Latin 3 Final Review

Section I: Vergil & Vergiliana

Q1. When and where was Vergil born?
A: October 15, 70 BC (Ides of October) in Andes, near Mantua.

Q2. What was Vergil’s family background?
A: He was the son of a farmer.

Q3. What did Vergil study, and where?
A: Literature and Philosophy in Mantua and Milan.

Q4. How is Vergil described in terms of personality?
A: Shy and modest.

Q5. Why was Vergil’s father’s farm confiscated, and by whom?
A: Octavian confiscated it to reward soldiers after the Battle of Philippi.

Q6. Who was Maecenas and how did he influence Vergil’s career?
A: A patron and close friend of Octavian; he recognized Vergil’s talent and helped him gain Augustus’s support.

Q7. What did Octavian do after meeting Vergil?
A: Returned his father’s land and supported his poetic career financially.

Q8. How long did the Aeneid occupy Vergil’s time?
A: The final 10 years of his life.

Q9. Why did Vergil go to Greece, and what happened there?
A: For poetic inspiration; while in Athens, he met Augustus, returned with him, and later died in Brundisium in 19 BC.

Q10. Who were Vergil’s literary contemporaries in the “Golden Age” of Roman literature?
A: Livy, Cicero, Ovid, Horace, Julius Caesar.

Q11. What is the Aeneid modeled after?
A: Homer’s Odyssey (first half) and Iliad (second half).

Q12. What is the central theme of the Aeneid?
A: Aeneas’s journey and settlement in Italy.

Q13. How did Roman aristocrats use the Aeneid for their lineage?
A: Many traced their ancestry to Aeneas and his companions, like the gens Julii.

Q14. Who were members of the gens Julii?
A: Julius Caesar and Augustus Caesar.

Q15. How did the Aeneid influence Roman customs and identity?
A: It provided a Trojan origin myth for Roman institutions, ceremonies, and customs.

Q16. How did Vergil balance tradition and originality?
A: He imitated earlier poets but added variation and complexity, which made his work distinct.

Q17. Why does Vergil’s engagement with tradition matter?
A: He contributed to an ongoing literary dialogue, setting a standard for future writers.

Q18. How does the Aeneid portray Augustus?
A: As a restorer of Roman greatness and a bringer of peace.

Q19. Who does Vergil often sympathize with in the Aeneid?
A: The oppressed and the defeated.

Q20. How influential was the Aeneid in Roman education?
A: It was a core text; poets like Ovid referenced it in their works.

Q21. How did Saint Augustine respond to the Aeneid?
A: In City of God, he questioned its value in Christian education.

Q22. Why is the Aeneid considered a “classical” work?
A: Its lasting significance and universal themes.

Q23. What are two major reasons for continued devotion to the Aeneid?
A: Its deep insight into the human experience and technical poetic mastery.

Section II: Scansion & Rhetorical Devices

Scansion Concepts

Q1. What is the basic meter used by Vergil and Homer?
A: Dactylic hexameter.

Q2. How many groupings (feet) are in a line of dactylic hexameter?
A: Six.

Q3. What is a dactyl?
A: – ∪ ∪ (long, short, short)

Q4. What is a spondee?
A: – – (long, long)

Q5. What letters are considered vowels in Latin?
A: A, E, I, O, U, Y

Q6. What are Latin diphthongs?
A: ae, oe, ei, au, ui, eu

Q7. When is a syllable long?
A: If it’s long by nature, is a diphthong, or if a vowel is followed by two consonants.

Q8. What is an elision?
A: When a word ending in a vowel/m is followed by a word starting with a vowel/h and the syllable is dropped.

Q9. What is a caesura and where is it usually found?
A: A pause in the line, often in the 3rd foot; never in the last two.

Q10. What is word painting?
A: The arrangement of sounds and words to mirror the content.

Q11. What is syncopation?
A: Shortening a word (often a verb) for meter.

Q12. What is synizesis?
A: Contraction of two vowels into one syllable.

Q13. What is systole?
A: Shortening a normally long syllable.

Q14. What is diastole?
A: Lengthening a normally short syllable.

Q15. What is a spondaic line?
A: A line with a spondee in the fifth foot.

Q16. What is hiatus?
A: When elision conditions exist but elision is not applied.

Q17. What is tmesis?
A: Splitting a compound word into two parts.

Q18. How are proper nouns treated in scansion?
A: They may be scanned flexibly for metrical needs.

Q19. What is apocope?
A: The dropping of a final vowel.

Rhetorical Devices

Q20. What is allegory?
A: A prolonged metaphor using images to convey deeper meanings.

Q21. What is alliteration?
A: Repetition of consonants at the beginning of words.

Q22. What is anaphora?
A: Repetition of a word/phrase at the beginning of successive lines.

Q23. What is anastrophe?
A: Inversion of normal word order (e.g., preposition after its object).

Q24. What is aposiopesis?
A: A break in the middle of a sentence, leaving it unfinished.

Q25. What is apostrophe?
A: Directly addressing someone or something, often absent.

Q26. What is asyndeton?
A: Omission of conjunctions.

Q27. What is chiasmus?
A: ABBA word order, often with adjectives/nouns.

Q28. What is ecphrasis?
A: An extended description of art or nature.

Q29. What is ellipsis?
A: Omission of easily understood words.

Q30. What is enjambment?
A: A sentence running into the next line without pause.

Q31. What is a golden line?
A: A synchesis (ABAB) with a verb centered.

Q32. What is hendiadys?
A: Using two nouns with a conjunction to express one idea.

Q33. What is hyperbaton?
A: Significant disruption of word order.

Q34. What is hyperbole?
A: Deliberate exaggeration.

Q35. What is hysteron proteron?
A: Reversing logical sequence (e.g., "die and fight").

Q36. What is litotes?
A: Affirmation by negation (e.g., "not unkind").

Q37. What is metaphor?
A: Implicit comparison using symbolism.

Q38. What is metonymy?
A: Substitution of one word/image for another related one.

Q39. What is onomatopoeia?
A: Sound mimics meaning.

Q40. What is personification?
A: Giving human traits to non-human things.

Q41. What is pleonasm?
A: Redundant or superfluous wording.

Q42. What is polysyndeton?
A: Overuse of conjunctions.

Q43. What is simile?
A: Direct comparison using "like" or "as."

Q44. What is synecdoche?
A: Using a part to represent the whole (a type of metonymy).

Q45. What is synchesis?
A: Interlocked word order (ABAB).

Q46. What is transferred epithet (enallage)?
A: Adjective shifted from its logical noun to another related one.