Deck 5: The Roman Republic

Question 1

The Greek historian Polybius described the Roman government in this fashion: "As for the Roman constitution, it had three elements, each of them possessing sovereign powers; and their respective share of power in the whole state had been regulated with such a scrupulous regard to equality and equilibrium, that no one could say for certain, not even a native, whether the constitution were an aristocracy or democracy or despotism." Is Polybius's description of the early Roman constitution an accurate one? Why or why not? Be specific.

Answer 1

Answers may vary.

Question 2

Compare and contrast Roman religion with the religion of the Greeks. How did its religion help Rome become such an important state?

Answer 2

Answers may vary.

Question 3

What social and economic problems plagued the late Roman Republic and led to its decline?

Answer 3

Answers may vary.

Question 4

What advantages and disadvantages did integration into Rome's empire offer conquered peoples?

Question 5

Talk about:
753 B.C.E.

Question 6

In the "struggle of the orders," what did the plebeians want, and what did they succeed in getting? Can it be said that Rome became a democracy because of this struggle? Why or why not?

Question 7

Talk about:
Latium

Question 8

Talk about:
fasces

Question 9

What were the causes and the results of the Punic Wars?

Question 10

Talk about:
Tiber River

Question 11

Compare and contrast the Roman family of the Republic with the Greek family of Periclean Athens. Can it be said that women had more rights and freedom in one of these societies than the other? Why or why not?

Question 12

Talk about:
dictator, praetors, quaestors, aediles, censors

Question 13

It has been said that Roman culture was not very original, only a copy of the Greek. Prove or disprove this idea.

Question 14

Talk about:
Romulus and Remus

Question 15

Which elements of Roman society and political culture were most innovative, and which were the product of Rome's contact with outside peoples and cultures?

Question 16

Talk about:
Etruscans

Question 17

Talk about:
The rape of Lucretia

Question 18

Was Julius Caesar a man of the common people, or was he a tyrant in the making?

Question 19

Discuss the role of the Senate, powerful generals, and politicians in the collapse of the Roman Republic.

Question 20

Talk about:
imperium

Question 21

Talk about:
Cincinnatus

Question 22

Talk about:
Pyrrhus and victory

Question 23

Talk about:
consuls

Question 24

Talk about:
patricians and plebeians

Question 25

Talk about:
clientage

Question 26

Talk about:
council of the plebs and plebiscita

Question 27

Talk about:
Hannibal

Question 28

Talk about:
Carthage and the Punic Wars

Question 29

Talk about:
Roman Senate

Question 30

Talk about:
Cato the Elder

Question 31

Talk about:
paterfamilias

Question 32

Talk about:
nomen, praenomen, gens, cognomen

Question 33

Talk about:
Struggle of the Orders

Question 34

Talk about:
tribunes of the plebs

Question 35

Talk about:
gentes

Question 36

Talk about:
Scipio Africanus and the Battle of Zama

Question 37

Talk about:
Twelve Tables

Question 38

Talk about:
centuriate assembly

Question 39

Talk about:
Roman citizenship

Question 40

Talk about:
Roman confederation

Question 41

Talk about:
Jupiter Optimus Maximus

Question 42

Talk about:
omens and colleges of pontiffs and augurs

Question 43

Talk about:
First Triumvirate

Question 44

Talk about:
Sulla

Question 45

Talk about:
Julius Caesar

Question 46

Talk about:
mos maiorum and pietas

Question 47

Talk about:
Gaul

Question 48

Talk about:
Vestal Virgins

Question 49

Talk about:
equites (equestrians) and nobiles

Question 50

Talk about:
Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus

Question 51

Talk about:
Crassus and Spartacus

Question 52

Talk about:
Plautus and Terence

Question 53

Talk about:
rhetoric

Question 54

Talk about:
Circus Maximus

Question 55

Talk about:
latifundia

Question 56

Talk about:
Cicero

Question 57

Talk about:
ius civile, ius gentium, and ius naturale

Question 58

Talk about:
optimates and populares

Question 59

Talk about:
Marius

Question 60

Talk about:
grammaticus, rhetoric, and the liberal arts

Question 61

As Rome expanded, it became Roman policy to govern the provinces with officials known as

A) consuls.
B) quaestors.
C) colonnae.
D) proconsuls and propraetors.
E) tribunes.

