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

2. What support did Machiavelli use for his view of what he considers to be the worst example provided by leaders?
(a) Tribunes who called the army from foreign provinces and decommissioned its Captains.
(b) The lawlessness that overtook Carthage as its Princes suspended harsh sentences for crimes against the State.
(c) A series of Caesars who named friends to be Captains.
(d) A recent denial of appeal by Girolamo Savonarola to five citizens sentenced to death after Savonarola wrote the law allowing appeals.

3. What is the branch of government that Machiavelli recognizes as that which most prevents or causes corruption to come over a city?
(a) The legislative branch.
(b) The princes.
(c) The judicial (magistrates) branch.
(d) The plebeian branch.

4. To what does Machiavelli compare great kingdoms and republics from history?
(a) To the state of political instability in which was common to Machiavelli's day.
(b) To great works of antique art that have been found and preserved.
(c) To his ideal state that combined the most successful institutions from those civilizations.
(d) To his projections of the future in which Machiavelli speculated on how power would be preserved.

5. Of what should Princes be most ashamed in Machiavelli's view?
(a) Consuming his wealth in debauchery.
(b) Being discovered to be self-absorbed and not devoted to building the strength of their cities.
(c) Lacking their own soldiers for defense and offense.
(d) Missing opportunities to conquer other cities.