romikgosai/squad_modified huggingface dataset:
The Vestals were a public priesthood of six women devoted to the cultivation of Vesta, goddess of the hearth of the Roman state and its vital flame. A girl chosen to be a Vestal achieved unique religious distinction, public status and privileges, and could exercise considerable political influence. Upon entering her office, a Vestal was emancipated from her father's authority. In archaic Roman society, these priestesses were the only women not required to be under the legal guardianship of a man, instead answering directly to the Pontifex Maximus.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: How many Vestals were there in Rome?
A: six', '
Q: Of what was Vesta the goddess?
A: hearth', '
Q: Of what were the Vestals protectors?
A: vital flame', '
Q: What was the benefit of being a Vestal?
A: political influence', '
Q: To whom did the Vestal answer?
A: Pontifex Maximus']
A Vestal's dress represented her status outside the usual categories that defined Roman women, with elements of both virgin bride and daughter, and Roman matron and wife. Unlike male priests, Vestals were freed of the traditional obligations of marrying and producing children, and were required to take a vow of chastity that was strictly enforced: a Vestal polluted by the loss of her chastity while in office was buried alive. Thus the exceptional honor accorded a Vestal was religious rather than personal or social; her privileges required her to be fully devoted to the performance of her duties, which were considered essential to the security of Rome.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: What vow was required of Vestals?
A: chastity', "
Q: How were the Vestals' devotion to Rome's security viewed to be ?
A: essential", "
Q: What was the punishment for the loss of a Vestal's chastity?
A: buried alive", '
Q: What was a Vestal expected to be to her duties?
A: devoted', '
Q: What was the honor granted a Vestal ?
A: religious']
The Vestals embody the profound connection between domestic cult and the religious life of the community. Any householder could rekindle their own household fire from Vesta's flame. The Vestals cared for the Lares and Penates of the state that were the equivalent of those enshrined in each home. Besides their own festival of Vestalia, they participated directly in the rites of Parilia, Parentalia and Fordicidia. Indirectly, they played a role in every official sacrifice; among their duties was the preparation of the mola salsa, the salted flour that was sprinkled on every sacrificial victim as part of its immolation.

Questions and answers:
["
Q: Where could a householder rekindle the home's flame?
A: Vesta's flame", '
Q: For what state artifacts did the Vestals care?
A: Lares and Penates', '
Q: What was the Vestal festival called?
A: Vestalia', '
Q: To what part of official state sacrifices did the Vestals attend?
A: mola salsa', '
Q: What was the nature of the role of the Vestals in state sacrifices?
A: Indirect']
Augustus' religious reformations raised the funding and public profile of the Vestals. They were given high-status seating at games and theatres. The emperor Claudius appointed them as priestesses to the cult of the deified Livia, wife of Augustus. They seem to have retained their religious and social distinctions well into the 4th century, after political power within the Empire had shifted to the Christians. When the Christian emperor Gratian refused the office of pontifex maximus, he took steps toward the dissolution of the order. His successor Theodosius I extinguished Vesta's sacred fire and vacated her temple.

Questions and answers:
["
Q: What group's status was improved by Augustus' religious reforms?
A: Vestals", '
Q: What advantage was there in being a Vestal at games?
A: seating', '
Q: For whose cult were the Vestals appointed as priestesses?
A: Livia', '
Q: Until what time did the Vestal retain their social distinctions?
A: 4th century', '
Q: Which emperor disbanded the Vestals?