Question 62

Imperium was

A) the duties which Roman citizens owed to the gods.
B) the power to command Roman citizens.
C) the right to collect taxes.
D) the privileges reserved to patricians.
E) the name of Roman children's favorite board game.

Question 63

Rome was established in the first millennium B.C.E. on the

A) plain of Latium.
B) river Danube.
C) coast of the Aegean Sea.
D) foothills of the Alps.
E) toe of the Italian peninsula.

Question 64

Which of the following statements about Roman names is incorrect ?

A) Three names became common in the later Republic.
B) The praenomen was the forename or personal name.
C) The nomen was the hereditary family name.
D) The cognomen was the hereditary family name.
E) Women usually had one name, the feminine form of the father's nomen.

Question 65

The paterfamilias in Roman society was

A) a client to a patron or wealthy citizen.
B) the oldest son in a family.
C) an upper-class aristocrat.
D) a common person.
E) the male head of the family.

Question 66

The Twelve Tables

A) was the meeting place of the Roman Senate.
B) were to record and inspire a new religious cult in Rome.
C) referred to the arts of the Roman festival celebrating spring's arrival.
D) was the only place in Rome where patricians and plebeians could meet together.
E) Were the first formal codification of Roman law and customs.

Question 67

The Roman Dictator

A) was a temporary executive during the period of the Republic.
B) exercised unlimited power for a period of usually six months.
C) was responsible for getting Rome involved in the Punic Wars.
D) all the above
E) a and b

Question 68

In their struggle with the patricians, Roman plebeians employed which of the following tactics:

A) a physical withdrawal from the state undercutting its military manpower
B) the formation of popular assemblies to lobby for more political reforms
C) open civil war
D) assassination of political opponents
E) a and b

Question 69

For the Romans, Italy's geography

A) provided little productive land for agriculture.
B) divided the peninsula into small isolated communities.
C) made Rome a natural crossroads and an area easy to defend.
D) made the conquering of the Mediterranean a difficult task.
E) created the same difficult environment as in Greece, thus making political unity difficult.

Question 70

Roman traditionally associated the rape of Lucretia and its alleged consequences with

A) the end of the Etruscan domination of Rome.
B) the model of Roman womanhood and virtue.
C) the establishment of the era of the Republic.
D) the end of Rome's control by monarchs.
E) all of the above.

Question 71

The Roman Senate

A) was the chief legislative body of the Republic.
B) could only advise the magistrates in legal matters.
C) was the most important popular assembly.
D) saw its power wane by the third century B.C.E.
E) was the only body with total military authority.

Question 72

Talk about:
the Rubicon

Question 73

Talk about:
Sallust, Catullus, and Lucretius

Question 74

Talk about:
the Battle of Actium

Question 75

Talk about:
Second Triumvirate

Question 76

Talk about:
Mark Antony and Cleopatra

Question 77

The main achievement of the Hortensian law in Roman constitutional history was its

A) removal of patricians from civic government.
B) establishment of the death penalty for treason against the state.
C) ruling that all plebiscita passed by the plebeian assembly had the force of law and were binding even upon the patricians.
D) banishment of all Greeks law from the Roman legal system.
E) giving citizenship to non-Romans.

Question 78

The people to the north of Rome who apparently ruled Rome for a century and heavily influenced Roman urban culture were the

A) Ligurians.
B) Gauls.
C) Samnites.
D) Etruscans.
E) Dorians

Question 79

The Struggle of the Orders

A) was a violent conflict between Rome's citizens and their slaves.
B) was a violent struggle between the patricians and plebeians.
C) was a peaceful struggle between the patricians and plebeians, won completely by the patricians.
D) was a peaceful revolution in which the plebeians were completely victorious.
E) was a peaceful struggle which resulted in political compromise.

Question 80

Talk about:
Octavian