FJCL Latin Literature Flashcards
What author is considered the founder of Latin literature?
Livius Andronicus
What Latin author was a Greek from Tarentum and brought to Rome as a slave?
Livius Andronicus
What Latin author translated Homer’s Odyssey into Latin using Saturnian verse?
Livius Andronicus
In what verse did Livius Andronicus translate Homer’s Odyssey into Latin?
Saturnian
What were fabulae praetextae?
Dramas based on Roman subjects
Who was the first native Roman writer of note?
Gnaeus Naevius
What Latin author is best known for his Bellum Punicum, an epic poem on the First Punic War?
Gnaeus Naevius
In what verse did Gnaeus Naevius write his Bellum Punicum?
Saturnian
What are fabulae palliatae?
Latin comedies derived from Greek originals
What Latin author invented fabulae praetextae, dramas based on Roman subjects?
Gnaeus Naevius
What trilingual Latin author was born in Rudiae?
Ennius
Ennius is said to have had three hearts because he could speak what three languages?
Latin, Greek, and Oscan
Who is said to have had three hearts because he could speak three languages: Latin, Greek, and Oscan?
Ennius
Who wrote the Annales, an 18 book long epic telling the story of Rome starting with the fall of Troy?
Ennius
In what verse did Ennius write his Annales?
Dactylic Hexameter
What work of Ennius is an 18 book epic about the history of Rome up to the author’s time?
Anales
Who was the first writer to adapt Greek hexameter verse into Latin?
Ennius
How many of Plautus’s comedies are fully extant?
20
What play of Plautus has only a fragment still extant?
Vidularia
What play of Plautus concerns Jupiter’s love of Alcmene, the mother of Hercules?
Amphitryon
What play of Plautus revolves around a pot of gold?
Aulularia
What play of Plautus focuses on a man named Hegio searching for his lost sons?
Captivi
What play of Plautus has no female characters?
Captivi
What play of Plautus was his favorite?
Epidicus
In what play of Plautus are long lost twins reunited in Syracuse and serves as the model for Shakespeare’s “Comedy of Errors”?
Menaechmi
What play of Plautus has a haunted house as a setting?
Mostellaria
What play of Plautus has the braggart soldier Pyrgopolynices as the main character?
Miles Gloriosus
What play of Plautus contains the only extant passages of the Carthaginian language?
Poenulus
What play of Plautus is translated as ‘Rope’?
Rudens
In what play of Plautus does the titular slave help his master obtain enough money to free
a courtesan named Phoenicium from Simo?
Pseudolus
What Latin author, born in Tusculum, was staunchly anti-Carthaginian?
Cato the Elder
What Latin author ended all his speeches with “Carthago delenda est”?
Cato the Elder
What Latin author was Rome’s first prose writer and the first to write Roman history in Latin?
Cato the Elder
What Latin author wrote Origines, a lost work in 7 books on the beginnings of Italian civilization?
Cato the Elder
What 7 book work of Cato the Elder deals with the beginnings of Italian civilization and early Roman history?
Origines
What work of Cato the elder is a handbook on agriculture in which he praises cabbage?
De Agri Cultura (De Re Rustica)
What Latin author’s De Agri Cultura is the first surviving prose work?
Cato the Elder’s
What Latin author’s Origines was the first history written in Latin?
Cato the Elder’s
What Latin comic playwright was brought to Rome as a slave from Carthage?
Terence
What Latin comedian became friends with Scipio Aemilianus and joined his literary circle?
Terence
What Latin author died on a trip to Greece in 159 BC?
Terence
The audience of what comedy of Terence left the play to watch tightrope walkers instead?
Hecyra
What comedy of Terence is translated to ‘The Brothers’?
Adelphoi
What comedy of Terence is translated to ‘The Self-Tormentor’?
Heauton Timorumenos
What comedy of Terence is named for the parasite in the play?
Phormio
What comedy of Terence is translated as ‘The Eunuch’?
Eunuchus
What comedy of Terence is translated to ‘The Woman of Andros’?
Andria
About what Latin author did Vergil say the line “Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas” (Lucky is one who is able to understand the causes of things)?
Lucretius
What author said “Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas” (Lucky is one who is able to understand the causes of things) in reference to the poet Lucretius?
Vergil
What Latin author followed the Epicurean philosophy?
Lucretius
What Latin author took a love potion that made him insane and commit suicide in 55 BC?
Lucretius
What Latin author wrote the De Rerum Natura, an unfinished didactic poem in 6 books?
Lucretius
What 6 book didactic work of Epicurean philosophy ends with the explanation of the plague of Athens?
Lucretius’s De Rerum Natura
To what governor of Bithynia does Lucretius address his De Rerum Natura?
Gaius memmius
Who, the greatest Latin orator, was born in Arpinum in 106 BC?
Cicero
What Latin author’s name means ‘chickpea’?
Cicero
Delivered in 81 BC, what is the earliest speech of Cicero?
Pro Quinctio
Against what other famous orator does Cicero argue in his Pro Quinctio?
