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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What knowledge is necessary for a Captain to be successful?

2. What does Machiavelli praise of the ancient Roman battlefield tactics?

3. What did Roman historian Livius call Necessity?

4. What are the two ways that Republics are altered that Machiavelli examines?

5. What, according to Machiavelli, determines whether or not a Republic falls into tyranny.

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Machiavelli consider negotiating peace treaties with insurrectionists to be the most harmful method of ending conflicts in a City?

2. What is the advice that Machiavelli gives to Princes who take possessions from another Prince?

3. What does Machiavelli consider to be the purpose of expanding an Empire and why must a Prince be well organized in expanding it properly?

4. What does Machiavelli recommend to Captains as an element of strategy to assure success in capturing a town?

5. What were the two evils that Machiavelli claims came to Rome as its Empire grew in geographical size?

6. Why does Machiavelli consider sustaining an initial thrust of an enemy to be an effective strategy for winning a battle?

7. What are two points that you can take from Book Three, Section 13 to suggest that Machiavelli believes that it is better for a Prince to have a strong army badly captained rather than a bad army strongly captained?

8. Why does Machiavelli in Section 28 recommend that Citizens be allowed to obtain honors through public means, but prevented from seeking honors through private means?

9. Why does Machiavelli consider towns more difficult to conquer after the Citizens have been in rebellion?

10. Why does Machiavelli devote his longest section of "The Discourses" to discussing conspiracy?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Would Machiavelli want to affect how customs are down in Cities and families today? For what reasons would he want do to do so? What modern tools or institutions would he use? Be detailed in your responses and use statements from "The Discourses" to support your position on Machiavelli's motivations.

Essay Topic 2

In Book 1, Sections 21-23 Machiavelli begins a repeated focus on the role of the military in maintaining a Free Republic by focusing on making sound decisions on the cost of a military to a Republic. Identify quotes from Machiavelli that detail Machiavelli's advice on the use of resources on the military, whether or not his advice is being followed today, and what you consider to be the consequences of the current decisions regarding the modern costs of the military.

Essay Topic 3

Machiavelli used history of the Roman Republic and Roman Empire to develop much of his support for his positions. What are the dates of the existence of the Roman Republic and Roman Empire, what differences in the forms of government between the two, and what brought the passage of the Republic to the Empire.

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