Premier Certamen League 2021 (PCL 2) - Preliminary Round 2

Moderator says: “I will read one test question for no points. This question is definitely not reflective of the difficulty or style of the round. Topics in test questions may appear later in the tournament.”

0. What city — a former mayor of which has debated Mary Beard about classics and recited from the Iliad — asks the Lord to direct its people in its Latin motto?

LONDON

B1: This former mayor is Britain’s current prime minister, Boris Johnson. But when asked a few years ago about his chances of becoming prime minister, he said “I’ve used all sorts of — all sorts of expressions to describe what, you know, what is, uh, the, uh, the impossibilia, the ἀδύνατα; it is uh, it is un-, it is not going to happen; it is more likely that as I say I will be reincarnated as an olive or locked in a disused fridge or decapitated by a flying frisbee(“"fris - BEE"”).” What literary device appears several times in that quote as he breaks off, pauses, and gathers his thoughts?

APOSIOPESIS

B2: What is the term for the theory proposed by Pythagoras about the transmigration of souls, though even he didn’t believe a man could be reincarnated as an olive?

METEMPSYCHOSIS

Moderator says: “Subsequent questions will count for points. Good luck and have fun!”

1. What form is used as an adverbial accusative with sī to mean “but if,” can follow gaudeō to mean “that,” and usually means “the fact that” or is synonymous with quia?

QUOD

B1: Translate into English: “Nōn modo tē ipsum perdidistī sed etiam, quod multō pēius est, rem pūblicam.”

YOU (HAVE) {DESTROYED / RUINED / LOST} NOT JUST {YOURSELF // YOU YOURSELF},
BUT ALSO — {THAT WHICH // WHAT} IS MUCH WORSE — THE REPUBLIC
[ACCEPT “ALSO THE REPUBLIC, WHICH IS...”]

B2: Translate this adapted post-classical sentence, in which quod means “that”: “Volō hārum rērum tam certus fierī quam certus sum quod septem et tria sint decem.”

I WANT TO BECOME AS CERTAIN OF THESE THINGS AS I AM (CERTAIN) THAT {SEVEN PLUS THREE IS TEN // SEVEN AND THREE ARE TEN}

2. What Greek author worked with his pupils to write about more than 100 states’ constitutions — including the recently rediscovered Constitution of the Athenians — as preparation for writing his Politics?

ARISTOTLE / ARISTOTELES

B1: The Constitution of the Athenians, like many other works known from papyrus fragments, was found near what Egyptian city?

OXYRHYNCHUS

B2: What satyr play by Sophocles was also discovered at Oxyrhynchus?

ICHNEUTAE

3. Differentiate in meaning between the two verbs whose third principal part is mulsī — mulgeō and mulceō.

(TO) MILK and (TO) SOOTHE [ACCEPT IN EITHER ORDER IF THEY BUZZ AT “MULSĪ”]

B1: Give the first principal parts and meanings for the first-conjugation verb whose 4th principal part is frictus and the 3rd-conjugation verb whose 4th principal part is frīctus.

FRICŌ – (TO) RUB and FRĪGŌ – (TO) {ROAST / FRY}

B2: Give the first principal parts and meaning for the two verbs whose third principal part is pāvī.

PAVEŌ – (TO) BE AFRAID and PASCŌ – (TO) FEED

4. Whose tomb, above which Sinon lit a beacon, contained a golden urn and saw the sacrifice of Priam’s youngest daughter Polyxena at the orders of his son Neoptolemus?

ACHILLES

B1: What son of Nestor, who was killed by Memnon, is also said to have been buried alongside Achilles and Patroclus?

ANTILOCHUS

B2: Some say that Achilles fell in love with Polyxena and was on his way to visit her when he was killed by Paris and what man, who is sometimes said to have been betrayed to the Greeks by Helen?

DEIPHOBUS

5. During a battle at the Anio River, who withdrew his forces and waited to see who would win, earning what Livy describes as a uniquely cruel punishment at the hands of the Roman king, Tullus Hostilius?

METT(I)US FUFETIUS

B1: Following these events, Tullus declared war on what tribe, culminating in a victory at the Silva Malitiōsa or “Knavish Wood”?

SABINES

B2: During either the battle at the Anio River or the war against the Sabines, Tullus Hostilius vowed to double the number of what priestly college, adding the Collīnī subgroup?

SALII / SALIĪ

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6. What “magnum opus et arduum,” complemented by or drawing on Orosius, counters anxiety about Alaric’s sack of Rome by proposing a new model of history over 22 books, making it one of Augustine’s most important works?