Hortensius
In what speech, his first political speech, does Cicero defend his client accused of patricide?
Pro Sexto Roscio Amerino
In 63 BC, what Latin author as consul exposed the Catilinarian conspiracy with a series of speeches?
Cicero
In which of his Catilinarian speeches does Cicero successfully convince the senate to execute Catiline’s co-conspirators?
In Catilinam IV
Whose death in 45 BC led Cicero into a downward spiral?
His daughter Tullia’s
Against what man does Cicero write 14th scathing Philippics?
Mark Antony
Mark Antony and Octavian execute what Latin author at Formiae in 43 BC?
Cicero
What philosophical dialogue of Cicero contains the Somnium Scipionis in its 6th book?
De Re Publica
In what philosophical work of Cicero, to which De Divinatione and De Fato are sequels, does Cicero give Epicurean, Stoic, and Academic conceptions of the gods?
De Natura Deorum
What work of Cicero, also called Cato Maior, concerns old age?
De Senectute
What Roman historian is most well known for his monographs?
Sallust
Who Latin author writes the Bellum Catilinae, a monograph criticizing the conspirator of 63 BC?
Sallust
What Latin author writes Bellum Iugurthinum, a monograph praising Marius in his war against the Numidian king?
Sallust
What work of Sallust is a fragmentary work covering 78-67 BC?
Historiae
What Latin lyric poet was born in Verona?
Catullus
With what wife of Quintus Caecilius Metellus does Catullus fall in love and make the subject of many of his poems?
Clodia (called Lesbia in his poems)
What Latin author falls in love with Clodia and calls her Lesbia in his poems?
Catullus
What Latin author travels to Bithynia with Gaius Memmius and visits his brother’s grave there?
Catullus
What author writes “Ave atque vale” to his dead brother in Poem 101?
Catullus
Who wrote Commentarii de Bello Gallico in 7 books, one for every year he fought the Gauls?
Julius Caesar
What officer of Caesar wrote an 8th book of the Commentarii de Bello Gallico?
Hirtius
What Latin author wrote the Commentarii de Bello Civili on his feud with Pompey?
Julius Caesar
Who instructed his friends Varius and Tucca to burn the Aeneid, but refused at the behest of Augustus?
Vergil
What Latin author was born near Mantua in 70 BC?
Vergil
Which work of Vergil is a collection of 10 pastoral poems in dactylic hexameter?
Eclogues
Which of the Eclogues is known as the ‘Messianic’ Eclogue?
4th
What Latin author wrote the Aeneid?
Vergil
What Roman author died of a fever in Brundisium in 19 BC then was buried in Naples?
Vergil
What work of Vergil was a 4 book long poem in dactylic hexameter promoting Octavian’s program of moving people from the cities to the farms?
Georgics
Who was the patron of Vergil?
Maecenas
What Latin author and military engineer wrote the De Architectura dedicated to Augustus?
Vitruvius
What Latin author, born in Venusia, wrote Odes and Epodes?
Horace
Influenced by the Satires of the earlier Lucilius, what Roman author wrote his Sermones?
Horace
What Roman historian was born in Patavium (Padua)?
Livy
Who wrote the Ab Urbe Condita?
Livy
How many books long is Livy’s Ab Urbe Condita?
142
How many of Livy’s Ab Urbe Condita’s 142 books are still extant?
35
What name is given to the summaries of Livy’s Ab Urbe Condita?
Periochae
With what event in 9 AD does Livy’s Ab Urbe Condita end?
Death of Drusus
What Roman poet, born in Assisium, fell in love with a woman named Hostia?
Propertius
What name did Propertius give Hostia in his elegies?
Cynthia
What man was the patron of Horace, Propertius, and Vergil?
Maecenas
What Roman poet fell in love with a woman named Plania, whom he calls Delia in his elegies?
Tibullus
Whose works contain six poems by Sulpicia, the only extant poems by a Roman woman?
Tibullus’s
Tibullus’s second book of elegies is given what name shared by the goddess of revenge?
Nemesis
Alliteration, hybrid Greek-Latin words, and figura etymologica (using more than one form of the same word) were all favorites of what Roman elegist?
Tibullus
What Latin author wrote ‘Epistulae ex Ponto’, ‘Halieutica’, and ‘Ibis’ while on exile in Tomi?
Ovid
What Latin author, born in Sulmo, was exiled to Tomi by Augustus due to a ‘carmen et error’?
Ovid
What work of Ovid covers a number of transformation myths?
Metamorphoses
What work of Ovid takes the shape of fictional, mythological letters from spurned women to their loved ones?
Heroides (my personal favorite work)
Which Roman emperor wrote a Greek history of the Etruscans?
Claudius
What Latin author, known as the Rhetor, wrote Controversiae and Suasoriae?
Seneca the Elder
What stoic Latin author, born in Corduba, served as tutor to Nero?
Seneca the Younger
What author wrote the Apocolocyntosis, a work which mocked Claudius and documented the emperor’s pumpkinificiation?
