Deck 5: The Roman Republic

Question 1

The result of the Third Punic War was which of the following?

A)An alliance between Rome and Carthage
B)The complete destruction and subjugation of Carthage
C)The loss of Rome's mastery of the Mediterranean Sea

Answer 1

The complete destruction and subjugation of Carthage

Question 2

Which of the following best describes Rome's campaigns against Greek city-states in southern Italy?

A)Rome had to fight the soldiers of King Pyrrhus, sent against them by the Greeks.
B)Rome faced large, well-trained armies from the Greek colonies.
C)Rome completely destroyed all resistance so it disbanded its military.

Answer 2

Rome had to fight the soldiers of King Pyrrhus, sent against them by the Greeks.

Question 3

What lesson was Livy's account of Cincinnatus used to teach?

A)It was used to teach the Roman people the treachery of tyrants.
B)It recounted the inseparable linkage of wealth and leadership abilities.
C)It demonstrated the virtues of duty and simplicity in Rome's leaders enabled Rome to survive in difficult times.

Answer 3

It demonstrated the virtues of duty and simplicity in Rome's leaders enabled Rome to survive in difficult times.

Question 4

Which of the following statements best applies to Roman education?

A)Foreigners were not allowed to become teachers.
B)Boys and girls were educated through a rigorous public school system borrowed from the Spartans.
C)The wealthy classes wanted training in Greek and mastery of rhetoric, or persuasive public speaking, for their children.

Question 5

Rome set a precedent for treating its vanquished foes after forming the Roman confederation by adopting which policy?

A)Forcing slave labor on the populace of the defeated cities
B)Offering its most favored allies full Roman citizenship, thus giving them a stake in successful Roman expansion
C)Slaughtering the citizens wholesale and selling the rest to pirates

Question 6

Rome was established in the first millennium B.C.E. in which location?

A)On the plain of Latium
B)On the river Danube
C)On the coast of the Aegean Sea

Question 7

At the Battle of Cannae, the Romans experienced which fate?

A)They suffered a devastating defeat by Hannibal.
B)They defeated the army of Hannibal.
C)They won a great naval victory, giving them control of the Straits of Messana.

Question 8

During the Second Punic War, Carthage followed which of the following policies?

A)They tried to force a naval war in the Mediterranean as a precursor to invasion of Italy.
B)They precipitated the war by encroaching on Roman Gaul.
C)They invaded and pillaged Rome's home territories by crossing the Alps.

Question 9

Which of the following statements about marriage best captures the realities for Roman women by the first century B.C.E.?

A)They had legal independence inside their marriages.
B)They remained legally the property of their fathers.
C)They were legally controlled by their husbands.

Question 10

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

A)The removal of patricians from civic government
B)The establishment of the death penalty for treason against the state
C)The ruling that all plebiscita passed by the plebeian assembly had the force of law and were binding even upon the patricians

Question 11

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

A)Allying with the Etruscans against Rome
B)The formation of popular assemblies to lobby for more political reforms
C)Open civil war

Question 12

In Roman household cults, Janus was worshipped as which of the following?

A)The spirit of the doorway
B)The goodness of the harvest
C)The spirit of the storehouse

Question 13

For the Romans, Italy's geography had what effect?

A)It provided little productive land for agriculture.
B)It divided the peninsula into small isolated communities.
C)It made Rome a natural crossroads and an area easy to defend.

Question 14

Which of the following was a result of the First Punic War?

A)The Carthaginians were forced to withdraw from Spain.
B)The Carthaginians were forced to withdraw from Sicily and pay an indemnity to Rome.
C)Sicily gained its independence from both Rome and Carthage.

Question 15

The college of augurs existed for what reason?

A)To keep wine used in religious ceremonies pure
B)To keep the Roman supply of water fresh and available
C)To interpret auspices signs sent to humans by the gods

Question 16

Which of the following is NOT true of the centuriate assembly?

A)It rivaled the Roman senate for power.
B)It was the Roman army functioning in its political role.
C)It was organized by classes based on wealth.

Question 17

By the later Republic, Roman slaves could best be described how?

A)They often worked on the Roman latifundia.
B)They always received humane treatment from their owners.
C)They never received humane treatment from their owners.

Question 18

What was the significance of Scipio Africanus in the Second Punic War?

A)He impeded Hannibal's advance in Italy through delaying tactics.
B)He expelled the Carthaginians from Spain and later won the decisive Battle of Zama.
C)He engineered a valuable alliance with the Gauls.

Question 19

The immediate cause of the First Punic War was which of the following?

A)Rome sending an army to Sicily
B)Roman colonization in North Africa
C)Carthaginian expansion along the Spanish and Italian coasts

Question 20

The Twelve Tables are best described how?

A)They were the first formal codification of Roman law and customs.
B)They were to record and inspire a new religious cult in Rome.
C)They referred to the arts of the Roman festival celebrating spring's arrival.

Question 21

Julius Caesar is best known for which of the following?

A)He led military commands in Spain and especially Gaul that enhanced his popularity.
B)He dissolved the Senate while he was dictator for life.
C)He was assassinated for his strong beliefs in republican institutions.

Question 22

Describe the differences between Rome's social orders.

Question 23

All of the following were results of the Roman civil wars of 43-30 B.C.E. EXCEPT which?

A)The Second Triumvirate's defeat of Pompey at the Battle of Actium.
B)The defeat of Caesar's assassins.
C)The demise of republican institutions.

Question 24

Describe the main points of Rome's origin myths.

Question 25

Which one of the following innovations enabled Romans to erect giant amphitheaters, public baths, and high-rise tenement buildings?

