Week 4

When they overthrew the Etruscans in 510 BCE, what did the Romans decide not to have in their society?

• Taxes

• A monarch

• Class distinctions

• Slaves

Why was the Pantheon constructed with a 30-foot-diameter oculus (hole) in its roof?

• To prevent rain from pooling on the rooftop

• To symbolize Jupiter's ever-watchful eye over Rome

• To lighten the weight of the 20-foot-thick dome

• To allow rooftop access for the dome's maintenance

To what two groups does Roman culture trace its origins?

• The Dorians and the Phoenicians

• The Greeks and the Etruscans

• The Latiums and the Rutulians

• The Egyptians and the Greeks

Why did Augustus pass laws forcing citizens to marry and penalizing them for being childless?

• To revive family life and increase the number of citizens in Rome

• To ensure a continuing supply of soldiers

• To expand the slave force

• To punish his political enemies

What is the symbolic heart of a Roman domus?

• The atrium

• The cubicula

• A dining room

• The sleeping quarters

Why did Roman artists deviate from the Greeks' portrayals of mythological events and heroes, instead depicting in their art current events and real people?

• To avoid being mere imitators of Greek artists

• To propagandize and to flatter their emperors

• To awe the world with the state's accomplishments

• To intimidate their enemies with military portraits

Why did Virgil compose the Aeneid?

• To provide Rome and Augustus with a suitably grand founding myth

• To fulfill his state obligations as Rome's first poet laureate

• To explain the enmity between Carthage and Rome

• To celebrate Augustus's gift of farmland to veterans

Why was Gaius Julius Caesar murdered in the Senate on March 15, 44 BCE?

• He had threatened to dissolve the Senate

• He had ordered the assassination of Pompey

• He had assumed dictatorial control over Rome

• He had allowed his army to cross the Rubicon with him

Why is Pompeii such an important archaeological site?

• It is the location of Augustus's wife's private vacation villa

• Its aqueduct (Aqua Augusta) is the best preserved in Italy

• It tells us most of what we know about everyday Roman life

• Its ruins document Pliny the Younger's descriptions

Which statement is the most likely reason that, beginning in 264 BCE, Rome engaged Carthage in the Punic Wars?

• The Romans desired control of Carthage's western Mediterranean wealth

• Carthage was holding Scipio Africanus, the Roman ambassador, hostage

• The Trojan Aeneas had caused Carthage's Queen Dido to commit suicide

• Carthage was refusing to pay the taxes it owed for Roman protection