A-LEVEL
CLASSICAL CIVILISATION
CIV3B The Persian Wars
Report on the Examination
2020
June 2016
Version: 1.0
Further copies of this Report are available from aqa.org.uk
Copyright © 2016 AQA and its licensors. All rights reserved.
AQA retains the copyright on all its publications. However, registered schools/colleges for AQA are permitted to copy material from this
booklet for their own internal use, with the following important exception: AQA cannot give permission to schools/colleges to photocopy any
material that is acknowledged to a third party even for internal use within the centre.
REPORT ON THE EXAMINATION – A-LEVEL CLASSICAL CIVLISATION – CIV3B – JUNE 2016
CIV3B
The Persian Wars
General Comments
The examiners were pleased, once again, to see a substantial number of students for this unit. The
standard of the best responses was high, and there were a number of scripts of excellent quality. We
note a continuing sense that this paper makes demands on the capacity to read its prescribed texts as
evidence of early literary response to the events which underlie them, rather than treating them as the
basis for an essentially military narrative. Aeschylus continues to be studied with care and attention and
is integrated into answers, rather than treated as an appendix to Herodotus: this year, as last, Aeschylus
gained more responses in the structured questions than Herodotus. The best answers reflected an
excellent knowledge of the texts. The quality of writing was generally good, as was students’ ability to
handle concepts and classical values.
Section 1
Option A
Answers to Question 01 were able to identify Persian perceptions of injuries inflicted by the
Athenians as support for Ionian revolt, involvement in the assault on Sardis, supported for the
Eretrians, defeating the Persians at the battle of Marathon and despatching the Persian fleet
before it could attack Athens. Answers to Question 02 were able to support a sense of the
character of Mardonius as practical, opportunistic, greedy, revengeful, committed to the cause of
defeating Greeks, persuasive, self-seeking, good at manipulative diplomacy. Emphasis was rightly
given to his influence on Xerxes, and his desire to be governor of Greece. Good answers to 03
observed that Herodotus presents us with a picture of the political situation in the aftermath of
Marathon, highlighting Darius’ desire to make war on Greece and Egypt, the question of the
succession after Darius’ death, and the various influences on Xerxes, all of them demonstrating the
conflicts of interest for Xerxes, the revenge motive, the strategic problems and the difficulty of
decision making; all contribute both to the reader’s sense of the enormity and difficulty of the
enterprise, the irrationality and hubris of the Persians and to his presentation of Xerxes as a tragic
character. This approach helps to suggest the inevitability of the campaign of 480-479 and the
forces at work, and the size of the eventual defeat. Weaker answers concentrated on the account
of the Xerxes’ council, rather than exploring the wider picture.
Option B
Most students could identify the quotation as a part of Atossa’s account to the Chorus of her
dream, and place it before the appearance of the messenger. Many were then able to provide an
account of Atossa’s sacrifice and the eagle and falcon omen. The extract focuses on the chariotaccident image predicting Xerxes’ downfall. Responses to Question 06 were extremely variable:
successful ones responded to the view of Persian as against Greek culture which it presents, and
noted that it prepares us for the relationship between Xerxes and his parents, and his eventual
appearance. Accordingly, weaker responses to Question 07 showed little sense of the nature of a
dramatic plot, and misunderstood the idea of a descriptive narrative. Better ones explored the
Messenger speech and the Chorus’ extended reactions to it, together with other narratives in the
play, not least in their role as a substitute for action on stage.
3 of 5
REPORT ON THE EXAMINATION – A-LEVEL CLASSICAL CIVLISATION – CIV3B – JUNE 2016
Section 2
Option C
Here weaker students demonstrated an essential failure to distinguish between genres and their
differing capacities for presenting their subject matter. They influence the way in which the author
chooses to do this, and a successful answer should think about the prescribed texts in this light.
Better answers gave some thought to The Persians as an essentially plotless drama, in which the
emotional effects are achieved by descriptive report, dialogue, and choral odes, rather than by
manipulation of characters against one another or by confrontation or argument. They could then
think about Herodotus as a different kind of writing, both as a prose account with a supposedly
neutral factually researched basis, or possibly a good contrast with Aeschylus as a sort of prose
epic, which does involve narrative, speech, cliff-hangers, and the build of tension towards Salamis.
Option D
Option D was generally well answered and some quite sophisticated and nuanced work emerged
here, with able analyses of concepts of culture as well as knowledge and reportage of individual
behavioural stories. Many saw it as a cue for an open discussion of both authors’ narrative tactics
and perhaps visible bias. Discussions and content varied, but some emergent points focussed on
Herodotus’ picture of the political situation after Marathon, Darius’ intention of making war on
Greece as well as Egypt, Xerxes’ inheritance of these plans, and the presentation of the meetings
which lead to the invasion, which can all be seen as showing revenge for the injuries done by the
Greeks as a major incentive, complicated by all the perceptions which we would now regard as
commonplace in political PR manipulation and spin. The theme of revenge also underpins the
presentation of Xerxes and his followers as irrational and hubristic in the narrative of the invasion
itself; apparently casual acts of destruction and violence belong in this framework.
It can be argued that a key theme in ‘The Persians’ is the attempt to demonstrate that Xerxes is at
the end of a long line of high-performing monarchs, who built up the Persian Empire to the point at
which Darius inherited. Medus built the monarchy, his successor consolidated its role; Cyrus
maintained peace and added territory, maintained by his successor; Mardus was a temporary blip,
but Artaphernes and eventually Darius made up for it. Darius then claims that he had many
campaigns, but never caused damage on the scale that Xerxes has. Darius’ point is effectively
that although the story has not been one of perfection, Xerxes has destroyed his own kingdom,
and brought real disgrace on an unprecedented scale on his line.
Both authors could be seen as having a nationalist tub to thump. Herodotus presents the Persians
as a whole as more inclined to cruelty, irrationality, lack of control, cowardice in defeat, duplicity, or
willingness to use others’ treachery, vengeful, destructive. They do not understand freedom, and
hence the Greeks’ major motivating need as he presents it. Aeschylus implies or says all that too.
Both texts are interested in presenting Xerxes as one who has brought about his own downfall, not
least through lack of respect for the gods (Aeschylus’ Persian gods are the Greek ones, treated in
a Greek way) who take their revenge. Herodotus. has space to be more sophisticated about the
Greeks, who come out of it as motivated by many of the same political ambitions, but with the
moral edge of the drive for freedom.
4 of 5
REPORT ON THE EXAMINATION – A-LEVEL CLASSICAL CIVLISATION – CIV3B – 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
5 of 5