Keartamen 2 (K2) - Preliminary Round 3


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


0. What author faithfully translated the title of the Peri Physeos by Epicurus to name his own work, which was a six-book epic on that author’s philosophy called the Dē Rērum Nātūrā?

(TITUS) LUCRETIUS (CARUS)

B1: Lucretius’ Dē Rērum Nātūrā invokes what goddess at the start of the poem?

VENUS (GENETRIX)

B2: Give the last three words of the hexameter line from Georgics 2 that critics interpret as praise of Lucretius. These words are also the motto of the London School of Economics.

“RĒRUM COGNŌSCERE CAUSĀS”


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


1. Since he was preoccupied, a general of what tribe asked Roman envoys to address an oak tree under which he was sitting, so offending Rome that Minucius Esquilinus vainly attacked their stronghold of Mt. Algidus in 458 B.C.?

AEQUI / AEQUICOLI / AEQUICOLAE

B1: The general of the Aequi belonged to what gēns? A woman whose “deed was above that of Cocles or Mucius”—at least according to an Etruscan king—also belonged to this gēns.

(GĒNS) CLOELIA // CLOELĪĪ

B2: Livy believed that the priesthood and practices of the Fētiālēs derived from the Aequi. What was the final step in the procedure of the Fētiālēs to declare war? A description is fine.

(FETIAL) THREW A (STEEL-TIPPED or BURNT, BLOOD-DIPPED) SPEAR INTO ENEMY TERRITORY [PROMPT ON “THREW A SPEAR” WITH “INTO WHERE?”; ACCEPT EQUIVALENTS]


2. What god’s exploits primarily occurred in his native region of Arcadia, such as when he used a white fleece to lure Selene and when he pursued the nymph Syrinx until she became marsh-reeds?

PAN

B1: Pan was said to have once over-pursued the nymph Pitys, who changed into what sort of tree? A notorious Isthmian, the father of Perigune, used this kind of tree in his crimes.

PINE (TREE)

B2: Pan appeared to a runner on Mt. Parthenius—ordering him to ask “why the Athenians paid no attention to him”—prior to what battle, where he aided them by causing a “panic”?

(BATTLE OF) MARATHON


3. What general material is denoted by the noun villus, as well as crīnis, coma, and capillus?

HAIR(S)

B1: What is the meaning of the noun cānitiēs?

GRAY (HAIR) / WHITE (HAIR) / GRAYISH-WHITE (HAIR) / HOAR (HAIR) // OLD AGE

B2: Give a Latin verb which means “to shear,” as in cutting hair.

TONDEŌ / TONDĒRE


4. What Roman god, who appears in the bella fabella that comprises Books 4-6 of Apuleius’ Metamorphōsēs, creates elegiac couplets by “[stealing] a foot” in Ovid’s Amōrēs to mark his domain of love?

CUPID / CUPĪDŌ

B1: What elegist—who like Ovid had Messalla as a patron—is lamented in Amōrēs 3.9?

(ALBIUS) TIBULLUS

B2: In classical sources, Apuleius has no praenōmen. Medieval manuscripts, however, seem to have given him the name of the protagonist of the Metamorphōsēs as his praenōmen. Name this protagonist, who retells the story of Cupid and Psyche within the novel.

LUCIUS


5. Using a fearing clause, say in Latin: There is a danger of the queen hearing the rumor.

PERĪCULUM EST NĒ RĒGĪNA FĀMAM / RŪMŌREM AUDIAT [ACCEPT EQUIVALENTS]

B1: Using the conjunction quīn, which replaces nē in clauses of hindering and prevention, say in Latin: No one prevented the queen from hearing the rumor.

NĒMŌ PROHIBUIT / IMPEDĪ(V)IT RĒGĪNAM or OBSTITIT RĒGĪNAE QUĪN FĀMAM / RŪMŌREM AUDĪRET // NĒMŌ PROHIBUIT / OBSTITIT QUĪN RĒGĪNA FĀMAM / RŪMŌREM AUDĪRET
[ACCEPT EQUIVALENTS]

B2: Say in the best classical Latin: The queen ignored the rumor in order to live more easily.

RĒGĪNA RŪMŌREM / FĀMAM NEGLĒXIT / IGNŌRĀVIT / DISSIMULĀVIT
QUŌ / UT EŌ FACILIUS VĪVERET / HABITĀRET [ACCEPT EQUIVALENTS]


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6. So named for the reddish color of its mud, what river separated Cisalpine Gaul from Italy, causing a general to break his imperium and utter “iacta ālea est” upon crossing it?

RUBICO(N) RIVER

B1: Cisalpine Gaul was divided into two sections, so named for being north and south of what river, which rose in the west in the Alpēs Cottiae and flowed toward the Adriatic Sea?

