Keartamen 4 (K4) - Preliminary Round 4




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. What movie, which contains a scene where the lead characters appear to be floating in the planetarium of the Griffith Observatory, shows an aspiring actress and budding jazz musician in Los Angeles with songs like “City of Stars”?

LA LA LAND

B1: In La La Land, what color dress is Mia, Emma Stone’s character, wearing as she tap dances with Sebastian, Ryan Gosling’s character, on a hill overlooking the “City of Angels”?

YELLOW

B2: In La La Land, what kind of building allows Sebastian to find Mia’s childhood home in Nevada after she leaves Los Angeles due to the abysmal failure of her one-woman-show?1

(THE HOUSE IN FRONT OF THE) LIBRARY


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


1. What modern-day country was home to a people whose funerary urns sometimes resembled huts, the Faliscans and the Oscans, and a people who introduced a purple-bordered cloth garment for their magistrates — the Etruscans?

(REPUBLIC OF) ITALY // ITALIAN REPUBLIC

B1: Around 600 B.C., an important Etruscan alliance formed among a group of how many cities?

12

B2: What archaeologist discovered a namesake vase at Chiusi depicting a procession of gods to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, as well as a namesake Etruscan tomb at Vulci with frescoes of Caelius Vibenna, Mastarna, and Gnaeus Tarquinius?

(ALESSANDRO) FRANÇOIS


2. What Latin noun is the root of Latin words meaning “tameness” and “an enslaved person working as a secretary,” as well as a compound of dō meaning “to order” and a compound of mittō meaning “to free from slavery”?

MANUS

B1: What is the meaning of manus in a military sense?

{BAND / GROUP / COMPANY / HOST / MULTITUDE} (OF SOLDIERS / MEN) [ACCEPT EQUIVALENTS]

B2: What is the meaning of the Latin noun manubiae, which derives from manus?

SPOILS (OF WAR) // BOOTY [ACCEPT EQUIVALENTS]


3. What creatures indirectly caused the creation of the island Nisyrus, the region of Pallene’s increased volcanic activity, and the birth of Typhon by their vengeful mother — Gaia — when they lost a battle with the gods?

GIANTS / GIGANTES

B1: Which of the giants, sometimes considered the strongest, tried to rape Hera during the Gigantomachy and was killed by the arrows of Heracles?

PORPHYRION

B2: Which two giants were killed with bronze clubs during the Gigantomachy?

AGRIUS and THOAS


4. What literary genre, in which Romans “quoque Graecōs prōvocāmus,” included first-person poems about a shadowy domina and the servitium amoris, like with Cytheris and Cornelius Gallus or Cynthia and Propertius?

ELEGY / ELEGIAC / ELEGIA

B1: What elegist’s line “ūnō tellūrēs dīvidit amne duās” was long his only to survive?

(CORNELIUS) GALLUS

B2: What elegist wrote six exceedingly short poems to a lover whose pseudonym probably means “horned” in Greek?

SULPICIA


5. What emperor ignored increased maiestās trials and the flourishing of dēlātōrēs while plots against him were fomented by Livilla, who was exposed by Naevius Sutorius Macro even as he remained on the island of Capri?

TIBERIUS

B1: According to Josephus, Tiberius was alerted to the threat of Sejanus in a letter carried to Capri by which Greek freedman, who was prominent in Claudius’ administration together with Narcissus and Callistus?

PALLAS

B2: What author of an annalistic history in which he called Cassius “the last of the Romans” was indicted for maiestās under Tiberius, after which he starved himself to death?

(AULUS) CREMUTIUS CORDUS


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6. What poet, who interrupts his narrative for an aetiology of Falernian wine, wrote “with greater care than genius” in the extended descriptions of Lake Trasimene and Cannae that appear in his Silver-Age epic Punica?

(TIBERIUS CATIUS ASCONIUS) SILIUS ITALICUS

B1: How many books was Silius Italicus’ Punica?

17

B2: In Book 12 of the Punica, Italicus praises what man, “born of the ancient line of King Messapus,” for fighting in the front rank of the Roman forces?

(QUINTUS) ENNIUS


7. Note to players: There will be an extra clue after the sentence is read twice. Translate into English the following sentence from Erasmus: “Tuae litterae mē magnopere dēlectārunt.” That’s “tuae litterae mē magnopere dēlectārunt.” Know that dēlectārunt is short for dēlectāvērunt, which means “pleased.”

