Question 1

How did a Hellenistic king increase Roman power in 133 B.C.E.?

Accepted Answer

A)   By offering his daughter as bride to the then-consul Scipio Africanus
B)   By bequeathing his entire Asia Minor kingdom to Rome
C)   By sending numerous legions to aid Rome in the Punic Wars against Carthage
D)   By quelling the rebellious Greeks while Rome fought the Punic Wars

Question 2

With regard to the Second Punic War, and the outcome at Cannae in particular, one could call Hannibal the general who won the battle but lost the war. Explain.

Accepted Answer

Answer would ideally include the followi...

Question 3

Concerns about national security and a desire for wealth led the Romans to

Accepted Answer

A)   undertake expansionist campaigns against their neighbors.
B)   arrange foreign marriages in the hope of creating ties with their neighbors.
C)   negotiate defensive treaties with all of Rome's major trading partners.
D)   establish temples to all the major gods of the most powerful foreign nations.

Question 4

How did many of the landless poor in the Roman countryside seek to better their condition in the second century B.C.E.?

Accepted Answer

A)   They emigrated abroad, taking advantages of the opportunities opened up by Roman conquests throughout the Mediterranean.
B)   They attacked the landed estates of the wealthy patricians in the countryside and burned down houses and crops.
C)   They left the countryside altogether and resettled in Rome.
D)   They helped lead slave revolts in an effort to topple the republic.

Question 5

What did Roman morality primarily emphasize?

Accepted Answer

A)   A personal relationship with the gods
B)   Virtue, faithfulness, and respect
C)   Power, status, and wealth
D)   Democracy, equality, and generosity

Question 6

Patria potestas referred to the right of the father to hold formal power over which of the following?

Accepted Answer

A)   His children and his slaves
B)   His wife and children
C)   His wife and her family
D)   His wife and children and his slaves

Question 7

What was the primary function of the gods in Roman religion?

Accepted Answer

A)   To judge each Roman as either fit or unfit for a happy afterlife
B)   To guard Rome's safety and prosperity
C)   To serve as models of proper and virtuous behavior
D)   To maintain the power of the mos maiorum

Question 8

Why did the Roman aristocrats create a republican system of government and not a monarchy?

Accepted Answer

A)   They were committed to a government in which all citizens were participants.
B)   They distrusted eastern Mediterranean empires such as the Persian Empire and wanted to avoid emulating them in any way.
C)   They had come to believe that it was necessary to share power between adult male citizens.
D)   They had learned from Greek political theorists about the evils and abuses of monarchy.

Question 9

To consolidate its power on the Italian peninsula, republican Rome often required conquered neighboring peoples to

Accepted Answer

A)   pay only moderate taxes.
B)   become Roman citizens and serve in the Roman army.
C)   provide military aid in times of war.
D)   swear an oath of loyalty to Rome or else withdraw by crossing the Alps.

Question 10

How did Gaius Marius's military conquests and election as consul represent a turning point in the Roman republic?

Accepted Answer

A)   He was the first consul to have openly supported the Gracchus brothers in their quest for land reform.
B)   He came from the equites class and not the patrician class, and his armies were more loyal to him than to the republic.
C)   He was the first politician to urge the assassination of rival politicians.
D)   He gave the plunder from his conquests to Julius Caesar, who used it to seize power.

Question 11

What did the term plebiscites originally refer to?

Accepted Answer

A)   The geographical location of the Plebeian Assembly
B)   Resolutions passed by the Plebeian Assembly
C)   The powers invested in the three Roman assemblies
D)   Resolutions approved by a direct popular vote of all Roman citizens

Question 12

What did the Roman generals Sulla (c. 138-78 B.C.E.) , Pompey (106-48 B.C.E.) , and Julius Caesar (100-44 B.C.E.)  have in common?

Accepted Answer

A)   Respect for Rome's republican traditions of loyal public service and incorruptibility, despite the temptations created by the plunder of war
B)   An interest in destroying any remaining distinctions between patricians and plebeians in the army
C)   A willingness to embroil Rome in civil wars to secure their own personal wealth and power
D)   The ability to bring Romans together through the power of their oratory and their personal example

Question 13

Which of the following subjects was considered most important for an elite Roman boy's education and preparation for adulthood?

