The Rise of the Roman Republic, 509 to 287 BCE

Question 1

After returning from his family’s siege of Ardea, who raped Lucretia, the wife of his cousin Collatinus?

Answer 1

Sextus Tarquinius

Question 2

Having been forced to resign due to his relation to the Tarquin line, who was replaced as consul by Publius Valerius Publicola?

Answer 2

Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus

Question 3

What king, having received important military commands from the elder Tarquin, was named Macstrna (Mastarna) in Etruscan

Answer 3

Servius Tullius

Question 4

The creation of the centuriate military organization can be ascribed to what king who tried to curb the power of aristocratic patres in favor of that of the king?

Answer 4

Servius Tullius

Question 5

While the Senate could not pass laws, they could make a non legally binding decree solely advising the magistrate called what?

Answer 5

Senatus consultum

Question 6

What were the four Roman priestly colleges?

Answer 6

Pontiffs (pontifices), Augurs (augures), Fetials (Fetiales), and duovirs (duoviri sacris faciundis)

Question 7

What type of Roman priest originally performed rituals and incantations to give permanence to flimsy wooden bridges?

Answer 7

Pontifex

Question 8

What group of twenty priests dealt with issues of peace and war in Rome?

Answer 8

Fetiales

Question 9

How would the Fetiales officially declare Rome against an enemy?

Answer 9

Throw a spear into their borders

Question 10

What prophetic books were the duo/decem/quindecimviri responsible for protecting?

Answer 10

The Sibylline Books

Question 11

In what year was the first Secession of the Plebs?

Answer 11

494 BCE

Question 12

Where was the first Secession of the Plebs?

Answer 12

Mons Sacer

Question 13

What political office in Rome was protected by a sacrosanctity called the lex sacrata or else threatened with death at the hands of an angry mob?

Answer 13

Tribune

Question 14

Originally caretakers of the temple of Ceres, what political office did the concilium plebis also elect to support the tribunes?

Answer 14

Plebeian Aediles

Question 15

The ability for plebeians to vote on motions put forth by a tribune was called what?

Answer 15

Plebiscita

Question 16

What so called law of 456 BCE, the first plebiscite, allowed land on the Aventine to be redistributed to poorer citizens?

Answer 16

Lex Icilia

Question 17

Limiting the size of a fine imposed by a consul to thirty cattle and two sheep were the conditions of what true plebiscite of 454 BCE?

Answer 17

Lex Aternia-Tarpeia

Question 18

What seemingly arrogant and lustful Roman was twice put in charge of the Decemviral Commission?

Answer 18

Appius Claudius

Question 19

Whose father decided to kill his daughter in order to save her from the dishonor of being Appius Claudius’s slave?

Answer 19

Verginia’s

Question 20

In what year were the Twelve Tables officially promulgated?

Answer 20

449 BCE

Question 21

What set of laws in 449 BCE, set forth by the two consuls of that year, ensured that any plebiscite passed by the plebeians must be followed by all citizens?

Answer 21

Valerio-Horatian Laws

Question 22

What political office, two of whom accompanied consuls in battle as quartermasters, the other two of whom stayed in the city to keep the public treasury and records, were founded just a couple years after the creation of the Comitia Tributa?

Answer 22

Quaestors

Question 23

As what scribes, secretaries, accountants, and other skilled aids were the quaestors probably originally classed?

Answer 23

Apparitores

Question 24

Fighting against the wishes of Appius Claudius, what law of 445 BCE rescinded the ban on intermarriage between patricians and plebeians?

Answer 24

Lex Canuleia

Question 25

In 445 BCE, the patricians agreed to create what new office with consular power (imperium consulare)?

Answer 25

Military Tribune

Question 26

What restrictions did a Military Tribune have that a Consul did not?

Answer 26

Could not celebrate a triumph; could not become a senator after their term

Question 27

What new office of 444 BCE was elected every 5 years for 18 months?

Answer 27

Censors

Question 28

What Roman office, perhaps more feared and respected than the consuls themselves despite the lack of imperium and fasces, registered citizens’ land, voting rights, and tax and military liability?

Answer 28

Censors

Question 29

What law of 367 BCE allowed for one of the two consuls to be plebeian after abolishing the office of military tribune

Answer 29

Lex Licinia Sextia

Question 30

While the Lex Licinia Sextia allowed for one consul to be plebeian, what other law of 342 BCE required a consul to be plebeian?

Answer 30

Lex Genucia

Question 31

What law of either 326 or 313 BCE limited the circumstances with which debt servitude could happen so much that the practice eventually disappeared?

Answer 31

Lex Poetilia

Question 32

What was the official title of the original praetor who essentially served as a consul should either be absent?

Answer 32

Praetor Urbanus

Question 33

In 244 BCE, a second praetor by what name was created in order to maintain Roman authority among foreign people?

Answer 33

Praetor Peregrinus

Question 34

What man became the first plebeian dictator in 356 BCE then the first plebeian censor in 351 BCE?

Answer 34

Marcus Rutilius

Question 35

What law of 339 BCE required that one censor must be plebeian?

Answer 35

Lex Publilia

Question 36

What law of 300 BCE required certain priesthoods to include plebeians among their ranks?

Answer 36

Lex Ogulnia

Question 37

What law (somewhere between 339 and 318 BCE) instituted automatic lifetime admission into the senate for any ex-magistrates worth more than 100,000 asses (the coin not the donkey)

Answer 37

Lex Ovinia

Question 38

What dictator decreed that one of the censors must be plebeian in 339 BCE?

Answer 38

Publilius Philo

Question 39

What man published a guidebook of legal procedures to educate the average Roman citizen on the legal process in 304 BCE?

Answer 39

Gnaeus Flavius

Question 40

In 300 BCE, what man passed a law that guaranteed a right of appeal (provocatio) to anyone sentenced to death or whipping?

Answer 40

M. Valerius Maximus

Question 41

In what year was the final secession of the plebs?

Answer 41

287 BCE

Question 42

In 287 BCE, following the tedious Samnite Wars, the plebeians, for the final time, seceded to what hill?

Answer 42

Janiculum

Question 43

In 287 BCE, what plebeian was appointed dictator in order to deal with the ongoing secession of the plebeians?

Answer 43

Q. Hortensius

Question 44

Because voting was done by moving from one side of the room or another, what name was given to men of lower ranks as they could only ever vote “with their feet”?

Answer 44

Pedarii