Deck 6: The Roman Empire

Question 1

Where was the location of Hadrian's Wall?

A) Carthage
B) Spain
C) Great Britain
D) Gaul
E) Sicily

Answer 1

Great Britain

Question 2

How did Augustus Caesar demonstrate his commitment to Roman tradition?

A) He passed legislation against sexual immorality.
B) He sponsored the Golden Age of Latin Literature.
C) He built and revitalized the city of Rome.
D) He provided entertainment to the Roman people.
E) All of these.

Answer 2

All of these.

Question 3

In order to remain in power peacefully, Octavian needed the support of ______________.

A) the patricians
B) the plebeians
C) the counsuls
D) the military
E) the Senate

Answer 3

the Senate

Question 4

The crucial aspect of ensuring a successor without violating the pretense of being a republic was met by ______________.

A) holding an election in the senate and army
B) automatically picking the most senior senator as the next princeps
C) passing the title to the emperor's son in his will
D) making sure a successor was chosen before the current emperor died
E) None of these.

Question 5

Which emperor violated Augustus's mandate about expanding the Roman Empire?

A) Caligula
B) Tiberius
C) Trajan
D) Vespasian
E) Nero

Question 6

Who succeeded Augustus?

A) Nero
B) Tiberius
C) Augustus
D) Vespasian
E) Nerva

Question 7

What is considered to be one of the greatest factors of identification which Rome allowed in the provinces?

A) Inclusion in the new Roman coinage system was based on denarii.
B) All official business was transacted in Latin.
C) The annual provincial councils could transmit their opinions and concerns to the emperor.
D) Roman citizenship was extended to inhabitants of the provinces.
E) Provincial proconsuls in service were circulated throughout the empire.

Question 8

What was considered the most dangerous frontier in the Empire under Augustus?

A) The Germanic border
B) Dacia
C) Britain
D) Thrace
E) Egypt

Question 9

How could a person in the provinces be granted Roman citizenship?

A) Learning to speak Latin
B) Rejecting Christianity
C) Serving in the military for 25 years
D) Settling on latifundia along disputed borders to hold the land
E) An annual lottery

Question 10

What was a donative?

A) A statue of an imperial deity
B) An offering made by a new emperor to his soldiers
C) A form of rhetoric employed in the Golden Age of Literature
D) A peasant soldier from the provinces
E) A provincial administrator

Question 11

What was the biggest expense in the Roman imperial budget?

A) Construction of roads, aqueducts, and public temples
B) Transporting food resources throughout the empire from Gaul
C) Maintaining the army
D) Maintaining the provincial administration salaries
E) Extended campaigns to conquer new provinces

Question 12

What is the only official office that Octavoan held?

A) Senator
B) Consul
C) Emperor
D) Augustus
E) Pontifex Maximus

Question 13

The permanent border to the north of the Roman Empire was marked by which rivers?

A) Arno and Po
B) Rhine and Rhone
C) Danube and Marne
D) Danube and Rhine
E) Seine and Elba

Question 14

Which biographer wrote The Twelve Caesars and analyzed Octavian's choice to retire or remain in power?

A) Livy
B) Suetonius
C) Plutarch
D) Pliny the Elder
E) Pliny the Younger

Question 15

What was the political compromise made by Augustus in 23 b.c.e. ?

A) He stopped dominating the position of consul, becoming a proconsul and tribune instead.
B) He voluntarily relinquished his option of veto in the Senate.
C) He agreed to maintain control of the legions only in Spain, Gaul, and Syria, and allowed the senate control of all others.
D) He purposely refused the title of praetor to alleviate the worries of senators that he would become like Sulla.
E) He offered to resign from all offices since he had stabilized the Republic.

Question 16

Which of the following metals was the basis for the Roman coinage system?

A) Platinum
B) Gold
C) Silver
D) Copper
E) Lead

Question 17

What was the main goal of Romanization?

A) To defend the empire against foreign invasion
B) To extend Roman culture throughout the empire
C) To ensure all citizens adhered to the Imperial cult
D) To wipe out Christianity
E) To promote Roman goods and trade with the East

Question 18

If an emperor died without a successor, who was most likely to choose a new emperor?

A) The Senate
B) The army
C) The consul and tribune
D) The previous emperor's widow
E) The censor in the Senate

Question 19

Who was the emperor who granted citizenship to everyone except slaves in 212 c.e. ?

A) Constantine
B) Caligula
C) Caracalla
D) Diocletian
E) Domition

Question 20

The two factors that bound Roman society together were ______________.

