Quiz 043

Episode 43 Quiz

Welcome to the quiz for Episode 43: On the Move. See what you remember about Plautus’ play The Rope, and the history behind it, by clicking “START” below!

1 / 15

Plautus’ play The Rope was probably staged around which year?

290 BCE

240 BCE

146 BCE

190 BCE

130 BCE

2 / 15

How did the older Aristophanic comedy differ from the New Comedy popular during Plautus’ time?

Women acted in Aristophanic comedy, though they were banned from the Roman stage.

Plautus' plays all used choruses.

Plautus and the Latin playwrights were less restrained about sex and seduction.

Aristophanic comedy was dirtier and more political.

Aristophanic comedy featured instrumental accompaniment; Plautus' plays are not set to music.

3 / 15

Plautus was a nickname having to do with the playwright’s:

Pronounced gut.

Cleft chin.

Drinking habits.

Flat or broad feet.

Large or bulbous nose.

4 / 15

The end of this episode discussed the “lost child” trope common in New Comedy in relation to:

A story that seems to have come from Dacia.

The Greco-Roman practice of infant exposure.

Greco-Roman athletic festivals and legendary athletes who appeared there.

Orphan stories in the Judeo-Christian canon.

Mesopotamian secular literature.

5 / 15

This character in The Rope is a pimp.

Euclio

Lyconides

Megadorus

Labrax

Strobilus

6 / 15

This character is reunited with her father at the climax of Plautus’ play.

Milphidippa

Cleostrata

Leaena

Palaestra

Phoenicium

7 / 15

At the outset of The Rope, this character has purchased a girl from a pimp, and wants to marry her.

Strabax

Plesiddipus

Callicles

Stratophanes

Diniarchus

8 / 15

This character in The Rope has lost his daughter.

Callidamates

Simo

Daemones

Amphitryon

Theopropides

9 / 15

The estranged father and daughter at the heart of The Rope eventually recognize each other by means of:

A small section of hem on the girl's dress.

Scars on the girl's ankles.

The girl's signet ring.

A lock of the girl's hair that the father has kept.

A chest containing some of the girl's childhood trinkets.

10 / 15

In Plautus’ time, according to Tacitus, what was the conservative patrician mentality toward the theater?

Conservatives worried that stage shows were excessively violent.

Conservatives thought that the theater could cause people to become idle and lazy.

Conservatives believed the theater could be harnessed to promote stoic ideology.

Conservatives believed the theater could be harnessed to promote Epicurean philosophy.

Conservatives feared the theater would make plebeians sympathetic to Carthaginians.

11 / 15

Plautus was from:

Umbria (north central Italy).

Londonium (London).

Tarsus (south central Turkey).

Tarraco (western Spain)

Thessalonica (central Greece).

12 / 15

Throughout The Rope, the character Palaestra is generally:

Powerless and under duress.

Quite drunk.

Fiercely nationalistic.

Aggressively salacious.

A scheming mastermind.

13 / 15

The end of this episode emphasizes how in Plautus’ time (e.g., the decades around 200 BCE), Romans were experiencing unprecedented levels of:

Patrician collusion with eastern kings.

Religious apostasy.

Epidemics from the Upper Nile.

Immigration and more generally transoceanic travel.

Trouble with the Republic's relatively young navy.

14 / 15

Plautus’ play The Rope is set in:

Cyrene (in modern day Libya)

Miletus (in modern day Turkey)

Alexandria (in modern day Egypt)

Aleria (in modern day Corsica)

Lugdunum (in modern day France)

15 / 15

Like many slaves in New Comedy, Daemones’ slave Sceparnio is:

Intellectually pretentious.

In love with his master.

Fleeing from his master.

Totally silent, acting through body language.

Churlish, funny and disrespectful.

Your score is