A)Steel
B)Concrete
C)Calculus

Question 26

Tiberius Gracchus ran for tribune in 133 B.C.E. on which program?

A)Punishing corrupt Roman officials in the provinces
B)Providing farms to landless farmers
C)Freeing the slaves

Question 27

A Roman dictator is best described how?

A)He was the spokesman for the plebeian order.
B)He exercised unlimited power for a period of usually two years.
C)He was a temporary executive during the period of the Republic.

Question 28

Optimates in the late Roman republic wanted to maintain the privileges of which group?

A)Roman soldiers
B)Nobiles
C)Plebeians

Question 29

The reforms of Gaius and Tiberius Gracchus had what effect?

A)They helped create a system of absolute political domination by the optimates.
B)They eliminated the position of tribune of the plebs.
C)They resulted in further instability and violence as they polarized various social groups.

Question 30

The equites are best described how?

A)They were a wealthy and ambitious class of Romans who appeared in the late Republic.
B)They were a new military order created by Caesar.
C)They competed with the optimates for power in the Roman senate.

Question 31

Which of the following best describes Sulla's legacy and importance?

A)He employed his personal army in political disputes, paving the way toward Roman civil war.
B)He became the first Roman general to use siege engines.
C)He prevented civil war by arbitrating disputes between Marius and Gaius.

Question 32

Romans did not readily accept any of the following Greek philosophies except which?

A)Stoicism, because of its emphasis on virtue and duty
B)Neoplatonism, because of its concern for ideal beauty
C)Epicureanism, because of its emphasis on the good life

Question 33

The First Triumvirate was a political alliance between Crassus, Julius Caesar, and whom?

A)Pompey
B)Cicero
C)Lepidus

Question 34

How did the role of the popular assemblies change during the early republic?

Question 35

Among the dangerous military innovations of Marius threatening the Republic was which of the following?

A)His use of Greek mercenaries
B)His recruitment of destitute volunteers who swore an oath of allegiance only to him
C)His theft the state treasury's tax revenues to buy weapons

Question 36

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

A)Etruscans
B)Gauls
C)Samnites

Question 37

Describe the most important political offices and institutions of the early Roman republic.

Question 38

How did geography affect human settlement in ancient Italy?

Question 39

Describe Etruscan society and politics.

Question 40

By crossing the Rubicon, Caesar did which of the following?

A)Disobeyed the direct orders of the Senate.
B)Made a compromise with Pompey.
C)Signaled he had no desire to start a civil war.

Question 41

What form did Roman reactions against Greek culture take?

Question 42

How did Roman contact with the Greek world affect Roman culture?

Question 43

Which of the following statements about Roman names is correct?

A)They were mostly Greek.
B)They usually included the name of a god.
C)They emphasized the importance of family lineage.

Question 44

What made Rome's geographic position so advantageous?

Question 45

Why did the Gracchi's reforms anger so many in Rome?

Question 46

Why did Caesar refuse to give up his command in 49 B.C.E.?

Question 47

Describe Roman family life during the late Republic.

Question 48

How did Rome unify the Italian peninsula without completely conquering it?

Question 49

How did Roman expansion lead to increased levels of slavery in Roman society?

Question 50

How did Rome's common people end up winning the right to participate as equals in the Roman republic?

Question 51

Describe the motivations for the First Punic War.

Question 52

Describe the outcome of the Second Punic War.

Question 53

The Struggle of the Orders is best described how?

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

Question 54

Describe early Roman expansion in ancient Italy.

Question 55

Describe the role of citizenship in Roman expansion in Italy.

Question 56

What motivations lay behind Roman expansion?

Question 57

What was the significance of Marius's reforms?

Question 58

What effect did Etruscan settlement have on the development of ancient Italy?

Question 59

Describe Roman religion.

Question 60

Describe the differences between the optimates and the populares.

Question 61

What connections were there between Roman religion and Roman politics?

Question 62

In what ways did Greek culture forever change Roman culture? In what way were they already similar?

Question 63

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

A)Consuls
B)Quaestors
C)Proconsuls and proprietors

Question 64

Who benefitted the most from Roman expansion? Who benefited the least? To what extent does this explain Roman expansionist policies?

Question 65

How did Rome's foreign policy toward Carthage change between the First, Second, and Third Punic Wars? What was the result?

Question 66

How important were the use of alliances and the offer of citizenship to Roman expansion? What drawbacks did either have?

Question 67

How did Romans use elements of Greek legal thought to produce legal principles on which they based their imperial rule?

Question 68

Imperium is best described how?

A)It was the duties that Roman citizens owed to the gods.
B)It was the power to command Roman citizens.
C)It was the right to collect taxes.

Question 69

Did Sulla's consulship make civil war inevitable? Why or why not?

Question 70

Which was the most important institution to the Roman republic, the consuls, the Senate, or the centuriate assembly? Why?

Question 71

The paterfamilias in Roman society was what?

A)A client to a patron or wealthy citizen
B)The oldest son in a family
C)The male head of the family

Question 72

Why were Marius's reforms and his subsequent term as consul so significant for Rome?

Question 73

The Roman senate played what role in Roman politics?

A)It was the chief legislative body of the Republic.
B)It could only advise the magistrates in legal matters.
C)It was the most important popular assembly.

Question 74

How was Caesar able to take control of the Roman world in the early 40s B.C.E.? Why was he assassinated, and what result did his assassination have?

Question 75

Did Romans intentionally pursue a policy of expansion or was expansion a by-product of Rome's search for security? What evidence supports your argument?

Question 76

Describe the differences between Homo erectus and Homo habilis.

Question 77

How did men's and women's experiences of Roman political life differ?