praj-17/QA-MCQ-Open-ended huggingface dataset:
Title: Religion_in_ancient_Rome
Context: Lucan depicts Sextus Pompeius, the doomed son of Pompey the Great, as convinced "the gods of heaven knew too little" and awaiting the Battle of Pharsalus by consulting with the Thessalian witch Erichtho, who practices necromancy and inhabits deserted graves, feeding on rotting corpses. Erichtho, it is said, can arrest "the rotation of the heavens and the flow of rivers" and make "austere old men blaze with illicit passions". She and her clients are portrayed as undermining the natural order of gods, mankind and destiny. A female foreigner from Thessaly, notorious for witchcraft, Erichtho is the stereotypical witch of Latin literature, along with Horace's Canidia.

question: What witch was reputed to be able to stop the rotation of the heavens? 

answer: Erichtho

question: Who consulted a witch before the battle of Pharsalus? 

answer: Sextus Pompeius

question: What natural order was Erichtho accused of undermining? 

answer: order of gods

question: How was Erichtho portrayed? 

answer: stereotypical witch

question: From what country did Erichtho come? 

answer: Thessaly
Title: Religion_in_ancient_Rome
Context: The Twelve Tables forbade any harmful incantation (malum carmen, or 'noisome metrical charm'); this included the "charming of crops from one field to another" (excantatio frugum) and any rite that sought harm or death to others. Chthonic deities functioned at the margins of Rome's divine and human communities; although sometimes the recipients of public rites, these were conducted outside the sacred boundary of the pomerium. Individuals seeking their aid did so away from the public gaze, during the hours of darkness. Burial grounds and isolated crossroads were among the likely portals. The barrier between private religious practices and "magic" is permeable, and Ovid gives a vivid account of rites at the fringes of the public Feralia festival that are indistinguishable from magic: an old woman squats among a circle of younger women, sews up a fish-head, smears it with pitch, then pierces and roasts it to "bind hostile tongues to silence". By this she invokes Tacita, the "Silent One" of the underworld.

question: What forbid harmful  incantations? 

answer: Twelve Tables

question: What deities were on the edge of Roman religious community?  

answer: Chthonic

question: What could public rites and magic easily become in some circumstances? 

answer: indistinguishable

question: What did people seeking the aid of magicians avoid? 

answer: public gaze

question: Where was magic conducted in Rome? 

answer: outside the sacred boundary
Title: Religion_in_ancient_Rome
Context: Archaeology confirms the widespread use of binding spells (defixiones), magical papyri and so-called "voodoo dolls" from a very early era. Around 250 defixiones have been recovered just from Roman Britain, in both urban and rural settings. Some seek straightforward, usually gruesome revenge, often for a lover's offense or rejection. Others appeal for divine redress of wrongs, in terms familiar to any Roman magistrate, and promise a portion of the value (usually small) of lost or stolen property in return for its restoration. None of these defixiones seem produced by, or on behalf of the elite, who had more immediate recourse to human law and justice. Similar traditions existed throughout the empire, persisting until around the 7th century AD, well into the Christian era.

question: What science has confirmed the existence of magic use from early times? 

answer: Archaeology

question: What was the term for binding spells in the Roman world? 

answer: defixiones

question: What did the elite use instead of spells and potions to redress a wrong? 

answer: law and justice

question: Until what era did spells persist in the empire? 

answer: 7th century AD

question: What era produced a decline in the use of spells? 

answer: Christian era
Title: Religion_in_ancient_Rome
Context: Rome's government, politics and religion were dominated by an educated, male, landowning military aristocracy. Approximately half Rome's population were slave or free non-citizens. Most others were plebeians, the lowest class of Roman citizens. Less than a quarter of adult males had voting rights; far fewer could actually exercise them. Women had no vote. However, all official business was conducted under the divine gaze and auspices, in the name of the senate and people of Rome. "In a very real sense the senate was the caretaker of the Romans’ relationship with the divine, just as it was the caretaker of their relationship with other humans".

question: What male group dominated all aspects of Rome? 

answer: aristocracy

question: Of what class was more than half of Rome's population? 