PO / PADUS (RIVER)

B2: Between the Po and the Rubicon sat what northern Italian city, which became Honorius’ capital in 402 A.D. and the center of a Byzantine Exarchate after the fall of Rome?

(EXARCHATE OF) RAVENNA


7. Note to players: A description is acceptable. To avoid what responsibility did a rich Sicyonian gift a fleet-footed mare, a Cypriot king launch a fleet made of clay, and an Ithacan king dress as a madman and sow his fields with salt?

GOING TO TROY // FIGHTING IN THE TROJAN WAR //
FULFILLING DUTY AS HELEN’S SUITORS [ACCEPT EQUIVALENTS]

B1: When the Ithacan king—Odysseus—sowed his fields with salt, Palamedes suspected that he was faking insanity. How did he prove this? A description is fine.

LAID TELEMACHUS / ODYSSEUS’ SON IN FRONT OF THE PLOW
(FORCING HIM TO DEVIATE) [ACCEPT EQUIVALENTS]

B2: Name that rich Sicyonian draft-dodger, whose gifted horse was called Aethe.

ECHEPOLUS


8. What Latin verb takes on an impersonal meaning of “it pleases” in a Vergilian line where Aeneas tells his soldiers that they may eventually remember their struggles fondly, showing a development from its meaning of “to help”?

IUVŌ / IUVĀRE / IUVAT / IUVĀBIT

B1: The Aeneid-adapted inscription on the reverse of the Nobel Medal for Literature reads “Inventās vītam iuvat excoluisse per artēs.” Translate this hexameter line, where iuvat assumes the impersonal meaning of “it pleases.”

IT PLEASES / DELIGHTS TO HAVE TILLED / CULTIVATED / IMPROVED
(HUMAN) LIFE THROUGH FOUND / DISCOVERED ARTS [ACCEPT EQUIVALENTS]

B2: Translate these sentences from the Aeneid, which describe Dido and again feature an impersonal iuvat: “ōs impressa torō ‘moriēmur inultae, sed moriāmur’ ait. ‘sīc, sīc iuvat īre sub umbrās.’”

PRESSED WITH RESPECT TO HER FACE ONTO THE COUCH or HAVING PRESSED HER FACE TO THE COUCH, SHE SAYS ‘WE / I WILL DIE UNAVENGED, BUT LET US / ME DIE. THUS, THUS,
IT PLEASES TO GO TO THE SHADES / SHADOWS’ [ACCEPT EQUIVALENTS]


9. In various works, what author addressed the prefects Paulinus and Serenus, his brother Novatus, his mother Helvia, his friend Lucilius, and the emperor Nero, whom he tutored?

(LUCIUS ANNAEUS) SENECA THE YOUNGER / MINOR [PROMPT ON “SENECA”]

B1: Give, in English, the subject of a non-epistolary work addressed to one of those people and identify to whom it is addressed.

[SEE BELOW: DO NOT REVEAL OTHER ANSWERS]

B2: Give the subjects of two more and identify to whom they are addressed.

PAULINUS = (1) SHORTNESS OF LIFE; SERENUS = (1) FIRMNESS / CONSTANCY (OF THE WISE),
(2) LEISURE, (3) TRANQUILITY / CALMNESS (OF THE MIND / SPIRIT); NOVATUS / GALLIO =
(1) THE GOOD LIFE, (2) ANGER; HELVIA = (1) CONSOLATION; LUCILIUS = (1) PROVIDENCE or
(2) NATURE or NATURAL QUESTIONS / PHILOSOPHY; NERO = (1) MERCY / CLEMENCY


10. What Latin noun developed from a compound adjective meaning “not speaking”—properly a present participle of the deponent verb “for”—to a word meaning “baby”?

ĪNFĀNS

B1: What similarly formed noun comes from the participle of a verb meaning “maturing” and may be ultimately derived from a verb meaning “nourish”?

ADULĒSCĒNS

B2: From what Latin verb, with what meaning, does the similarly formed noun “parēns” derive?

PARIŌ / PARERE = TO BEGET / GIVE BIRTH TO


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11. What ancient city—the birthplace of the first non-Italian-born emperor, Claudius—was the site of a 197 A.D. battle lost by Clodius Albinus and is today known as Lyons?

LUGDUNUM

B1: What brother of Tiberius—and father of Claudius and Germanicus—dedicated an altar to Rōma et Augustus at Lugdunum three years before he died by falling off his horse?

(NERO CLAUDIUS) DRUSUS (THE ELDER)

B2: What man, who proposed the title Augustus for Octavian, founded Lugdunum as a veterans’ colony in 43 B.C.?

