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AJCL Certamen Prelims 2015
Round 1
1. Which blind King was received by Theseus in Athens? The Blind Boys of
Alabama made a gospel version of his saga at Colonus. Name the Theban with a
swollen foot:
Oedipus
Bonus 1. Who was Oedipus' mother/wife?
Jocasta
Bonus 2. Please give the dictionary form, in Latin, of the beast whose riddle
Oedipus unravels?
Sphinx, sphingis, f. sphinx
2. Give the dative singular, in Latin, for the phrase 'good sailor.' Bono nautae
Bonus 1. Please make bono nautae plural:
bonis nautis
Bonus 2. Please change that to genitive:
bonorum nautarum
3. What specific type of garment was worn by a general in triumph, and later by
the Roman emperors? It's a pure purple toga:
toga picta
Bonus 1. What type of toga would have been bleached with urine and
coated with clay to make it gleaming white?
Toga candida
Bonus 2. A giant, sacred type of this dress most associated with Spartan
women was made for Athena during the Great Panathenaia. Name it. Peplos
4. Who is the uncle of Perdix? He made a special, wide dance floor for Ariadne
and went on to design and build a structure for the son of Pasiphae he would barley
escape himself. He fashioned wings of wax for himself and his son. Who built the
Labyrinth?
Daedalus
Bonus 1.
5. Please translate the verb ambulo into Latin in the following sentence:
walking toward the river when the enemy attacked.
AMBULABANT
The soldiers were
Bonus 1. That soldier will walk to his post. AMBULABIT
Bonus 2. The soldiers had walked back to camp before dark.
AMBULAVERANT
6. Welcome to the Cinema Romana. This tournament will feature questions about
the Latin titles of the Master of Suspense! We begin with one of the last films
Hitchcock made in the UK before his move to Hollywood. What title would
translate to Matrona Evanescit?
The Lady Vanishes
Bonus 1. Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy mentions a 'Wheel of
Fortune' but strangely no Vanna White. What would Vanna Alba call such a
device?
Rota Fortunae
Bonus 2. Nelly mentions Vanna White in this hit song which could be
translated equita mecum, sort of…
Ride wit me
7. Complete the analogy: moneo: monuit :: sto : __________
stetit
Bonus 1. On which of Rome's seven hills did Romulus start building Rome?
Palatine
Bonus 2. Give the Roman numeral for how many vultures Romulus saw to
claim the city?
XII
8. He is one of the true villans in history. One day the Romans were besieging
Ardea when the officers got bored. They started drinking, then started boasting
about the virtue of their wives. After a stalkery tour, they come to the consensus
that Lucretia, wife of Collatinus, is the best of all. Who inadverdently serves as the
catalyst to the ouster of his family and the monarchy through his deception and
rapacious actions?
Sextus Tarquinius
It's a bonus on the movies!
Bonus 1. Roar! What's the motto of MGM studios?
Ars gratia artis
Bonus 2. The beginning of the film Gladiator is pretty cool, if a bit
excessive. Similar to a mangonel, what is the name of the wildly-kicking catapult
usually reserved for sieges featured in the in the attack.
onager
You're playing for a bonus on Kings, but first…
9. Please translate king into Latin from the following sentence: The enemy was
defeated by the king.
Ā regē
Bonus 1. Which Sabine and King of Rome learned much from his consort,
the nymph Egeria?
Numa Pompilius
Bonus 2. Near Nemi, the King of the Wood, the Rex Nemorensis, inspired
James Frazer's influential Golden Bough. The king was also a priest to what
divinity?
Diana
10. Lake Nemi is famous for strawberries, the Pope's holiday getaway in the
country, and a giant pleasure boat probably built for this Julio-Claudian. His
conquest of the sea is nearly as famous as his favourite horse, Incitatus. What son
of Germanicus was extremely fond of his sisters, especially Drusilla. Caligula
Bonus 1. What heroic soothsayer lived for generations before he drank from
a spring. He fell down dead instantly. Tiresias
Bonus 2. Tiresias was struck blind by Hera and Zeus gave him seven lives
because of a pronouncement he made to end a famous argument. Why was he
consulted? He'd been a man and a woman/both sexes/something like that.
11. Using an ablative absolute and the verb duco, translate into Latin 'since
Augustus is the leader…'
Augusto duce
Bonus 1. What's the supine of duco?
