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Roman History
Life and Works of Caesar
Literary Genre and Style
Life and Works of Vergil
Scansion, Rhetorical Devices
100

In 31 BC, this battle between Octavian and Antony & Cleopatra concluded what was essentially 100 years of different civil wars in Roman History.

What is the Battle of Actium?

100

Caesar was famously assassinated in 44 BC, on this day.

What is March 15, the Ides of March

100
To which ancient genre does the Aeneid belong?
What is epic poetry?
100
This well-to-do Roman was Vergil's patron (as well as Horace's and Propertius'). He was so famous a literary patron that his name is now synonymous with patronage of the arts.
Who is Maecenas? (and maecenate)
100
The Aeneid is written in which meter?
What is so-called dactylic hexameter ("epic verse")
200

The original Romans were a mixture of peoples of which two races/origins?

What is Trojans and Italians/Latins/Albans

200

Caesar famously recalculated this Roman tool, removing power from the pontificate.

What is the calendar?

200
Books 1-6 of the Aeneid relate Aeneas' journey from Troy to Italy. Books 7-12 show the battles to win over Italy. Which epics are these two halves modeled after?
Books 1-6 are reminiscent of Homer's Odyssey; 7-12 of Homer's Iliad
200
Vergil lived in the age of which Roman emperor?
What is Augustus?
200
Some lines of the Aeneid are incomplete for this reason.
What is Vergil died before he finished the poem (and by the way, he wanted it burned after his death, not published!)
300
The Romans fought the Punic Wars against this powerful city in Northern Africa.
What is Carthage?
300

Caesar's account of the Gallic Wars comprises how many books?

What is 7? *the 8th was written by Hirtius

300

Vergil uses older morphological forms (like obtinuere instead of obtinuerunt) to make the poem seem older, more traditional, and more connected with Roman history. What is this feature called?

What is archaizing (can also accept syncopation)

300
According to legend, Vergil was such a perfectionist that it took him a whole day to write this number of lines of poetry a day.
What is 3 lines a day?
300
This rhetorical device is characterized by two like words surrounded by two unlike words, in an ABBA order.
What is chiasmus?
400

This Roman general turned on Rome with his armies in the middle of the Social Wars, and later issued proscriptions against his enemies.

Who is Sulla?

400

Caesar argued in the senate in 63 BC in favor of mercy for this conspirator against the republic.

Who is Catiline

400
Vergil modeled some of the Aeneid (for example, the characterization of Aeneas, Venus and Cupid's argument in Book I, and the character of Dido) on another Greek epic, Apollonius of Rhodes' Argonautica. Which ancient myth is the Argonautica about?
What is Jason and the argonauts?
400
Vergil also wrote a four-book epic-didactic poem about agriculture called this.
What is the Georgics?
400
This rhetorical device is a form of deliberate understatement--for example, "not small" instead of "big".
What is litotes?
500
This emperor's name means "revered one" or "sacred one".
Who is Augustus?
500

Caesar wrote many works that are now lost to the vagaries of time. Name one.

What is Iter (epic poem about Gaul), book on Latin grammar, various speeches

500
Since Vergil will have been well-read in both Latin and Greek, it is unsurprising that some of the Aeneid, for example Dido's "raving like the Bacchae" in Book 4, evokes this Greek literary genre.
What is Greek tragedy?
500
Vergil's first (extant) work models itself on the poetry of the Greek Hellenistic poet Theocritus. What is it called?
What is Eclogues (or Bucolics)?
500

This rhetorical device is characterized by multiple connecting conjunctions.

What is polysyndeton?