Seneca the Younger
What Latin author wrote the Naturalis Historia in 37 books?
Pliny the Elder
What Latin author wrote Naturales Quaestiones, a work on natural science from a Stoic point of view?
Seneca the Younger
What tragedy of Seneca the Younger, based on a work of Euripides by the same name, was more sympathetic to Jason rather than the titular sorceress?
Medea
What Latin author wrote the Epistulae Morales, 124 letters to Lucilius on philosophy?
Seneca the Younger
To what friend of his did Seneca the Younger write the Epistulae Morales?
Lucilius
What tragedy attributed to Seneca is the only complete fabula praetexta?
Octavia
What Latin author, born in Comum, wrote a history of German wars, a study of linguistics, a treatise on the use of javelin from horseback, and a biography of Pomponius Secundus?
Pliny the Elder
What satirist, born in Volaterrae, was a friend of the poet Lucan?
Persius
Who is said to have written “et raro et tarde” in reference to his measly 6 satires?
Persius
About what author does Lucan remark “That is real poetry,
whereas what I have written is utter tripe, child’s play”?
Persius
What Latin author, born in Calagurris in Spain, does Martial call “the supreme guide of wayward youth”?
Quintilian
What Latin author was the first person to receive a paid professorship from Vespasian?
Quintilian
What Latin author wrote the Institutio Oratoria, a twelve book long treatise on the perfect orator?
Quintilian
What meter is primarily used for epic poetry?
Dactylic Hexameter
What three Roman authors were forced to commit suicide for their involvement in the Pisonian conspiracy against Nero?
Lucan, Petronius, and Seneca the Younger
What Latin author wrote the Bellum Civile, an epic poem documenting the war between Caesar and Pompey?
Lucan
What work of Lucan concerns the Civil War between Caesar and Pompey, the latter of whom the work praises?
Bellum Civile/Pharsalia
What other name is given to Lucan’s Bellum Civile?
Pharsalia
What Latin author served as the arbiter elegentiae of Nero?
Petronius
The cena Trimalchionis is the longest surviving part of what fragmentary novel of Petronius?
Satyricon
What name is given to works combining prose and poetry?
Menippean Satire
Who is the author of the Satyricon?
Petronius
What is the principal work of Petronius?
Satyricon
Who invents the characters of Encolpius, Ascyltus, and Giton in his novel, which has the dinner of Trimalchio as a scene?
Petronius (in the Satyricon)
What Latin author, born in Naples, wrote 32 Silvae, poems on various subjects?
Statius
What Latin author wrote the Thebaid, an epic poem in 12 books telling the story of the Seven Against Thebes?
Statius
What Latin author started the Achilleid but never finished it?
Statius
What Latin author is widely regarded as the worst Latin poet?
Silius Italicus
What Latin author wrote the Punica, a 17 book long poem about the 2nd Punic War?
Silius Italicus
How did Silius Italicus die?
Starved himself
What Latin author, born in Bilbilis in Spain, rose to the rank of tribune and was given the ius trium liberorum?
Martial
What Latin author wrote the Liber Spectaculorum, a work honoring Titus’s opening of the Colosseum?
Martial
What Latin author is most famous for his epigrams?
Martial
Xenia & Apophoreta are the names given to the 13th and 14th books of what author’s Liber Spectaculorum?
Martial’s
What author said “Hominem pagina nostra sapit” and refused to use mythology in his epigrams?
Martial
What Latin author married the daughter of Cn. Julius Agricola and wrote the Dialogus de Oratoribus about the decline of oratory?
Tacitus
What Latin author wrote Agricola, a biography of his father-in-law?
Tacitus
What Latin author wrote Germania, a discussion of the geography, politics, and customs of the German people?
Tacitus
What Latin author wrote the Historiae in 12 books and the Annales in 18 books?
Tacitus
What Latin author born in Aquinum, was most well known for his particularly scathing 16 satires?
Juvenal
What Latin satirist was banished to Egypt by Domitian for mentioning an affair the emperor’s wife had with the actor Paris?
Juvenal
What author, born in Comum, is most famous for his letters including one describing the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius?
Pliny the Younger
What Latin author became governor of Bithynia and wrote a Panegyricus for Trajan?
Pliny the Younger
What Latin author wrote the De Viris Illustribus, a series of biographies on various literary figures?
Suetonius (Jerome writes his own later)
What Latin author wrote De Vita Caesarum, which is a series of biographies covering the lives of Caesar and the emperors through Domitian?
Suetonius
What Latin author was born at Madaura?
Apuleius
What Latin author was accused of using magic to charm his wife and wrote the Apologia in his defense?
Apuleius
What Latin author wrote Florida, a collection of passages from his speeches?
Apuleius
What Latin author tells the story of Lucius and his transformation into a donkey in his Golden Ass?
Apuleius
The story of Cupid and Psyche is contained in what work of Apuleius?
Golden Ass (Metamorphoses)
What Latin author wrote Noctes Atticae about his time spent in Athens?
Aulus Gellius
