romikgosai/squad_modified huggingface dataset:
In the Graeco-Roman world, practitioners of magic were known as magi (singular magus), a "foreign" title of Persian priests. Apuleius, defending himself against accusations of casting magic spells, defined the magician as "in popular tradition (more vulgari)... someone who, because of his community of speech with the immortal gods, has an incredible power of spells (vi cantaminum) for everything he wishes to." Pliny the Elder offers a thoroughly skeptical "History of magical arts" from their supposed Persian origins to Nero's vast and futile expenditure on research into magical practices in an attempt to control the gods. Philostratus takes pains to point out that the celebrated Apollonius of Tyana was definitely not a magus, "despite his special knowledge of the future, his miraculous cures, and his ability to vanish into thin air".

Questions and answers:
['
Q: What word was used by the Romans for practitioners of magic?
A: magi', '
Q: To what did the term magi originally refer?
A: Persian priests', '
Q: Who wrote a skeptical work outlining magic and its use?
A: Pliny the Elder', '
Q: What was the title of Pliny\'s work on magic?
A: "History of magical arts"', '
Q: Who was a noted magician who could vanish into thin air?
A: Apollonius of Tyana']
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.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: What witch was reputed to be able to stop the rotation of the heavens?
A: Erichtho', '
Q: Who consulted a witch before the battle of Pharsalus?
A: Sextus Pompeius', '
Q: What natural order was Erichtho accused of undermining?
A: order of gods', '
Q: How was Erichtho portrayed?
A: stereotypical witch', '
Q: From what country did Erichtho come?
A: Thessaly']
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.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: What forbid harmful  incantations?
A: Twelve Tables', '
Q: What deities were on the edge of Roman religious community? 
A: Chthonic', '
Q: What could public rites and magic easily become in some circumstances?
A: indistinguishable', '
Q: What did people seeking the aid of magicians avoid?
A: public gaze', '
Q: Where was magic conducted in Rome?
A: outside the sacred boundary']
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.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: What science has confirmed the existence of magic use from early times?
A: Archaeology', '
Q: What was the term for binding spells in the Roman world?
A: defixiones', '
Q: What did the elite use instead of spells and potions to redress a wrong?
A: law and justice', '
Q: Until what era did spells persist in the empire?
A: 7th century AD', '
Q: What era produced a decline in the use of spells?
A: Christian era']
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".

Questions and answers:
['
Q: What male group dominated all aspects of Rome?
A: aristocracy', "
Q: Of what class was more than half of Rome's population?
A: slave or free non-citizens", '
Q: What was the lowest class of Roman citizens?
A: plebeians', '
Q: How many adult males were able to vote in Rome?
A: Less than a quarter', "
Q: What organization was Rome's official caretaker?
A: the senate"]
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.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: The link between what groups was necessary to Rome?
A: religious and political', '
Q: Where was the basic power in Rome to be found?
A: patrician elite', '
Q: What group was excluded from high offices ?
A: plebeians', '
Q: Who did the Senate select to settle a strike by the lower classes?
A: Camillus', '
Q: To whom was a temple dedicated at the settlement of the strike?
A: Concordia']
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.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: What did the patrician electorate keep in spite of a new plebeian nobility? 
A: political traditions and religious cults', '
Q: What cult arrived from southern Italy?
A: Dionysus', '
Q: During what time did the Dionysus cult become popular?
A: Punic crisis', '
Q: To what Roman god was Dionysus similar?
A: Bacchus', '
Q: With loyalty a necessity, what censorship did not need to be enforced?
A: divine hierarchy']
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").

