Deck 9: Rome: City-State to Empire

Question 1

Phoenician culture influenced Italy through the great North African city-state of

A) Carthage.
B) Timbuktu.
C) Thebes.
D) Corinth.
E) Zama.

Answer 1

Carthage.

Question 2

The Romans finally defeated the Carthaginian general, Hannibal, by

A) using modern technology they had taken from the Etruscans.
B) invading Carthage, forcing him to return home.
C) controlling Sicily so that he could not get reinforcements.
D) taking charge of Sardinia, thus leading him to divide his forces.
E) forcing the Carthaginians completely out of Africa and Spain.

Answer 2

invading Carthage, forcing him to return home.

Question 3

Assess the strengths and weaknesses of Roman Republican society.

Answer 3

Answer not provided.

Question 4

The Romans seem to have viewed the Greeks as

A) rivals and defeated enemies.
B) democratic role-models.
C) self-indulgent degenerates.
D) culturally superior to themselves.
E) their equals in warfare.

Question 5

Through a series of military conflicts, the city-state of Rome eventually came to control

A) Sicily and the part of the peninsula from Rome southward.
B) the entire northern part of the peninsula.
C) the west coast of Italy.
D) Italy's good farmland.
E) virtually the entire Italian peninsula.

Question 6

A change that took place in Rome after the Punic Wars was that

A) military commanders came to be elected rather than appointed.
B) Rome developed a volunteer, professional army.
C) the Senate took firmer control of Rome and its military.
D) plebians began to join the military in large numbers.
E) members of the Senate took over military strategy.

Question 7

The actions of Marius led to

A) a professional, volunteer army that could be easily swayed.
B) mass transportation of slaves.
C) the allocation of state-owned land to soldiers.
D) greater military stability.
E) an extensive road-building program.

Question 8

An unusual aspect of the early Roman government was that

A) the General Assembly was made up entirely of plebians, or commoners.
B) the Roman bureaucracy voluntarily began to permit plebians to participate.
C) the Senate was less powerful than the General Assembly.
D) Two consuls ran the government together, taking turns as head of the military and head of the civil government.
E) both the Senate and the General Assembly had veto power over the consuls.

Question 9

The proportional population in early Republican Rome between patricians and plebians stood at around

A) 20:80 percent.
B) 50:50 percent.
C) 10:90 percent.
D) 25:75 percent.
E) 40:60 percent.

Question 10

Describe and discuss the reforms initiated by Augustus Caesar. Which would you consider most significant? How?

Question 11

Roman sources, which may or may not be accurate, assert that they were able to defeat the Etruscans because

A) the Etruscans would not accept the concept of a monarchy.
B) the Etruscans enjoyed life too much to accept the training, fighting, and dying required by sustained warfare.
C) the Etruscans actually admired Roman culture and were ready to become acculturated to it.
D) they had superior weapons to those of the Etruscans.
E) Etruscan kingship went into a sharp decline that left the people helpless.

Question 12

What reform did Augustus initiate in military matters?

A) He reduced military service time to ten years.
B) He expanded Rome's borders.
C) He introduced the use of the phalanx.
D) He cut the size of the army in half.
E) He enhanced the army's role in politics.

Question 13

After the passage of the Hortensian law, the Roman community

A) achieved total social democracy.
B) remained essentially democratic in structure for a time.
C) saw many poverty-stricken ex-farmers migrating into the city.
D) granted Italians partial citizenship rights.
E) became an autocracy.

Question 14

The tribunes, who numbered about ten, were

A) the conscience of the Senate.
B) parliamentarians for the General Assembly.
C) the main representatives of the plebians.
D) originally tax assessors.
E) representatives of the patricians.

Question 15

To what extent was Rome molded by the Etruscans? By the Greeks? By the Phoenicians? Evaluate the relative significance of the contributions of each group.

Question 16

Describe the people who followed Augustus Caesar. Evaluate their strengths and weaknesses.

Question 17

What forces propelled Rome's expansion from city-state to Mediterranean superpower? What were the major consequences of the expansion?

Question 18

In which of these ways did the Romans exhibit their pragmatism and flexibility?

A) Allowing their soldiers to adopt different religions
B) Incorporating conquered peoples into their military to assure they had strong numbers
C) Taking a large number of defeated peoples back to Rome to serve as manual laborers.
D) Permitting full citizenship to certain conquered peoples, thereby allowing those people to feel a deep affinity for their new leaders
E) Encouraging their soldiers to marry young women from the conquered groups.

Question 19

The First Punic War broke out over the issue of

A) dominance over Spain.
B) control of the Alps.
C) control of the Mediterranean.
D) Latin revolts.
E) control over Sicily.

