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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 do fertile areas offer to those who settle there according to Machiavelli?
(a) Raw materials that can be sent to sterile areas for manufacturing and refinement.
(b) The means by which a city can grow and have the ability to defend themselves.
(c) Resources that will sustain a growing population.
(d) The ability to affect the economy of sterile areas.

2. How long did Sparta peacefully exist without changing its laws, according to Machiavelli?
(a) 800 years.
(b) Through the reign of Lycurgus.
(c) Until its domination by Rome.
(d) 350 years.

3. Why does Machiavelli claim that the rule of the Caesars was preferable to the regime of the Decemvirs?
(a) Because, according to Machiavelli, the Decemvirs did not pursue expansion of the Empire.
(b) Because Machiavelli believed that the Decemvirs were too lax on punishments for violators of the law.
(c) Because the Caesars ended Rome's state of continual war.
(d) Because under the Caesar, there remained the Tribunes, Consuls, and the Senate, to whom the Caesar remained responsible.

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

5. What does Machiavelli believe to the nature of men that causes them to either fight from ambition or from necessity?
(a) They fight so they can have the power to deliver liberty to themselves and the City.
(b) Men that choose to fight always fight for personal benefit.
(c) Men that choose to fight always fight for the glory of the City.
(d) They are able to desire everything but are not able to attain everything.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did Machiavelli cite as the method that Rome used to maintain its freedom?

2. How does Machiavelli suggest that Princes and other leaders deal with acts that offend their citizens?

3. What is Machiavelli's explanation for initiating his recommended approach with enemies against an empire?

4. If a cliché could be given to the preface to Book Two of "The Discourses", what would it be?

5. In Book 1, Section 46, Machiavelli credits the ruin of Republics on citizens who jump from one ambition to another. What was the phrase that Sallust put in the mouth of Caesar that explains how such ambitions begin?

(see the answer key)

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