answer: slave or free non-citizens

question: What was the lowest class of Roman citizens? 

answer: plebeians

question: How many adult males were able to vote in Rome? 

answer: Less than a quarter

question: What organization was Rome's official caretaker? 

answer: the senate
Title: Religion_in_ancient_Rome
Context: The links between religious and political life were vital to Rome's internal governance, diplomacy and development from kingdom, to Republic and to Empire. Post-regal politics dispersed the civil and religious authority of the kings more or less equitably among the patrician elite: kingship was replaced by two annually elected consular offices. In the early Republic, as presumably in the regal era, plebeians were excluded from high religious and civil office, and could be punished for offenses against laws of which they had no knowledge. They resorted to strikes and violence to break the oppressive patrician monopolies of high office, public priesthood, and knowledge of civil and religious law. The senate appointed Camillus as dictator to handle the emergency; he negotiated a settlement, and sanctified it by the dedication of a temple to Concordia. The religious calendars and laws were eventually made public. Plebeian tribunes were appointed, with sacrosanct status and the right of veto in legislative debate. In principle, the augural and pontifical colleges were now open to plebeians. In reality, the patrician and to a lesser extent, plebeian nobility dominated religious and civil office throughout the Republican era and beyond.

question: The link between what groups was necessary to Rome? 

answer: religious and political

question: Where was the basic power in Rome to be found? 

answer: patrician elite

question: What group was excluded from high offices ? 

answer: plebeians

question: Who did the Senate select to settle a strike by the lower classes? 

answer: Camillus

question: To whom was a temple dedicated at the settlement of the strike? 

answer: Concordia
Title: Religion_in_ancient_Rome
Context: While the new plebeian nobility made social, political and religious inroads on traditionally patrician preserves, their electorate maintained their distinctive political traditions and religious cults. During the Punic crisis, popular cult to Dionysus emerged from southern Italy; Dionysus was equated with Father Liber, the inventor of plebeian augury and personification of plebeian freedoms, and with Roman Bacchus. Official consternation at these enthusiastic, unofficial Bacchanalia cults was expressed as moral outrage at their supposed subversion, and was followed by ferocious suppression. Much later, a statue of Marsyas, the silen of Dionysus flayed by Apollo, became a focus of brief symbolic resistance to Augustus' censorship. Augustus himself claimed the patronage of Venus and Apollo; but his settlement appealed to all classes. Where loyalty was implicit, no divine hierarchy need be politically enforced; Liber's festival continued.

question: What did the patrician electorate keep in spite of a new plebeian nobility?  

answer: political traditions and religious cults

question: What cult arrived from southern Italy? 

answer: Dionysus

question: During what time did the Dionysus cult become popular? 

answer: Punic crisis

question: To what Roman god was Dionysus similar? 

answer: Bacchus

question: With loyalty a necessity, what censorship did not need to be enforced? 

answer: divine hierarchy
Title: Religion_in_ancient_Rome
Context: The Augustan settlement built upon a cultural shift in Roman society. In the middle Republican era, even Scipio's tentative hints that he might be Jupiter's special protege sat ill with his colleagues. Politicians of the later Republic were less equivocal; both Sulla and Pompey claimed special relationships with Venus. Julius Caesar went further, and claimed her as his ancestress. Such claims suggested personal character and policy as divinely inspired; an appointment to priesthood offered divine validation. In 63 BC, Julius Caesar's appointment as pontifex maximus "signaled his emergence as a major player in Roman politics". Likewise, political candidates could sponsor temples, priesthoods and the immensely popular, spectacular public ludi and munera whose provision became increasingly indispensable to the factional politics of the Late Republic. Under the principate, such opportunities were limited by law; priestly and political power were consolidated in the person of the princeps ("first citizen").

question: What appointment was the start of Cesar's political rise? 

answer: pontifex maximus

question: What did the Augustan settlement signify in Rome's classes? 

answer: cultural shift

question: What did the claims of officials imply about the nature of the individuals? 

answer: divinely inspired

question: In what year was Cesar made pontifex maximus? 

answer: 63 BC

question: How were opportunities limited in the principate for the citizens of Rome? 

