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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Book Three, The Examples of Rome's Great Men, Sundry Remarks on Strategy, Tactics, New Devices and Discipline, Administrative Posts, Administrative Methods: The Rival Claims of Severity and Good Fellowship.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Machiavelli suggest that Princes and other leaders deal with acts that offend their citizens?
(a) Distract the Citizens by making war against a nearby province.
(b) Make the offense quickly then act to reassure them and give them cause to quiet and firm their spirits.
(c) Increase taxes on the wealthy and use the money in ways that benefit the general masses.
(d) Increase their power and penalties for crimes and scare the Citizens into submission and acceptance.

2. In defending his view that Roman Dictators served their city well, what phrase does Machiavelli use to explain how the Caesars absorbed their power?
(a) "Power corrupts. Knowledge is power. Study hard. Be evil."
(b) "It is power that easily acquires a name, not a name power."
(c) "He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still."
(d) "Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just."

3. Through what means does Machiavelli suggest that a City can achieve what he considers greatness?
(a) Through conquest and deceit.
(b) Through fear and violence.
(c) Through laws and wealth.
(d) Through love or force.

4. What should the reader consider as evil when Machiavelli is advising Princes to "recognize evils".
(a) Evil is anything with which a Prince does not agree.
(b) Evil should be considered to be any influence which challenges the power of the Prince.
(c) Evil is those public reactions that oppose the Prince.
(d) Evil is those human inclinations that cause them to act selfishly.

5. What does Machiavelli examine in Chapter 1 of Book 2?
(a) How to develop fortune and virtue.
(b) How virtue can destroy fortune.
(c) Why fortune is more important that virtue.
(d) Whether the Roman Empire was built upon fortune or virtue.

Short Answer Questions

1. According to Machiavelli, what prevented the ambitions of the Nobles from corrupting Rome?

2. What does Machiavelli recommend to a City that is unable to defend itself, but wants to be protected from anyone who would attack it?

3. In the comparison between the tactics of Scipio and Hannibal, what does Machiavelli consider to be praiseworthy?

4. Why does Machiavelli claim that the rule of the Caesars was preferable to the regime of the Decemvirs?

5. If a cliché could be given to the preface to Book Two of "The Discourses", what would it be?

(see the answer key)

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