Ductum, -u
Bonus 2. Translate duco in the sentence Lead the army! into Latin duc
12. During a dangerous attack by the Aequi, what reluctant yet excellent
commander was found plowing his fields and attending his farm? Cincinnatus
Bonus 1. The Black Sea was known to the Greeks as what rather more
pleasant name?
Euxine Sea
Bonus 2. What part of the Mediterranean is named for the founder of the
Etruscans?
Tyrrhenian Sea
13. This author didn't want to pay tax, so he gave an extravagant funeral and
constructed an epic tomb for his housefly on his grounds knowing tax exemptions
were going to be issued for all burial grounds. He also wrote the Georgics and
Eclogues. Who went on to pen the Aeneid? (at least mostly) Vergil
It's a bonus on that Rascal, Vergil…
Bonus 1. If you expected to read tenuerunt, but came across tenuere instead, what
has Vergil just done?
Used a shortened perfect
Bonus 2. What happened if you wanted to see accessistis, but read accestis?
syncope
14. Homer is may be describing nearby Kephalonia of Captain Corelli's Mandolin
fame instead of this island itself. To what place was Odysseus trying to return to
realize his nostos?
Ithaca/Ithake
Bonus 1. Near Ithake is the Ambrician Gulf. What sea battle of 31 BC lent
Octavian hegemony over the Roman Imperium?
Actium
Bonus 2. Who defeated Hannibal at the Battle of Zama in 202 BC?
Scipio Africanus
15. What derivative of plicare means two-fold?
Duplicate
Bonus 1. What mountain range runs down the center of Italy? Apennines
Bonus 2. What river lends its name to the Iberian peninsula? Iberus/Ebro
2015 AJCL Certamen Prelims
Round 2
1. His name means 'broad strength.' Zeus proclaimed that on the day Alcmeme
was to give birth to Hercules that a child of his would be born to rule over all
others. Hera rushed to Argos, where she keeps some of her arms, and induced the
wife of Sthenelus, King of Mycenae and Tiryns, to give birth to this man. After
death this man's head apparently shriveled up to resemble a duck's. He is most
famous for imposing the Labors on Hercules.
Eurystheus (Eujrusqeuv")
Bonus 1. Hera, or rather Juno, keeps her chariot in this place which she also
cherishes. Aristotle admired their government. It's citadel is known as the Byrsa.
Name it.
Carthage
Bonus 2. Venus' numen is worshiped at this city on Cyprus. Where does
Aeneas' mom have a temple in addition to a hundred altars glowing with incense
and exhaling wreaths of fresh cut flowers?
Paphos
2. From what Latin word with what meaning are all of the following derived:
common, communist, municipal, and remuneration?
Munus – gift (need both, prompt partial answer)
Bonus 1. After his exile from power, Tarquinius Superbus fled to the aid of
Lars Porsenna in this Etruscan stronghold:
Clusium/Closium/Clusinum/Chiusi/Clevsin/Clusio(n) – anything like that
Bonus 2. Porsenna met his match in a young maiden sent to him as a
hostage. She led a group of girls out of his camp and swam across the Tiber. Who
was the only woman honored with an equestrian statue on the Via Sacra? Cloelia
3. Identify the ablative usage in the following sentence: Pater amīcī mecum
ambulābant.
Accompaniment
Bonus 1. Who didn't pay the gods for building the famous walls of Troy?
It's why Poseidon sent a sea monster to terrorize the city and Apollo sent them a
plague.
King Laomedon
Bonus 2. Laomedon's most famous son is his youngest. He changes his
name from Podarces after ransoming himself from Hercules with a golden veil
made by his sister, Hesione.
Priam
4. Welcome to the Cinema Romana! For a change, name this recent Academy
Award Winner: Duodecim Annos Servus
12 Years a Slave
Bonus 1. Quid Anglicē significat 'quotīdiē'? (cotidie)
every day
Bonus 2. Quid Anglice significat 'clam'
secretly, in secret
5. Tribus et viginti vulneribus confossus est. With these words Eutropius
describes the death of what Roman leader whose mortal wounds were inflicted by
a conspiracry of senators led by Brutus and Cassius?
Julius Caesar
Bonus 1. What temple does Octavian vow to avenge the death of Caesar?
Mars Ultor (Avenger)
Bonus 2. Which member of the 2nd triumvirate remained in Italy during the
Philippi campaign?
Lepidus
6. Please translate the following into English: Sapiens fēmina urbem servāvit.
The wise woman saved(preserved, protected) the city
Bonus 1. What was Rome's most disastrous defeat in the Second Punic
War?
