Classics Exam 2

Where were Greek tragedies performed? How many actors? What playwrights wrote works that survive?

Festivals, specifically ‘Greater’ Dionysia.

3 actors in each tragedy

Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides.

What was the City Dionysia?

It was a festival that took place in March/early April in Athens with 5 comedies and 3 tragedies being performed.

What was the Dithyramb?

Dithyramb is a choral hymn performed in honor of Dionysus

What’s the plot of Oedipus the King

In his quest to save his city from a plague, Oedipus discovers he has unknowingly fulfilled a prophecy by killing his father, King Laius, and marrying his mother, Queen Jocasta, leading to his tragic downfall.

What were Aristotle’s Poetics?

It’s the treatise that lays the foundation for literary theory, focusing on poetry drama and epic.

What was Greek Comedy?

Stories that used social/life politics for parody and had jokes that were often crude/explicit with individuals being subject to abuse. They also had choruses with 24 members.

Who was Aristophanes?

He was the leading author of Old Attic Comedy, and 11 of his plays still exist.

Who was Menander and what’s different about New Comedy?

Menander was the one that started making new comedies and the main difference is that it focused on domestic life, usually ending with a happy ending for lovers. Stereotypes such as the stern father, scheming slave, etc. were also used.

Who was Terence?

He was a Roman playwright who adapted the new comedies written by Menander and his dudes.

What was the Self-Tormentor about?

Menedemus, a father who punishes himself for forcing his son, Clinia, into exile, and Chremes, a neighbor whose slave, Syrus, tricks him while aiding the romantic, complicated love lives of their sons

Who was Aristoxenus and why is he important?

Aristoxenus was a pupil of Aristotle and he was important because he was the one that started the theory of music.

What is a tetrachord? What are the differences between

• enharmonic

• chromatic

• diatonic

A series of 4 notes spanning an interval of a fourth.

Enharmonic - 2 quarter tones, interval of 2 tones

Chromatic - 2 half-tones, interval of 1.5 tones

Diatonic - semitone, 2 tones

What’s an aulos/auloi?

It’s a pipe with holes and a reed. Auloi is 2 being played simultaneously. Most probably used double reeds.

What’s the solstice?

Occurs when the sun is furthest north/south.

What’s the equinox?

Occurs when the sun is above the equator.

What’s the gnomon?

The projecting piece on a sundial that casts a shadow to indicate time of day

What’s an ecliptic?

The imaginary path the Sun appears to trace across the celestial sphere over a year, representing Earth’s orbital plane projected into space

What were the proofs for the sphericity of the Earth?

ships disappearing hull-first over the horizon, curved shadows during lunar eclipses, and changing constellations by latitude

What’s a trireme?

A giant oar-driven warship powered by 170 oarsmen.

What’s a phalanx?

ancient Greek infantry formation with shields and spears

What’s a hoplite/hoplite panoply?

Hoplite is the soldier, hoplite panoply is the armor they wore which was notoriously heavy.

Who was Hesiod?

He organized the Greek pantheon and developed the relationships between them

What was the procedure for animal sacrifice?

Putting ribbons/garlands on the victim, officials bathed/wore ceremony clothes, led in procession by basket girl & victim/participants were sprinkled with lustral water then hair was taken from victim and then throat slit, women screaming.

What was hieroscopy/haruspicy?

The ancient practice of divination through the examination of sacrificial animal entrails.

What was oniromancy?

Interpreting dreams to predict the future/gain hidden knowledge.

What is incubation?

The act of sleeping in a sanctuary in order to obtain a dream.

What was the Oracle of Dodona?

A place where people would put their name & question on a tablet and give it to temple priests, where it would be divinated (unknown method).

What was the Oracle of Delphi?

A place where people would have to pay a sacrifice to get divination from Apollo.

What were curse tablets? What were they made out of and where were they normally put? Which deities were often invoked?

Spells written on sheets of lead, rolled up and pierced by nail. They were buried/put into water/into sanctuaries. Deities included Hermes, Hecate and Persephone.

What’s the lunar/solar calendar?

Lunar is based on the cycle of the moon phases (355 days), solar is based on the Earth’s revolution of the sun (365 ¼ days).

What’s the luni-solar calendar?

A timekeeping system that tracks both the moon’s phases (months) and the sun’s position (years).

What’s intercalation?

It’s the insertion of an extra month into the calendar to align the lunar year with the solar year. Every 2-4 years this would happen.

Who was Aeneas?

a Trojan prince and son of Venus, is the legendary progenitor of the Roman people who fled the fall of Troy to establish a new home in Italy

What’s the metonic cycle?

a 19-year period, spanning 235 lunations (synodic months), after which the phases of the Moon return to the same dates in the solar year

What was Alba Longa?

an ancient Latin city in Central Italy in the vicinity of Lake Albano in the Alban Hills.

Who was Romulus?

Romulus was one of the sons of Rhea Silvia (vestial virgin) raised by a wolf and Romulus killed his brother.

What was the Roman monarchy?

was the earliest period of Roman history, when the city and its territory were ruled by kings.

