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. 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 allowed the government to decide what was to be grown on land in spite of the expertise of the land owner.
(c) Agrarian laws allowed Nobles to take land from Plebes with the intent to increase the land's productivity.
(d) 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.

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. Who were the Decemvirs?
(a) Officials who took their power in the last month of the year.
(b) The 12 Nobles who the Caesars appointed to help him manage the Empire.
(c) Ten citizens created by the Roman people to make the laws in Rome.
(d) Courtiers who gathered around the Caesars to protect them during times of festivals.

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

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