answer: by law
Title: Religion_in_ancient_Rome
Context: By the end of the regal period Rome had developed into a city-state, with a large plebeian, artisan class excluded from the old patrician gentes and from the state priesthoods. The city had commercial and political treaties with its neighbours; according to tradition, Rome's Etruscan connections established a temple to Minerva on the predominantly plebeian Aventine; she became part of a new Capitoline triad of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva, installed in a Capitoline temple, built in an Etruscan style and dedicated in a new September festival, Epulum Jovis. These are supposedly the first Roman deities whose images were adorned, as if noble guests, at their own inaugural banquet.

question: At the end of the regal period, what class was kept out of the state political and priesthood arenas? 

answer: plebeian

question: With whom did Rome have alliances at the end of the regal period? 

answer: neighbours

question: What goddess became a part of the Capitoline triad? 

answer: Minerva

question: In what style was the temple to Minerva built? 

answer: Etruscan

question: What gods were in the Capitoline triad? 

answer: Jupiter, Juno and Minerva
Title: Religion_in_ancient_Rome
Context: Rome's diplomatic agreement with her neighbours of Latium confirmed the Latin league and brought the cult of Diana from Aricia to the Aventine. and established on the Aventine in the "commune Latinorum Dianae templum": At about the same time, the temple of Jupiter Latiaris was built on the Alban mount, its stylistic resemblance to the new Capitoline temple pointing to Rome's inclusive hegemony. Rome's affinity to the Latins allowed two Latin cults within the pomoerium: and the cult to Hercules at the ara maxima in the Forum Boarium was established through commercial connections with Tibur. and the Tusculan cult of Castor as the patron of cavalry found a home close to the Forum Romanum: Juno Sospita and Juno Regina were brought from Italy, and Fortuna Primigenia from Praeneste. In 217, Venus was brought from Sicily and installed in a temple on the Capitoline hill.

question: Whose cult appeared from Africa at the time of the Latin League? 

answer: Diana

question: To whom was a new temple dedicated on the Alban Mount? 

answer: Jupiter Latiaris

question: What cult was formed at the ars maxima in the Forum Boarium ? 

answer: Hercules

question: For what group was Castor a patron? 

answer: cavalry

question: From where was Venus brought and lodged on the Capitoline Hill? 

answer: Sicily
Title: Religion_in_ancient_Rome
Context: The introduction of new or equivalent deities coincided with Rome's most significant aggressive and defensive military forays. In 206 BC the Sibylline books commended the introduction of cult to the aniconic Magna Mater (Great Mother) from Pessinus, installed on the Palatine in 191 BC. The mystery cult to Bacchus followed; it was suppressed as subversive and unruly by decree of the Senate in 186 BC. Greek deities were brought within the sacred pomerium: temples were dedicated to Juventas (Hebe) in 191 BC, Diana (Artemis) in 179 BC, Mars (Ares) in 138 BC), and to Bona Dea, equivalent to Fauna, the female counterpart of the rural Faunus, supplemented by the Greek goddess Damia. Further Greek influences on cult images and types represented the Roman Penates as forms of the Greek Dioscuri. The military-political adventurers of the Later Republic introduced the Phrygian goddess Ma (identified with Roman Bellona, the Egyptian mystery-goddess Isis and Persian Mithras.)

question: What cult appeared from Pessinus in 206 BC? 

answer: Magna Mater

question: What cult was brought in to Rome after the Great Mother cult? 

answer: Bacchus

question: In what year did the Senate declare the Bacchus subversive? 

answer: 186 BC

question: In what year was Diana  brought into the pomerium? 

answer: 179 BC

question: What god was introduced in Rome in 138 BC? 

answer: Mars
Title: Religion_in_ancient_Rome
Context: The spread of Greek literature, mythology and philosophy offered Roman poets and antiquarians a model for the interpretation of Rome's festivals and rituals, and the embellishment of its mythology. Ennius translated the work of Graeco-Sicilian Euhemerus, who explained the genesis of the gods as apotheosized mortals. In the last century of the Republic, Epicurean and particularly Stoic interpretations were a preoccupation of the literate elite, most of whom held - or had held - high office and traditional Roman priesthoods; notably, Scaevola and the polymath Varro. For Varro - well versed in Euhemerus' theory - popular religious observance was based on a necessary fiction; what the people believed was not itself the truth, but their observance led them to as much higher truth as their limited capacity could deal with. Whereas in popular belief deities held power over mortal lives, the skeptic might say that mortal devotion had made gods of mortals, and these same gods were only sustained by devotion and cult.