A: Theodosius I']
Public religion took place within a sacred precinct that had been marked out ritually by an augur. The original meaning of the Latin word templum was this sacred space, and only later referred to a building. Rome itself was an intrinsically sacred space; its ancient boundary (pomerium) had been marked by Romulus himself with oxen and plough; what lay within was the earthly home and protectorate of the gods of the state. In Rome, the central references for the establishment of an augural templum appear to have been the Via Sacra (Sacred Way) and the pomerium. Magistrates sought divine opinion of proposed official acts through an augur, who read the divine will through observations made within the templum before, during and after an act of sacrifice. Divine disapproval could arise through unfit sacrifice, errant rites (vitium) or an unacceptable plan of action. If an unfavourable sign was given, the magistrate could repeat the sacrifice until favourable signs were seen, consult with his augural colleagues, or abandon the project. Magistrates could use their right of augury (ius augurum) to adjourn and overturn the process of law, but were obliged to base their decision on the augur's observations and advice. For Cicero, himself an augur, this made the augur the most powerful authority in the Late Republic. By his time (mid 1st century BC) augury was supervised by the college of pontifices, whose powers were increasingly woven into the magistracies of the cursus honorum.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: In what area did public rites take place in Rome?
A: sacred precinct', '
Q: What person marked the religious area ritually?
A: augur', '
Q: What was the original meaning of the templum in Latin?
A: sacred space', '
Q: Who designated the first boundary of Rome?
A: Romulus', '
Q: What did augers seek to understand through observances?
A: divine will']
Haruspicy was also used in public cult, under the supervision of the augur or presiding magistrate. The haruspices divined the will of the gods through examination of entrails after sacrifice, particularly the liver. They also interpreted omens, prodigies and portents, and formulated their expiation. Most Roman authors describe haruspicy as an ancient, ethnically Etruscan "outsider" religious profession, separate from Rome's internal and largely unpaid priestly hierarchy, essential but never quite respectable. During the mid-to-late Republic, the reformist Gaius Gracchus, the populist politician-general Gaius Marius and his antagonist Sulla, and the "notorious Verres" justified their very different policies by the divinely inspired utterances of private diviners. The senate and armies used the public haruspices: at some time during the late Republic, the Senate decreed that Roman boys of noble family be sent to Etruria for training in haruspicy and divination. Being of independent means, they would be better motivated to maintain a pure, religious practice for the public good. The motives of private haruspices – especially females – and their clients were officially suspect: none of this seems to have troubled Marius, who employed a Syrian prophetess.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: What process did haruspicy use to divine the will of the gods?
A: examination of entrails', '
Q: Which of the entrails was especially important to augury?
A: liver', '
Q: To which group can haruspicy to traced?
A: Etruscan', '
Q: What type of private  individual had several generals and politicians used to validate their actions?
A: diviners', '
Q: What type of diviners did the armies use to determine the will of the gods?
A: public haruspices']
Prodigies were transgressions in the natural, predictable order of the cosmos – signs of divine anger that portended conflict and misfortune. The Senate decided whether a reported prodigy was false, or genuine and in the public interest, in which case it was referred to the public priests, augurs and haruspices for ritual expiation. In 207 BC, during one of the Punic Wars' worst crises, the Senate dealt with an unprecedented number of confirmed prodigies whose expiation would have involved "at least twenty days" of dedicated rites.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: What were considered to be natural transgressions by the Romans?
A: Prodigies', '
Q: Of what were prodigies predictors?
A: conflict and misfortune', '
Q: What did prodigies show the Romans?
A: divine anger', '
Q: What did the expiation of a prodigy impose?
A: dedicated rites', '
Q: What group determined the truth of a prodigy?
A: Senate']
Livy presents these as signs of widespread failure in Roman religio. The major prodigies included the spontaneous combustion of weapons, the apparent shrinking of the sun's disc, two moons in a daylit sky, a cosmic battle between sun and moon, a rain of red-hot stones, a bloody sweat on statues, and blood in fountains and on ears of corn: all were expiated by sacrifice of "greater victims". The minor prodigies were less warlike but equally unnatural; sheep become goats, a hen become a cock (and vice versa) – these were expiated with "lesser victims". The discovery of an androgynous four-year-old child was expiated by its drowning and the holy procession of 27 virgins to the temple of Juno Regina, singing a hymn to avert disaster: a lightning strike during the hymn rehearsals required further expiation. Religious restitution is proved only by Rome's victory.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: What author wrote of disaster prodigies?