YOUR LETTER(S) {PLEASED / DELIGHTED} ME GREATLY [ACCEPT EQUIVALENTS]

B1: In Erasmus’ manual Dē Cōpiā, he lists 146 different ways of expressing the sentence “tuae litterae mē magnopere dēlectārunt” as an exercise in style. He also offers 195 variations on the sentence “semper dum vīvam, tuī meminerō.” Translate that sentence into English.

{ALWAYS WHILE I (MAY) LIVE // SO LONG AS I (MAY) LIVE}, I WILL REMEMBER YOU [ACCEPT EQUIVALENTS]

B2: Some variations are longer than others. Please translate this variation on the sentence “tuae litterae mē magnopere dēlectārunt” into English as literally as possible: “dīcī vix queat quantum mihi laetitiae tuīs ex lītterīs obortum sit.”

{SCARCELY / HARDLY} {MAY // IS // CAN // COULD} {IT BE POSSIBLE TO SAY // IT BE SAID} HOW MUCH (OF) {JOY / HAPPINESS} {AROSE // APPEARED // HAS ARISEN // HAS APPEARED} FROM YOUR LETTER(S) FOR ME [ACCEPT EQUIVALENTS]


8. Although he lifted a boulder that “twelve choice men could hardly budge,” what man was stabbed just above an image of the Danaids’ crime on a stolen sword-belt as “Rutulians groan” at the end of the Aeneid?

TURNUS

B1: Before Aeneas kills Turnus, Turnus asks him to spare him out of pity for what man, his father and the husband of Venilia?

DAUNUS

B2: During the duel, Turnus uses the sword of what charioteer of his, but the sword breaks upon hitting Aeneas’ divine armor?

METISCUS


9. What Roman god — whose domain was smeared with wolf’s fat by a new bride — had the epithet Bifrōns, was once worshipped on a namesake hill across the Tiber from Rome, and had a temple whose gates opened during war?

JANUS

B1: Several ancient shrines to Janus have been discovered along what street, which connected the Roman Forum to the Velian and essentially served as Rome’s main street?

VIA SACRA // SACRED WAY

B2: After the Roman victory at Mylae, Gaius Duilius dedicated a second temple to Janus in which Republican forum, where the Temple of Spēs was also located?

(FORUM) HOLITŌRIUM


10. Individual members of what mythological group are described in the following adapted Latin quotations: “aurea subnectēns exsertae cingula mammae”; “[huic] balteum dētrāxit [hērōs]”; “audetque virīs concurrere virgō”; bearing the epithet “Martia”; “bellātrīx”?

AMAZON(S)

B1: In Book 11 of the Aeneid, Camilla and her comrades are compared to Amazons who “magnōque ululante tumultū ... exsultant.” Translate this phrase into English.

(AND THEY) EXULT IN A GREAT HOWLING {TUMULT / CROWD} [ACCEPT EQUIVALENTS]

B2: Translate these lines from the Aeneid, in which Aeneas describes what one competitor will receive as a prize for the footrace at Anchises’ funeral-games: “habētō / alter Amāzoniam pharetram plēnamque sagittīs / Thrēiciīs, lātō quam circum amplectitur aurō / balteus.”

LET ANOTHER (ONE / MAN) HAVE A QUIVER, AMAZONIAN AND FULL OF THRACIAN ARROWS — (A QUIVER) WHICH {A BELT OF WIDE GOLD EMBRACES / SURROUNDS / GIRDS / CHASES // A BELT EMBRACES (ALL) AROUND WITH WIDE GOLD} [ACCEPT EQUIVALENTS]


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11. What meaning is shared by the Latin noun cacūmen, the Latin noun fastīgium, the Latin noun culmen, and the Latin nouns apex and vertex?

HIGHEST PART // (MOUNTAIN-)TOP // PEAK // HEIGHT // ZENITH // SUMMIT // PINNACLE [PROMPT ON “VERTEX” or “APEX”]

B1: What is the meaning of the Latin word calamus, which is sometimes found in the phrase lāpsus calamī and which comes from the same Proto-Indo-European root as culmen?

REED / CANE / PEN / FISHING-ROD / PIPE

B2: What Latin word meaning “plume of a helmet” comes from the same Proto-Indo-European root as culmen?

CRISTA


12. Note to players: A description is acceptable. What undertaking, sabotaged for many at the promontory of Caphareus through the deceit of Nauplius, necessitated a visit to Pharos to capture the prophetic god Proteus and an audience with Tiresias for the waylaid Odysseus?

