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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, The Popular Demand for a Share in Government, The Management of the Populace, The Advantages of Popular Government.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What historical records did Machiavelli use to support his point for keeping two important items out of peril?
(a) Historical records of Rome and France.
(b) Historical records of Hannibal and England.
(c) Historical records of military tactics.
(d) Historical records of Tullus and Metius.

2. What did Machiavelli identify as the cause of conspiracy against a hereditary Princes?
(a) The general population became dissatisfied with the distribution of wealth.
(b) They degenerated from their fathers, and surpassed others in sumptuousness and lasciviousness and in every other kind of delight.
(c) Less powerful people desired the power of the Prince.
(d) The larger population of citizens became unhappy with the the political preferences of the Princes.

3. According to Machiavelli, how did the Agrarian Laws violate the foundation of well-ordered Republics?
(a) Agrarian laws allowed Nobles to take land from Plebes with the intent to increase the land's productivity.
(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 land owners to use their land to help the poor become wealthy.
(d) Agrarian laws allowed the government to decide what was to be grown on land in spite of the expertise of the land owner.

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

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?
(a) "Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just."
(b) "It is power that easily acquires a name, not a name power."
(c) "He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still."
(d) "Power corrupts. Knowledge is power. Study hard. Be evil."

Short Answer Questions

1. Based upon Machiavelli's details, for whose benefit were the "demonstrations made to the benefit" of Plebes devoted?

2. How does Machiavelli recommend a Republic deal with enemies that spring up within an empire?

3. What are the five types of government identified by Machiavelli?

4. What should the reader consider as evil when Machiavelli is advising Princes to "recognize evils".

5. What does Machiavelli believe to the nature of men that causes them to either fight from ambition or from necessity?

(see the answer key)

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