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. What does Machiavelli suggest causes corruption?
(a) An insufficiency of or inability to enforce laws that deal effectively with corruption.
(b) Princes who are preoccupied with seeking pleasure rather than power.
(c) Rebellious citizens who defy ruling authorities.
(d) Princes who are not cruel enough with punishment.

2. From what did Machiavelli develop the information that he wrote into "The Discourses"?
(a) From his world travels to study governments in other cultures.
(b) From long experience and continuous study of worldly affairs.
(c) From research that he did in the many libraries throughout the former Roman Empire.
(d) From interviews with political thinkers of the day.

3. 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) "He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still."
(c) "Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just."
(d) "It is power that easily acquires a name, not a name power."

4. 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 distributed land from those who had more than the law allowed among plebes rather than among Nobles with which they could enrich themselves.
(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 Nobles to take land from Plebes with the intent to increase the land's productivity.

5. According to Machiavelli, what type of people seek what office to cause a city to become corrupt?
(a) The rich and powerful, rather than the virtuous, seek to become judges (magistrates).
(b) Generals seek to become senators.
(c) Weak and dependent people seek to become senators.
(d) The working poor seek to become plebes.