A) reverence for the law and importance of the family
B) speaking Latin and deifying the emperors
C) maintaining the Senate and the army
D) Roman citizenship and urban life
E) the censorum and the imperium

Question 21

Informants who were paid with the property of the people they accused were called ______________.

A) donatives
B) delators
C) jurists
D) coloni
E) prefects

Question 22

What was the motivation to push for education in the later Roman Empire?

A) The desire to counteract Christianity's teachings
B) The thirst for Graeco-Roman cultural assimilation
C) The vastly cosmopolitan world with its many different intellectual possibilities
D) The need for educated civil servants
E) Augustus Caesar's mass demobilization of the army

Question 23

What term best characterizes literature of the Silver Age in Rome?

A) Conservative
B) Fantastical
C) Practical
D) Philosophical
E) Fictional

Question 24

One of the most popular philosophies in the Roman world among the ruling class was ______________.

A) skepticism
B) stoicism
C) cynicism
D) epicurianism
E) sophism

Question 25

Latifundia were worked on in the second century by ______________.

A) slaves
B) soldier-farmers
C) tenant farmers
D) day laborers
E) extended family units

Question 26

The city that was destroyed by a volcanic eruption in 79 c.e. was ______________.

A) Lyons
B) Pompeii
C) Numidia
D) Merida
E) Rome

Question 27

The primary source of information regarding the life of Jesus of Nazareth, as written in the New Testament, comes from ______________.

A) the Gospels
B) the Acts of the Apostles
C) Revelations
D) Paul's Letter to the Corinthians
E) oral tradition

Question 28

Cities within the empire provided entertainment in all of the following ways except ______________.

A) theatrical performances
B) circuses
C) athletic competitions
D) gladiatorial games
E) religious retreats

Question 29

One of the major contributors to a universal bond among Jews was ______________.

A) direction from the new Sanhedrin
B) study based around the Talmud
C) the guidelines of Halakha
D) a widespread diaspora within the empire that allowed vast networks
E) Roman economic and diplomatic connections to the Parthian Empire

Question 30

All of the following were associated with the Silver Age of Latin Literature except ______________.

A) Tacitus
B) Ptolemy of Alexandria
C) Galen of Pergamum
D) Pliny the Elder
E) Septimus Severus

Question 31

For most Romans, participation in the imperial cult was considered ______________.

A) a political act
B) an essential part of religious worship
C) one more god in a polytheistic culture
D) blasphemy
E) None of these.

Question 32

Most grain grown for trade within the empire was transported on a grain fleet that came from ______________.

A) Alexandria
B) Syria
C) Marseilles
D) Carthage
E) Spain

Question 33

Private religion in Rome included all of the following except ______________.

A) mystery cults
B) magic
C) astrology
D) horoscopes for the emperor
E) philosophy

Question 34

Which of the following groups best exemplifies active resistance to Roman cultural assimilation?

A) Celts
B) Germans
C) Jews
D) Polytheists
E) Greeks

Question 35

Most religions within the empire were ______________.

A) monotheistic
B) polytheistic
C) agnostic
D) focused on the imperial cult
E) henotheistic

Question 36

The comprehensive guide to Jewish life around 200 c.e. was known as the ______________.

A) Tanakh
B) Mishrah
C) Talmud
D) Kethevim
E) Halakha

Question 37

Jesus's teaching emphasized a new covenant based on ______________.

A) revenge
B) brotherhood
C) equality
D) grace
E) rebellion

Question 38

Paul was later able to avoid crucifixion as his death sentence because he ______________.

A) was a delator
B) recanted his conversion
C) was a Roman citizen
D) was made a public example
E) was of noble birth

Question 39

Who sentenced Jesus to death?

A) King Herod
B) The Sanhedrin
C) The Senate
D) The Emperor
E) The prefect of Judaea

Question 40

Which emperor attempted to make the Unconquered Sun as the main god of the Roman Empire?

A) Augustus
B) Caligula
C) Hadrian
D) Aurelian
E) Domitian

Question 41

Discuss Augustus Caesar's successes and failures, and his place in history.

Question 42

How was martyrdom used to expand Christianity?

Question 43

Christianity prospered in urban areas for all of these reasons except ______________.

A) There was a large enough population to find converts.
B) There were diverse peoples who were dissatisfied with Roman religion.
C) There were Jewish communities who were predisposed to conversion.
D) It was easier to hide covert religious activities in more populous areas.
E) There was significant anti-Semitism in the more rural areas.