Accepted Answer

A)   Military training
B)   Philosophy
C)   Management skills
D)   Rhetoric

Question 14

The chastity of the Vestal Virgins was meant to

Accepted Answer

A)   prove their worthiness of the gods' attentions.
B)   symbolize the security and stability of the Roman family and by extension the Roman republic itself.
C)   signify the priestesses' proximity to divinity, making all Romans closer to the gods.
D)   preserve legends of virtuous females such as the Sabine women and the Roman matron Lucretia.

Question 15

Why did so many farmers sink into debt or lose their land in the latter years of the Roman republic?

Accepted Answer

A)   The small-scale farmers who made up the bulk of the army were taken away from their land and livestock by military campaigns for so long that their farms failed.
B)   As Roman political leaders increasingly depended on military conquest to maintain their power, they raised taxes on farmers in order to support the army.
C)   The devastation of a prolonged drought and damage to the land from wars and foreign armies left farmers unable to grow crops.
D)   Farmers hoped for easily gotten spoils while in military service and resisted returning to their farms.

Question 16

Why did Romans such as Cato in the second century B.C.E. distrust the influence of Greek ideas and culture on Rome?

Accepted Answer

A)   They despised Alexander the Great and his legacy of conquest and brutality.
B)   They scorned Greek culture as inferior to Roman culture.
C)   They feared that Romans would adopt the Greek deities, who had nothing in common with Roman deities.
D)   They believed that adopting Greek ways would weaken Roman power.

Question 17

Which of the following traits were highly esteemed in the early Roman republic (509-287 B.C.E.) ?

Accepted Answer

A)   Ingenuity and creativity
B)   Fidelity and perseverance
C)   Ambition and personal independence
D)   Egalitarianism and concern for the less fortunate

Question 18

Which of the following territories only came under Roman control between 133 B.C.E. and the death of Julius Caesar?
​
 ​

Accepted Answer

A)   Illyria
B)   Spain
C)   Gaul
D)   Macedonia

Question 19

Why did the Romans expand nearly continuously throughout the Mediterranean world until the first century B.C.E.? What factors enabled this expansion? Please detail the stages of Roman expansion in your response.

Accepted Answer

Answer would ideally include the followi...

Question 20

What was the most important of the Roman assemblies, in which plebeians outnumbered patricians?

Accepted Answer

A)   The Tribal Assembly
B)   The Centuriate Assembly
C)   The Plebeian Assembly
D)   The Roman Assembly

Exam 5: The Rise of Rome and Its Republic, 753-44 B.C.E

Which of the following traits were highly esteemed in the early Roman republic (509-287 B.C.E.) ?

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

To consolidate its power on the Italian peninsula, republican Rome often required conquered neighboring peoples to

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

What did the term plebiscites originally refer to?

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

With regard to the Second Punic War, and the outcome at Cannae in particular, one could call Hannibal the general who won the battle but lost the war. Explain.

Correct AnswerverifiedAnswer would ideally include the followi...View AnswerShow Answer

Which of the following subjects was considered most important for an elite Roman boy's education and preparation for adulthood?

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

Why did the Roman aristocrats create a republican system of government and not a monarchy?

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

What was the primary function of the gods in Roman religion?

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

Why did the Romans expand nearly continuously throughout the Mediterranean world until the first century B.C.E.? What factors enabled this expansion? Please detail the stages of Roman expansion in your response.

Correct AnswerverifiedAnswer would ideally include the followi...View AnswerShow Answer

How did a Hellenistic king increase Roman power in 133 B.C.E.?

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

Why did so many farmers sink into debt or lose their land in the latter years of the Roman republic?

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Which of the following territories only came under Roman control between 133 B.C.E. and the death of Julius Caesar? ​ ​

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Patria potestas referred to the right of the father to hold formal power over which of the following?

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How did Gaius Marius's military conquests and election as consul represent a turning point in the Roman republic?

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

What did the Roman generals Sulla (c. 138-78 B.C.E.) , Pompey (106-48 B.C.E.) , and Julius Caesar (100-44 B.C.E.) have in common?

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

What was the most important of the Roman assemblies, in which plebeians outnumbered patricians?

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

The chastity of the Vestal Virgins was meant to

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

What did Roman morality primarily emphasize?

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

How did many of the landless poor in the Roman countryside seek to better their condition in the second century B.C.E.?

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

Concerns about national security and a desire for wealth led the Romans to

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

Why did Romans such as Cato in the second century B.C.E. distrust the influence of Greek ideas and culture on Rome?

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

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Answer would ideally include the followi...
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Answer would ideally include the followi...
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Which of the following territories only came under Roman control between 133 B.C.E. and the death of Julius Caesar?

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