Questions and answers:
["
Q: What appointment was the start of Cesar's political rise?
A: pontifex maximus", "
Q: What did the Augustan settlement signify in Rome's classes?
A: cultural shift", '
Q: What did the claims of officials imply about the nature of the individuals?
A: divinely inspired', '
Q: In what year was Cesar made pontifex maximus?
A: 63 BC', '
Q: How were opportunities limited in the principate for the citizens of Rome?
A: by law']
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.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: At the end of the regal period, what class was kept out of the state political and priesthood arenas?
A: plebeian', '
Q: With whom did Rome have alliances at the end of the regal period?
A: neighbours', '
Q: What goddess became a part of the Capitoline triad?
A: Minerva', '
Q: In what style was the temple to Minerva built?
A: Etruscan', '
Q: What gods were in the Capitoline triad?
A: Jupiter, Juno and Minerva']
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.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: Whose cult appeared from Africa at the time of the Latin League?
A: Diana', '
Q: To whom was a new temple dedicated on the Alban Mount?
A: Jupiter Latiaris', '
Q: What cult was formed at the ars maxima in the Forum Boarium ?
A: Hercules', '
Q: For what group was Castor a patron?
A: cavalry', '
Q: From where was Venus brought and lodged on the Capitoline Hill?
A: Sicily']
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.)

Questions and answers:
['
Q: What cult appeared from Pessinus in 206 BC?
A: Magna Mater', '
Q: What cult was brought in to Rome after the Great Mother cult?
A: Bacchus', '
Q: In what year did the Senate declare the Bacchus subversive?
A: 186 BC', '
Q: In what year was Diana  brought into the pomerium?
A: 179 BC', '
Q: What god was introduced in Rome in 138 BC?
A: Mars']
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.

Questions and answers:
["
Q: The spread of all things Greek provided what for the interpretation of Rome's religions?
A: model", '
Q: What writer defined the development of the gods?
A: Euhemerus', '
Q: At the end of the Republic, who read the Stoic interpretations of Roman gods and religion?
A: literate elite', '
Q: What factors sustained the beliefs in gods according to Varro?
A: devotion and cult.', "
Q: What theory claims that popular belief was based on fiction?
A: Euhemerus' theory"]
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.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: What did many Romans claim in the Republican era?
A: divine ancestor', '
Q: What style of claim did Romans favor as a link to the gods?
A: personal claim', '
Q: Of what were such claims of deity relations the start?
A: Imperial cult', '
Q: What deity did the Julii claim as an ancestor?
A: Venus Genetrix', '
Q: What author further elaborated on the imperial claim of godhood? 
A: Vergil']
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.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: By the end of the Republic, what offices were increasingly joined?
A: religious and political', '
Q: What Roman figure was given wide and lifeime powers?
A: Augustus', '
Q: How many priesthoods was Augustus given?
A: unprecedented number', "
Q: How were Augustus's reforms viewed?
A: adaptive, restorative and regulatory", '
Q: As a return to what did Augustus portray the Vestals in his reforms?
A: Roman morality']
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.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: From what were countries in the empire free?
A: Roman religious law', "
Q: What were Rome's policies in regards to foreign peoples?
A: inclusionist policies", "
Q: What was Rome's policy towards government?
A: Autonomy and concord", '
Q: What did foreign cults gradually begin to display in similarity to Roman cults? 
A: Romanised', '
Q: What was Rome not demanding of in religion of foreign areas of the empire?
A: centralised legal requirement']
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.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: What style of religious dedication was not uncommon for outer border areas?
A: diis deabusque omnibus', '
Q: What type of household gods and cults did soldiers bring to outer areas?
A: domestic', '
Q: To whom did Roman soldiers set up alters?
A: traditional gods', '
Q: What act  of provincials brought new gods into the military?
A: conscription', '
Q: What did Rome typically award to provincial members of the empire?
A: citizenship']
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.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: What Roman leader aspired to be a living god?
A: Julius Caesar', '
Q: What form of government did Cesar seem to be attempting?
A: divine monarchy', '
Q: To what ruler did foreign allies offer a divine cult? 
A: Augustus', "
Q: By the end of Augustus's reign what was an established fact?
A: Imperial cult", "
Q: For what was Augustus's reformed system of government notiable?
A: integrated"]
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.

Questions and answers:
["
Q: What was the emperor's rule in Rome?
A: divinely approved", '
Q: As a living divus, what was the emperor to Rome?
A: father of his country', "
Q: As first citizen, what must the emperor's mores represent?
A: traditional", "
Q: After his death, how was the emperor's afterlife decided?
A: vote in the Senate", '
Q: What did emperors before Diocletian try to guarantee in religion? 
A: traditional cults']