1999 Ad Fontes Certamen
Level IV - Round Three

1. A participle, of course, is a verbal adjective. But give me the principal parts and meaning of the Latin verb from which our word "participle" derives. partior, -iri, -itus sum / to share (or partio, -ire, -ivi, -itus).

Bonus: Using a participle, say in Latin "Having delayed a little while, the soldiers left camp". Paulum (paulisper, aliquamdiu) morati, milites e castris excesserunt (ierunt, etc.)

2. What did Philoctetes receive as a reward for lighting Hercules' funeral pyre? Hercules' bow and arrow.

Bonus: Philoctetes sailed with the Greeks to Troy, but was marooned at Lemnos due to a rancid wound he had recieved from a snake bite. Later, when the Greeks begged him to rejoin them, he refused until Hercules, now a god, appeared and promised that he would be healed if he joined the Greeks and that with his arrows he would kill what Trojan? Paris.

3. What right did Roman citizens have by virture of the ius honorum? The right to hold public office.

Bonus: What right did they have by virtue of the ius imaginis? The right to place the death masks of their ancestors in their atria and carry them in funerals . [Anything close on this one is acceptable].

4. What two major sources did Livy use for his account of the Hannibalic War? Fabius Pictor and Polybius.

Bonus:It looks like Livy originally meant only to cover the history of Rome down to 43 B.C., when the liberty of the Roman people ended with the death of Cicero. But Livy lived on and so kept writing. With the events of what year did he finally finish his work? 9 B.C.

5. Distinguish faveo and foveo. To favor / to foster, cherish.

Bonus:Distinguish malus and malus (long -a). Evil, bad / mast of a ship.

6. In Book IV of the Aeneid what does Vergil describe as rushing through the cities of Africa, a malum qua non aliud velocius ullum / mobilitate viget, viresque adquirit eundo, a monstrum horrendum, ingens, cui, quot sunt corpore plumae / tot vigiles oculi subter? Rumor (or Fama).

Bonus:Please explain the grammar of eundo in that last line (repeat if necessary). Gerund, ablative of means (or manner).

7. Who am I? I was tribune in 57 B.C. and worked for Cicero's recall from exile. During the 50's I led a faction in the city riots while I rose through the curus honorum. In 52 B.C. I removed my chief enemy, but failed in my bid to become consul. I was brought to trial and, though Cicero defended, was convicted and went into exile at Massilia. (T. Annius) Milo.

Bonus: Milo did not die in Massilia. Describe the circumstances of his death. He returned to Italy during the civil war and was killed attempting revolution.

8. The "Proverbs of Seneca," an apocryphal collection from the Middle Ages, is full of good advice. Please translate this one: Bonum est non laudari, sed esse laudabilem. It is good not to be praised, but to be praiseworthy.

Bonus:Here's another: Bonis nocet qui malis parcit. He harms the good (people) who spares the evil.

9. Many excavations of republican and imperial houses reveal cultic meeting places of an eastern god, some 35 known from Rome itself. Typically these meeting places had an altar on a young man was depicted plunging a dagger into the flank of a bull. Who was this young man, the center of the cult worship? Mithras.

Bonus: Mithraism was only one of the eastern religions that spread throughout the Roman Empire. What rival cult was centered around an Egyptian goddess, whose name means "mistress of the house of life"? Isis.

10. Translate and give me the use of the subjunctive in this sentence: Scio nonnullos esse qui mihi nocere temptaverint. I know that some tried to harm me. Subjunctive in subordinate clause within indirect speech.

Bonus:Translate and give me the use of the subjunctive in this sentence: Nemo satis scit quid speret aut timeat. No one sufficiently knows what he should hope or fear. Subjunctive of indirect question or deliberative subjunctive.

11. For whom were these verses written: Unus homo nobis cunctando restituit rem. / Non enim rumores ponebat ante salutem? (Q.) Fabius Maximus (Cunctator).

Bonus:Who wrote these lines? Ennius.

12. Who am I? I was born a girl, but after being raped by Poseiden, he offered to grant my any wish. I wished to become a man and was granted that wish. Caenis or Caeneus.

Bonus:What other boon did Poseiden grant me? Invulnerability.

13. Tiberius did not have a happy family. His sons died before they could suceed him, victims of what malicious praetorian prefect? Sejanus.
Bonus:Sejanus wished to marry into the imperial family and did succeed in seducing what sister of Claudius and wife of Tiberius' son Drusus? Livilla.

14. In how many declensions are both feminine and masculine nouns found? All five.

Bonus: What declensions have no neuter nouns? First and Fifth.

15. Bacchus is not really the Roman name for Dionysus, the Greek god of wine. Bacchus, in fact, is simply another Greek name for Dionysus. With what purely Roman god was he associated? Liber (Pater).

Bonus:Give me the name for Liber Pater's main festival and the month in which it occurs. Liberalia / March.

16. You're in the countryside, looking at a beautiful landscape. You say to your friend, Locus est amoenius. Now change that to the plural. Loca sunt amoenia.

Bonus: Now distinguish between the plural nominatives loca and loci. Generally loca refers to places, loci to passages in a book.

17. What marshes, south of Rome along the coast, remained the haunt of highwaymen and robbers until well into the Empire? Pomptine Marshes.

Bonus:What emperor of the 2nd century attempted in vain to have the Pomptine Marshes drained? Trajan.

18. Why people have double names in the ancient is a real puzzle. But, in any case, what were the names by which the son of Achilles was known? Pyrrhus and Neoptolemus.

Bonus: What common circumstance did Neoptolemus share with Philoctetes? The prophecy that Troy would not fall until Neoptolemus fought on the Greek side.

19. Say in Latin "eight times". Octiens.

Bonus: Now say in Latin "three fold". Triplex.

20. Sometimes a Roman general was denied a triumph by the Senate and held one anyway, paid for out of his own pocket. Where were such triumphs usually held? On the Alban Mount.

Bonus: Sometimes a general was awarded a lesser form of triumph, in which in entered Rome not in a chariot but on horseback. What was this called. Ovatio (ovation).