GENERAL KNOWLEDGE QUIZ 14

[locky801]

Q22. Where would you find the world's second largest barrier reef after Australia's?


A22 Belize.

Q23. Who said, 'A woman is like a teabag - only in hot water do you realize how strong she is'?


A23 Sounds like my wife but Nancy Reagan made that stupid remark

Q11. Name the American insect akin to the grasshopper?

A11. Katydid.

[magpie in the 80's]

Q6: Tony Curtis

CORRECT

[magpie in the 80's]

Q22. Where would you find the world's second largest barrier reef after Australia's?


A22 Belize.

Q23. Who said, 'A woman is like a teabag - only in hot water do you realize how strong she is'?


A23 Sounds like my wife but Nancy Reagan made that stupid remark

Q11. Name the American insect akin to the grasshopper?

A11. Katydid.

ALL CORRECT

[brod]

7. samoa

[Psyber]

Q10. Who was the first Roman Emperor? AUGUSTUS

That one bears a closer look at.

From memory, Gaius Julius lead his troops into Rome when ordered to stay out by the ruling oligarchy who feared his popularity with the masses, and he became Gaius Julius Caesar. [Gaius was his equivalent of a surname.]

After his assassination a triumvirate ruled, but its members were manipulated one by one by Cleopatra, who had also, earlier, had a son by Julius and called him Caesarion. She had wanted Julius to promise he would succeed Julius as Emperor [Caesar] of Rome. In the end Octiavianus cleaned up Cleo's last puppet, Marcus Antonius, and became Caesar himself. He was later given the title Augustus Caesar to reflect his greatness. He probably was the greatest of the Emperors of Rome, but not the first. Augustus was a title not a name - like Scipio became Scipio Africanus after his succesful military exploits in North Africa

Tarquinius, much earlier, was a King [Rex] and tyrant, but he could not technically be called an emperor, because he was a King.

[Psyber]

Q14. What is myasthenia? Weakness - specifically of muscles.

[magpie in the 80's]

Q10. Who was the first Roman Emperor? AUGUSTUS

That one bears a closer look at.

From memory, Gaius Julius lead his troops into Rome when ordered to stay out by the ruling oligarchy who feared his popularity with the masses, and he became Gaius Julius Caesar. [Gaius was his equivalent of a surname.]

After his assassination a triumvirate ruled, but its members were manipulated one by one by Cleopatra, who had also, earlier, had a son by Julius and called him Caesarion. She had wanted Julius to promise he would succeed Julius as Emperor [Caesar] of Rome. In the end Octiavianus cleaned up Cleo's last puppet, Marcus Antonius, and became Caesar himself. He was later given the title Augustus Caesar to reflect his greatness. He probably was the greatest of the Emperors of Rome, but not the first. Augustus was a title not a name - like Scipio became Scipio Africanus after his succesful military exploits in North Africa

Tarquinius, much earlier, was a King [Rex] and tyrant, but he could not technically be called an emperor, because he was a King.

The correct answer was Augustus.

He was the first Roman emperor (27 BC - AD 14) and was also known as 'Octavian'

[magpie in the 80's]

7. samoa

CORRECT

[magpie in the 80's]

Q14. What is myasthenia? Weakness - specifically of muscles.

CORRECT

[Psyber]

Q10. Who was the first Roman Emperor? AUGUSTUS

That one bears a closer look at.

From memory, Gaius Julius lead his troops into Rome when ordered to stay out by the ruling oligarchy who feared his popularity with the masses, and he became Gaius Julius Caesar. [Gaius was his equivalent of a surname.]

After his assassination a triumvirate ruled, but its members were manipulated one by one by Cleopatra, who had also, earlier, had a son by Julius and called him Caesarion. She had wanted Julius to promise he would succeed Julius as Emperor [Caesar] of Rome. In the end Octiavianus cleaned up Cleo's last puppet, Marcus Antonius, and became Caesar himself. He was later given the title Augustus Caesar to reflect his greatness. He probably was the greatest of the Emperors of Rome, but not the first. Augustus was a title not a name - like Scipio became Scipio Africanus after his succesful military exploits in North Africa

Tarquinius, much earlier, was a King [Rex] and tyrant, but he could not technically be called an emperor, because he was a King.

The correct answer was Augustus.

He was the first Roman emperor (27 BC - AD 14) and was also known as 'Octavian'

I don't entirely believe your source mate. Of course it may depend on whether you regard a man proclaimed "Caesar" by his own troops as a true Emperor, or want to give it to the other guy because he persuaded the Senate they ought to proclaim him "Caesar" for their health's sake. Looks much the same to me. I note the BBC took the latter view, but I'm sure other authorities would disagree. The Romans did not call their dictators "Emperors" from Imperator - an older and more minor title at first - they all took the title Caesar. But I guess it is a matter of Semantics and chosen definition.

Gaius Julius Caesar [1] (Latin pronunciation [ˈgaːius ˈjuːlius ˈkaɪsar]; English pronunciation [ˈgaɪəs ˈdʒuːliəs ˈsiːzəɹ]; July 12 or July 13, 100 BC or 102 BC – March 15, 44 BC), was a Roman military and political leader and one of the most influential men in world history. He played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire.

A politician of the populares tradition, he formed an unofficial triumvirate with Marcus Licinius Crassus and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus which dominated Roman politics for several years, but was fiercely opposed by optimates like Marcus Porcius Cato and Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus. His conquest of Gaul extended the Roman world all the way to the Atlantic Ocean, and he also conducted the first Roman invasion of Britain in 55 BC; the collapse of the triumvirate, however, led to a stand-off with Pompey and the Senate. Leading his legions across the Rubicon, Caesar began a civil war in 49 BC from which he became the undisputed master of the Roman world.

