07-01-2009, 10:49 PM
And the correct answers (although most got the vast majority correct) are:
1) Coins- AVREVS (gold), DENARIVS (silver), SESTERTIVS (bronze- sometimes brass), DVPONDIVS (supposed to be exclusively brass), AS (copper), QVADRANS (copper) are the 'usual' denominations, although my friend Steve McBride of Incitatus Coins corrected my information to include the SEMIS and the QVINAREVS so I accepted those if included but didn't penalize if not. Greek coins like the Drachma were excluded by the bit about provincial coin types not being included.
2) Colosseum- AMPHITHEATRVM FLAVIVM or Flavian Amphitheater
3) PVLLO and VORENVS- FALSE- they were written of in Caesar's book, however they were both Centuriones, not a Centurio and a Legionary as portrayed in the series
4) Legiones lost in the Teutobergerwald- LEG XVII, XVIII, and XIX (or XVIIII)
5) Cannae- Hannibal sent 3 modii of gold rings taken from the fingers of the Roman dead
6) 'Bring another'- LVCILLVS was given this black humour nickname for his penchant to break his VITIS on the backs of soldiers and for it he was murdered by them during a mutiny
7) GLADIATORES- SCVTARIVS is not a 'usual' type of GLADIATOR, although I did learn from several players that there is mention of the term in association with games in one of MARCVS AVRELIVS' books; I was most familiar with the term from a list of accounts included in the Vindolanda Tablets, with an amount owing to a SVTARIVS, which I took to mean 'shield maker' just as AEARIVS is coppersmith, FERRARIVS is blacksmith, etc. No one did miss this one or suggest it was a trick because of the AVRELIVS reference, however I would have accepted such answers with that reference as support of course.
8 ) "French" toast- this question seemed so straightforward but it turned out to be a major pain- I found a translation online from a 1936 publication, which was reprinted in 1977, that did make it sound as if this were actually what we know as French Toast; however it turns out, again thanks to several players, that the original Latin text does not include eggs, but just bread soaked in milk- so where I had been looking for the answer 'true', that was in fact wrong and it's 'false'. What's worse is that the Latin seems to suggest the bread be not only de-crusted but torn up making it even less like toast LOL It gets worse- two more players informed me that there was some doubt as to the dating of the text as well- that it might be a 3rd or 4th century book and not written by APICIVS at all- which they included as reasons for the 'false' answer, thinking it was a serious trick question. So my attempt to provide a simple but kind of neat last question failed miserably, however it did turn out to be one of the more interesting ones
1) Coins- AVREVS (gold), DENARIVS (silver), SESTERTIVS (bronze- sometimes brass), DVPONDIVS (supposed to be exclusively brass), AS (copper), QVADRANS (copper) are the 'usual' denominations, although my friend Steve McBride of Incitatus Coins corrected my information to include the SEMIS and the QVINAREVS so I accepted those if included but didn't penalize if not. Greek coins like the Drachma were excluded by the bit about provincial coin types not being included.
2) Colosseum- AMPHITHEATRVM FLAVIVM or Flavian Amphitheater
3) PVLLO and VORENVS- FALSE- they were written of in Caesar's book, however they were both Centuriones, not a Centurio and a Legionary as portrayed in the series
4) Legiones lost in the Teutobergerwald- LEG XVII, XVIII, and XIX (or XVIIII)
5) Cannae- Hannibal sent 3 modii of gold rings taken from the fingers of the Roman dead
6) 'Bring another'- LVCILLVS was given this black humour nickname for his penchant to break his VITIS on the backs of soldiers and for it he was murdered by them during a mutiny
7) GLADIATORES- SCVTARIVS is not a 'usual' type of GLADIATOR, although I did learn from several players that there is mention of the term in association with games in one of MARCVS AVRELIVS' books; I was most familiar with the term from a list of accounts included in the Vindolanda Tablets, with an amount owing to a SVTARIVS, which I took to mean 'shield maker' just as AEARIVS is coppersmith, FERRARIVS is blacksmith, etc. No one did miss this one or suggest it was a trick because of the AVRELIVS reference, however I would have accepted such answers with that reference as support of course.
8 ) "French" toast- this question seemed so straightforward but it turned out to be a major pain- I found a translation online from a 1936 publication, which was reprinted in 1977, that did make it sound as if this were actually what we know as French Toast; however it turns out, again thanks to several players, that the original Latin text does not include eggs, but just bread soaked in milk- so where I had been looking for the answer 'true', that was in fact wrong and it's 'false'. What's worse is that the Latin seems to suggest the bread be not only de-crusted but torn up making it even less like toast LOL It gets worse- two more players informed me that there was some doubt as to the dating of the text as well- that it might be a 3rd or 4th century book and not written by APICIVS at all- which they included as reasons for the 'false' answer, thinking it was a serious trick question. So my attempt to provide a simple but kind of neat last question failed miserably, however it did turn out to be one of the more interesting ones
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