Question 44

How did the rule of Severus change from previous emperors?

A) He eliminated rivals for power and exiled them to far-flung provinces.
B) He appointed military commanders as proconsuls to ensure loyalty of both administrators and military.
C) He granted citizenship to the areas he conquered to quell violence.
D) He launched a war against the Celtic tribes in the north.
E) He abandoned the pretense of sharing power with the Senate.

Question 45

Describe the method of and problems with the transfer of power following Augustus' death.

Question 46

What was the relationship between Christianity and the Roman Empire?

Question 47

Discuss the Roman Peace and its impact on the empire.

Question 48

What led to the decline of the Roman Empire?

Question 49

Which emperor defeated Queen Zenobia and was nicknamed the "restorer of the world"?

A) Augustus
B) Trajan
C) Septimus Severus
D) Aurelian
E) Tiberius

Question 50

What was the role of the Roman Senate during the principate and period of decline?

Question 51

Why did the Roman army fall out of control in the third century?

A) Their salaries became worthless with debased coinage.
B) They would overthrow an emperor to get a donative from a new one.
C) They declared their commanders as emperors.
D) They would march on Rome to force the Senate to choose their candidate.
E) All of these.

Question 52

The worst punishment that could be inflicted on Christians was ______________.

A) execution by crucifixion
B) forced participation in the imperial cult
C) expulsion from the Christian community
D) exclusion from taking communion
E) condemnation in church

Question 53

Why did the emperors debase the coinage in the third century?

A) The Senate had to be bought off.
B) The army had received raises that the treasury could not afford.
C) There was a trade imbalance with India.
D) Because of an outbreak of plague, there was less money collected in taxes.
E) The emperors were redirecting the wealth to their own amici .

Question 54

To meet the need for enlistment in the army, what actions were taken?

A) Soldiers must provide their own equipment.
B) Soldiers were hired from Barbarian units.
C) Soldiers need only serve for ten years in order to receive land allocations.
D) Slaves could earn freedom for serving in the military.
E) Women were allowed to serve in non-combat positions.

Question 55

Describe the types of and role of slavery in the Roman empire.

Question 56

The death of Decius while fighting invaders was seen by Christians as ______________.

A) punishment by God
B) the first significant victory for the Goths
C) a sign that the Roman Empire needed to reconstitute a large army
D) an indication that the Roman Empire should extend citizenship to barbarians to obtain peace
E) None of these.

Question 57

Who did not pose a military threat to the Roman Empire in the third century?

A) The Franks
B) The Huns
C) The Goths
D) The Alamanni
E) The Scythians

Question 58

The two earliest sacraments required of Christians were baptism and ______________.

A) marriage
B) communion
C) last rites
D) confession
E) confirmation

Question 59

Why was the support of the Roman Senate important to Augustus?

Question 60

Which emperor initiated the first Christian persecution in 64 c.e. ?

A) Trajan
B) Nero
C) Tiberius
D) Hadrian
E) Nerva

Question 61

Instructions: Please define the following key terms.
principate

Question 62

Instructions: Please define the following key terms.
Nero

Question 63

Roman trade routes were so expansive that they reached China.

Question 64

Cities, even in provinces, became the focal point for disseminating Roman civilization.

Question 65

Compare and contrast the Golden and the Silver Ages in Latin literature.

Question 66

Instructions: Please define the following key terms.
Roman Peace

Question 67

Instructions: Please define the following key terms.
Praetorian Guard

Question 68

Official court records of the trials of Christians sometimes served as the basis of later biographies.

Question 69

The reign of Emperor Antoninus was so uneventful that it is undocumented.

Question 70

Instructions: Please define the following key terms.
Romanization

Question 71

The Sanhedrin sentenced Jesus to death in a religious ceremony.

Question 72

How did Roman trade and other encounters with the non-Roman world affect the Roman Empire?

Question 73

The Aeneid , written by Virgil, describes the origins of Rome.

Question 74

The soldier emperors were responsible for the dissolution of the Roman Empire.

Question 75

Instructions: Please define the following key terms.
Aeneid

Question 76

Nero sacked Jerusalem and destroyed the Jewish Temple.

Question 77

Instructions: Please define the following key terms.
Augustus

Question 78

The highest ranking title in the Senate was princeps .

Question 79

Instructions: Please define the following key terms.
imperial cult

Question 80

Augustus Caesar supported the trade of prostitution because it raised revenue for the army through taxes.