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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Book One, The Development of Rome's Constitution, The Use and Abuse of Dictatorship, The Road to Ruin, Sundry Reflections Based on the Decemvirate.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who were the Decemvirs?
(a) The 12 Nobles who the Caesars appointed to help him manage the Empire.
(b) Officials who took their power in the last month of the year.
(c) Ten citizens created by the Roman people to make the laws in Rome.
(d) Courtiers who gathered around the Caesars to protect them during times of festivals.

2. According to Machiavelli, how did the Agrarian Laws violate the foundation of well-ordered Republics?
(a) Agrarian laws distributed land from those who had more than the law allowed among plebes rather than among Nobles with which they could enrich themselves.
(b) Agrarian laws allowed Nobles to take land from Plebes with the intent to increase the land's productivity.
(c) Agrarian laws allowed the government to decide what was to be grown on land in spite of the expertise of the land owner.
(d) Agrarian laws allowed land owners to use their land to help the poor become wealthy.

3. What does Machiavelli believe to the nature of men that causes them to either fight from ambition or from necessity?
(a) Men that choose to fight always fight for personal benefit.
(b) They fight so they can have the power to deliver liberty to themselves and the City.
(c) They are able to desire everything but are not able to attain everything.
(d) Men that choose to fight always fight for the glory of the City.

4. Why does Machiavelli claim that the rule of the Caesars was preferable to the regime of the Decemvirs?
(a) Because, according to Machiavelli, the Decemvirs did not pursue expansion of the Empire.
(b) Because Machiavelli believed that the Decemvirs were too lax on punishments for violators of the law.
(c) Because the Caesars ended Rome's state of continual war.
(d) Because under the Caesar, there remained the Tribunes, Consuls, and the Senate, to whom the Caesar remained responsible.

5. What are the five types of government identified by Machiavelli?
(a) Monarchy, aristocracy, democracy, oligarchy, and anarchy.
(b) Republic, fascistic, democracy, principality, and oligarchy.
(c) Tyranny, constitutional, military oligarchy, principality, and democracy.
(d) Democracy, anarchy, monarchy, constitutional, and institutional.

Short Answer Questions

1. What do fertile areas offer to those who settle there according to Machiavelli?

2. According to Machiavelli, what caused the Roman Republic to form?

3. What did Machiavelli cite as the method that Rome used to maintain its freedom?

4. From what did Machiavelli develop the information that he wrote into "The Discourses"?

5. What historical records did Machiavelli use to support his point for keeping two important items out of peril?

(see the answer key)

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