question: The spread of all things Greek provided what for the interpretation of Rome's religions? 

answer: model

question: What writer defined the development of the gods? 

answer: Euhemerus

question: At the end of the Republic, who read the Stoic interpretations of Roman gods and religion? 

answer: literate elite

question: What factors sustained the beliefs in gods according to Varro? 

answer: devotion and cult.

question: What theory claims that popular belief was based on fiction? 

answer: Euhemerus' theory
Title: Religion_in_ancient_Rome
Context: Just as Rome itself claimed the favour of the gods, so did some individual Romans. In the mid-to-late Republican era, and probably much earlier, many of Rome's leading clans acknowledged a divine or semi-divine ancestor and laid personal claim to their favour and cult, along with a share of their divinity. Most notably in the very late Republic, the Julii claimed Venus Genetrix as ancestor; this would be one of many foundations for the Imperial cult. The claim was further elaborated and justified in Vergil's poetic, Imperial vision of the past.

question: What did many Romans claim in the Republican era? 

answer: divine ancestor

question: What style of claim did Romans favor as a link to the gods? 

answer: personal claim

question: Of what were such claims of deity relations the start? 

answer: Imperial cult

question: What deity did the Julii claim as an ancestor? 

answer: Venus Genetrix

question: What author further elaborated on the imperial claim of godhood?  

answer: Vergil
Title: Religion_in_ancient_Rome
Context: Towards the end of the Republic, religious and political offices became more closely intertwined; the office of pontifex maximus became a de facto consular prerogative. Augustus was personally vested with an extraordinary breadth of political, military and priestly powers; at first temporarily, then for his lifetime. He acquired or was granted an unprecedented number of Rome's major priesthoods, including that of pontifex maximus; as he invented none, he could claim them as traditional honours. His reforms were represented as adaptive, restorative and regulatory, rather than innovative; most notably his elevation (and membership) of the ancient Arvales, his timely promotion of the plebeian Compitalia shortly before his election and his patronage of the Vestals as a visible restoration of Roman morality. Augustus obtained the pax deorum, maintained it for the rest of his reign and adopted a successor to ensure its continuation. This remained a primary religious and social duty of emperors.

question: By the end of the Republic, what offices were increasingly joined? 

answer: religious and political

question: What Roman figure was given wide and lifeime powers? 

answer: Augustus

question: How many priesthoods was Augustus given? 

answer: unprecedented number

question: How were Augustus's reforms viewed? 

answer: adaptive, restorative and regulatory

question: As a return to what did Augustus portray the Vestals in his reforms? 

answer: Roman morality
Title: Religion_in_ancient_Rome
Context: The Roman Empire expanded to include different peoples and cultures; in principle, Rome followed the same inclusionist policies that had recognised Latin, Etruscan and other Italian peoples, cults and deities as Roman. Those who acknowledged Rome's hegemony retained their own cult and religious calendars, independent of Roman religious law. Newly municipal Sabratha built a Capitolium near its existing temple to Liber Pater and Serapis. Autonomy and concord were official policy, but new foundations by Roman citizens or their Romanised allies were likely to follow Roman cultic models. Romanisation offered distinct political and practical advantages, especially to local elites. All the known effigies from the 2nd century AD forum at Cuicul are of emperors or Concordia. By the middle of the 1st century AD, Gaulish Vertault seems to have abandoned its native cultic sacrifice of horses and dogs in favour of a newly established, Romanised cult nearby: by the end of that century, Sabratha’s so-called tophet was no longer in use. Colonial and later Imperial provincial dedications to Rome's Capitoline Triad were a logical choice, not a centralised legal requirement. Major cult centres to "non-Roman" deities continued to prosper: notable examples include the magnificent Alexandrian Serapium, the temple of Aesculapeus at Pergamum and Apollo's sacred wood at Antioch.

