Saturday 15 : Know About The Romans!

Who hasn't been blown out of their minds watching 'Thor' in action! Personally I believe his entry scene in Infinity Wars is by far the greatest entry in all of MCU. Now according to Coulson (as he says to Daisy in the 'Agents Of SHIELD' ) Romans just watched aliens fall out of the sky and labelled them as Gods just like Thor. Guess we'll never know but let's dive in to some Roman stories and know about one of the greatest civilizations that ever existed.

Q1) The Roman political system was in a constant state of imbalance between the wealthy elite that occupied the Senate and the populists who raged against such flagrant inequality. Caesar’s gift for public speaking helped him to gain the support of the populace as he targeted corruption in the aristocracy.
Caesar convinced Crassus and Pompey that the benefits of power were worth putting aside their differences and formed the First Triumvirate in 60 BCE. To seal their agreement, Pompey married Caesar’s daughter Julia, while Caesar married Calpurnia – the daughter of a friend of Crassus. This political powerhouse terrified the Senate – particularly Cato – who set himself directly in opposition to the ambitious candidate.
What came next was a political campaign so dirty and underhanded that even Cato, renowned for his honesty, was forced to do something which now just is a part of life, sadly. What did he do?
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Ans1) He was forced to resort to bribery to keep Caesar out. It didn’t work. With money, muscle and cunning, his campaign was unstoppable and Caesar was elected consul in 59 BCE.

Q2) Twelve months, a 365-day year (with a leap year every four years) and the names of the months themselves – we owe them all to the Romans. Ancient Romans had followed a ten-month year of 304 days up until 713 BC, when the extra two months (Januarius and Februarius) were added, but it wouldn’t be until 45 BC that the 365-day year was introduced by Julius Caesar. Later, the months Quintilis and Sextilis were renamed to what?
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Ans2)  Iulius (July) and Augustus (August) in honour of Caesar and his heir.

Q3) Cassandra was one of the most beautiful daughters of King Priam and Apollo quickly fell in love with her. Apollo then promised Cassandra that he would give her the power of prophecy in exchange for marriage. Cassandra agreed to Apollo’s condition that’s why he gave her the gift but upon receiving what she wanted, she refused to marry Apollo.

When Apollo heard Cassandra’s decision, he became very angry and cursed her. What was the curse which led to the term 'Cassandra complex'?
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Ans3) He cursed her that no one will ever believe any of her prophecies ever again. People began thinking that Cassandra was a liar and a crazy woman. And no one believed her warnings to the Trojans against the Greeks that’s why Troy was destroyed.

Q4) [NSFW] Every Roman emperor has a few crazy stories under his belt, but none of them compare to the tales of Caligula. He’s the one Roman emperor historians are fairly sure was certifiably insane.Six ancient Romans wrote about Caligula’s life, and every one of them agreed that he was completely off his rocker. They left stories about him that are so ridiculous that some people now insist that these events couldn’t possibly have happened. 

For example he tried to replace the head of Zeus's statue with his own. Legend has it that Caligula once declared war on Neptune, the god of the sea, and ordered his men to stab the English Channel. He one had an audience member devoured alive just because he was bored. Like What! Anyways, After he came to power, Caligula blew every penny he had on building two massive, floating palace ships. How were these ships used?

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Ans4) Caligula hosted crazy orgies on the Lake Nemi ships, and his favorite guests were his own sisters. But he didn’t stop at incest.Caligula ordered his noblemen to bring their wives when they visited. He made them line up in front of him, inspected their bodies, and picked his favorite to bring into his chamber. Then he came back out, sat down with her husband, and made the man sit through a detailed review of how his wife was in bed. Madlad.

Q5) X in Greek and Roman mythology, is a multi-headed (usually three-headed) dog, or "hellhound" whichguards the gates of the Underworld, to preventthose who have crossed the river Styx from everescaping. X was the offspring of Echidna, a hybridhalf-woman and half-serpent, and Typhon, a fire-breathing giant whom even the Greek gods feared.Capturing X, without using weapons, was the finallabour assigned to Heracles (Hercules) by KingEurystheus. What is X  ?

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Ans5) Cerberus/Kerberos