After assuming control of government, he began extensive reforms of Roman society and government. He was proclaimed dictator for life, and he heavily centralised the bureaucracy of the Republic. These events provoked a hitherto friend of Caesar, Marcus Junius Brutus, and a group of other senators, to assassinate the dictator on the Ides of March (March 15) in 44 BC. The assassins hoped to restore the normal running of the Republic, but they provoked another Roman civil war, which led eventually to the establishment of the autocratic Roman Empire by Caesar's adopted heir, Gaius Octavianus. In 42 BC, two years after his assassination, the Roman Senate officially sanctified Caesar as one of the Roman deities.

Perhaps this is the definitive listing:

Imperatores in the Roman Republic

In the Roman Republic, imperator was the title assumed by certain military commanders. After an especially great victory, an army's troops in the field would proclaim their commander imperator, an acclamation necessary for a general to apply to the Senate for a triumph. After being acclaimed imperator, the victorious general had a right to use the title after his name until the time of his triumph, where he would relinquish the title as well as his imperium.

Since a triumph was the goal of many politically ambitious Roman commanders, Roman Republican history is full of cases where legions were bribed to call their commander imperator. The title of imperator was given in 90 BC to a Gaius Julius Caesar, in 84 BC to Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, in 60 BC to the other, most famous, Gaius Julius Caesar, relative of the former, in 45 BC again to Caesar, in 44 BC to Marcus Iunius Brutus, and in 41 BC to Lucius Antonius (younger brother and ally of the more famous Marcus Antonius). In 15 AD Tiberius Augustus Germanicus was also imperator during the empire (see below) of his most famous relative Tiberius Augustus.

After Caesar Augustus established the hereditary, one-man rule in Rome that we refer to as the Roman Empire, the title imperator was generally restricted to the emperor, though it would occasionally be granted to a member of his family.

Anyway I don't want to make a fight of it or begrudge JAS the point - it is just the academic rigor that prompted me - there are many conflicting "truths" out there. Here it depends whether you define "Emperor" in the modern sense of proclaimed Emperor, the ancient sense of Imperator, or the sense of total ruler [Caesar].

[magpie in the 80's]

from the facts given to the Q:

Caesar chose his grand nephew Gaius Octavius as his heir. Octavius ultimately avenged his uncle's death and rose to the pinnacle of Roman power, becoming Augustus Caesar, Rome's first emperor.

[JAS]

To back up mit80 the Oxford Classical Dictionary 3rd Ed. lists Augustus as the first emperor.

Imperator was a generic title for Roman commanders and became a special title of honour.

Regards
JAS

[Psyber]

Yes I accepted that source as representative of majority opinion, that's why I posted it with those comments. If I had thought it worth arguing further I would not have put that one up, and could have spent more time digging for contrary ones. There are no facts, only interpretations, in many situations.

But, while I accept it, I do think it is a hair-splitting, artificial, distinction that may well not have been recognised by the Romans, even those contemporary with Augustus, whose ego it may have suited to be declared "Imperator primus" at the time..

That is, he may have been the first labelled "Imperator" in that new usage in Rome, but not the first "emperor" in the modern sense of absolute ruler, not King by birth, a la Napoleon in France.

[magpie in the 80's]

Q1. Name the famous 'ghost' ship: Marie ________ ? CELESTE
Q2. What is the capital of the Netherlands (Holland)? AMSTERDAM
Q3. What is another name for a sunken fence bordering a garden or park allowing uninterrupted views from within? HA HA
Q4. Name the large, juicy, yellow-skinned citrus fruit of the West Indies? UGLI
Q5. Who was the 1924 and 1928 Olympic 100m freestyle swimming champion? JOHNNY WEISSMULLER
Q6. Who when asked what it was like to kiss Marilyn Monroe said, 'It's like kissing Hitler'? TONY CURTIS
Q7. Apia is the capital of which pacific nation? SAMOA
Q8. Name the highest peak in Wales? SNOWDON
Q9. What is Norwegian artist Edvard Munch's most famous painting? THE SCREAM
Q10. Who was the first Roman Emperor? AUGUSTUS
Q11. Name the American insect akin to the grasshopper? KATYDID
Q12. Which band took their name from the villain in the spoof sci-fi movie 'Barbarella'? DURAN DURAN
Q13. Who said, 'It's better to be looked over than overlooked'? MAE WEST
Q14. What is myasthenia? MUSCLE WEAKNESS
Q15. Which book and TV heroine lived at St Mary Mead? MISS MARPLE
Q16. Former 'James Bond', Timothy Dalton was born in __________ ? WALES
Q17. 'Manfred the Mammoth', 'Sid the Sloth' and 'Diego the Sabre-toothed Tiger' all appear in which film? ICE AGE
Q18. In which country would you find ancient stave churches made of horizontal logs built with vertical curved strips of wood called 'staves' without a single nail used in construction? NORWAY
Q19. Name the 1988 Olympic men's 200m butterfly swimming champion: MICHAEL GROSS
Q20. What was James Fixx, the man whose best-seller turned the USA on to the jogging craze, doing at the time of his death? JOGGING
Q21. Who is the 18th century English printer after whom a style of type is named: John _________ ? BASKERVILLE
Q22. Where would you find the world's second largest barrier reef after Australia's? BELIZE
Q23. Who said, 'A woman is like a teabag - only in hot water do you realize how strong she is'? NANCY REAGAN
Q24. Who said, 'How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when it is clearly Ocean? ARTHUR C. CLARKE
Q25. Which guitar legend was a former paratrooper who made 26 jumps with the 'Screaming Eagles' the elite 101 airborne division? JIMMI HENDRIX

QUESTIONS ANSWERED ARE IN RED.
QUESTIONS UNANSWERE ARE IN BLUE.

END OF QUIZ