(LUCIUS MUNATIUS) PLANCUS


12. The constellation Lyra commemorated an object that floated down the Hebrus River together with what man’s still-singing head, which maenads tore off out of jealousy towards his wife, Eurydice?

ORPHEUS

B1: Orpheus’ head eventually reached Methymna, a city on the shores of what island?

LESBOS

B2: Apollodorus says that Orpheus’ body was buried in a region named for what man, who called his nine daughters with Euippe the “children of the Muses,” according to Pausanias?

PIERUS


13. Change the phrase onus difficilius to the genitive plural.

ONERUM DIFFICILIŌRUM

B1: Make the phrase onerum difficiliōrum dative and superlative.

ONERIBUS DIFFICILLIMĪS

B2: Give the equivalent form—dative plural and superlative—for the phrase dea idōnea.

DEĀBUS MAXIMĒ IDŌNEĪS


14. What author wrote paired couplets describing more and less expensive gifts, poems describing Saturnalia presents, and a collection on the opening of the Flavian Amphitheater prior to composing 12 books of epigrams?

(MARCUS VALERIUS) MARTIAL(IS)

B1: Name both the collection of poems on Saturnalia presents and the collection of paired couplets, which formed the 13th and 14th books of Martial’s poetry.

XENIA [SATURNALIA PRESENTS] and APOPHORETA [PAIRED COUPLETS][ACCEPT IN EITHER ORDER]

B2: According to Martial, of what does his “page taste,” or “pāgina nostra sapit”? Give either the English or the Latin.

(HU)MAN / HOMINEM / HOMŌ


15. What sort of objects, created with a “pile” and a “trussel,” were continually debased during the imperial period, when the precious metal contents of antōnīniānī and dēnāriī were reduced?

COIN(S) / COINAGE

B1: Early Italian coins were often made of what metal, as the Latin phrase for “debt” shows?

BRONZE / COPPER / AES [DO NOT ACCEPT “BRASS”]

B2: What archaeological term—which sometimes overlaps with “cache” when referring to a deliberately buried treasure—denotes a collection of coins or valuable artifacts?

(COIN) HOARD


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16. Give the Latin word that completes all of the following three phrases: “[blank] sub sōle novum,” “aut Caesar aut [blank],” and “dē mortuīs [blank] nisi bonum.”

NIHIL / NĪL

B1: Give a common Latin quotation or phrase that means “nothing comes from nothing.”

DĒ NIHILŌ NIHIL (FIT) // EX NIHILŌ NIHIL (FIT) // NIHIL EX NIHILŌ (FIT) //
“DĒ NIHILŌ NIHILUM (IN NIHILUM NĪL POSSE REVERTĪ)” // “(VĪDERĪMUS) NĪL POSSE
CREĀRĪ DĒ NIHILŌ” // “RĒS (QUONIAM) DOCUĪ NŌN POSSE CREĀRĪ DĒ NIHILŌ”

B2: Roman Catholic censors use what two-word Latin phrase, which often directly precedes the imprimātur, to indicate that a book is morally agreeable and may be published?

NIHIL OBSTAT


17. Artemis became a cat, Hermes became an ibis, and Ares and Aphrodite became fish as the gods fled to Egypt to escape what monster, a son of Gaia known as Zeus’ greatest enemy?

TYPHON / TYPHOEÜS / TYPHAON / TYPHOS

B1: Apollo transformed into one of two types of bird to escape Typhon. Name either: in other stories Apollo transformed Daedalion into one of them and changed the color of the other when it told him about Coronis’ affair.

HAWK or CROW

B2: Dionysus became what kind of creature—into which Zeus had transformed him as a child to hide him from Hera—to escape Typhon?

GOAT / KID


18. What work, which narrates not per tempora but per speciēs, includes a dedication to Septicius Clarus and proceeds from Caesar to Domitian in 12 near-gossipy biographies?

DĒ VĪTĀ CAESARUM // (THE) TWELVE CAESARS

B1: What autobiographical, imperial text—today best preserved on the Monumentum Ancyranum—was a predecessor to Suetonius’ per speciēs style of narration?

RĒS GESTAE (DĪVĪ AUGUSTĪ)

B2: The Roman biographical tradition primarily emerged in the first century B.C., when Nepos wrote Dē Vīrīs Illūstribus and what author wrote a work where short epigrams accompanied portraits of 700 historical figures?

(THE IMĀGINĒS / HEBDOMADĒS / DĒ IMĀGINIBUS OF) VARRO (REATINUS / OF REATE)


19. Translate the following sentence, adapted from Sallust’s Bellum Catilīnae, into English: ambitiō multōs mortālēs fierī falsōs ēgit.

AMBITION DROVE MANY MORTALS / MEN TO BECOME FALSE [ACCEPT EQUIVALENTS]

B1: Now translate this sentence, adapted from Sallust’s Bellum Catilīnae, into English: ambitiō mortālēs ēgit aliud clausum in pectore, aliud in linguā prōmptum habēre.

AMBITION DROVE MORTALS / MEN TO HOLD ONE THING CLOSED IN THE CHEST,
(TO HOLD) ANOTHER THING PROMPT ON THE TONGUE [ACCEPT EQUIVALENTS]

B2: Now translate into English this sentence, adapted from Sallust’s Bellum Catilīnae, keeping in mind that the word interdum means “occasionally”: Haec prīmō paulātim crēscere, interdum pūnīrī; cīvitās ergō mūtāta.

THESE THINGS AT FIRST GREW BIT-BY-BIT / GRADUALLY, OCCASIONALLY THEY
WERE PUNISHED; THE STATE THEREFORE WAS CHANGED [ACCEPT EQUIVALENTS]


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20. The duovirī sacrīs faciundīs were first chosen to guard what artifacts, which prevented restoring Ptolemy Auletes to the Egyptian throne and were brought from Cumae after Tarquinius Superbus bargained very poorly with an oracle?

SIBYLLINE BOOKS // LIBRĪ SIBYLLĪNĪ

B1: In 204 B.C., the Sibylline Books advised that the cult of what goddess—the so-called Magna Māter—should be brought to Rome?

CYBELE / CYBEBE

B2: The Sibylline Books ordered that a Gallic couple and a Greek couple be buried alive after what defeat, whose surviving legionaries were sentenced to garrison Sicily for 12 years?

(BATTLE OF) CANNAE


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[SOURCES]

0 TU: Conte, p. 158, p. 156; B1: Ibid. p. 159; B2: Ibid. p. 171 and Stone, p. 141.

1 TU: Liv. 2.25 and C&S, p. 589; B1: Liv. 2.25 and 2.13; B2: Liv. 1.32.

2 TU: Tripp, p. 443, p. 442; B1: March, p. 403 and Tripp, p. 532; B2: Tripp, p. 443.

3 TU: Gonzalez Lodge, p. 184, p. 48, p. 39, p. 209; B1: Ibid. p. 32; B2: Ibid. p. 173.

4 TU: Conte, p. 560. “[Stealing] a foot” is not explicitly sourced but is part of the broader “Certamen canon,” being found in all the main literature guides; B1: Conte, pp. 260-261 and Hadas, p. 185; B2: Conte, p. 553.

6 TU: OCD, “Rubicon” and Ehrlich, p. 36; B1: OCD, “Gaul, Cisalpine” and “Padus”; B2: OCD, “Ravenna” and “Auximum.”

7 TU: Tripp, pp. 584-585, p. 440; B1: Ibid. p. 440; B2: Ibid. p. 584 and Hom. Il. 23.262ff.

8 TU: A&G §208c and Verg. Aen. 1.203; B1: Cf. Verg. Aen. 6.663; B2: Verg. Aen. 4.659-660.

9 TU, B1, and B2: Conte, p. 409.

10 TU: A&G §206c

11 TU: C&S, p. 375, p. 492; B1: OCD, “Claudius (RE 139; Suppl. 1) Drusus, Nero.”; B2: C&S, p. 299 and OCD, “Munatius (RE 30) Plancus, Lucius”;

12 TU: Tripp, p. 436; B1: Ov. Met. 11.55; B2: Tripp, p. 436, p. 481.

13 B1: A&G §126; B2: A&G §43c, §128.

14 TU and B1: Hadas, p. 289 and Conte, pp. 505-506.; Conte, p. 507.

15 TU, B1, and B2: Adkins, p. 344, p. 341, p. 340.

16 TU: Stone p. 132, Ehrlich, p. 63 and p. 100. Cf. Ehrlich, p. 196; B1: Ehrlich, pp. 100-101 and p. 124, Pers. 1.84, and Lucr. 1.156-157, 1.265-266.; B2: Ehrlich, p. 195. Note that imprimātur is not explicitly sourced in that context, but has been added to prevent it being given as an answer.

17 TU: March, p. 492; B1: Ibid. and Tripp p. 64, 106. Cf. Ant. Lib. 28 and Ov. Met. 5.320 for “hawk” and “crow,” respectively; B2: March, p. 492 and Tripp, p. 204.

18 TU: Conte, p. 547: B1 Ibid. p. 378, pp. 259-260; B2: Ibid. p. 214

19 Sall. Cat. 10.

20 C&S, p. 109 and Heichelheim, p. 205; B1: Heichelheim, p. 138; B2: C&S, p. 213, p. 130.