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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is Machiavelli's explanation for initiating his recommended approach with enemies against an empire?
(a) Because the public humiliation of the enemy will expose supporters to the Citizens who will then act to neutralize the conspiracy.
(b) Because putting the leaders of enemies in positions of public responsibility will require them to make decisions that will be rejected by conspiracies.
(c) Because taking out the head of a movement will lead to the death of the body.
(d) Because those who try to crush it, make its force greater, and make that evil which is suspected from it to be accelerated.

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

3. What does Machiavelli claim new sects (religions) do as they rise to prominence?
(a) Cause Citizens to avoid fighting in wars.
(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) Influence the culture to defy the Prince.

4. What is Machiavelli's conclusion regarding how someone can establish a Republic where there is great equality?
(a) By assuring that the assets that create wealth are kept within the power of the State.
(b) By uniting the whole public behind wars and efforts to grow the Empire.
(c) By removing ambitious and unquiet spirits that makes men want to move up in rank.
(d) By finding methods to maintain poverty throughout the general masses.

5. 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) A series of Caesars who named friends to be Captains.
(c) The lawlessness that overtook Carthage as its Princes suspended harsh sentences for crimes against the State.
(d) A recent denial of appeal by Girolamo Savonarola to five citizens sentenced to death after Savonarola wrote the law allowing appeals.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Machiavelli expect a city can keep its freedom after a weak Prince follows an excellent Prince?

2. What is an obvious counterpoint to Machiavelli's assertion to the benefits of the power of the Caesars to the Roman Empire?

3. In Book 1, Section 37, what does Machiavelli claim to be the foundation of well-ordered Republics?

4. What can be inferred of Machiavelli's idea of virtue from reading the review of the first three kings of Rome as he begins his discourse of weak Princes and excellent Princes?

5. What are the two important items that Machiavelli considers to be unwise for a Prince to put entirely into peril?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Machiavelli mean when he advises that evil in a State be "temporized"?

2. Why does Machiavelli advise that a Prince "temporize" a perceived evil in his State?

3. What are the three types of state that Machiavelli detailed and by what name are they known today?

4. Why does Machiavelli disagree with Plutarch's claim that Rome acquired its Empire more by good Fortune than by Virtu?

5. Why does Machiavelli challenge Cities to punish citizens with respected reputations when they commit wrong acts?

6. What acts by governing officials does Machiavelli consider "pernicious" or damaging to the authority of the government?

7. What does Machiavelli recommend to a Prince about reform of a city or a province that he has taken?

8. How does Machiavelli explain that a City grows either through love or through force?

9. Why should a Prince measure his forces and govern by his decisions based upon them before he enters a war?

10. Why does Machiavelli consider a Citizen rising to take authority through irregular means (popular uprising) harmful in a Republic?

(see the answer keys)

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