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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, Sundry Reflections on the Kings of Rome, The Introduction of New Forms of Government, Ingratitude.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What are reasons Machiavelli cited for a group of people leaving their native country to seek a new home?
(a) Family strife and lack of work.
(b) Pestilence, famine or war.
(c) Overcrowding and social unrest.
(d) Racial conflict and economic injustice.

2. According to Machiavelli, what caused the Roman Republic to form?
(a) Political rivalries between powerful generals.
(b) Class warfare between the patricians and the plebes.
(c) Trade agreements between cities with resources and cities with technologies.
(d) Economic agreements between fertile cities.

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

4. 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 taxes drain Plebes of their wages, when resources are not allocated equitably, and when Princes seek to expand their influence with wars.
(c) When leaders drain resources to fight wars, when laws become tools for Princes to become more wealthy, when there is taxation without representation.
(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.

5. How did Machiavelli begin the preface to "The Discourses"?
(a) With advice to two friends on how to keep their friends close and their enemies closer.
(b) As a letter to two political thinkers from Florence.
(c) As a warning to future generations of the tenuous nature of freedom.
(d) As a cynical commentary to the weakness of leaders of his time.

Short Answer Questions

1. How long did Sparta peacefully exist without changing its laws, according to Machiavelli?

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

3. What did Machiavelli suggest is the advantage of settling in areas that were "sterile" (barren)?

4. Of what should Princes be most ashamed in Machiavelli's view?

5. What did Machiavelli establish as the cycle of governing forms?

(see the answer key)

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