42

Question 1

Nero usus est patriae ruinis

Answer 1

N coldly and instinctively sees public disaster as an opportunity for personal gain

Question 2

patriae ruinis exstruxitque domum

Answer 2

interrelated contrast - between patriae and domum, and ruinis and exstruit

Question 3

gemmae et aurum… solita

Answer 3

emphasises how commonplace and widespread this prodigality had become in Nero’s reign

Question 4

pridem

Answer 4

conveys long-term decline

Question 5

et stagna et… solitudinum hinc silvae inde aperta spatia et prospectus

Answer 5

polysyndetonic list of the palace’s rural elements conveys the vastness of the land that N appropriates for himself

Question 6

audacia erat

Answer 6

hints at arrogance and recklessness

Question 7

natura…. per artem

Answer 7

natura opposes artem - the men see nature as a set of restrictions to be challenged, not a beautiful thing to be respected and conserved

Question 8

viribus principis

Answer 8

juxtaposition reminds us who sanctioned this wasteful use of resources

Question 9

inludere

Answer 9

overtly critical - highlights the frivolity and vanity of their projects

Question 10

ab lacu Averno… usque ad ostia Tiberina

Answer 10

textual seperation of both ends of the river enacts its excessive length, whilst ‘usque’ confirms the unfeasibility of this reckless ambition

Question 11

squalenti litore aut per montis adversos

Answer 11

emphatic position of this phrase at the end of the sentence, its chiastic arrangement and its climactic ‘adversos’ stress the insurmountable difficulty of this project

Question 12

neque… aliud umidum

Answer 12

litotes emphasises the lack of water with which to fill this channel

Question 13

abrupta aut arentia ac

Answer 13

assonance emphasises the unsuitability of the land

Question 14

intolderandus labor nec satis causae

Answer 14

scathing comment on the futility of the operation

Question 15

Nero tamen

Answer 15

N is characteristically at odds with all logic

Question 16

cupit-or

Answer 16

-or indicates a profession

rare word, coined by Tacitus, condemns Nero as one who exists utterly to serve his wants, rather than his, or his people’s, needs

Question 17

effodere… conisus est

Answer 17

hyperbaton stresses the manifold of difficulties Nero dismissed in his futile efforts

Question 18

inritae spei

Answer 18

contemptuous last words, emphasised by emphatic final position