Deck 7: Rome and Its Empire

Question 1

Rome paralleled Greece in all of the following ways EXCEPT which of the following?

A) Economic structure
B) The ability to establish a long-lasting empire
C) Culture
D) Politics

Answer 1

The ability to establish a long-lasting empire

Question 2

Which North African city-state did the Romans twice defeat in the 3rd century BCE?

A) Athens
B) Sparta
C) Venice
D) Carthage

Answer 2

Carthage

Question 3

When did the people who became the Romans migrate to the Italian peninsula?

A) 2500 B.C.E.
B) 1000 B.C.E.
C) 1500 B.C.E.
D) 2000 B.C.E.

Answer 3

1000 B.C.E.

Question 4

The group that first ruled the Romans were the

A) Etruscans.
B) Aryans.
C) Harappans.
D) Varangians.

Question 5

The Roman aristocracy rebelled against Etruscan kings and expelled them around

A) 1000 B.C.E.
B) 550 B.C.E.
C) 510 B.C.E.
D) 476 C.E.

Question 6

Which of the following offices and institutions was NOT part of the Roman republic?

A) Senate
B) Consuls
C) Kings
D) Tribunes

Question 7

How were the two chief executives (consuls) chosen?

A) It was an inherited position.
B) They were direct successors to the two kings who had ruled previously.
C) One was chosen from each of the halves of the city of Rome.
D) They were elected by an annual assembly.

Question 8

In what way was the Roman republic similar to Greek political concepts?

A) The office of tribune was derived from Greek precedents.
B) Officers held their positions commonly for life.
C) The constitution balanced various interests, but relied heavily on the aristocracy.
D) The constitution was entirely democratic on the Athenian model, and featured election by lot.

Question 9

In what way did Roman society differ from the Greeks?

A) The Roman agricultural economy featured many large landholders.
B) The Romans did not depend on slavery.
C) There was only a very small urban population in Roman society.
D) The Romans emphasized clientage relationships between landlords and lesser citizens.

Question 10

In the process of military expansion, Rome?s chief rival in the western Mediterranean was

A) Syracuse.
B) the Germans.
C) Sparta.
D) Carthage.

Question 11

What were Rome?s conflicts with Carthage for control of the western Mediterranean called?

A) Macedonian Wars
B) Jugurthine Wars
C) Punic Wars
D) Propontine Wars

Question 12

Who was the great Carthaginian general during the Second Punic War?

A) Alexander the Great
B) Hannibal
C) Tiberius
D) Attila the Hun

Question 13

During the Republican era, what was the typical attitude of the Romans toward areas conquered outside of Italy?

A) Residents were made full citizens of Rome.
B) All residents were reduced to slavery.
C) Opponents of Roman rule were punished severely and there were repeated atrocities.
D) Treatment of conquered territories in the eastern Mediterranean was brutal, but treatment of those in the western Mediterranean resulted in grants of citizenship.

Question 14

Which of the following was NOT a result of the imperial expansion of the Roman republic?

A) New trade and wealth enriched the upper classes and opened a gulf between rich and poor.
B) It became increasingly difficult to manage Rome?s balanced republican constitution.
C) Slavery increased.
D) Central Italy became increasingly devoted to the commercial production of grain.

Question 15

One of the chief results of the change in the agricultural economy of the Roman republic following imperial expansion was

A) the increasing wealth of the small farmer.
B) the disappearance of slavery from the Italian peninsula.
C) the strengthening of the ties of clientage that existed in the countryside.
D) the migration of debt-ridden farmers into Rome, swelling the population to over 1 million.

Question 16

Which of the following political figures at the end of the Roman republic was NOT a general?

A) Tiberius Gracchus
B) Marius
C) Sulla
D) Pompey

Question 17

What was Marius?s chief contribution to the political conflict at the end of the republic?

A) He introduced a program of land redistribution.
B) He proposed extending citizenship to the Italian allies.
C) He began using paid volunteers in his armies.
D) He defeated Pompey and put an end to the republic.

Question 18

What opponent did Julius Caesar defeat in order to take control of the republic?

A) Gaius Gracchus
B) Sulla
C) Marius
D) Pompey

Question 19

Which of the following was NOT a change brought about during the rule of Julius Caesar?

A) The Senate was abolished.
B) Caesar brought more Italians and other provincials into politics at the expense of old Roman families.
C) Caesar was named dictator for life.
D) Caesar named many new officials and judges.