A: Livy', '
Q: What type of sacrifices were required to expiate the minor prodigies ?
A: lesser victims', '
Q: Of what did the greater prodigies require in sacrifice?
A: greater victims', '
Q: Of what did Livy think the prodigies proved about Roman religion?
A: widespread failure', "
Q: What is the only proof of religious success over prodigies?
A: Rome's victory"]
Roman beliefs about an afterlife varied, and are known mostly for the educated elite who expressed their views in terms of their chosen philosophy. The traditional care of the dead, however, and the perpetuation after death of their status in life were part of the most archaic practices of Roman religion. Ancient votive deposits to the noble dead of Latium and Rome suggest elaborate and costly funeral offerings and banquets in the company of the deceased, an expectation of afterlife and their association with the gods. As Roman society developed, its Republican nobility tended to invest less in spectacular funerals and extravagant housing for their dead, and more on monumental endowments to the community, such as the donation of a temple or public building whose donor was commemorated by his statue and inscribed name. Persons of low or negligible status might receive simple burial, with such grave goods as relatives could afford.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: From what source does information of Roman thought about the afterlife come?
A: educated elite', '
Q: What type of practices were those affecting the care of the dead?
A: archaic', '
Q: What did the ancient Romans expect after death?
A: afterlife', '
Q: With whom did the  early Romans expect to associate?
A: gods', '
Q: What did later Romans invest in rather than grave offerings?
A: monumental endowments']
Funeral and commemorative rites varied according to wealth, status and religious context. In Cicero's time, the better-off sacrificed a sow at the funeral pyre before cremation. The dead consumed their portion in the flames of the pyre, Ceres her portion through the flame of her altar, and the family at the site of the cremation. For the less well-off, inhumation with "a libation of wine, incense, and fruit or crops was sufficient". Ceres functioned as an intermediary between the realms of the living and the dead: the deceased had not yet fully passed to the world of the dead and could share a last meal with the living. The ashes (or body) were entombed or buried. On the eighth day of mourning, the family offered further sacrifice, this time on the ground; the shade of the departed was assumed to have passed entirely into the underworld. They had become one of the di Manes, who were collectively celebrated and appeased at the Parentalia, a multi-day festival of remembrance in February.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: What type of rites varied in accordance with status and religion?
A: Funeral and commemorative', "
Q: What was the grave sacrifice in Cicero's time?
A: sow", '
Q: What class gave only wine and food as a grave offering?
A: less well-off', '
Q: What was the multi day of remembrance for the dead? 
A: Parentalia', '
Q: What goddess was an intermediary  between the dead and the living?
A: Ceres']
In the later Imperial era, the burial and commemorative practises of Christian and non-Christians overlapped. Tombs were shared by Christian and non-Christian family members, and the traditional funeral rites and feast of novemdialis found a part-match in the Christian Constitutio Apostolica. The customary offers of wine and food to the dead continued; St Augustine (following St Ambrose) feared that this invited the "drunken" practices of Parentalia but commended funeral feasts as a Christian opportunity to give alms of food to the poor. Christians attended Parentalia and its accompanying Feralia and Caristia in sufficient numbers for the Council of Tours to forbid them in AD 567. Other funerary and commemorative practices were very different. Traditional Roman practice spurned the corpse as a ritual pollution; inscriptions noted the day of birth and duration of life. The Christian Church fostered the veneration of saintly relics, and inscriptions marked the day of death as a transition to "new life".

Questions and answers:
["
Q: What group's burial practices over-lapped with the Roman's?
A: Christian", '
Q: What items were shared among Christian and non- Christians?
A: Tombs', '
Q: What did St Augustine believe that funeral feasts gave an opportunity for?
A: alms of food', '
Q: When was Christian attendance at Parentalia become forbidden by the Christians?
A: AD 567', '
Q: How did the Romans view the corpse of the dead?
