Deck 6: Rome: Urban Life and Imperial Majesty

Question 1

According to the Roman poet Virgil,the Romans trace their origins to

A)the Spartans.
B)the Egyptians.
C)the Trojans.
D)the Etruscans.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

The Colosseum's vaulted arches rely on the Roman perfection of

A)the aqueduct.
B)the Tuscan column.
C)firing terra cotta.
D)concrete.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

In addressing what he considered to be a crisis of the demise of family life in Rome,Augustus did all of the following EXCEPT

A)criminalize slavery.
B)criminalize adultery.
C)require widows to remarry.
D)fiscally punish childless adults.

Answer 3

A

Question 4

The Ara Pacis Augustae (Altar of Augustan Peace)preeminently celebrates

A)Augustus's coronation.
B)victory over Carthage.
C)Vespa,goddess of the hearth.
D)family.

Question 5

Augustus permanently banished the poet Ovid from Rome for

A)stealing kisses from Augustus's daughter,Julia.
B)writing Ars Amatoria,a guidebook for having affairs.
C)living in open disregard of Augustus's family-centered policies.
D)parodying Virgil's epic in his earliest work,the Amores.

Question 6

Second- and first-century BCE Romans portrayed their ancestors with verism to

A)frighten their youth into respect.
B)contrast foolish youthful optimism against ambition.
C)show the wisdom and experience of age.
D)emphasize the Roman virtue of piety.

Question 7

By the fifth century BCE,the Etruscans had become known throughout the Mediterranean for their

A)skill as sculptors.
B)superior olive oil.
C)shipbuilding techniques.
D)excellence in architecture.

Question 8

As early as the eighth century BCE,the Greeks colonized

A)the area around the present-day city of Milan.
B)the southern coastal regions of the Italian peninsula.
C)the area immediately surrounding Rome.
D)the present-day Italian region of Tuscany.

Question 9

According to the Etruscan founding myth,why was Rome named after Romulus,not his twin brother Remus?

A)Remus died while in the she-wolf's care.
B)Romulus gave the gods a greater offering.
C)Remus abandoned the city.
D)Romulus killed Remus and became Rome's first king.

Question 10

After the Romans expelled the Etruscan monarchy in 510 BCE,they instituted a

A)dictatorship.
B)republic.
C)monarchy.
D)democracy.

Question 11

Etruscan women seem to have had a status

A)similar to that of slaves.
B)significantly lower than men but higher than slaves.
C)equal to men.
D)superior to men.

Question 12

Why did Rome have multiple forums?

A)The overcrowded city needed places for the people to congregate.
B)Emperors competed with their predecessors to build the grandest forums.
C)Each major Roman god required a temple surrounded by a forum.
D)Augustus decreed that each of Rome's seven hills be crowned with a forum.

Question 13

In exchange for protection and assistance,the plebian owed the patrician

A)half of his income.
B)10 years of military service.
C)20 years of servitude.
D)total obedience.

Question 14

The Etruscan homeland,Etruria,was located in

A)the northernmost portion of present-day Italy.
B)the southern coastal portion of Italy.
C)Sicily.
D)the present-day Italian region of Tuscany.

Question 15

The Arch of Titus was constructed to

A)commemorate Titus's sack of the Second Temple of Jerusalem.
B)celebrate Titus's appointment as emperor.
C)serve as a gateway into the Colosseum.
D)provide structural support for Rome's largest aqueduct.

Question 16

In the sculpture Augustus of Primaporta,Cupid rides a dolphin at Augustus's feet to

A)establish Augustus as a kind and loving ruler.
B)show Augustus's divine descent from Venus.
C)emphasize Augustus's pietas to the gods.
D)portray Augustus as young and vigorous.

Question 17

A column in the Tuscan order differs from one in the Doric order in its

A)unfluted shaft.
B)geometric simplicity.
C)Inclusion of pedestal.
D)Inclusion of a capital.

Question 18

Roman culture traces its origins to the

A)Dorians and the Phoenicians.
B)Greeks and the Etruscans.
C)the Persians and the Etruscans.
D)the Egyptians and the Greeks.

Question 19

In Virgil's Aeneid,why must Aeneas leave Dido,causing her to commit suicide?

A)He has a wife to whom he must return.
B)As queen of Carthage,she is forbidden to marry a foreigner.
C)He owes a duty to the gods to continue on his journey.
D)She tells him to leave because the goddess Juno decreed so.

Question 20

Virgil composed the Aeneid to

A)provide Rome and Augustus with a suitably grand founding myth.
B)fulfill his state obligations as Rome's first poet laureate.
C)explain the enmity between Carthage and Rome.
D)celebrate Augustus's gift of farmland to veterans.

Question 21

Because of its vast orderly harmonious space,which structure can be said to mirror the Roman Empire itself?

A)the House of the Silver Wedding
B)the Baths of Caracalla
C)the Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine
D)the Pantheon

Question 22

Explore the ways in which its monumental architecture (the Colosseum,the Pantheon,the forums,and the baths)came to define Rome.

Question 23

Explain how the Ara Pacis Augustae and Augustus of Primaporta can be seen as works of propaganda.

Question 24

A theory about the Aeneid is that Virgil wrote it as an instruction manual for Augustus Caesar.If this idea is true,what do you think Virgil hoped the new emperor would learn from this work?

Question 25

The structure most clearly symbolically suggestive of male virility is

A)the dome.
B)the arch.
C)the ceremonial column.
D)the atrium.

Question 26

List and explain three examples of Etruscan influence on Roman culture.

Question 27

Consider the Roman concept of pietas as it can be applied to Roman literature and art.

Question 28

Compare the Roman insula with a domus,focusing on the ways the architecture emphasizes class distinctions.

Question 29

Why,by the end of the third century,were the Romans justified in feeling politically and culturally threatened by the Christians?

A)Christians made up nearly one-tenth of the empire's population.
B)Constantine was conspiring with the Christians to stage a coup.
C)Christian churches were outnumbering Roman temples in Rome.
D)Christians were staging terrorist acts against Roman institutions.

Question 30

In 410 CE,Rome was sacked by the

A)Persians.
B)Carthaginians.
C)Visigoths.
D)Etruscans.

Question 31

Identify and explain three factors that lead to the Roman Empire's decline in the fourth century CE.

Question 32

Why did the Roman baths come to signal a decline in values and morals?

A)Prostitutes established their businesses in them.
B)They came to symbolize material excess.
C)They distracted Romans from the affairs of the state.
D)They symbolized waste of labor and precious water.