DĒ CĪVITĀTE DEĪ / CITY OF GOD

B1: The Dē Cīvitāte Deī preserves for us a large amount of information about what scholar’s Antīquitātēs?

(M. TERENTIUS) VARRO REATINUS

B2: Some of Augustine’s arguments in the Dē Cīvitāte Deī may have been inspired by what native of Sicca Veneria’s 7-book Christian polemic?

ARNOBIUS (OF SICCA)

7. Bearing the words “I shall burn this city” on his shield, what man caused much grief for his son Sthenelus and wife Evadne when he died yelling that not even Zeus could stop him from scaling the walls of Thebes?

CAPANEUS

B1: In some versions, what wife of Polynices worked with Antigone to bury him while Evadne and the other Argive women went to Athens to ask Theseus for help?

ARG(E)IA

B2: In Euripides’s Suppliant Women, what father of Evadne, who previously advised Polynices on winning over Amphiaraus, desperately tries to stop her from jumping onto her husband’s pyre?

IPHIS

8. What meaning is shared by three common defective verbs, including the ones at the roots of “adage”(“"AD - ij"”) and “fable” — aiō and for?

(TO) SAY / SPEAK

B1: What meaning is shared by the verbs at the roots of “pavement” and “plaintiff”?

(TO) BEAT / STRIKE

B2: What derivative of another word meaning “beat” or “strike” means “recklessly extravagant or wasteful”?

PROFLIGATE

9. Deserted by his army, who was killed in the Carnic Alps while on his way to Macedonia, only months after being freed from Marc Antony’s siege in a campaign which saw the deaths of Hirtius and Pansa at Mutina?

DECIMUS (JUNIUS) BRUTUS (ALBINUS)

B1: Back when he was still in Caesar’s army, Decimus Brutus had attached scythes to long poles in order to defeat what seafaring Gallic tribe?

VENETI

B2: After the battle of Mutina, what minor suffect consul was ordered by his co-consul Octavian to pass a law reversing the amnesty that had been granted to Caesar’s assassins?

(Q.) PEDIUS

10. Give the genitive plural superlative of the phrase “eadem benevola manus,” keeping in mind that benevolus forms its superlative as if it were benevolēns.

EĀRUNDEM BENEVOLENTISSIMĀRUM MANUUM

B1: Using an adjective that lacks the positive, give the genitive plural of the phrase that means “faster dog.”

OCIŌRUM CANUM

B2: Say in Latin, using two irregular superlatives: “The rightmost tree produces the ripest fruits.”

DEXTIMA {ARBOR / ARBŌS} {MĀTŪRRIMA PŌMA // MĀTŪRRIMŌS FRŪCTŪS // MĀTŪRRIMĀS FRŪGĒS} {GIGNIT / PARIT / (EF)FERT / ĒDIT / CREAT}

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11. According to Ovid, what pair of contrasting brothers — one of whom leapt from Mount Parnassus after his daughter’s death, the other of whom was shipwrecked — became a hawk and a kingfisher, respectively?

DAEDALION and CEYX

B1: Name two of the sons of Somnus, who could appear in dreams as humans, beasts, or objects, that Ovid mentions while telling Ceyx’s story.

ANY TWO OF: MORPHEUS; {ICELOS / PHOBETOR}; PHANTASOS

B2: How, specifically, was Daedalion’s daughter Chione killed by Diana?

SHOT (WITH AN ARROW) IN THE TONGUE

12. Translate into English: “Sapiēns nōn timet ut dī sibi adsint.”

A WISE MAN {IS NOT AFRAID // DOES NOT FEAR} {THAT / LEST} THE GODS {ARE NOT // WILL NOT BE} {THERE / PRESENT} FOR HIM

B1: Translate into English: “Quis crēdat eum hominem, hūmānā quī ratiōne caret?”

WHO {COULD / WOULD} BELIEVE THAT {HE // THAT MAN} WHO LACKS HUMAN REASON IS {(A) HUMAN / A MAN}

B2: Now say in good Latin, using the verb noceō: “We will bring it about that we are never harmed by a man.”

EFFICIĒMUS {NĒ UMQUAM // UT NUMQUAM} NŌBĪS {Ā VIRŌ // AB HOMINE} NOCEĀTUR

13. When the palace was besieged by Praetorians, what aged emperor agreed to execute Petronius Secundus and realized he should adopt a military man as his successor, choosing Marcus Ulpius Traianus?