Question 20

After 13 years of civil war, who succeeded Julius Caesar?

A) Mark Anthony
B) Pompey
C) Octavian
D) Brutus

Question 21

Which of the following statements most accurately describes Cicero?

A) He was a radical politician who supported Julius Caesar and who argued for the destruction of the republic.
B) He was a conservative politician who favored retention of the republic.
C) Cicero argued strongly for the exclusion of Greek influences from Roman culture and literature.
D) Cicero supported Octavian and emerged as a major figure during the early Roman empire.

Question 22

What was the primary difference between Roman and Greek religion?

A) Roman religion featured monotheism in contrast to the Greek pantheon of gods.
B) The names of the gods and goddesses were changed.
C) Greek gods and goddesses were more likely to get involved in the lives of mortals.
D) Greek religion featured monotheism in contrast to the Roman pantheon of gods.

Question 23

What was the major difference between Roman and Greek architectural forms?

A) Rome abandoned monumental architecture almost entirely for buildings of smaller scale.
B) Rome abandoned the Greek designs and introduced less ornate, more functional architectural designs.
C) Rome made engineering advances that allowed construction of buildings of greater size.
D) Roman architecture was entirely Italian in origin and owed nothing to Greek influence.

Question 24

Which of the following Roman literary figures was NOT patronized by Augustus?

A) Ovid
B) Livy
C) Vergil
D) Horace

Question 25

What was Vergil?s epic poem celebrating the foundation of Rome?

A) Metamorphosis
B) Ars Amoris
C) Decameron
D) Aeneid

Question 26

Which of the following statements concerning Horace is true?

A) As a devoted republican, his poetry attacked the new dynasty of the Roman empire.
B) He rejected the Greek poetic meters and established a purely Roman poetic style.
C) Although initially a republican, he shifted support to Augustus and celebrated the emperor and his family.
D) He was best known for his epic poems celebrating the foundation of Rome.

Question 27

What was the attitude of the imperial administration to local governments within the empire?

A) Local governments were replaced by military garrisons directly responsive to the central government
B) Local governments were replaced by professional bureaucrats formally trained at imperial universities.
C) Local governments were handed over to relatives of the imperial family who ruled as vassals of the empire.
D) Local governments were granted considerable autonomy, and in some cases whole kingdoms were preserved.

Question 28

What was the Roman empire?s attitude toward extension of citizenship?

A) Unlike the republic, the empire extended citizenship to important groups outside of Rome and the Italian peninsula.
B) Like the republic, the empire restricted citizenship to the original tribes of the city of Rome.
C) The empire extended citizenship to the allies of the Italian peninsula, but no farther.
D) The citizenship of the Roman empire was actually smaller than that of the republic.

Question 29

What was Augustus? attitude toward the republican institutions after his establishment of the empire?

A) Augustus modeled the empire on the republic, retaining the full authority of the republican institutions.
B) Augustus totally revised the government and eliminated all of the institutions and offices of the republic.
C) Augustus retained the office of consul and tribune, but eliminated the Senate as a meaningful part of the empire.
D) Augustus retained many of the institutions and offices of the republic, including the Senate, but took actual power in his own hands.

Question 30

Which of the following was NOT a reform instituted by Augustus during the early empire?

A) Revising the law to strengthen family stability
B) Banning mystery religions
C) Replacing the traditional Roman ceremonies with new rituals emphasizing the cult of Isis
D) Instituting moral reforms

Question 31

What was one of the major political flaws of the Roman empire?

A) The balanced constitution was difficult to maintain in times of economic stress.
B) The absence of military authority made the empire vulnerable to attack from outside.
C) The emperors? authority was sharply limited by the consuls and tribunes, particularly in the area of legislation.
D) The emperors never established a clear line of succession, leaving decisions to the army.

Question 32

Which emperor extended the empire to its greatest territorial dimensions?

A) Trajan
B) Commodus
C) Augustus
D) Pompey

Question 33

Which of the following dates represents the moment at which the empire reached its pinnacle and began to decline?

A) 30 C.E.
B) 120 C.E.
C) 180 C.E.
D) 476 C.E.

Question 34

Which of the following was NOT an innovation of the Roman empire?

A) Regulation of commerce in order to ensure adequate supplies of food
B) Elimination of the military
C) Building aqueducts to carry water to cities
D) The establishment of substantial tax revenues

Question 35

Which of the following statements most accurately describes the Roman imperial attitude toward religion?

