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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What about Aulus' wife disturbs him?

2. What does Marsus suggest to Claudius?

3. Why does the crowd from the marketplace follow Asinius to the palace?

4. How does Pallas get to be so rich?

5. Who tries to persuade Claudius to adopt Lucius Domitius?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Claudius call for support from the palace guards? What about them does he trust above others?

2. How does Herod symbolize his manifestation as the Messiah?

3. How does Calpurnia show her loyalty to Claudius?

4. Despite citing three different accounts of Claudius' death, what is in common with all of them?

5. What attitude does Claudius take on when he marries Agrippinilla? How does the public respond?

6. As Claudius presides over the trials of Messalina's adulterers and traitors at the wedding party, Messalina writes him three letters. Describe these letters and how it shows Messalina's true character.

7. How might reinstating Mithridater to the Armenian throne help quell the alliance forming in the Near East?

8. Why does Claudius marry Agrippinilla over other potential women?

9. What is the fate of the British isle now that the Romans have conquered it?

10. What are the usual feelings about a solar eclipse by the public? How does Claudius get the populace to feel differently about it?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compare Claudius' reign as he sees it to how others may see him. What is the same and what is different?

Essay Topic 2

Herod states that he is still an "uncivlized Edomite at heart" and it is a privilege to learn from a Roman matriarch, Claudius Antonia. Write an essay explaining why Herod might feel this way despite being raised in Rome since childhood.

Essay Topic 3

Describe the politics between the emperor and the Senate. How does each control the other? What is the purpose of each? How do they play political games with each other, and why?

(see the answer keys)

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