A: ritual pollution']
Roman camps followed a standard pattern for defense and religious ritual; in effect they were Rome in miniature. The commander's headquarters stood at the centre; he took the auspices on a dais in front. A small building behind housed the legionary standards, the divine images used in religious rites and in the Imperial era, the image of the ruling emperor. In one camp, this shrine is even called Capitolium. The most important camp-offering appears to have been the suovetaurilia performed before a major, set battle. A ram, a boar and a bull were ritually garlanded, led around the outer perimeter of the camp (a lustratio exercitus) and in through a gate, then sacrificed: Trajan's column shows three such events from his Dacian wars. The perimeter procession and sacrifice suggest the entire camp as a divine templum; all within are purified and protected.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: How were Roman camps laid out?
A: standard pattern', '
Q: For what purpose were Roman camps arranged?
A: defense and religious ritual', '
Q: Of what were Roman camps diminutive versions?
A: Rome', "
Q: What was in the center of each Roman camp?
A: commander's headquarters", '
Q: What does the religious rites performed before battle suggest that the camp has become?
A: divine templum']
Each camp had its own religious personnel; standard bearers, priestly officers and their assistants, including a haruspex, and housekeepers of shrines and images. A senior magistrate-commander (sometimes even a consul) headed it, his chain of subordinates ran it and a ferocious system of training and discipline ensured that every citizen-soldier knew his duty. As in Rome, whatever gods he served in his own time seem to have been his own business; legionary forts and vici included shrines to household gods, personal deities and deities otherwise unknown. From the earliest Imperial era, citizen legionaries and provincial auxiliaries gave cult to the emperor and his familia on Imperial accessions, anniversaries and their renewal of annual vows. They celebrated Rome's official festivals in absentia, and had the official triads appropriate to their function – in the Empire, Jupiter, Victoria and Concordia were typical. By the early Severan era, the military also offered cult to the Imperial divi, the current emperor's numen, genius and domus (or familia), and special cult to the Empress as "mother of the camp." The near ubiquitous legionary shrines to Mithras of the later Imperial era were not part of official cult until Mithras was absorbed into Solar and Stoic Monism as a focus of military concordia and Imperial loyalty.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: What type of personnel did every camp have?
A: religious', '
Q: What officer headed the religious personnel of a Roman camp?
A: senior magistrate-commander', '
Q: In the Imperial era, what cult did legionnaires follow?
A: emperor', "
Q: Even in other places, of what did the legions keep observance?
A: Rome's official festivals", '
Q: What person was considered to be "Mother of the camp\'\'?
A: Empress']
The devotio was the most extreme offering a Roman general could make, promising to offer his own life in battle along with the enemy as an offering to the underworld gods. Livy offers a detailed account of the devotio carried out by Decius Mus; family tradition maintained that his son and grandson, all bearing the same name, also devoted themselves. Before the battle, Decius is granted a prescient dream that reveals his fate. When he offers sacrifice, the victim's liver appears "damaged where it refers to his own fortunes". Otherwise, the haruspex tells him, the sacrifice is entirely acceptable to the gods. In a prayer recorded by Livy, Decius commits himself and the enemy to the dii Manes and Tellus, charges alone and headlong into the enemy ranks, and is killed; his action cleanses the sacrificial offering. Had he failed to die, his sacrificial offering would have been tainted and therefore void, with possibly disastrous consequences. The act of devotio is a link between military ethics and those of the Roman gladiator.

Questions and answers:
["
Q: What was a Roman general's most extreme offering?
A: devotio", '
Q: What Roman general had a dream of his fate in battle?
A: Decius Mus', '
Q: With what does the devotio link to military ethics?
A: Roman gladiator', '
Q: By dying what did Decius avoid for the battle?
A: disastrous consequences', '
Q: Who wrote a detailed account of the demise of Decius Mus?