RETURNING (TO GREECE) FROM {TROY // THE TROJAN WAR} // NOSTOS / NOSTOI //
RETURNING HOME FROM {TROY // THE TROJAN WAR} [ACCEPT EQUIVALENTS]

B1: Which Greek reached Salamis but was exiled by his father, Telamon, who said he had not properly brought his brother’s body or arms home?

TEUCER

B2: On his return to Crete, Idomeneus discovered that his wife Meda had cheated on him with what man, who then killed Meda and usurped the rule of Crete?

LEUCUS


13. What foreign leader tried to starve out an invading army as it besieged Avaricum, defeated a force that lacked the lieutenant Titus Labienus at the siege of Gergovia, and was himself captured in 52 B.C. at Alesia by Caesar?

VERCINGETORIX

B1: Vercingetorix was the leader of what tribe from south-central Gaul?

ARVERNI

B2: During the siege of Alesia, Caesar applied what extraordinary tactic to ensure that his siege would be successful without a relief force from the Gauls? A description is fine.

CIRCUMVALLATION and CONTRAVALLATION // BUILT A WALL TO BESIEGE THE CITY AND BUILT A WALL TO HIS OUTSIDE TO STOP ANY ATTACK BY A RELIEF FORCE
[ACCEPT EQUIVALENTS; PROMPT ON “BUILT TWO WALLS”]


14. What cognōmen is shared between the Neoteric author of Lydia and the author of Carmen Dē Mōribus, the latter of whom also wrote a seven-book account of Rome’s early history that he called the Orīginēs?

CATO / CATŌ

B1: Whom does Cato address in a book of precepts that contains such sayings as “rem tenē, verba sequentur”?

(HIS) SON // MARCUS (PORCIUS CATO LICINIANUS)

B2: An epigram about Valerius Cato calls him the Latin version of what creature, “alone reading and making poets”?

SIREN


15. What sort of person might provide an incidental obiter dictum, may elect to stāre dēcīsīs, could issue a mandāmus, and is allowed to invite assistance from an amīcus cūriae?

JUDGE / JUSTICE

B1: What Latin word, literally meaning “to be made certain,” refers to a writ that calls for a lower court’s record of a proceeding, allowing the higher court to take judicial review?

CERTIŌRĀRĪ

B2: What two-word Latin phrase denotes a legal proceeding undertaken solely for one side’s benefit, without the other side being present, as in famous Civil-War-era cases named for Milligan and Merryman?

EX PARTE


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16. What is the meaning of the Latin noun at the root of “cavalcade” and “chivalry” — which are both from caballus, like “cavalry” — as well as the Latin noun at the root of “equestrian”?

(RIDING-)HORSE

B1: The words “pony” and “poultry” both derive from what Latin word, which means both “foal” and “chicken”?

PULLUS

B2: What English word for a “docile horse used for riding, especially by women,” derives from the Latin word verēdus, meaning “post-horse”?

PALFREY


17. What region, ruled by the Nabataean Kingdom until it became a Roman province governed from the rock-cut city of Petra, produced the emperor who celebrated Rome’s one-thousandth birthday in 247 A.D. — Philip?

ARABIA (PETRAEA) // (NABATAEAN) ARABIA [REJECT “ARABIA FELIX” or “ARABIA DESERTA” or “ARABIAN PENINSULA”]

B1: What emperor deliberately withdrew troops from most eastern provinces that his predecessor had conquered, but retained Arabia Petraea?

HADRIAN

B2: Using troops drawn from Arabia Petraea, what prefect of Egypt invaded Arabia Felix during Augustus’ reign?

(GAIUS) AELIUS GALLUS


18. Plautine phrases like “proximae vīcīniae habitat,” “veniās temperī,” and “is hūc vēnit vesperī” all feature the archaic independent use of what case, which is also found in “rurī” and “domī”?

LOCATIVE

B1: Translate into English this sentence, which features a genitive of value: Parvī enim sunt forīs arma, nisi est cōnsilium domī.

{ARMS / WEAPONS} ARE OF LITTLE WORTH {ABROAD / OUTDOORS // IN THE FIELD}, UNLESS THERE IS {(A) PLAN / COUNSEL} AT HOME [ACCEPT EQUIVALENTS]

B2: What two-word Latin phrase means “at home and abroad,” like domī bellīque or domī bellōque?