(M. COCCEIUS) NERVA

B1: Trajan had previously played an important role during the reign of Domitian when he was called to put down the rebellion of what man, though it ended up being Lappius Maximus who ended the revolt?

(L. ANTONIUS) SATURNINUS

B2: What conspirator launched an assassination attempt against Nerva and escaped unpunished?

(C.) CALPURNIUS (PISO) CRASSUS (FRUGI LICINIANUS)

14. Of the prepositions μετά, ἐπί, παρά, and πρός, which takes the fewest cases — either the genitive or the accusative, meaning “with” or “after” respectively?

μετά

B1: Differentiate in meaning between διά with the genitive and διά with the accusative.

THROUGH and BECAUSE OF (RESPECTIVELY)

B2: What is the meaning of the preposition πλήν?

EXCEPT (FOR)

15. In a poem addressed to Tullus, who uses the sphrāgis motif to mention the death of his brother in the Perusine War, the only political reference in his Monobiblos of elegies about Cynthia?

(SEX.) PROPERTIUS

B1: What term refers to funeral poems such as those Propertius wrote for Marcellus or Cornelia, or the poem Calvus wrote for Quintilia?

EPICĒD(E)ION / EPICĒD(E)IA

B2: What Latin term refers to a motif in poem 2.1 of Propertius and the opening of Nemesianus’s Cynēgetica, in which the poet elaborately declares his inability or unwillingness to write “higher” genres of poetry such as epic?

RECŪSĀTIŌ

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16. Description acceptable. What policy’s success is shown by stone pillars erected by a three-man commission — featuring Publius Crassus and Appius Claudius Pulcher — even after Scipio Nasica led a mob to kill its originator?

LAND REFORM // LAND REDISTRIBUTION // AGRARIAN REFORM [ACCEPT EQUIVS.]

B1: What member of the Scipionic Circle — whose father of the same name had commanded the Roman cavalry at Zama — had unsuccessfully attempted land reform?

(C.) LAELIUS (SAPIENS)

B2: Further evidence that the nobles grudgingly acknowledged the popularity of land reform comes from what consul of 132 B.C., who bragged about the policy’s success while working with his co-consul Rupilius on a court to prosecute all of Tiberius’s followers?

(P.) POPILLIUS (LAENAS)

17. What U.S. state, in which two major colleges have mottoes with homoioteleuton — “Perstāre et praestāre” and “Respice, adspice, prospice” — has as its own motto a comparative adjective, “Excelsior”?

NEW YORK

B1: What U.S. university’s 4-word motto contains a chiasmus and two jussive subjunctives?

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO [“CRĒSCAT SCIENTIA, VĪTA EXCŌLĀTUR”]

B2: What U.S. college’s motto, “nōn ministrārī sed ministrāre,” uses polyptoton to highlight the antithesis?

WELLESLEY COLLEGE

18. What Roman deity, whose trinoctium in the city of Hybla is the subject of a 93-line anonymous poem, serves as a symbol of Epicurean pleasure when she is invoked in the opening of the Dē Rērum Nātūrā?

VENUS

B1: What two philosophers preceded Epicurus in devising the atomic theory expounded in the Dē Rērum Nātūrā?

DEMOCRITUS and LEUCIPPUS

B2: Give the Latin to complete the last three words of the Pervigilium Veneris’s refrain: “Crās amet quī numquam amāvit, quīque [blank].”

AMĀVIT CRĀS AMET

19. What mythological object, used by Hermes to slay the giant Hippolytus, then later by Perseus to escape the Gorgons, was owned by Hades and concealed the user from enemies?

{CAP / HELMET} OF {DARKNESS / INVISIBILITY}

B1: What pinecone-tipped object was used to kill the giant Eurytus?

THYRSUS

B2: Shortly after Perseus had escaped the Gorgons, he stopped in what Egyptian city, whose inhabitants continued to worship him in Herodotus’s day?

CHEMMIS

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20. I shall now show a visual depicting excerpts from a monument. You will have 15 seconds to examine the visual before the question.
[Scorekeeper should share their screen to show the visual: Round 2 Visual]
This visual is taken from what monument, built partly to show “how high a hill had been cleared away” near its site — referring to the Quirinal — and partly to depict, with over 2500 figures in a long spiral, the events of the Dacian Wars?