1. Romulus (753–717 BC): Legendary founder, established the Senate.

2. Numa Pompilius (717–673 BC): Known for religious reforms, creating many institutions.

3. Tullus Hostilius (673–642 BC): A warlike king who destroyed Alba Longa.

4. Ancus Marcius (642–617 BC): Built the first bridge over the Tiber and founded Ostia.

5. Lucius Tarquinius Priscus (616–579 BC): First Etruscan king, built the Circus Maximus.

6. Servius Tullius (578–535 BC): Known for major social reforms and the Servian Walls.

7. Lucius Tarquinius Superbus (535–509 BC): "Tarquin the Proud," a tyrant whose expulsion led to the Republic.

What was the rape of the Sabine women?

The event where Romulus and his men abducted Sabine women to populate Rome.

Who was Titus Livy and what did he write?

Livy was a historian who’s the best source of information for Rome’s early history.

Who were Tarquinius Priscus and Tanaquil?

The 4th king of Rome and later the 5th king of Rome, Tanaquil was his wife.

Who was Tarquinius Superbus

Tarquinius Superbus was the last king of Rome.

Who was Lucretia and what’s the importance of the story?

Lucretia was a noblewoman who was raped by Sextus Tarquinius, which caused her to commit suicide and start a rebellion taht overthrew the Roman monarchy, changing it to a republic.

What was the Roman Republic and how did the government/politics work?

It was a republican government and it worked with a senate and had many roman voting assemblies. Magistrates were also important.

What was the conflict/struggle of the orders?

The conflict was the plebeians periodically withdrawing from Rome and establishing their own assembly, officers, and cults.

What were the Punic wars?

They were a series of wars fought between the Roman Republic and Carthaginian Empire from 264-146 BC.

Who was Hannibal?

He was a Carthaginian general/statesman that commanded the forces of Carthage against the Roman Republic in the 2nd Punic war.

What were the 12 Tables?

It was the first foundational legal code of the Roman Republic, created to document laws in writing.

Who was the Senate?

It was composed of ex-magistrates and was the most important body of power in the Republic because of their ‘decrees of the Senate’ (recommendations).

What was the difference between senators and quaestors?

Senators were members of the upper class legislative body, usually for life. A Quaestor was the first step in the political career ladder, serving usually as a junior financial admin.

What were the different Roman Voting Assemblies?

Curiate - oldest, 30 curiae, served to ratify grants of imperium.

Centuriate - composed of 193 centuries based on wealth, elected senior magistrates

Plebs - organized into 35 tribes, elected 10 tribunes & 2 aediles

Tribal assembly of the people - elected questors, aediles, military tribunes

What were the Roman Magistrates?

Quaestor - prereq for sitting in Senate, financial officials

• Aedile: 2 curule and 2 plebeian aediles oversaw games, markets/urban

• Praetor: 8 by late Republic, served military/judicial functions

• Consul: highest office at Rome, both consuls possessed imperium.

• Censor: 2 were elected every 5 years to conduct a census and correct the role of senate

• Tribune of the plebs: 10 were elected and held the power of intercessio.

What’s cursus honorum?

The political career ladder (mandatory order of public officers held by politicians to ensure experience)

What’s Fasces?

Symbol of power and authority, strength through unity

What’s mos maiorum?

The unwritten code from which the ancient Romans derived their social norms

What are the social tensions in the late Republic/products of Roman expansion?

It generated extreme economic equality, flooding Italy with slave labor and displacing small farmers.

What does the Roman Revolution refer to? When did it begin/end? What are the significant events?

began with the political reforms of the Gracchi brothers (133 BC) and ended with Augustus becoming emperor (27 BCE).

Who was Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus?

Elected tribune in 1933, he sought to push a land reform bill and made it so Roman public land would be restricted to 326 acres per person.

Who was Gaius Sempronius Gracchus?

Elected tribune in 123/122 BC, he introduced legislation to build favor with lower classes & with equites, but lost the support of the people later.

What are optimates and populares?

Optimates (the best men) were conservative aristocrats upholding Senate supremacy, traditional structures, and elite interests and populares (for the people) were politicians—often ambitious patricians—using public assemblies, land reform, and grain doles to gain power, bypassing the Senate

Who was Marius?

Marius was the person that wanted the proconsular command against Mithridates and was Sulla’s rival. He allied with a firebrand tribune to push a bill that gave himself power.

What was the Jugurthine War?

It was an armed conflict between the Roman Republic and King Jugurtha of Numidia (African kingdom).

Who was Sulla?

A disgruntled former lieutenant, he served as quaestor in Africa and engineered the capture of Jugurtha. He also took command of Roman forces in southern Italy during the Social War.

How was Rome sacked?

Rome was sacked by the Visigoths led by their king, Alaric.

What was the Social War?

It was a war from 91-88 BC that was between the Roman Republic and several of its autonomous allies in Italy.

What was the Mithridatic War?

It was a conflict between the Roman Republic and the Pontic kingdom of Mithridates VI Eupator.

