Deck 7: Late Antiquity

Question 1

Constantine's best effort to end financial problems was to ______________.

A) issue the donatives annually instead of every five years
B) increase taxation among the provinces
C) demand that the military supply its own weapons
D) change the empire to a gold standard based on solidus instead of denarii
E) demand the payment of taxes in gold as well as produce

Answer 1

change the empire to a gold standard based on solidus instead of denarii

Question 2

Within Constantine's succession plans, women ______________.

A) were not permitted to rule under any circumstances
B) could rule if they were crowned as Augusta
C) were not excluded from rule
D) could rule only as regents for their sons
E) were only to be consorts to their husbands

Answer 2

were not excluded from rule

Question 3

What was Diocletian's rationale for the persecution of Christians?

A) As they were political enemies of the Emperor, he was entitled to impose penalties.
B) To enforce his authority as dominus , or living god
C) Refusal to participate in the imperial cult weakened the unity of the Empire.
D) It would require more administration to enforce his decrees, making more people dependent on him.
E) It provided a cultural rallying point among non-Christians in the empire.

Answer 3

Refusal to participate in the imperial cult weakened the unity of the Empire.

Question 4

How many parts did Diocletian divide the empire into?

A) Two
B) Three
C) Four
D) Five
E) Six

Question 5

Who suffered the Great Persecution?

A) Merchants
B) Farmers
C) Christians
D) Jews
E) The poor

Question 6

What was the name of the church that Constantine built in Constantinople?

A) Hagia Sophia
B) The Hippodrome
C) St. Peter's
D) The Church of Saint John the Lateran
E) The Basilica of St. Paul

Question 7

Which was the most successful of Diocletian's economic reforms?

A) Requiring the land tax to be paid in produce or goods rather than in the worthless coinage
B) Reissuing coins with copper
C) Issuing an edict setting a maximum cost of items
D) Issuing pure gold and silver coins to soldiers as donatives every five years
E) Making professions hereditary by law

Question 8

Constantinople is on the site of the modern ______________.

A) Rome
B) Paris
C) London
D) Istanbul
E) Berlin

Question 9

Under Diocletian's rule, what happened to the Roman Senate?

A) He strengthened its authority as a supplement to his reign.
B) He disbanded it entirely.
C) He removed all power and made it a city council.
D) He empowered it to make decisions on behalf of the western provinces.
E) He declared all of its members guilty of treason and conspiracy.

Question 10

What was the original sense of the word "pagan?"

A) Country-dweller
B) Polytheist
C) Savage
D) Fool
E) Trickster

Question 11

To regulate imperial succession, Constantine advocated ______________.

A) passing the position to the best qualified
B) passing the position to the emperor's son
C) dividing the empire into four territories
D) requiring the Senate to pick the next emperor
E) allowing the military to choose their preferred candidate

Question 12

Why did Constantine create a new capital city?

A) To keep a closer eye on the church
B) The barbarians were overrunning western Europe and it was more prudent to retreat.
C) The sources necessary for economic and population support were located in the East.
D) The location of Constantinople was much easier to defend than Rome.
E) So he could build an entirely Christian city with new churches, untainted by polytheism

Question 13

Diocletian's plan for governance of the empire was called the ______________.

A) triumvirate
B) triptych
C) tetrarchy
D) quadratium
E) quadrarchy

Question 14

The famous battle at which Constantine defeated his rival and became sole ruler was located at the ______________.

A) Halfpenny Bridge
B) Pontivecchio Bridge
C) Tiber Bridge
D) Milvian Bridge
E) Verrazzano Bridge

Question 15

Which of the following was not one of Constantine's ways of showing the Christians favor?

A) Exempting priests from duty on city councils
B) Recognizing Sunday as a day of rest
C) Forbidding Jews to keep Christian slaves
D) Building new churches
E) Exempting Christians from military service

Question 16

Which of the following challenges did Diocletian face at the start of his reign?

A) Massive inflation
B) Military threat from barbarians
C) Lack of control of the army
D) A divided empire
E) All of these.

Question 17

Which of the following arguments did the Arian heresy support?

A) Jesus was subordinate to God.
B) God and Jesus were the same entity.
C) Jesus could not have been both human and divine.
D) There was no such thing as a Holy Spirit.
E) The Holy Spirit represented a transitive being between life and death, available to all.

Question 18

Constantine introduced the solidus, a coin made of ______________.

A) silver
B) bronze
C) copper
D) gold
E) nickel

Question 19

One of the most disputed points in early Christian theology was ______________.

