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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Of what should Princes be most ashamed in Machiavelli's view?
(a) Missing opportunities to conquer other cities.
(b) Being discovered to be self-absorbed and not devoted to building the strength of their cities.
(c) Consuming his wealth in debauchery.
(d) Lacking their own soldiers for defense and offense.

2. What does Machiavelli claim new sects (religions) do as they rise to prominence?
(a) Influence the culture to defy the Prince.
(b) Influence Citizens to be obedient to the Prince.
(c) Destroy all the signs, including language, of the old sects they come to dominate.
(d) Cause Citizens to avoid fighting in wars.

3. When Machiavelli writes, "For sometimes of necessity our judgment is the truth, as human affairs are always in motion, either ascending or descending," what is he writing about what he believes about truth?
(a) Truth is not as important as the people you make relationships with.
(b) Truth is irrelevant to the reason for making judgments.
(c) You can't make sound judgments without having a firm grasp on the truth.
(d) Machiavelli considers truth to be relative.

4. What are the three ways a Republic can expand that Machiavelli recognized?
(a) By joining in league with other Republics, make other Republics associates, and to make other Republics subjects immediately.
(b) By conquering distant provinces, by supporting other provinces to conquer enemies, and to make allies with strong Republics.
(c) By making trade alliances with wealthy provinces, by joining in war with weak Republics, and by making alliances with powerful tyrannies.
(d) By sending Nobles out to establish colonies, by sending armies out to conquer foreign provinces, and making other provinces associates.

5. According to Machiavelli, what was one negative consequence of the Roman Senate's decision to pay soldiers out of public money?
(a) Rome was required to produce more currency to meet the payments, so the currency was devalued.
(b) So many Citizens joined the military that there were not enough to perform necessary jobs throughout the Republic.
(c) It raised taxes on Nobles.
(d) Soldiers began expecting regular pay raises.

6. How did Machiavelli report that the Nobles controlled the process of Plebes having the opportunity to choose Plebes for four Tribunes?
(a) They offered choices between highly reputable Nobles and ignoble Plebes who asked to be considered for the positions.
(b) They controlled the means of Plebes to provide for themselves.
(c) They began a war and had many Plebes sent to a foreign province.
(d) They were in charge of counting the votes.

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

8. What are the two important items that Machiavelli considers to be unwise for a Prince to put entirely into peril?
(a) His fortune and forces.
(b) His fortune and his reputation.
(c) His reputation and family.
(d) His city and his chief advisers.

9. What are three reasons that Machiavelli gives for cities becoming unhappy?
(a) When cities face armed challenges from outside institutions, the courts do not act justly, and when leaders abuse their power.
(b) When leaders drain resources to fight wars, when laws become tools for Princes to become more wealthy, when there is taxation without representation.
(c) When taxes drain Plebes of their wages, when resources are not allocated equitably, and when Princes seek to expand their influence with wars.
(d) When cities are compelled to reorganize laws by themselves, when the laws diverge from their established institutions, and when the laws lead cities from the right path.

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

11. What is an obvious counterpoint to Machiavelli's assertion to the benefits of the power of the Caesars to the Roman Empire?
(a) Without the Caesars, provinces of the Empire would have moved to avoid hazards.
(b) If the Nobles of Rome had not sought to possess distant provinces, there would have been no need for Caesars.
(c) The cost of Empire caused hazards to gather domestically as well as throughout the Empire.
(d) Without the empire is it possible that the hazards the empire faced would not have materialized.

12. What did Machiavelli report led gatherings of people to make laws?
(a) To set order to the defense of the city.
(b) So resources could be justly distributed.
(c) To protect economic activity that benefited the city.
(d) To avoid evils that people committed on others.

13. According to Machiavelli, how did the Agrarian Laws violate the foundation of well-ordered Republics?
(a) Agrarian laws allowed land owners to use their land to help the poor become wealthy.
(b) Agrarian laws allowed the government to decide what was to be grown on land in spite of the expertise of the land owner.
(c) Agrarian laws allowed Nobles to take land from Plebes with the intent to increase the land's productivity.
(d) 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.

14. What does Machiavelli identify as tactics the Citizen seeking not to be harmed uses?
(a) Acquiring friendships either through honest means or by supplying money to protect themselves from the powerful (bribes).
(b) Friendships with Citizens who are bold enough to fight.
(c) The financial ability to buy protection.
(d) Obscurity.

15. What does Machiavelli consider an important tool in maintaining the order of a Republic?
(a) The ability to control the perceptions of citizens.
(b) Wars that keep the citizenry focused on supporting the City.
(c) Fear of harsh administrators.
(d) Proper administration of rewards and punishments.

Short Answer Questions

1. In Book 1, Section 46, Machiavelli credits the ruin of Republics on citizens who jump from one ambition to another. What was the phrase that Sallust put in the mouth of Caesar that explains how such ambitions begin?

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

3. What does Machiavelli claim causes ingratitude from a conquered citizenry?

4. Why does Machiavelli consider the Roman Caesars to have been a benefit to the Roman Empire?

5. What should the reader consider as evil when Machiavelli is advising Princes to "recognize evils".

(see the answer keys)

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