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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Book Two, The Growth of Rome's Empire, Preface, Methods of Expansion, Colonization and War: Its Causes and Cost, Diplomacy and War.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What support did Machiavelli use for his view of what he considers to be the worst example provided by leaders?
(a) The lawlessness that overtook Carthage as its Princes suspended harsh sentences for crimes against the State.
(b) Tribunes who called the army from foreign provinces and decommissioned its Captains.
(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.

2. What, according to Machiavelli in Book , 1 Section 38, is the fate of irresolute Republics?
(a) They face invasion, destruction and anhilation.
(b) They cannot settle conflicts except with force because their weakness prevents them from resolving doubts over issues.
(c) They will eventually fade away and reemerge as a tyranny.
(d) They have no alternative but to join alliances with powerful Republics that will take control of them.

3. What does Machiavelli claim new sects (religions) do as they rise to prominence?
(a) Influence the culture to defy the Prince.
(b) Influence Citizens to be obedient to the Prince.
(c) Destroy all the signs, including language, of the old sects they come to dominate.
(d) Cause Citizens to avoid fighting in wars.

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

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) Weak and dependent people seek to become senators.
(c) Generals seek to become senators.
(d) The working poor seek to become plebes.

Short Answer Questions

1. How long did Sparta peacefully exist without changing its laws, according to Machiavelli?

2. What does Machiavelli predict will come to Republics that do not provide for dictatorships or powerful authorities in times of urgent perils?

3. How did Machiavelli begin the preface to "The Discourses"?

4. What are the two means that Machiavelli identifies as how laws are developed in cities at the beginning of Section 2, Book One.

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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