I very much agree with you that knowing a lot of facts is very helpful for developing arguments. But I do wonder what students should be expected to produce on

I very much agree with you that knowing a lot of facts is very helpful for developing arguments. But I do wonder what students should be expected to produce on an exam. Perhaps it's about the type of question asked. Knowing the Sicilian Expedition happened after the death of Pericles is different than knowing it happened in (checks Wikipedia) 413 BC. But then knowing the year is very important for the world historical context. At that era in Greek history, events in Persia had more impact than events in Italy and Britain was essentially unknown to them. Yet here we are living in a world where the Parthenon friezes are in the British Museum. It's hard to put together the different moving parts without dates.