What were proscriptions?

They were state-sponsored purges in the Late Republic where political enemies were declared public enemies, leading to their immediate murder. It was put into place by Sulla.

Who was Pompey the Great?

He was a Roman general and statesman who was prominent in the last decades of the Roman Republic. He was the protege of Sulla.

Who was M. Licinius Crassus?

He was a person that fought with Sulla at the Battle of Colline Gate and served as quaestor, aedile and praetor, becoming rich through proscriptions/business practices.

Who was Julius Caesar?

He was a man that was elected pontifex maximus and aedile, standing for the consulship and winning, pushing laws through to benefit himself, Pompey and Crassus. He was the dictator of the Roman Republic from 49 BC-44 BC. Led the Gallic Wars.

What was the Conquest of Gaul?

This is the event that occurred from the Gallic Wars, which were waged by Julius Caesar, who resolved to conquer all of Gaul.

What was the Battle of Pharsalus?

This was the last battle of the Roman Civil War, in which Julius Caesar’s army defeated Pompey and the Roman Senate’s forces, making him leader of Rome.

Who was Calpurnia?

Calpurnia was the 2nd wife of Pompey, who was the daughter of an Optimate.

Who were Brutus and Cassius?

Brutus and Cassius were the 2 people behind Julius Caesar’s assassination in Senate, being able to flee Rome.

Who was Catiline?

Catiline was a Roman politician and soldier who tried to take over power of the Roman state in 63 BC with the Catilinarian conspiracy.

What was the 1st Triumvirate?

It was an agreement concerning 3 people (Marcus Licinius Crassus, Julius Caesar, and Pompey the Great) that carved up power for only themselves, which inadvertently caused the end of the Republic later.

Who was Gaius Octavius?

Gaius Octavius, or Augustus/Octavian, was the founder of the Roman Empire and the first Roman empieror from 27 BC - 14 AD, which led into an era of peace.

Who was Marcus Antonius?

Marcus Antonius (Mark Anthony) was Julius Caesar’s right hand man, who was spared after Cassius and Brutus murdered Julius Caesar.

What was the 2nd Triumvirate?

It was a legally sanctioned, five-year political alliance between Octavian, Mark Anthony and Lepidus. This formally ended the Roman Republic.

What’s auctoritas?

Its the Roman term for informal power based on prestige, influence, and moral authority instead of hard legal power.

What were the sources of slaves in antiquity? (most-least important)

Sources of slaves included the defeat of Sertorius.

What were the Roman slave rebellions? When and where did they occur?

They were the 3 major Servile Wars, which happened from 135-71 BC in mainly Sicily and Italy.

What was insula and other associated hazards?

Insulae were apartment buildings that had building codes but they weren’t enforced so lots collapsed, were very crowded, and very fire-prone.

What were the dangers of Roman urban life?

Sanitation, flooding, fires, and crime.

What was an atrium?

Central, open-roofed courtyard of a domus (private house)

What is a peristyle?

row of columns surrounding a space within a building such as a court or internal garden or edging a veranda or porch.

What is insula?

Apartment building/block

What were some uses of human waste?

fertilizing gardens (night soil), tanning leather, cleaning clothing with ammonia-rich urine, and utilizing human feces in medicine to treat infections

What were stercorarii?

ancient Roman waste collectors who cleaned latrines and cesspits in apartment buildings

What was cloaca maxima?

A sewer Roman primary function was to carry off storm water from the Forum district to the Tiber

What is the smallest interval that Aristoxenus believed the human ear was capable of detecting?

Quarter-tone

What’s the difference between disjunct and conjunct tetrachords?

Conjunct tetrachords share a common note, disjunct tetrachords are separated by a whole tone

How did chromatic and enharmonic tetrachords differ from the diatonic tetrachord?

Differed in interval structure and genre. Chromatic features a minor third with 2 semitones, enharmonic features major third with 2 microtonal quarter tones.

Why have the people of Thebes assembled before the palace at the beginning of the play

They’re asking Oedipus for help because the city is in horrible shape.

What report does Creon bring back from Delphi?

He brings back the news that the city won’t be healed until the murderer of Laius leaves.

Why is Teiresias reluctant to divulge the truth to Oedipus? What does Oedipus accuse him of?

Teiresias is reluctant to divulge the truth to Oedipus because he would be very distraught, Oedipus accuses him of treason.

What is the key piece of information that finally reveals the truth to Jocasta?

Jocasta realizes the truth when the Messenger from Corinth reveals that he received Oedipus as a baby from a Theban shepherd with his ankles pinned together

Why does Oedipus blind himself at the end of the play

He said that he had nothing left that he wanted to see (no friends, love, etc).

At the beginning of the play, why is Menedemus tormenting himself?

Because he argued with his son Clinia, which caused him to run away to Asia to fight for the king.

How is Chremes characterized?

kindly, sympathetic old man

What ruse does Syrus devise to get Bacchis into Chremes’s house?

Syrus convinces Chremes to allow Bacchis into his house under the pretense that she is temporarily staying there