A) The empire required all citizens to follow the state rituals and banned all other forms of religion.
B) The empire quickly moved away from the traditional religious ceremonies and adopted the mystery rituals of the cult of Isis as the state religion.
C) From 30 C.E. to 324 C. E. the official imperial policy was toleration of all religions regardless of their teachings.
D) The empire tolerated most religions whose members were willing to give at least formal acceptance of the traditional state religion and the cult of the emperors.

Question 36

What was Rome?s greatest political contribution?

A) Roman law
B) A bureaucracy selected through an examination system
C) Democracy
D) Centralized government

Question 37

Which of the following statements about mobility within the social hierarchies of the classical civilizations is NOT correct?

A) Chinese social organization offered limited opportunities for social advancement through the university and examination system.
B) Mediterranean social organization emphasized aristocracy but recognized the importance of acquired wealth.
C) Of the three classical civilizations, Chinese social organization offered the least opportunity for mobility.
D) India?s caste system offered some opportunity for mobility in the sense that the status of entire castes occasionally rose and fell in the social order.

Question 38

What was the basic structure of the Roman household?

A) It was surprisingly matriarchal with the wife assuming legal responsibility for all members of the household.
B) It was strictly patriarchal with female members of the household more harshly oppressed than in Greek civilization.
C) It was strictly patriarchal, but women enjoyed greater freedom of action than in either Greek, Chinese, or Indian civilization.
D) The Roman household was patriarchal in structure, but followed matrilineal patterns of inheritance.

Question 39

Which of the following statements concerning the agricultural economy of the Roman empire is NOT true?

A) The class of free farmers declined.
B) Slavery spread steadily.
C) Roman economy was less dependent on slave labor than Greece.
D) Slaves staffed the large agricultural estates along with paid laborers and tenant farmers.

Question 40

Not only did the expansion of slavery lead to the decline of the free farmers but also it influenced the growth of

A) the military.
B) technological development in agriculture.
C) a professionalized bureaucracy.
D) technological development in manufacturing.

Question 41

Which of the following statements most accurately characterizes the nature of the Roman empire?s economy?

A) The empire was a single, unified economic structure.
B) Small, independent farms were the rule outside of Italy.
C) More active merchant groups existed in Greece and western Asia than elsewhere.
D) Urbanization outside of Italy was extremely limited.

Question 42

Christianity emerged as a reform movement within what religion?

A) Judaism
B) Mithraism
C) Zoroastrianism
D) Buddhism

Question 43

Who was the founder of Christianity?

A) Paul of Tarsus
B) Jesus of Nazareth
C) Simon Magus
D) Herod of Judaea

Question 44

By the 4th century C.E., what percentage of the residents of the Roman empire were Christian?

A) 10 percent
B) 20 percent
C) 40 percent
D) 70 percent

Question 45

What Christian officials came to hold a position not unlike that of Rome?s provincial governors?

A) Bishops
B) Presbyters
C) Deacons
D) Acolytes

Question 46

Which of the following was NOT a contribution of Paul to Christianity?

A) He used the Greek language, the dominant language of the day in the eastern Mediterranean.
B) Paul created a Christian theology as a set of intellectual principles that generalized the message of Jesus.
C) Paul emphasized the equality of women with men.
D) He explained Christian beliefs in terms that Greco-Roman culture could understand.

Question 47

What was the Roman imperial government?s attitude toward Christianity?

A) The Roman government systematically persecuted Christians on a constant basis until the 4th century C. E.
B) The Roman government embraced Christianity as the official state religion in the 2nd century C. E.
C) While some emperors chose to persecute the Christians, persecution was not constant.
D) There were no persecutions of the Christians as the official policy of the Roman empire was religious toleration.

Question 48

Which of the following heritages of the Mediterranean classical civilization had the least impact on successive western civilizations?

A) traditions of science and philosophy
B) political theory and definitions of citizenship
C) Christianity
D) the dominant Greco-Roman religion

Question 49

What were the origins of Roman civilization?

Question 50

How did republican Romeʹs territorial expansion change Roman society and politics?

Question 51

What was the nature of the Roman imperial form of government? What happened to the institutions of the republic?

Question 52

How did the social organization of classical Mediterranean society compare to that of the other classical civilizations in India and China?

Question 53

What accounts for the successful spread of Christianity in the Roman empire?