Revision as of 18:05, 8 April 2013

IPSE DIXIT QUIZ

P. Annæus Constantinus Placidus omnibus civibus Novæ Romæ S.P.D.

It is a great pleasure of mine to welcome you all into the Sixth Edition of my ongoing, and by now very much appreciated by all of you Citizens of Nova Roma, IPSE DIXIT quiz -- a game about language, culture, history and famous people, which, as usual, is meant to entertain you while at the same time educate you a little bit (at least I hope so) in the great and by no means dead language of our ancestors -- the immortal Latin.

Each day, for the duration of these Ludi Megalenses, I shall post seven items based on famous phrases written in Latin. They are not necessarily from Ancient Roman times, and at least one of them has no connection whatsoever with Ancient Rome or its time. But all of the phrases are, of course, pure Latin, and Latin is exactly what I am inviting you here to play with, and hopefully have fun with.

The difficulty level of the quiz shall be variable. Some items, like the first one below, are quite easy, but do not rest on your laurels too much... a harder item may be on your way sooner than you expect!

So, all of you, join me in this Sixth Edition of our continuing quest for the Perfect Language. Read, search, identify, translate, learn... in a nutshell, HAVE FUN!!!

Optime valete omnes!

P. Annæus Constantinus Placidus

Ædilis Curulis Novæ Romæ

RULES

• Please send your answers to ugo.coppola@tin.it <mailto:ugo.coppola@tin.it> -- and put "IPSE DIXIT" in the subject line of your message. DO NOT reply directly to this message and DO NOT post your answers on the main list, otherwise you shall be disqualified. You are warmly advised to use printed papers and books for your research work rather than Wikipedia, Google or any other Internet-based resources, even if, of course, I have no power to control this. :-)
• Anyone within Nova Roma -- regular citizens, new citizens, passers-by -- is allowed to enter this quiz. Answers sent to me by members of my Cohors Ædilicia are fully allowed.
• You have time until the end of the Ludi Megalenses to send me your answers, so do not worry if you are not immediately able to answer, as you can always catch up. I will be posting scores and standings regularily; however, all of the solutions shall be posted together at the end of the game.
• Note: Because of the fact that, in the past, some submitters seem to have had problems in understanding what is exactly meant by "figurative meaning", I would like to point out that all of the phrases used in this quiz are intended as metaphors, and because of this they have a metaphorical meaning which is different from the literal translation. What I mean by the questions about "the figurative meaning" above is to give a short explanation of the metaphorical, non-literal meaning of the phrase.

ITEM ONE: "NON OLET"

1.What is the literal translation into English of this phrase? (2 points.)

2.Who is the famous person that this phrase is attributed to? (2 points.)

3.Who attributed the phrase to the person in the previous question, i.e. who is the actual writer of the phrase? (More than one answer is acceptable here. 2 points)

4.What is believed to be the origin of the phrase? (2 points.)

5.What is its most common figurative meaning? (2 points.)

ITEM TWO: "TIMEO DANAOS ET DONA FERENTES"

1. What is the literal translation into English of this phrase? Please be careful about the word "et", which is not translated as "and" in this phrase. (2 points.)

2. Who is the famous person who says this phrase in the literary work from which is taken? (2 points.)

3. Who is the writer of the literary work referred to in the previous question? (2 points + 2 bonus points for adding chapter/cantus/line references.)

4. What is the most common figurative meaning of the phrase? (2 points.)

ITEM THREE: "COMES FACUNDUS IN VIA PRO VEHICULO EST"

1. What is the literal translation into English of this phrase? (3 points.)

2. Who wrote it? (3 points + 1 bonus point for the source)

3. What is the figurative or metaphorical meaning of this phrase? (3 points.)

ITEM FOUR: SINE, EICIAM FESTUCAM DE OCULO TUO

1. What is the literal translation of this phrase into English? (2 points)

2. This phrase is an incomplete quotation from a longer sentence. What is the full sentence? [2 points - you get no extra points by writing it in Latin, so you may as well write it in English. :-)]

3. Who are the phrase above and the full sentence attributed to? (1 point)

4. What is the source of the sentence? (1 point - two answers are acceptable.)

5. What is, in its simplest form, the meaning of the episode to which the sentence refers to? (2 points)

6. What other Latin writer expressed the same meaning, in a lighter way, in a short literary work of his? (2 points)