1. What is the Latin for "book"?
2. Which of these English words comes from the Latin for book?
3. The language used by the Romans originated in
4. The original Latin alphabet comprised
5. In Latin verse, a couplet comprising a hexameter followed by a pentameter, such as was perfected by Ovid, is described as
6. In Latin verse, the break in the middle of the third foot of a hexameter or pentameter is called a
7. Virgil always wrote in hexameters.
8. Ovid always wrote in elegiac couplets.
9. The principal writer of the Greek “new comedy”, who influenced Plautus and Terence, was
10. Shakespeare’s play A Comedy of Errors is based on Plautus’s comedy The Brothers Menaechmus.
11. The long Latin poem which reflects the tenets of the Greek philosopher Epicurus is
12. The poet who publicly lampooned Julius Caesar was
13. Put the correct author to these quotations (if you don’t know Latin, count the syllables in each line, consider the metre from the sound of the lines, and think about the context from the translation):
i.
Si quando sedem augustam servataque mella Thesauris relines, prius haustu sparsus aquarum Ore fove, fumosque manu praetende sequacis.
“When you need to open up the noble hive and extract the honey from its storehouses, first take a sip of water and rinse out your mouth, then hold out in front of you a source of piercing smoke.
ii
Non semper idem floribus est honor Vernis, neque uno luna rubens nitet Voltu: quid aeternis minorem Consiliis animum fatigas?“The flowers of spring don't keep their bloom for ever, nor the blushing moon shine always with the same aspect: so why exhaust your mind, which is anyway unsuited to the task, by making plans for the future?”
iii
Me miserum! Certas habuit puer ille sagittas. Uror, et in vacuo pectore regnat Amor. Sex mihi surgat opus numeris, in quinque residat: Ferrea cum vestris bella valete modis!>
“Just my luck! The boy’s arrows never miss their mark. I’m all psyched up, Love rules my vacant heart. So let my couplet start with six feet, then subside to five: no more descriptions of epic battles with this metre of yours!”
14. The Roman poet who most frequently reflects in his verse the proverb “make hay while the sun shines” is
15. The patron of the arts who assisted both Horace and Virgil was
16. The Hellenistic pastoral poet whose verses strongly influenced Virgil’s first published work was
17. The Aeneid is a deliberate continuation of which poem by Homer?
18. Didactic means having the purpose to instruct. Virgil’s Georgics is a didactic poem primarily about
19. Julius Caesar and his family claimed to be descended from Iulus, the name given to Aeneas’s son. The connection with Aeneas which enabled them also to claim divine descent was through Aeneas’s
20. The name Propertius gives to his lover in his poetry is
21. A literal translation of the title given to Ovid’s most lasting poem, Metamorphoses, is
22. Ovid died peacefully in Rome.
23. Both Juvenal and Martial were observers of and commentators on aspects of daily life.
24. The Golden Ass features a conversion to
25. Julius Caesar wrote
books of De Bello Gallico.
26. Livy freely incorporated legends in his historical narrative.
27. The name of Tacitus’s father-in-law who was governor of Britain in AD 78 - 84 was Gnaeus Julius . . .
28. The author of a series of biographies of the Caesars was
29. The writer who was killed observing the eruption of Vesuvius was
30. Cicero’s close friend with whom he corresponded regularly between 65 and 44 BC was