DOMĪ MĪLITIAEQUE // DOMĪ DUELLĪQUE


19. What man was approached by a comic actor and a native of Ameria who had the same name, an alleged poisoner named Cluentius, and inhabitants of Sicily exploited by the provincial governor Gaius Verres for defense in court?

(MARCUS TULLIUS) CICERO

B1: What pre-consular speech by Cicero was also called Dē Imperiō Gnaēī Pompēī?

PRŌ LĒGE MĀNĪLIĀ

B2: What man’s seizure of Roscius the Amerian’s property prompted Cicero’s defense speech?

CHRYSOGONUS


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20. What mythological man “wandered [namelessly] across the Aleian plain” long after he won Philonoë’s hand for his defeat of the Solymi — a tribe that Iobates thought would be a sterner test than the Chimaera?

BELLEROPHON

B1: What king had sent Bellerophon to Iobates because he could not kill Bellerophon due to the principles of xenia?

PROËTUS

B2: In Book 6 of the Iliad, Glaucus tells the story of Bellerophon, his grandfather. Glaucus starts his story with the royal lineage of what city, Bellerophon’s home? Please give the ancient name as it appears in the Iliad.

EPHYRA


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TB1: What Latin adverb — which appears in Elizabeth I’s motto and with nōn in a Senecan phrase meaning “every day can’t be a holiday” — begins the motto of the U.S. Space Force, like the mottoes of two other service branches?

SEMPER

B1: Translate this quotation from Edmund of Abingdon: “disce ut semper vīctūrus, vīve ut crās moritūrus.”

LEARN AS IF {YOU WILL LIVE // (YOU ARE) ABOUT TO LIVE} {FOREVER / ALWAYS}, LIVE AS IF {YOU WILL DIE // (YOU ARE) ABOUT TO DIE} TOMORROW [ACCEPT EQUIVALENTS]

B2: Fill in the blank in this quotation from Pliny the Elder with the proper geographical location: “Ex [blank] semper aliquid novī.”

ĀFRICĀ


TB2: What people, who met at the grove of Ferentina, agreed to a peace called the Foedus Cassiānum after forces under Octavius Mamilius lost the battle of Lake Regillus, weakening their so-called “League”?

LATIN(S) // LATIN (LEAGUE) // LATĪNĪ

B1: The Latin League ultimately dissolved following what important Roman victory more than a century after Lake Regillus?

(BATTLE OF) ANTIUM / ANZIO

B2: Give the Latin word that refers to a “review” of the cavalry that the Romans conducted after winning at Lake Regillus.

TRĀNSVECTIŌ (EQUITUM / EQUŌRUM)


TB3: What author, who advocated focusing on “rērum pondera” in a work dedicated to Vitorius Marcellus, provided the material for Artis Rhētoricae, authored Dē Causīs Corruptae Ēloquentiae, and wrote Īnstitūtiō Ōrātōria?

(MARCUS FABIUS) QUINTILIAN(US)

B1: How many books is Quintilian’s Īnstitūtiō Ōrātōria?

12

B2: What was notable about the publication of Quintilian’s Artis Rhētoricae? A description is fine.

PUBLISHED AGAINST HIS WILL (BY HIS STUDENTS, FROM NOTES THEY HAD TAKEN) [ACCEPT EQUIVALENTS]


TB4: What sort of event is called lectisternium for gods or daps for humans, who might also dub it epulae, a convivium, or a cēna?

BANQUET / FEAST / MEAL / DINNER [ACCEPT EQUIVALENTS; PROMPT ON “(PUBLIC) PRAYER”]

B1: The word epulae has what sort of grammatical irregularity? A description is fine.

HETEROGENEOUS // CHANGES GENDERS (IN THE SINGULAR VS. PLURAL) // SINGULAR IS {EPULUM / NEUTER // SECOND DECLENSION}, WHILE PLURAL IS {EPULAE / FEMININE // FIRST DECLENSION}

B2: What plural Latin word for “market-day” perhaps follows the same heterogeneous pattern?

NŪNDINAE


TB5: In various sources, what mythological group fits these clues: they caused a king to throw himself from the roof of his Thracian tower; they were called Melete, Aoede, and Mneme; they defeated the Pierides in a contest; they were the children of Zeus and Mnemosyne?

MUSES / MOUSAI

B1: Which participant in the Trojan War was said to be the child of Calliope and the Thracian river-god Strymon?

RHESUS

B2: What other mythological group were sometimes said to be the children of Apollo and the muse Thalia?

CORYBANTES


1 This question was written by Vicki Li.