Ancient Rome Flashcards

1
Q

This Trojan is believed to be the first “true hero of Rome,” having brought his exiled peoples from Troy through Carthage to the Western coast of Italy.

A

Aeneas

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2
Q

Tarquinius Priscus and Tarquinius Superbus, the fifth and seventh (and final) kings of Rome, were traditionally identified with what ancient Italian civilization, which would begin its decline at the end of the Roman Kingdom and become fully assimilated during the subsequent Roman Republic?

A

Etruscan

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3
Q

Law of the Roman Republic decreed that generals who led forces outside Italy had to relinquish their commands before returning. Julius Caesar violated this law in 49 BCE, traversing with his legion a stream that formed a border between Italy and Cisalpine Gaul, and starting a revolution that led to the Roman Empire. What was the name of this stream?

A

Rubicon

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4
Q

The Roman general who conquered Britain is best known by what name, the Latin for “farmer”?

A

Agricola

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5
Q

Underground passageways made movement easy in these Roman places with rooms like frigidariums and tepidariums.

A

Baths

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6
Q

The Celtic Helvetii tried to move from Switzerland to Gaul but this man, then Roman governor, barred them in 58 B.C.

A

Julius Caesar

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7
Q

In 390 B.C. an army of this Celtic group had the distinction of being the first group to sack Rome.

A

Gauls

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8
Q

The Law of 12 Tables may have settled disputes between the wealthy patricians & this class of common people.

A

Plebeians

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9
Q

Constructed in 312 B.C., this major Roman road originally ran 132 miles from Rome to Capua in Campania.

A

Appian Way

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10
Q

Around 509 B.C the Romans formed this kingless type of government mention in the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance.

A

Republic

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11
Q

After the defeat of Cassius and Brutus at the Battle of Philippi in 42 BCE, the Roman Republic was primarily ruled by two men—Octavian in the west, and what other man in the east? This arrangement lasted until the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE, and Octavian’s subsequent supremacy (and eventual ascension as the first Roman Emperor).

A

Mark Antony

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12
Q

Caesar grew up during a Roman Civil War between which two Roman generals who were vying for command over the troops for Rome’s war against Mithridates of Pontus?

A

Gaius Marius, Lucius Cornelius Sulla

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13
Q

Caesar was associated with the wrong side of the Civil War, so he stayed out of Rome for a while. During that time he entered military service for the governor of Asia who dispatched him to what province in modern day Turkey which included the ancient city of Nicaea? Caesar was sent to King Nicomedes of this province to gather support for Rome, but he spent such a long time in the king’s court that rumors of an affair between Caesar and the king surfaced. Caesar vehemently denied it but was forever plagued by the nickname “Queen of ____ [the province in question].”

A

Bithnyia

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14
Q

During his quaestorship of Further Spain, Caesar reportedly cried or groaned at the statue of what historically great military commander, lamenting that he had not accomplished as much as the commander had by the same age?

A

Alexander The Great

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15
Q

Although Caesar’s wife apparently must refrain from paramours, Caesar himself must not. During the Catiline Conspiracy, Caesar received a secret missive while sitting in the Senate. Marcus Porcius Cato accused him of corresponding with the conspirators and demanded Caesar read the letter aloud. Embarrassingly for Cato, the letter turned out to be a love letter from Caesar’s paramour - Cato’s half-sister and mother to Marcus Brutus. Who was this woman?

A

Servilia

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16
Q

Caesar teamed up with what two other Roman politicians to form the First Triumvirate?

A

Gnaeus Pompeius, Marcus Licinius Crassus

17
Q

Caesar’s proconsulship was famously spent conquering “all of Gaul.” This military expedition ended at the Siege of Alesia and the capitulation of what Gallic commander? This Gaul came from the tribe Arverni and was arguably the most successful in uniting all of Gaul against Caesar.

A

Vercingetorix

18
Q

Caesar’s civil war waged on for several years including a decisive battle in 48 BC against one of the members of former First Triumvirate. What was the name of this battle where Caesar was outnumbered approximately 2:1 but outmaneuvered his opponent who fled to Egypt where he was ultimately murdered?

A

Pharsalus

19
Q

He was the first of Caesar’s assassins to attack him.

A

Servilius Casca

20
Q

Beginning with Augustus, this was an elite unit of the Imperial Roman Army whose members served as personal body guards to the Roman emperors.

A

Praetorian Guard

21
Q

This Roman general’s cognomen comes from the Volscian city he sieged. Said cognomen is also the title of a Shakespeare tragedy as well as Ralph Fiennes’ 2011 directorial debut.

A

Coriolanus

22
Q

What was the name of the first and largest stadium in ancient Rome, modeled on the Greek hippodrome, which was located a few blocks from the Colosseum between the Aventine and Palatine hills?

A

Circus Maximus

23
Q

The fifth and seventh Etruscan kings of Rome, the latter of whose reign ended in 509 BCE (and ended the Roman Kingdom), shared what name (nomen), followed immediately by Priscus and Superbus respectively?

A

Tarquinus

24
Q

What Thracian gladiator was the hero of the Third Servile War around 70 BC, in which he was killed?

A

He was Spartacus. No, he was Spartacus. No, HE was Spartacus!

25
Q

This Roman emperor’s 125-foot column, built after he conquered Dacia, stands in the forum that also bears his name.

A

Trajan