Quotes From Ancient History Multiple Choice Quiz | Quotes

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. During the siege of his city, a Greek 'thinker', 'scientist' and 'mathematician' was so focused on a maths problem that he had not even noticed the town walls had been breached already and a soldier had approached wanting to kill him. Absent-mindedly he shouted at the shadow leaning over him: 'Noli turbare circulos meos' 'Do not disturb my circles'. Those turned out to have been his last words. Who was he?

Answer: Archimedes

Heracleitus was born in Ephesus in Anatolia in 450 BC. Died in 480 BC. Fire was the basic principle in his view of the universe. Democritus of Abdera (460 BC- 370 BC) was the inventor of the idea of the 'atom'. Pythagoras was born in 580 BC on Samos, Ionia.

He died in 500 BC at Metapontum, Lucania. He founded the Academy of Crotona. Archimedes (290 BC Syracuse, Sicily - 212 Syracuse.) Most famous of the Greek mathematicians and inventors.

2. One day in the stadium the Roman Emperor was greeted by the gladiators with the words: "Ave, Imperator, qui morituri sunt te salutant." - Greetings to you, Caesar, those who are about to die salute thee. The Emperor, who was a polite man, replied : Greetings to you as well, but was quite surprised when he saw the gladiators interpreted this as if they had been dispensed from killing each other. A misunderstanding which was soon put right. Who was this Emperor?

Answer: Claudius

Robert Graves wrote a couple of fine novels about this Emperor's life.'I, Claudius' and ' Claudius, the God'.(1934).They were made into an excellent TV-serial. Claudius became Emperor in 41 AD and died in 54. Nero was his successor (from AD 54 to 68). Later Emperors were Vespasian (69-79) and Domitian (81-96).

3. Who was the first scientist or philosopher to phrase the principle 'De nihilo nihil'- 'Nothing is born from nothing'?

Answer: Lucretius

Lucretius in De Natura 98-55 BC. Aquinas lived from 1225 to 1274. Isaac Newton was even less of an ancient author: b. 1642, d. 1712. Main work: Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica.

4. 'Thalassa, Thalassa' - 'The sea, the sea' was what they shouted after a long journey over land. They were Greek troops. Their leader was Cyrus the Younger of Persia. Who was the war correspondent who reported their cry of enthusiasm in his 'Anabasis'?

Answer: Xenophon

Xenophon(431 BC Attica - 350) was a disciple of Socrates. He himself had succeeded to Cyrus as a leader of the 'Ten Thousand'. The place where they finally had seen the sea again is now Trabzon, Turkey. It is known that Xenophon was not in favour of 'too much democracy'. That's why he was banished from Athens for some time.

Herodotos has been called the Father of History. (484 BC - 430 BC) Pausanias, born in Lydia (now Turkey) in AD 143, died in 176.He was a traveller and geographer. Thucydides was the author of the 'History of the Pelopponesian Wars'.

He lived from 460 BC till 404 BC. He must be considered as the greatest of all Greek historians.

5. From which Latin author did Wilfred Owen borrow the famous line 'Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori'- ' It's sweet and fine to die for one's country '?

Answer: Horace

Albius Tibullus: 55 BC - 19 BC. Gaius Valerius Catullus : 84 BC Verona - 54 BC Rome. Wrote love poems for one Lesbia and wrote hatred lines for Julius Caesar. Virgil (also spelled Vergil) was born near Mantua in 70 BC. He died in 19 BC at Brundusium. He was the author of the Aeneid.

His full name: Publius Vergilius Maro. Horace born 65 BC at Venusia Italy. Died in 8 BC in Rome. He supported the murderers of Julius Caesar but was pardoned by Augustus. Maecenas became his protector. His best known works are his Epistles and his Odes.

6. Authors are not always consistent in what they write. Which Latin poet claimed in his Eclogues that 'love conquers all' ('Omnia vincit amor'), but said in his Georgica, much less romantically that 'hard work' was the key to all success ('Labor omnia vincit')?

Answer: Virgil

Virgil was so famous as the author of the "Eclogues", the "Georgics" and the "Aeneid" that even such an anti-pagan church leader as Gregory of Tours felt it his duty to read him. Dante went even beyond merely reading him. He made Virgil his guide to Hell and Purgatory in The Divine Comedy.

The correct spelling of his Latin name is Vergilius, not Virgilius. Medieval authors seem to have preferred Virgilius as a spelling because they saw him as an author of excessive 'virgo-like' modesty.

7. The idea that you survive through your art was very popular in the Renaissance and was also often expressed by Shakespeare. The idea occurs in Horace's work, but had apparently been expressed already by the Greek doctor Hippocrates. Which of these quotes is attributed to him?

Answer: Vita brevis, ars longa.- Life is short, the art you produce gives it an extra span.

Poeta nascitur is irrelevant in this set and is of unknown origin. Ars longa can also be interpreted as: it takes a lot of time before you master an art, which then could be the art of medicine, and would make the link with Hippocrates more obvious. Another famous quote from Hippocrates is: 'Quae medicamenta non sanant, ferrum sanat, quae ferrum non sanat, ignis sanat.'- 'What medicines cannot cure, must be cut away or burned out.' Even modern surgeons would not disagree.

8. One-liners seem to have been part of Caesar's propaganda machine. Even at the moment of his death he produced a last famous 'quote'. Which of these is NOT by Caesar?

Answer: Vae victis.- Woe to the losers.

Vae victis is attributed to Brennus, a King of the Gauls, who after defeating the Romans in 390 BC, made them pay heavy war contributions. The die was cast when Caesar against all instructions from the Senate, crossed the Rubicon, and 'marched against Rome'.

A feat which was repeated by Mussolini's Blackshirts, but that was an altogether different sort of thing. Veni, vidi, vici : Caesar's press bulletin after the Battle near Zela.

9. Who was the Greek painter who, when disturbed by a passing cobbler who criticised a painting of his, spoke the famous words: Cobbler, stick to thy last. - Ne sutor supra crepidam ?

Answer: Apelles

Apelles was court painter to Philip II of Macedonia and his son Alexander the Great.(4th c. BC) Pamphilus and Ephoras were teachers of Apelles. Pheidias was his famous predecessor (490 - 430 BC)

10. The historian Eusebius Pamphili reports that just before a decisive battle between two candidates for the Imperial Crown, Constantine, later called the Great, and Maxentius, a sign appeared in the sky and a voice told the future Emperor Constantine: 'In hoc signo vinces.' 'If you are loyal to this sign, then you will win this battle.' What sign was it?

Answer: a cross

The cross Constantine and his troops are supposed to have seen are the superimposed letters Chi and Ro, the two first letters of the name Christ. This monogram is said to have been adopted by Constantine as a banner and on the shields of his soldiers. Other names for it are : the Labarum (standard with chi ro monogram) or "the Cross of Constantine".
The line "In Hoc Signo Vinces" was actively promoted by the Roman Catholic Church in her more combatant moods.

Source: Author flem-ish

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor gtho4 before going online.
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Quotes From Ancient History Trivia Quiz

This quiz deals with some of the more popular quotations from Ancient History and, occasionally, Literature. They are all in Latin, though some were in Greek originally.

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