Latin
Lines 1.15-1.17
Virginia Certamen Questions, Finals 1.15-17
Not analysed yet
6. We all know the Great Neuter Rule -the nominative and the accusative are the same and in the plural end with -a. But give me one example of a Latin word whose neuter plural form does NOT end in -a. Quae, haec, duo, ambo.
Bonus 1: Give me another.
Bonus 2: Give me another.
7. In 249 B. C. this Roman general threw the sacred chickens into the sea when the failed to produce a favorable omen. Who was this "good looking" general, the ancestor of Tiberius? [P.] Claudius Pulcher.
Bonus 1: When the sacred chickens refused to eat, thus giving Pulcher a bad omen, what did he utter as he flung them into the sea? If they will not eat, let them drink.
Bonus 2: What happend to Pulcher when he returned to Rome? He was charged with sacrilege and fined.
8. What verse pattern was typically used by ancients for their epic poems? Dactylic hexameter.
Bonus 1: What is the standard for the 5th foot of a dactylic hexameter? A dactyl.
A spondaic line.
9. The Greeks thought that this god was very well traveled, having roamed all the way to India and back before inventing wine. Dionysus /Bacchus
Bonus 1: Dionysus once arrived in Argos and duelled the local king, another son of Zeus. Who was this king? Perseus.
Bonus 2: OK, so we know Dionysus' father was Zeus. Who was his mother? Semele.
10. Saturninus and Glaucia were not, of course, killed in 100 B. C. That year never existed. What year were they slain A.U. C.? 654.
Bonus 1: The great disaster at the Teutoberg Forest didn't occur in 9 A.D. but in this year A.U. C. 762.
Bonus 2: Well, we know that the Romans normally dated their years by the names of the consuls. What scholar of the Late Republic standardized the A.U. C. dating? Varro.