Question 20

Describe the major elements of early Roman culture. In what respects did it derive and\or differ from that of the Greeks?

Question 21

When conquered by Rome, the upper classes of Italy and Greece were encouraged to integrate themselves into becoming ____________________.

Question 22

Of the many Roman contributions that have affected modern life, the greatest was in the area of

A) the arts.
B) law.
C) architecture.
D) business and trade.
E) religion.

Question 23

In the western regions conquered by Rome, the people would most likely have described themselves as

A) fairly content.
B) serfs.
C) wanted only for their tax contributions.
D) badly mistreated.
E) for the most part ignored.

Question 24

Julius Caesar is famous for

A) changing France's form of government after he conquered the region.
B) becoming dictator with the initial support of the Senate.
C) being murdered by senators who feared his dictatorial rule.
D) adopting Octavian and supporting his ideas to re-form a republic.
E) winning the battle of Actium.

Question 25

The decisive battle of the Punic Wars was the Roman victory at ____________________ in 202 B.C.E.

Question 26

The Stoic philosopher Seneca was distinguished in his writing by a new note of

A) pessimism.
B) pragmatism.
C) humane compassion.
D) optimism.
E) detached indifference.

Question 27

Originally, the plebians were represented in government by the ____________________ ____________________, and the patricians by the ____________________.

Question 28

The languages that served as the cultural common denominators during the heyday of Rome were

A) Latin and Arabic.
B) Latin and Italian.
C) Greek and Italian.
D) Latin and Greek.
E) Latin and Phoenician.

Question 29

It can most accurately be said that women in Roman society

A) were never given professional employment.
B) worked in all trades to some extent.
C) worked in all trades not requiring heavy labor.
D) were excluded from religious life.
E) were accepted as equals in all trades.

Question 30

The Romans seem to have been the most original and innovative in

A) law and administration.
B) science.
C) mathematics.
D) religion and philosophy.
E) drama.

Question 31

The outstanding Carthaginian general whose march across the Alps nearly destroyed Rome was ____________________.

Question 32

Perhaps the most important single triumph of the Romans in the plastic and pictorial arts was in

A) portrait sculpture.
B) landscape painting.
C) enamels.
D) equestrian statues.
E) water fountains.

Question 33

A large proportion of Roman slaves and prostitutes originated as

A) Christian captives.
B) imprisoned barbarians.
C) bankrupt peasants.
D) abandoned babies.
E) orphaned children.

Question 34

After changing his name to Augustus Caesar, Octavian

A) disbanded the Senate and called for new elections.
B) quietly removed most of the Senate's powers.
C) took direct control of the army, which he reduced by half.
D) became consul for life.
E) turned Rome into a successful constitutional monarchy.

Question 35

One unique aspect of the Pax Romana was its

A) support for the arts.
B) brevity.
C) special consideration given to the Roman citizens.
D) extensive road system financed by taxes.
E) set of common laws that were upheld in a number of places that Rome conquered.

Question 36

Rome's new urban proletariat

A) took over the jobs formerly held by the Senators.
B) had been forced off their lands and into the cities.
C) found it difficult to adjust to non-military life.
D) sold their labor as their only source of income.
E) began to vote more independently as time went on.

Question 37

Religious practices during the Roman Empire could best be described as

A) rigidly proscribed.
B) eclectic and accepting.
C) continually questioning the meaning of life.
D) unimportant to most people.
E) centered almost entirely on the mystery religions.

Question 38

The religious convictions of the Romans centered on duty to

A) the state and the local tribunes.
B) the family.
C) the gods.
D) their neighbors.
E) the state and the family.

Question 39

Virgil's masterpiece, an epic about the founding of Rome, was

A) Meditations .
B) History of Rome .
C) The Aeneid .
D) On the Nature of Things .
E) The Iliad .

Question 40

In actuality, the solutions Augustus used to care for the poor, such as providing grain and oil when needed, would today cause Rome to be viewed as a type of

A) commune.
B) utopian society.
C) welfare state.
D) "Great Society."
E) communist regime.

Question 41

The chief representatives of the populace who originally defended the interest of common Roman citizens were the ____________________,

Question 42

After the battle of Zama, Carthage was forced to give up most of its holdings in ____________________ and ____________________.

Question 43

Roman philosophy was built almost entirely on ____________________ models.

Question 44

Augustus Caesar preferred to be called "princeps," which meant ____________________ ____________________.

Question 45

Members of the proletariat were those who owned and could sell only their ____________________ ____________________.

Question 46

The ____________________ ____________________ the consuls had over each other is indicative of the early Roman fear of permanent dictatorship.