question: From what were countries in the empire free? 

answer: Roman religious law

question: What were Rome's policies in regards to foreign peoples? 

answer: inclusionist policies

question: What was Rome's policy towards government? 

answer: Autonomy and concord

question: What did foreign cults gradually begin to display in similarity to Roman cults?  

answer: Romanised

question: What was Rome not demanding of in religion of foreign areas of the empire? 

answer: centralised legal requirement
Title: Religion_in_ancient_Rome
Context: Military settlement within the empire and at its borders broadened the context of Romanitas. Rome's citizen-soldiers set up altars to multiple deities, including their traditional gods, the Imperial genius and local deities – sometimes with the usefully open-ended dedication to the diis deabusque omnibus (all the gods and goddesses). They also brought Roman "domestic" deities and cult practices with them. By the same token, the later granting of citizenship to provincials and their conscription into the legions brought their new cults into the Roman military.

question: What style of religious dedication was not uncommon for outer border areas? 

answer: diis deabusque omnibus

question: What type of household gods and cults did soldiers bring to outer areas? 

answer: domestic

question: To whom did Roman soldiers set up alters? 

answer: traditional gods

question: What act  of provincials brought new gods into the military? 

answer: conscription

question: What did Rome typically award to provincial members of the empire? 

answer: citizenship
Title: Religion_in_ancient_Rome
Context: The first and last Roman known as a living divus was Julius Caesar, who seems to have aspired to divine monarchy; he was murdered soon after. Greek allies had their own traditional cults to rulers as divine benefactors, and offered similar cult to Caesar's successor, Augustus, who accepted with the cautious proviso that expatriate Roman citizens refrain from such worship; it might prove fatal. By the end of his reign, Augustus had appropriated Rome's political apparatus – and most of its religious cults – within his "reformed" and thoroughly integrated system of government. Towards the end of his life, he cautiously allowed cult to his numen. By then the Imperial cult apparatus was fully developed, first in the Eastern Provinces, then in the West. Provincial Cult centres offered the amenities and opportunities of a major Roman town within a local context; bathhouses, shrines and temples to Roman and local deities, amphitheatres and festivals. In the early Imperial period, the promotion of local elites to Imperial priesthood gave them Roman citizenship.

question: What Roman leader aspired to be a living god? 

answer: Julius Caesar

question: What form of government did Cesar seem to be attempting? 

answer: divine monarchy

question: To what ruler did foreign allies offer a divine cult?  

answer: Augustus

question: By the end of Augustus's reign what was an established fact? 

answer: Imperial cult

question: For what was Augustus's reformed system of government notiable? 

answer: integrated
Title: Religion_in_ancient_Rome
Context: In Rome, state cult to a living emperor acknowledged his rule as divinely approved and constitutional. As princeps (first citizen) he must respect traditional Republican mores; given virtually monarchic powers, he must restrain them. He was not a living divus but father of his country (pater patriae), its pontifex maximus (greatest priest) and at least notionally, its leading Republican. When he died, his ascent to heaven, or his descent to join the dii manes was decided by a vote in the Senate. As a divus, he could receive much the same honours as any other state deity – libations of wine, garlands, incense, hymns and sacrificial oxen at games and festivals. What he did in return for these favours is unknown, but literary hints and the later adoption of divus as a title for Christian Saints suggest him as a heavenly intercessor. In Rome, official cult to a living emperor was directed to his genius; a small number refused this honour and there is no evidence of any emperor receiving more than that. In the crises leading up to the Dominate, Imperial titles and honours multiplied, reaching a peak under Diocletian. Emperors before him had attempted to guarantee traditional cults as the core of Roman identity and well-being; refusal of cult undermined the state and was treasonous.

question: What was the emperor's rule in Rome? 

answer: divinely approved

question: As a living divus, what was the emperor to Rome? 

answer: father of his country

question: As first citizen, what must the emperor's mores represent? 

answer: traditional

question: After his death, how was the emperor's afterlife decided? 

answer: vote in the Senate

question: What did emperors before Diocletian try to guarantee in religion?  

answer: traditional cults