Analyzing Ideas, Structure, and Purpose in Machiavelli’s The Prince
Question 1 • ELA 10B - 2023
Read this passage from chapter 5 of The Prince.There are, for example, the Spartans and the Romans. The Spartans held Athens and Thebes, establishing there an oligarchy: nevertheless they lost them. The Romans, in order to hold Capua, Carthage, and Numantia, dismantled them, and did not lose them. They wished to hold Greece as the Spartans held it, making it free and permitting its laws, and did not succeed. So to hold it they were compelled to dismantle many cities in the country, for in truth
Answer
t
to inform readers about the history of Rome and Sparta and how they built their empires
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to inform readers about the fates of the cities conquered by the Spartans and the Romans
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to persuade readers that a conquering prince must destroy a former republic if he hopes to hold it
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to persuade readers that a republic will remember freedom and someday rebel against a conqueror
Explanation
Machiavelli contrasts the Spartans, who allowed conquered cities to keep their laws and later lost them, with the Romans, who dismantled cities and kept control. He uses these examples to support the argument that a prince who conquers a former republic must destroy it to hold it securely. The best choice is C, which states that persuasive claim.
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