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Subjects · Leaving Cert Classical Studies

Leaving Cert Classical Studies: Sources & characterisation

How often Sources & characterisation comes up on the Classical Studies papers, every year it was asked, and questions to try.

HL Asked on 2 of the last 3 Higher Level papers, most recently in 2025. most years

OL Asked on 3 of the last 3 Ordinary Level papers, most recently in 2025. banker

Sources & characterisation, Higher Level(8 marks)

Quick ones on Sources & characterisation.

(a)Whose accounts did Arrian mainly follow?
  1. Herodotus and Thucydides
  2. Ptolemy and Aristobulus
  3. Caesar and Cicero
(b)Why does Caesar write the Gallic War in the third person?
  1. It was the rule for all Roman letters
  2. Latin had no first-person verb forms
  3. It makes his self-praise look objective
(c)What is a key weakness of all surviving Alexander sources?
  1. Written centuries later; eyewitness works are lost
  2. None of them describes his battles in detail
  3. All of them were written by Persian enemies
Show the answers

(a) Ptolemy and Aristobulus

(b) It makes his self-praise look objective

(c) Written centuries later; eyewitness works are lost

Your turn: Higher Level questions on Sources & characterisation.

Higher Level

Asked on 2 of the last 3 Higher Level papers, most recently in 2025. most years

Every paper, year by year

YearWhere it came up
2025Q8
2024Not asked
2023Q7

Links open the State Examinations Commission’s paper for that year.

Ordinary Level

Asked on 3 of the last 3 Ordinary Level papers, most recently in 2025. banker

Every paper, year by year

YearWhere it came up
2025Q7
2024Q9
2023Q14

Links open the State Examinations Commission’s paper for that year.

More Sources & characterisation questions

Sources & characterisation, 2 marks

What kind of work did Plutarch write about Alexander and Caesar?

  1. A war diary in the first person
  2. An epic poem
  3. Biography (Lives)
Show the answer

Biography (Lives)

Plutarch said he wrote lives, not histories. He looked for small actions and sayings that revealed a man's character, often to teach a moral lesson.

Sources & characterisation, 3 marks

Which friend did Alexander kill in a drunken argument?

  1. Parmenion
  2. Cleitus
  3. Hephaestion
Show the answer

Cleitus

Cleitus had saved Alexander's life at the Granicus. Writers use the killing, and Alexander's deep grief afterwards, to show his temper and heavy drinking.

Sources & characterisation, 3 marks

Why might Caesar's own account of the Gallic War be biased?

  1. He wrote about his own campaigns to impress Rome
  2. He relied on stories told by others, not being there
  3. He wrote it 500 years after the events
Show the answer

He wrote about his own campaigns to impress Rome

Caesar wanted readers at home to see him as a brilliant, fair general. He chose what to include and what to leave out.

Other Classical Studies topics

All of Leaving Cert Classical Studies