View a FREE sample

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. Why does Machiavelli claim these forms of government developed?
(a) So those with wealth could protect themselves from those who had none.
(b) To prevent people with the ability to use force from destroying each other.
(c) So those with influence could hold it without violence.
(d) To provide defense for people who gathered together.

2. What does Machiavelli consider prudence in a Prince or a King?
(a) Keeping friends close and enemies closer.
(b) Picking battles that are important enough to fight and small enough to win.
(c) Knowing that the enemy of his enemy is his friend.
(d) In times of peace not neglecting the arrangements of war.

3. What is a Prince as Machiavelli uses the term?
(a) A hereditary noble.
(b) A monarch over a sovereign system of government and territory.
(c) A dispatched bureaucrat that carries out orders over a territory.
(d) An underling to the ruling authority.

4. What did Machiavelli establish as the cycle of governing forms?
(a) Democracy to republic go aristocracy to oligarchy to anarchy to democracy.
(b) Monarchy (principality) to aristocracy to oligarchy to democracy to monarchy.
(c) Aristocracy to republic to oligarchy to monarchy to aristocracy.
(d) Anarchy to democracy to oligarchy to monarchy to anarchy.

5. What are three reasons that Machiavelli gives for cities becoming unhappy?
(a) 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.
(b) When cities face armed challenges from outside institutions, the courts do not act justly, and when leaders abuse their power.
(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 leaders drain resources to fight wars, when laws become tools for Princes to become more wealthy, when there is taxation without representation.

Short Answer Questions

1. What do fertile areas offer to those who settle there according to Machiavelli?

2. What are the two important items that Machiavelli considers to be unwise for a Prince to put entirely into peril?

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

4. To what does Machiavelli compare great kingdoms and republics from history?

5. In defending his view that Roman Dictators served their city well, what phrase does Machiavelli use to explain how the Caesars absorbed their power?

(see the answer key)

This section contains 577 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample