Keartamen 4 (K4) - Preliminary Round 1

Moderator says: “I will read one test question for no points. This question is not reflective of the content of the round or tournament.

0. Test questions this year will contain no classical content but will instead be movie-themed! What country, whose directors produced A Fistful of Dollars and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly as part of a distinctive style of westerns, produced a film whose name means “the sweet life” — La Dolce Vita?

(REPUBLIC OF) ITALY // ITALIAN REPUBLIC

B1: An early post-war Italian film follows a Roman father who is searching for what sort of stolen vehicle?

BICYCLE / BIKE

B2: What influential Italian filmmaker directed such movies as Nights of Cabiria, La Dolce Vita, and 8½?

(FEDERICO) FELLINI

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

1. What city has frescoes depicting a bride’s initiation into Dionysus’ cult, a faun statue that adorns the atrium of a house containing the Alexander Mosaic, and ash-preserved graffiti like those found at Stabiae and Herculaneum?

POMPEII

B1: What building in Rome, which had a domed octagonal hall that was said to rotate in imitation of the night sky, contained frescoes in the so-called “Third Style” of Pompeian painting?

(NERO’S) DOMUS AUREA // (NERO’S) GOLDEN HOUSE

B2: Which Pompeian villa contains the frescoes depicting a bride’s initiation into Dionysus’ cult?

(VILLA OF THE) MYSTERIES

2. What Latin noun, with what meaning, lies at the root of the French phrase du jour and the French greeting bonjour, as well as the English words “sojourn,” “journey,” and “diary”?

DIĒS = DAY

B1: What Latin verb, with what meaning, lies at the root of the French imperative voila and the French valediction au revoir?

VIDEŌ / VIDĒRE = (TO / I) SEE

B2: What Latin adjective, with what meaning, lies at the root of the French greeting bonsoir and the French noun soirée?

SĒRUS = (TOO) LATE // SLOW / TARDY

3. What type of event, whose occurrence for Quintilia prompted an epicēdion, would occasion the composition of an epitaphium or the writing of a eulogium, known in English as a “eulogy”?

DEATH / FUNERAL / BURIAL // (FUNERAL) MEMORIAL [ACCEPT EQUIVALENTS]

B1: The satiric work Lūdus dē Morte Claudiī is most often known by what Greek title, which maybe means “pumpkinification”?

(SENECA THE YOUNGER’S) APOCOLOCYNTŌSIS (DĪVĪ CLAUDIĪ)

B2: What Atticist orator authored the epicēdion on the death of his wife Quintilia, as well as an epyllion called Io?

(GAIUS LICINIUS) CALVUS

4. Which Greek, who was stopped from contesting the javelin competition at Patroclus’ funeral since he was too skilled, variously sends Odius, Eurybates, Talthybius, and Phoenix on embassies to seize Briseïs and pacify Achilles?

AGAMEMNON

B1: To support Achilles after Briseïs is seized, Zeus sends a false dream to Agamemnon that promises victory to the Greeks. This dream occurs at the start of what book of the Iliad, which also contains the “Catalogue of Ships”?

(BOOK) 2 (OF THE ILIAD) // (ILIAD) 2 // (ILIAD) β // (ILIAD) BETA

B2: The only other man to stand for the javelin competition was which Greek, who had defeated Teucer in the previous contest?

MERIONES

5. What city, located across the river from Seleucia, was the site of Timesitheus’ death and successful sieges by Avidius Cassius, Galerius, and Trajan, who thus all sacked the capital of the Sassanid Persians?

CTESIPHON

B1: Timesitheus was Praetorian Prefect under what emperor, a youth who ruled from 238 A.D. to 244 A.D.?

GORDIAN III

B2: As Trajan captured Ctesiphon, what general of his recaptured northern Mesopotamia?

(LUSIUS) QUIETUS

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6. Translate this sentence from Latin to English: “quattuor diēs senātōrēs ōrātōrem creāre cōnābantur.”

FOR FOUR DAYS, (THE) {SENATORS / REPRESENTATIVES} {WERE TRYING // WERE ATTEMPTING} TO {ELECT / CREATE / CHOOSE} {A / THE SPEAKER (OF THE HOUSE) // A / THE (ORATOR)} [ACCEPT EQUIVALENTS]

B1: Now translate this sentence from Latin to English: “senātōrēs plūra suffrāgia tulērunt quam numerāre potuērunt.”

THE {SENATORS / REPRESENTATIVES} {CAST(ED) MORE VOTES // VOTED MORE TIMES // BORE MORE VOTES} THAN THEY {WERE ABLE TO // COULD} COUNT [ACCEPT EQUIVALENTS]

B2: Now translate this sentence from Latin to English: “adeō vespērāverat ut senātōrēs rērentur sē numquam ē cūriā discessūrōs esse.”

{IT HAD GOTTEN SO LATE // IT HAD GROWN SO LATE // IT WAS SO LATE} THAT THE {SENATORS / REPRESENTATIVES} WERE {JUDGING / THINKING / RECKONING} THAT THEY WOULD NEVER {DEPART FROM // LEAVE} THE {CURIA / SENATE-HOUSE // CAPITOL (BUILDING)} [ACCEPT EQUIVALENTS]

7. A hungry band of what animals near Mount Pangaeüs consumed the condemned Thracian king Lycurgus, just like another group of them ate their Bistonian master when Heracles fed them Diomedes?

HORSES / MARES / STALLIONS

B1: According to a later historical legend, the mares of Diomedes were ancestors of what horse of Alexander the Great?

BUCEPHALUS

B2: Heracles supposedly founded what Thracian city on the grave of a lover of his who was eaten by the mares of Diomedes?

ABDERA [REJECT “ABDERUS”]

8. What emperor declared a “dead enemy smells best, but a dead citizen smells even better” at the battlefield where he both won his rule and lost it months later, since his troops under Aulus Caecina could not defeat Vespasian’s generals?

(AULUS) VITELLIUS

B1: What general of Vitellius was present at the victory over Otho where Vitellius won his rule, but was absent at the defeat to partisans of Vespasian where Vitellius lost it?

(FABIUS) VALENS

B2: Name either Otho’s elder brother who was spared after Otho’s defeat or the governor of Syria who was sent by Vespasian to invade Italy but arrived slower than Antonius Primus.

(LUCIUS SALVIUS OTHO) TITIANUS or (GAIUS LICINIUS) MUCIANUS

9. What author was both educated at Cremona and recovered his property there with the help of Asinius Pollio, to whom he dedicated the “Messianic” fourth poem of his collection Eclogues?

(PUBLIUS) VERGIL(IUS MARO) // VIRGIL

B1: Vergil originally had to forfeit his farm at Cremona after what battle, where the poet Horace “threw down his shield”?

(BATTLE OF) PHILIPPI

B2: Furius Bibaculus, a native of Cremona, wrote an epic poem describing the deeds of what man, who was also the focus of an epic by Varro of Atax?

(GAIUS JULIUS) CAESAR

10. In various forms, what Latin verb appears in the abbreviation q.p., lies at the ultimate root of “plead,” and indicates a substance that lacks therapeutic value but is given only to “please” a patient?

PLACEŌ / PLACĒRE / PLACĒ(A)T / PLACĒBŌ / PLACEBO

B1: In Christianity, a “lavabo” is a sink used in a hand-washing ritual done before handling the Eucharist. Translate this sentence from Psalm 25, the origin of that name: “lavābō ... meās manūs et circumdabō altāre tuum, Domine: ut audiam vōcem laudis, et ēnārrem ūniversa mīrābilia tua.”

I WILL WASH MY HANDS AND {SURROUND / ENCOMPASS // GO ABOUT} YOUR ALTAR, LORD, SO THAT I MAY / CAN} HEAR THE VOICE OF PRAISE AND {TELL (OF) YOUR UNIVERSAL WONDERS // TELL (OF) ALL YOUR WONDROUS THINGS // TELL (OF) YOUR MARVELOUS UNIVERSES} [ACCEPT EQUIVALENTS]

B2: What English noun is perhaps a humorous formation based on the model and meaning of the Latin form vidēbō, unless it comes from Arabic?

GAZEBO

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11. What state has a school with the motto “studiīs et rēbus honestīs,” has the most recently adopted state Latin motto — “stēlla quārta decima fulgeat” — and has a name whose Latin roots mean “green mountain”?

VERMONT

B1: What state adopted its Latin motto the second-most recently and adapted it from a Ciceronian passage that describes “old men who labor at things which they know will not benefit them at all”?

NORTH DAKOTA

B2: Puerto Rico officially adopted a Latin motto in 1905 after it appeared on its coat of arms in 1511. Please give Puerto Rico’s motto.

IŌANNĒS EST NŌMEN EIUS // JŌANNĒS EST NŌMEN EJUS

12. What physical ability was possessed by the Thracian maiden Harpalyce, the impotent youth Iphiclus, the Argonautic voyager Euphemus, and the heroine Atalanta, who used it to defeat a procession of eager suitors?

SPEED // QUICKNESS // SWIFTNESS // FLEETNESS OF FOOT // FAST (RUNNING) [ACCEPT EQUIVALENTS]

B1: In Book 1 of the Aeneid, who is compared to Harpalyce as she meets Aeneas?

VENUS

B2: Name Iphiclus’ father, who gave a herd of a cattle to the man who cured Iphiclus of his sexual impotence.

PHYLACUS

13. Note to players: A description is acceptable. For what purpose would Romans organize an extispicium, conduct sortēs in the works of poets like Vergil, observe the eating habits of birds like chickens, and consult a Sibyl at a local ōrāculum?

DIVINATION // TO {KNOW / TELL / LEARN} THE FUTURE [ACCEPT EQUIVALENTS]

B1: Name the Roman diviners who inspected the entrails, or exta, of sacrificed animals in order to predict the future.

(H)ARUSPEX // (H)ARUSPICES

B2: In “hepatoscopy,” haruspices examined what part of a sheep’s body, a metal model of which was found at Piacenza covered in the names of various Etruscan deities?

LIVER

14. What precocious author became quaestor before the minimum legal age and recited laudēs of the reigning emperor at 20, but soon afterwards joined Seneca in the Pisonian conspiracy and attacked Nero in his Pharsalia?

(MARCUS ANNAEUS) LUCAN(US)

B1: Lucan was born in what Spanish city, like Seneca the Elder and Seneca the Younger?

CÓRDOBA / CORDUBA / CORDOVA

B2: What uncle of Lucan, a fellow Pisonian conspirator, was the dedicatee of Seneca’s Dē Vītā Beātā?

(LUCIUS JUNIUS) GALLIO (ANNAEANUS) // (LUCIUS ANNAEUS) NOVATUS

15. What Latin word, which is implied alongside a distributive numeral in phrases like deciēns sēstertium that represent large sums of money, combines with passūs or passuum to mean “a thousand paces”?

MĪLLE / MĪLIA

B1: According to Livy, some writers said that at the Battle of Sentinum, the Roman enemies had “peditum sexiēns centēna milia, equitum sex et quadrāgintā mīlia, mīlle carpentōrum.” How many foot soldiers, how many horsemen, and how many chariots did they supposedly have?

600,000 FOOT SOLDIERS, 46,000 HORSEMEN, AND 1,000 CHARIOTS

B2: You are a Roman epigrapher using the vinculum system of Roman numerals. You have just carved the letters VI into stone: how would you modify the VI to indicate that you are six thousand paces from the city of Rome?

DRAW A (HORIZONTAL) LINE ABOVE (THE VI)

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16. According to Ishmael in Moby-Dick, the people of Joppa said what man killed a local whale sometimes called Cetus, though the normal version says he did this with Cepheüs’ approval in Ethiopia to save the life of Andromeda?

PERSEUS

B1: In the epilogue to Moby-Dick, Ishmael compares himself to what man as he is dragged “round and round” in a vortex? In mythology, this man married Dia and feuded with her father, who is called either Eioneus or Deioneus.

IXION

B2: Earlier in the novel, Ishmael says that “some sceptical Greeks and Romans” doubted the story of what man, a bard who rode a dolphin to Taenarum after escaping a group of pirates?

ARION

17. What dependent use of the subjunctive appears in the line “quod mihi nē ēveniat, nōn nūllum perīculum est,” which replicates the sense of “nonnihil formīdō nē id mihi ēveniat” or sentences using vereor, metuō, or timeō?

FEAR(ING CLAUSE)

B1: Translate the sentence “quod mihi nē ēveniat, nōn nūllum perīculum est” into English.

THERE IS {SOME // NOT NO} DANGER {LEST / THAT} {WHICH / THIS} {MAY HAPPEN // MAY OCCUR // HAPPENS // OCCURS} {TO / FOR} ME [ACCEPT EQUIVALENTS]

B2: Fear clauses and purpose clauses originally developed from what independent use of the subjunctive, which itself used to be an independent mood?

OPTATIVE (SUBJUNCTIVE / MOOD)

18. What consul, who undermined an ally’s oath by adding the phrase “if it is legal,” answered Servilius Glaucia’s thuggery by discharging a senātūs cōnsultum ultimum against Saturninus, ending his sixth consulship in 100 B.C.?

(GAIUS) MARIUS

B1: At one point, Saturninus proposed a command for Marius to deal with what growing threat, which Marcus Antonius had previously tried to stamp out in Cilicia, its epicenter?

PIRACY / PIRATES

B2: To save Saturninus’ life from angry mobs, Marius locked him in the senate-house. However, the mobs were still able to kill him when they took what course of action? A description is fine.

TORE OFF THE (TILES FROM THE SENATE-HOUSE) ROOF AND STONED HIM (WITH THEM) // STONED / PELTED HIM FROM THE ROOF // THREW ROOF TILES AT HIM [ACCEPT EQUIVALENTS]

19. Of the neuter nouns carmen, marmor, negōtium, pecus, and scūtum, which fits these clues: Secundum Cicerōnem, ūna cum margarītā et ebore in Siciliā ablatum est; imperātor substituit id lateribus Rōmae, secundum Suētōnium in Vītā Dīvī Augustī; hoc verbum Anglicē significat “marble.”

MARMOR

B1: In Cicero’s In Verrem, he also says that Verres stole “signum ullum aeneum.” What material does aeneum designate?

COPPER / BRONZE / BRASS

B2: In poetic usage, marmor can have what meaning, as in the line “inclūsaeque gelū stābunt in marmore puppēs”?

(BRIGHTENED SURFACE OF THE) SEA // WATER(S) // OCEAN

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20. What city, a native of which was freed by the senator Publius Lucanus for his literary talent, had its language spoken in Plautus’ comedy Poenulus and fought a war against Rome that inspired Naevius’ epic Bellum Punicum?

CARTHAGE / CARTHĀGŌ

B1: During the sack of Carthage in the Third Punic War, a treatise on what subject by the Carthaginian writer Mago was saved? This subject was addressed in the oldest fully extant Latin prose work.

AGRICULTURE / FARMING [ACCEPT EQUIVALENTS]

B2: What Roman writer authored a history of the Second Punic War that was lambasted by Polybius for its pro-Roman stance, as opposed to a pro-Carthaginian history of the First Punic War written by Philinus?

(QUINTUS) FABIUS PICTOR

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