A: Livy']
The efforts of military commanders to channel the divine will were on occasion less successful. In the early days of Rome's war against Carthage, the commander Publius Claudius Pulcher (consul 249 BC) launched a sea campaign "though the sacred chickens would not eat when he took the auspices." In defiance of the omen, he threw them into the sea, "saying that they might drink, since they would not eat. He was defeated, and on being bidden by the senate to appoint a dictator, he appointed his messenger Glycias, as if again making a jest of his country's peril." His impiety not only lost the battle but ruined his career.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: What general was consul in 249 BC?
A: Publius Claudius Pulcher', '
Q: What type of campaign did Publius fight?
A: sea', "
Q: What was Publius's critical mistake in his sea campaign?
A: defiance of the omen", '
Q: How did Publius fare in his battle?
A: defeated', "
Q: What was the cause of Publius's failures according to Roman feeling?
A: impiety"]
Roman women were present at most festivals and cult observances. Some rituals specifically required the presence of women, but their active participation was limited. As a rule women did not perform animal sacrifice, the central rite of most major public ceremonies. In addition to the public priesthood of the Vestals, some cult practices were reserved for women only. The rites of the Bona Dea excluded men entirely. Because women enter the public record less frequently than men, their religious practices are less known, and even family cults were headed by the paterfamilias. A host of deities, however, are associated with motherhood. Juno, Diana, Lucina, and specialized divine attendants presided over the life-threatening act of giving birth and the perils of caring for a baby at a time when the infant mortality rate was as high as 40 percent.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: What was the amount of participation by women in religious observances?
A: limited', '
Q: What religious act did women not perform?
A: animal sacrifice', '
Q: What priesthood was reserved solely for women?
A: Vestals', '
Q: What Roman rites excluded men?
A: Bona Dea', "
Q: With what are many deities aligned for women in Rome's religions? 
A: motherhood"]
Excessive devotion and enthusiasm in religious observance were superstitio, in the sense of "doing or believing more than was necessary", to which women and foreigners were considered particularly prone. The boundaries between religio and superstitio are perhaps indefinite. The famous tirade of Lucretius, the Epicurean rationalist, against what is usually translated as "superstition" was in fact aimed at excessive religio. Roman religion was based on knowledge rather than faith, but superstitio was viewed as an "inappropriate desire for knowledge"; in effect, an abuse of religio.

Questions and answers:
["
Q: What was excessive religious fervor in Rome's religions?
A: superstitio", '
Q: What was excessive religio equated with in Rome?
A: superstition', '
Q: What was the basis of Roman religion?
A: knowledge', '
Q: Doing what type of actions were considered to be wrong in Rome?
A: more than was necessary', '
Q: What type of knowledge seeking was superstitio considered to be?
A: inappropriate']
In the everyday world, many individuals sought to divine the future, influence it through magic, or seek vengeance with help from "private" diviners. The state-sanctioned taking of auspices was a form of public divination with the intent of ascertaining the will of the gods, not foretelling the future. Secretive consultations between private diviners and their clients were thus suspect. So were divinatory techniques such as astrology when used for illicit, subversive or magical purposes. Astrologers and magicians were officially expelled from Rome at various times, notably in 139 BC and 33 BC. In 16 BC Tiberius expelled them under extreme penalty because an astrologer had predicted his death. "Egyptian rites" were particularly suspect: Augustus banned them within the pomerium to doubtful effect; Tiberius repeated and extended the ban with extreme force in AD 19. Despite several Imperial bans, magic and astrology persisted among all social classes. In the late 1st century AD, Tacitus observed that astrologers "would always be banned and always retained at Rome".

Questions and answers:
['
Q: What type of diviners were suspect in Rome?
A: private diviners', '
Q: What was the purpose to be discovered by state sanctioned diviners?
A: will of the gods', '
Q: What action was not to be sought by state diviners?
A: foretelling the future', '
Q: What group of people were several times expelled from Rome?
A: Astrologers and magicians', '
Q: What had an astrologer predicted to warrant from Rome by Tiberius?
A: death']