TRAJAN’S COLUMN // COLUMN OF TRAJAN [PROMPT ON “TRAJAN” BEFORE “WHAT MONUMENT”]

B1: Though the column originally bore a statue of Trajan at the top, he was replaced with what Christian figure in 1588?

ST. PETER

B2: What sort of monument did Trajan build at Beneventum?

(TRIUMPHAL) ARCH

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[SOURCES]

N.B.: “Hadas” refers to either the Latin Lit. or the Greek Lit. sourcebook, but “Greek Hadas” or “Latin Hadas” will be explicitly stated if it is not clear in context. The same applies to “Adkins” for Roman/Greek Life. “Chronicle” refers either to Matyszak’s Chronicle of the Roman Republic or Scarre’s Chronicle of the Roman Emperors, depending on whether the question is about the Republic or the Empire.

0 The quote is from this amusing video. 

1 TU: A&G §397 a., §572 b. / B1: cf. A&G §307 d. Note for quod = id quod / B2: cf. Aug. Conf. 6.4.6 

2 TU: Dihle p. 196 & Hadas p. 155 / B1: Mainly unsourced, but cf. Hadas pp. 32, 56, 211 / B2: Hadas p. 32 

3 TU & B1 & B2: Various places in Lodge and in A&G §§209-212 

4 TU: Sinon – Tripp p. 532 (not in the Aeneid; but see Apollod. Epit. 5.19; Tryphiodorus 510-511); urn & Polyxena – Tripp p. 9 / B1: March p. 58 (cf. Tripp p. 54, which doesn’t mention the burial) / B2: Tripp p. 489 

5 TU: Liv. 1.27-28 / B1: Liv. 1.30 (Silva Malitiōsa called ὕλη κακοῦργος in Dion. Hal. 3.33) / B2: Liv. 1.27 (Anio); Dion. Hal. 2.70, 3.32 (Sabines, Collīnī); cf. C&S p. 39; Johnston §487 

6 TU: Conte pp. 691-692, 702; Hadas pp. 442-443 (Rose p. 507 for the specific reference to the 410 A.D. sack) / B1: Conte p. 212-213 / B2: Hadas p. 442; Conte p. 639 

7 TU: March p. 112 / B1: Tripp p. 73 (see Statius, Thebaid 12 for the simultaneous expedition of Argeia to Thebes and the other Argives to Athens) / B2: March pp. 196, 269 

8 TU: A&G §206 a.-c.; relevant sections of Schaeffer / B1 & B2: Relevant sections of Schaeffer 

9 TU: C&S p. 286 / B1: C&S p. 262 / B2: C&S p. 287 & OCD p. 1130 

10 TU & B1 & B2: A&G §§125-130 for the various comp./sup. forms (and scattered other sections for the other words) 

11 TU: Ov. Met. 11.291-345, 410-748 (cf. Tripp pp. 161, 158) / B1: Ov. Met. 11.633-645 (cf. Tripp p. 534) / B2: Ov. Met. 11.321-325 

12 B1: cf. Maximianus, Elegy 1.143-144 

13 TU: Heich. p. 328 & C&S p. 425 & Chronicle pp. 87-88 / B1: Heich. p. 325 & C&S p. 423 / B2: C&S p. 425 

14 TU & B1: Mastronarde pp. 56, 72 / B2: Mastronarde p. 302 

15 TU: Tullus – OCD p. 1258 (1.22 addressed to him); the name is mentioned by Hadas p. 195; sphrāgis etc. – Conte p. 332 / B1: Conte pp. 332, 336, 142 / B2: Conte pp. 335, 613 

16 TU: Chronicle pp. 133-134 & C&S pp. 610, 205-206 / B1: C&S pp. 137, 204 / B2: C&S p. 206 & Heich. p. 159 

17 TU: Stone p. 141, 117 (perstāre et praestāre is unsourced but has precedent) / B1: Unsourced but well-founded on precedent / B2: Veni Vidi Vici p. 176 

18 TU: Perv. Ven. – Hadas p. 335 & Conte p. 610; Lucretius – Hadas pp. 71-72 / B1: Conte p. 159; Leucippus is, surprisingly, unsourced in the main sourcebooks, but he has precedent (see also Greek Hadas p. 70 and various locations in OCD) / B2: Hadas p. 335 & Conte p. 610 

19 TU: March p. 211 (all clues also in Tripp) / B1: Tripp pp. 577, 244 / B2: Tripp p. 466 

20 TU & B1: Oxford Archeological Guide pp. 164-165 (Visual from p. 165) / B2: Heich. p. 328