A) who was supposed to be in charge of the church
B) the nature of the Trinity
C) how Christianity differed from Judaism
D) how to reconcile the Old and New Testaments as coordinating texts
E) whether communion was literal or symbolic

Question 20

After winning in battle, Constantine issued the Edict of Milan, which established the ______________.

A) adoption of Christianity by the empire
B) end of Christian persecutions within the empire
C) closure of all pagan temples in the empire
D) end of the imperial cult
E) None of these.

Question 21

What occurred at the Council of Nicaea?

A) Constantine was declared supreme authority of the church.
B) Arianism was condemned as a heresy.
C) Factionalism split the Eastern and Western churches
D) The Pope was chosen to make all subsequent ecumenical decisions.
E) Constantine was excommunicated from the Church.

Question 22

What was the translation of the Bible into Latin called?

A) New Testament
B) Gospels
C) Vulgate
D) Canon Law
E) Tanakh

Question 23

What part of the church contains the altar?

A) The nave
B) The transept
C) The chapel
D) The chancel
E) The atrium

Question 24

Religious hermits who initially lived alone in spiritual contemplation were known as ______________.

A) abbots
B) ascetics
C) deacons
D) monks
E) zealots

Question 25

The most influential philosophy of Late Antiquity, stressing leaving behind one's earthly existence to attain a higher level of consciousness, was called ______________.

A) Zen Buddhism
B) Stoicism
C) Neoplatonism
D) Monophysitism
E) meditation

Question 26

Many of the barbarians in western Europe converted to ______________.

A) Judaism
B) Mithraism
C) Orthodox Christianity
D) Arian Christianity
E) Druidism

Question 27

In the Late Empire, where did most senators live?

A) Rome
B) Constantinople
C) Marseilles
D) Provincial villas
E) Large urban areas throughout the empire

Question 28

Of the two versions of the Talmud, developed from Jewish communities in the Diaspora, the one that continues to be the authoritative basis for Judaism today was written in ______________.

A) Palestine
B) Jerusalem
C) Babylon
D) Alexandria
E) Rome

Question 29

All of the following are true of Hypatia except ______________.

A) she was torn limb from limb by Christians
B) she was the first female head of the Neo-platonic school of philosophy
C) she converted to Christianity
D) she lectured to men as well as women
E) she was a mathematician

Question 30

Who is responsible for the Vulgate?

A) Theodosius I
B) Constantine
C) Jerome
D) Hypatia
E) Martin of Tours

Question 31

Where did the important Christian convert and thinker Augustine live?

A) Rome
B) Constantinople
C) North Africa
D) Sicily
E) Jerusalem

Question 32

Among the preparations for Judgment day, many Christians underwent ______________.

A) partaking of the Eucharist
B) forsaking sexual activity
C) circumcision
D) a second conversion
E) ascetic trials

Question 33

The barbarian group that successfully won the Battle at Adrianople was the ______________.

A) Visigoths
B) Ostrogoths
C) Huns
D) Franks
E) Allamani

Question 34

In the Late Empire, cities ______________.

A) were deserted
B) saw populations decline
C) were the primary location of monasteries
D) were crucial centers of economic and political functioning
E) were prestigious centers of learning

Question 35

The last non-Christian ruler of the Roman Empire was ______________.

A) Constantine
B) Diocletian
C) Julian
D) Theodosius
E) Valens

Question 36

The only group of non-Christians who retained their ancestral beliefs were ______________.

A) Roman senators
B) people who lived in rural Roman provinces
C) Zoroastrians living on the borders of the New Persian Empire
D) Jews
E) None of these groups retained their ancestral beliefs.

Question 37

Saint Augustine argued that people needed the grace of God through the authority of the church because ______________.

A) only the church could provide legitimate sacraments
B) people were tainted by original sin from Adam and Eve
C) people were regularly sinful by nature and needed constant reinforcement
D) most people were illiterate and could not read the Bible themselves
E) people must be forcibly converted

Question 38

One of the most important autobiographies to exist from late antiquity was by ______________.

A) Saint Ambrose
B) Saint Augustine
C) Saint Jerome
D) Saint Martin
E) Saint Gregory

Question 39

In the fourth century, the most influential people in the empire were the ______________.

A) priests
B) monks
C) senators
D) army generals
E) barbarian chieftains

Question 40

Both Christian and pagan literary works were preserved in what form?

