 42–44
What criticism could an opponent make?
Answer:
Payment might encourage dependence on public income or make jurors responsive to leaders promising benefits.
Question 23 · Spec pp. 42–44
Who could participate in the Athenian assembly?
Answer:
Adult male citizens. Women, enslaved people and resident foreigners were excluded.
Question 24 · Spec pp. 42–44
Why distinguish political equality from social equality?
Answer:
Equal rights among citizens coexisted with major exclusions and differences in wealth, time and rhetorical influence.
Question 25 · Spec pp. 42–44
How did the assembly exercise direct democracy?
Answer:
Citizens debated and voted personally on public business rather than electing representatives to decide every issue.
Question 26 · Spec pp. 42–44
Why could speakers gain unequal influence?
Answer:
Training, reputation and repeated public success could give persuasive leaders disproportionate power.
Question 27 · Spec pp. 42–44
How could large popular juries check elites?
Answer:
Selection by lot and large panels dispersed judicial power among citizens.
Question 28 · Spec pp. 42–44
What vulnerability did critics identify?
Answer:
Jurors could respond to emotional rhetoric, personal rivalry and prejudice as well as legal argument.
Question 29 · Spec pp. 42–44
How does Eumenides 674–710 legitimise a civic court?
Answer:
Athena establishes an enduring tribunal and links lawful judgement with reverence and restraint.
Question 30 · Spec pp. 42–44
Why is this dramatic evidence politically complex?
Answer:
A mythic foundation can endorse civic justice while allowing debate over the prestige of the Areopagos.
Question 31 · Spec pp. 42–44
How does Theseus defend democracy in Suppliants 399–456?
Answer:
He emphasises rule by the people, written law and the opportunity for citizens to speak.
Question 32 · Spec pp. 42–44
What does the Theban herald object to?
Answer:
He questions the judgement and time available to ordinary people. The exchange stages competing arguments.
Question 33 · Spec pp. 42–44
How does Thucydides' Periclean Funeral Oration portray Athens?
Answer:
It celebrates broad participation, equality before law, public service and distinctive civic habits.
Question 34 · Spec pp. 42–44
Why does the occasion shape its claims?
Answer:
A funeral speech commemorates the dead and justifies sacrifice by presenting an idealised city worth defending.
Question 35 · Spec pp. 42–44
How does Thucydides 2.65 complicate Pericles' praise of democracy?
Answer:
Thucydides portrays exceptional leadership as directing the people and later leaders as courting them.
Question 36 · Spec pp. 42–44
Why distinguish Pericles' speech from the historian's judgement?
Answer:
The speech offers a civic ideal. The retrospective judgement evaluates how leadership actually shaped collective decisions.
Question 37 · Spec pp. 42–44
How does Plato's ship analogy criticise political judgement?
Answer:
Competing sailors seek control while neglecting the trained navigator. Political power is separated from genuine knowledge.
Question 38 · Spec pp. 42–44
Who corresponds to the true navigator?
Answer:
The philosopher with knowledge relevant to ruling, dismissed as useless by people who cannot recognise his expertise.
Question 39 · Spec pp. 42–44
What does Plato's large-beast analogy suggest?
Answer:
A trainer learns the preferences of a powerful animal and calls what pleases it good.
Question 40 · Spec pp. 42–44
How does this develop a criticism of democratic education?
Answer:
Flattering popular preferences can masquerade as wisdom without independent knowledge of justice or goodness.
Question 41 · Spec pp. 42–44
Why does the Old Oligarch link democracy with naval power?
Answer:
The poorer citizens who row the fleet sustain Athenian strength and therefore have grounds for political influence.
Question 42 · Spec pp. 42–44
What is distinctive about his criticism?
Answer:
He dislikes democratic values but recognises that institutions serving the people can work effectively for their beneficiaries.
Question 43 · Spec pp. 42–44
How does Knights satirise political leadership?
Answer:
Rival claimants compete to gratify and manipulate Demos. The sausage seller can challenge a leader through even cruder tactics.
Question 44 · Spec pp. 42–44
What does personifying Demos achieve?
Answer:
The citizen body becomes a single character whose appetites and choices expose the relationship between leader and electorate.
Question 45 · Spec pp. 42–44
How does Wasps present jury service as power?
Answer:
Philocleon enjoys judgement, attention and apparent authority over defendants.
Question 46 · Spec pp. 42–44
How does Bdelycleon challenge this belief?
Answer:
He argues that leaders retain much of the city's wealth while jurors receive a small payment and remain dependent.
Question 47 · Spec pp. 42–44
What happens to legal procedure in the dog trial in Wasps?
Answer:
A household imitates a public trial, turning forensic conventions and accusations into comedy.
Question 48 · Spec pp. 42–44
Why is parody evidence of familiarity rather than literal procedure?
Answer:
The joke relies on recognisable conventions, but exaggeration and absurd participants distort ordinary practice.
Question 49 · Spec pp. 42–44
How do Acharnians and Assemblywomen test democratic participation?
Answer:
One foregrounds frustration with assembly business and war. The other imagines women disguising themselves to take control of an institution excluding them.
Question 50 · Spec pp. 42–44
What do Peace and Frogs add through direct choral address?
Answer:
The chorus can offer civic comment or advice in the poet's theatrical voice. Performance creates a forum for criticism alongside formal institutions.

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