Cannae
Bonus 2. What 206 battle saw Scipio develop his double envelopment to
defeat Mago and Hasdrubal Gisco? He drove Carthage out of Spain permanently
here.
Battle of Ilipa (Seville)
7. This author arrived late to his brother's funeral, but he sure must love kisses!
He asks for them all to be scrambled up and for us not to care an as for the opinion
of the severe old men. To the dismay of Horace, who in fact settles the lyric genre
to Italic modes?
Catullus
Please translate the following verbs in context into Latin: Your verb will be pono
Bonus 1. Sir, you placed the book on the wrong shelf. POSUISTI
Bonus 2. The prisoners were placed in the dungeon.
POSITI SUNT
8. He apparently came to Etruria from Greece where he was known as Lucumo. His
wife was a power-hungry prophet who helped him secure the kingship. Who was
the fifth king of Rome?
Tarquinius Priscus
Bonus 1. What type of Roman structure does the following list all name:
Domitian's, Trajan's, Titus', and Caracalla's?
Baths Thermae
Bonus 2. Trajāna, Claudia, Virgō, Annio Novis, and the Appia?
Aqueducts
9. Differentiate in meaning between ager and aeger.
Field and sick
Bonus 1. Who was the nephew of Hercules who served as his charioteer,
helper, and advisor; especially against the Lernaean Hydra when he quickly
cauterized the stumps at the ends of the snake heads.
Iolaus
Bonus 2. Romulus was watching his army when he disappeared and was
believed to have been enveloped in a cloud. The Romans decided to deify him.
Named for the hill on which this happened, what was his new god-name? Quirinus
10. What use of the genitive is found with words like satis and nihil?
Partitive/of the whole/quantity
Bonus 1. Who dies last in the Aeneid?
Turnus
Bonus 2. Complete the analogy. Achilles : Patroclus :: Aeneas : _______
Pallas
11. What Latin legal phrase describes the state of the relationship we have with
many of you tonight? It indicates our legal responsibility to made custodial
decisions in a parent's stead.
In loco parentis
It's time again, for the Latin jukebox. We look to the past few years for this round.
Bonus 1. What Fun hit from 2012 might the Romans have called Aliquae
Noctēs?
Some nights
Bonus 2. How about Dēsinere nōn possumus?
We can't stop
You'll be playing for a bonus on trees and the people they used to be, but first this…
12. The internet calls him 'a true artist surrounded by vicious, ignorant plebs.' Which
Julio-Claudian has a neck beard?
Nero
Bonus 1. Which couple was transformed into an Oak and Linden tree thanks
to their piety and reverence for xenia?
Baucis and Philemon
Bonus 2. This woman actually was an Oak nymph, a Dryad. She was bitten
by a viper on her wedding day and died instantly. Her husband descended to the
underworld to fetch her to no avail. Name the wife of Orpheus. Eurydice
13. Claudius was credited with rebuilding what structure which had been completed
in 55 BC but subsequently burned down? The building was the largest and first of
its kind, skirting the laws of the time by including a small shrine to Venus at the back
thus making it, technically, a temple. It's best remembered as the building just
outside of which Julius Caesar was assassinated.
Theatre of Pompey
Bonus 1. Which emperor, who came to power in 285 AD, brought many of
the troubles of the 3rd century to a halt thanks to his idea of tetrarchy.
Diocletion
Bonus 2. Diocletion is known for splitting his empire in half. In his
retirement, where on the Dalmatian coast of the Adriatic, does he decide to build a
palace as his refuge and protection?
Split (Splitona)
14. What is the idiomatic meaning of the Latin phrase 'bellum gerere'?
to ware war
Bonus 1. Which hero slew Memnon and his female doppelganger,
Penthesilea, the Queen of the Amazons?
Achilles
Bonus 2. Honk, honk! Who woke to this noise on the Capitoline hill one
night in 390 BC only to find Gauls trying to invade?
Marcus Manlius
15. Horace once said, 'nunc est Bibendum.' One favourite Roman drink, and a
particular favorite of Caligula's, was mulsum. It was made of four parts wine and
one part of what sweet substance? The Roman word was mel: honey
Bonus 1. Either the Greek or Roman name is sufficient for this answer.
Which deity was the first born from Rhea and last to the regurgigated from Cronus
and therefore, according to the Homeric Hymns, the first and last honored with toasts
and wine offerings at Roman banquets? Vesta/Hestia
Bonus 2. What was the traditional desert at Roman dinner parties? apples