A) Manuscript
B) Inscriptions
C) Codex
D) Scrolls
E) Books

Question 41

What relationship did Mithraism have with Christianity?

Question 42

Why was Constantine's conversion to Christianity significant to religion and the Roman Empire?

Question 43

What were the primary economic concerns of each class of the Late Romans and how were they addressed?

Question 44

Discuss the beliefs and practices of Christian asceticism.

Question 45

To achieve peace with the Huns, the Byzantine Empire partnered with the ______________.

A) Lombards
B) Visigoths
C) Vandals
D) Persians
E) Franks

Question 46

Discuss the final Golden Age of the Roman Empire and the period immediately following it.

Question 47

What was the role of women in Christianity? How did this contrast with opportunities in the Roman Empire?

Question 48

Who believed the divine and human natures of Christ were completely separate?

A) Nestorians
B) Monophysites
C) Byzantines
D) Merovingians
E) Ascetics

Question 49

The emperor who achieved some measure of peace with the Visigoths was ______________.

A) Theodosius
B) Theodoric
C) Valentinian
D) Valens
E) Stilicho

Question 50

Clovis was accepted by the Romans because ______________.

A) he was baptized under the Nicene Creed
B) he continued the use of the Roman law code
C) he fought against the Vandals
D) they were afraid of his conquests
E) None of these.

Question 51

Under Theodosius II, the Byzantine Empire was ______________.

A) entirely isolated from western Europe
B) completely identified with the East, with Greek as the preferred language
C) very militarily focused
D) immune from assault by barbarians
E) None of these.

Question 52

Romulus Augustulus was removed from the western throne in 476 by ______________.

A) Alaric
B) Attila
C) Odovacar
D) Theodoric
E) Arthur

Question 53

Which crucial event took place in 410?

A) The onslaught of the Huns under Attila
B) The sack of Rome by the Visigoths under Alaric
C) The seizure of Spain by the Vandals
D) The occupation of Gaul by the Franks
E) The march across the frozen Danube River by the Visigoths

Question 54

Which of the following is not one of the Romance languages derived from Latin?

A) French
B) Italian
C) Romanian
D) German
E) Spanish

Question 55

What were Diocletian's reforms? What did they accomplish? What was Constantine's response?

Question 56

Why did the seat of power of the Roman Empire shift to the east?

Question 57

When Constantine shifted the capital of the Roman Empire to Constantinople from Rome, what was the result?

Question 58

Continued arguments about the physical versus spiritual nature of Christ by Monophysites were settled at the ______________.

A) Council of Nicaea
B) Council of Chalcedon
C) Lateran Council
D) Council of Constance
E) Council of Whitby

Question 59

What finally ended the attacks of the Huns?

A) They were defeated by allied forces near Rome.
B) Attila signed a peace treaty with the church via Leo the Great.
C) Attila died on his wedding night.
D) Their subject states revolted against them and they scattered.
E) A new khan in the East demanded they return home.

Question 60

What led to and proceeded from the Council of Nicaea?

Question 61

Instructions: Please define the following key terms.
Constantine the Great

Question 62

Instructions: Please define the following key terms.
Nicene Creed

Question 63

After the fifth century, the Byzantine Empire collapsed into the Dark Ages.

Question 64

The conversion of the Irish to Christianity was accomplished by a man from Britain named Patrick.

Question 65

Instructions: Please define the following key terms.
Neoplatonism

Question 66

How could individuals directly participate in Christianity?

Question 67

Instructions: Please define the following key terms.
Hagia Sophia

Question 68

The last Roman Emperor was Valens, who was killed at Adrianople in 378 C.E.

Question 69

Instructions: Please define the following key terms.
Constantinople

Question 70

The Church of the Holy Sepulcher was founded by Constantine's mother, Helen.

Question 71

Neoplatonism endorsed the idea of one overall god.

Question 72

The Council of Chalcedon granted the Byzantine Patriarch the same status as the Pope.

Question 73

The Visigoths in Spain adopted Roman Law.

Question 74

Instructions: Please define the following key terms.
Tetrarchy

Question 75

Romanian is a Romance language.

Question 76

The Vulgate was a translation of the Old and New Testament into English by Jerome.

Question 77

Discuss the ways in which Christianity and its culture influenced the literature of Late Antiquity?

Question 78

How did Theodosius I help to advance Christianity within the Empire? How did this affect the relationship between Church and State?

Question 79

Instructions: Please define the following key terms.
Diocletian

Question 80

The Council of Chalcedon gave rise to the Nicene Creed.