Download Athenian Imperialism June 2016

AS-LEVEL
CLASSICAL CIVILISATION
CIV2D Athenian Imperialism
Report on the Examination
2020
June 2016
Version: 0.1
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REPORT ON THE EXAMINATION – AS-LEVEL CLASSICAL CIVLISATION – CIV2D – JUNE 2016
CIV2D Athenian Imperialism
General Comments
Once again in 2016 there was some good work seen but rather too many papers that were of a
general nature, lacking in supporting examples or failing to directly answer questions or comment
on specific quotations. As has been the case in recent years, the events of the first half of the
Pentecontaetia were much better known and understood than those of the years from 454 to 432.
Hence, although there was almost an exact 50-50 split in numbers attempting Option A on the
second half of the Pentecontaetia and Option B on the Melos and Mytilene speeches, the latter
was on the whole much better done, particularly the 20-mark essays. Again fairly equal numbers
attempted the two Section 2 essays, with Option D on the inscriptions providing a slightly higher
mean mark than the Option C essay on Pericles’ claim about the Athenian Empire.
Section 1
Option A
Most students were aware of the 30 year provision for the truce of 446 BC (Question 01), but less
than half gained both marks on the criticisms of Sparta in Question 02. Similarly many
remembered the ‘weak are always subject to the poor’ quotation for Question 03, but less than a
quarter could add a second point on the Athenian response. The passage for discussion in
Question 04 is an interesting one and the question invites students to look at subtle ways in which
Thucydides shows bias, and indeed ways in which he appears to be fair to both sides. The better
responses looked at both sides of the argument, picking out key emotive phrases such as ‘private
initiative’, ‘violently attacked’ and so on, and commenting on the amount of space allocated to the
grievance of Corinth, compared to that given to Athens. On the other hand credit was given for
showing that Thucydides was not afraid to talk of Athens having ‘committed acts of aggression’
and of how the people of Aegina failed to act, ‘out of fear of Athens’. There were some good
answers here but a number that did not make sufficient reference to the passage to reach Level 3.
Responses to Question 05, on the reasons for the Debate at Sparta, were disappointing, mainly for
the reasons stated under general comments above: there is room for brief mention of the pre-454
events but some responses did not address any of the issues between 446 and 432 BC which had
major consequences for Athens, Corinth and Sparta in particular. There was a tendency for
students to fall back on the early defections of Naxos and Thasos rather than using the evidence of
the inscriptions. The Megarian Decree was rarely mentioned, while the direct lead-up to the Debate
was often all but ignored. Nearly every year a question has appeared on this part of the timeline,
and yet it remains an area of uncertainty for many students.
Option B
The students who answered Option B generally performed rather better than those attempting
Option A. Few failed to gain at least two marks for citing the Melian response to the Athenian
demands (Question 06) but only a handful realised that the destruction of Melos was not an
immediate action by the Athenians (Question 07) so many marks were not gained here. The
passage in Question 08 was generally better analysed than its Option A equivalent, although a
number of students failed to see any sense of threat here. The best answers saw the lack of
hyperbolic language as in itself carrying a sense of threat; some spoke of the ‘matter of fact’ way in
which the Melians were addressed (‘we do not want any trouble’; ‘we want you to be spared..’; ‘we
.. would be able to profit from you’) as suggesting that the survival of the Melians was a matter of
minimal consequence to Athens. Some went on to talk of Athenian arrogance at making no attempt
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REPORT ON THE EXAMINATION – AS-LEVEL CLASSICAL CIVLISATION – CIV2D – JUNE 2016
to hide their totally selfish intentions here, suggesting that as a ‘dialogue’ it was a totally one-way
street. There were far fewer answers here that failed to reach Level 3 than on Question 04.
Similarly most responses to the essay comparing the treatment of the Melians with that of the
Mytilenians showed a firmer grasp of the material than its Option A equivalent. There was some
very good discussion of the three sets of speeches, Cleon and Diodotus against the Mytilenians,
and the remainder of the Melian Dialogue. It was disappointing to see a number of these efforts fail
to move on to discuss what the Athenians actually did to these two peoples, which was a key
element in forming a proper response to this question. A few students failed to appreciate that the
Mytilenians were a rebellious subject state of Athens, while the Melians were an independent
island. Most, however, used these points well in judging the relative severity of the actions against
Melos. Some sensibly commented on the significance of the Melian episode being some years
later than the revolt of Mytilene.
Section 2
Option C
Question 10 focused on what has traditionally been the most popular historical era within the
Specification: the early years of the Delian League up to 454 BC. As in previous years, students’
grasp of the key stages of the gradual move from League to Empire was sound, but many found it
harder to adapt their knowledge to the demands of the question. It was disappointing that no
essays paused to consider what Pericles meant by his use of the word ‘wrong’ in the quotation. All
assumed he was simply speaking in a moral sense and went on to judge each of the Athenian
actions in turn against this criterion. This gained credit, but it would have been good if some had
gone on to examine the word ‘wrong’ from a more practical viewpoint, which Pericles clearly had in
mind given the situation in Athens when he was speaking. Some essays used the terms ‘League’
and ‘Empire’ as being interchangeable throughout; better efforts used Thucydides’ own comments
about the Athenians breaking the rules as illustrating the move from one to the other, often seeing
the Thasos episode as a key event in the change. Overall fewer students here reached Level 3
than on Question 11, but those that did often went on to gain higher marks.
Option D
It was pleasing to see that knowledge and understanding of the inscriptions from ‘The Athenian
Empire’ has continued to improve over the last few years. Question 11 revealed that many
students had a full knowledge of the terms imposed on the rebellious allies, which is creditable
considering the fragmentary nature of the evidence; some gave sensible warnings about the
uncertainty of some of their conclusions. Any reasonable readings of the evidence were given full
credit, regardless of issues about dates. The majority of essays also endeavoured to respond to
the double issues in the title, although there was far more discussion of ‘fairness’ than any points
about the ‘struggle to retain the Empire’. A number of scripts claimed that there were no real signs
of any ‘struggle’, overlooking the fairly obvious point that most of the inscriptions were set up in
response to allies acting to break away from, or at least, to dilute the Athenian hold over their
cities. That said, more than a third of students reached Level 4 here, which was exactly the same
percentage as on Question 10, but did indicate a great improvement over performance on these
inscription-based essays than in previous series.
Overall, despite the comments on Option A above, the work this year showed signs of real
improvement.
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REPORT ON THE EXAMINATION – AS-LEVEL CLASSICAL CIVLISATION – CIV2D – JUNE 2016
Mark Ranges and Award of Grades
Grade boundaries and cumulative percentage grades are available on the Results Statistics
page of the AQA Website.
Converting Marks into UMS marks
Convert raw marks into Uniform Mark Scale (UMS) marks by using the link below.
UMS conversion calculator
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