romikgosai/squad_modified_2 huggingface dataset:
Several versions of a semi-official, structured pantheon were developed during the political, social and religious instability of the Late Republican era. Jupiter, the most powerful of all gods and "the fount of the auspices upon which the relationship of the city with the gods rested", consistently personified the divine authority of Rome's highest offices, internal organization and external relations. During the archaic and early Republican eras, he shared his temple, some aspects of cult and several divine characteristics with Mars and Quirinus, who were later replaced by Juno and Minerva. A conceptual tendency toward triads may be indicated by the later agricultural or plebeian triad of Ceres, Liber and Libera, and by some of the complementary threefold deity-groupings of Imperial cult. Other major and minor deities could be single, coupled, or linked retrospectively through myths of divine marriage and sexual adventure. These later Roman pantheistic hierarchies are part literary and mythographic, part philosophical creations, and often Greek in origin. The Hellenization of Latin literature and culture supplied literary and artistic models for reinterpreting Roman deities in light of the Greek Olympians, and promoted a sense that the two cultures had a shared heritage.

Q1: To the Romans who was the most powerful of the gods?
A1: Jupiter
Q2: What did Jupiter personify in regards to Rome's highest offices?
A2: divine authority
Q3: What gods did Juno and Minerva replace in Roman religious practice?
A3: Mars and Quirinus
Q4: From where does the practice of linking various gods into grouping come?
A4: Greek in origin
Q5: Of what did the linking of Greek and Roman deities promote a feeling?
A5: heritage
The impressive, costly, and centralised rites to the deities of the Roman state were vastly outnumbered in everyday life by commonplace religious observances pertaining to an individual's domestic and personal deities, the patron divinities of Rome's various neighborhoods and communities, and the often idiosyncratic blends of official, unofficial, local and personal cults that characterised lawful Roman religion. In this spirit, a provincial Roman citizen who made the long journey from Bordeaux to Italy to consult the Sibyl at Tibur did not neglect his devotion to his own goddess from home:

Q1: What type of religious practices outnumbered the state observances?
A1: commonplace
Q2: To what did the mixture of official and individual religious practices  pertain?
A2: lawful Roman
Q3: What were the characteristics of state religious observances?
A3: impressive, costly, and centralised
Q4: Who made the choices of personal religious practices in Rome?
A4: individual
Q5: What type of deities did Roman communities have?
A5: patron
Roman calendars show roughly forty annual religious festivals. Some lasted several days, others a single day or less: sacred days (dies fasti) outnumbered "non-sacred" days (dies nefasti). A comparison of surviving Roman religious calendars suggests that official festivals were organized according to broad seasonal groups that allowed for different local traditions. Some of the most ancient and popular festivals incorporated ludi ("games," such as chariot races and theatrical performances), with examples including those held at Palestrina in honour of Fortuna Primigenia during Compitalia, and the Ludi Romani in honour of Liber. Other festivals may have required only the presence and rites of their priests and acolytes, or particular groups, such as women at the Bona Dea rites.

Q1: How many religious celebrations did Rome have?
A1: forty
Q2:  What type of day were there more of in Rome?
A2: sacred days
Q3: With what were Roman festivals organized in accordance?
A3: seasonal
Q4: What traditions did the seasonal festivals incorporate?
A4: local
Q5: Instead of the public, what did some religious rites only require?
A5: particular groups
Other public festivals were not required by the calendar, but occasioned by events. The triumph of a Roman general was celebrated as the fulfillment of religious vows, though these tended to be overshadowed by the political and social significance of the event. During the late Republic, the political elite competed to outdo each other in public display, and the ludi attendant on a triumph were expanded to include gladiator contests. Under the Principate, all such spectacular displays came under Imperial control: the most lavish were subsidised by emperors, and lesser events were provided by magistrates as a sacred duty and privilege of office. Additional festivals and games celebrated Imperial accessions and anniversaries. Others, such as the traditional Republican Secular Games to mark a new era (saeculum), became imperially funded to maintain traditional values and a common Roman identity. That the spectacles retained something of their sacral aura even in late antiquity is indicated by the admonitions of the Church Fathers that Christians should not take part.

Q1: What type of festivals happened when events warranted them?
A1: fulfillment of religious vows
Q2: What is an example of an event organized religious celebration?
A2: The triumph
Q3: In what aspect of the festival did political figures try to out do each other?
A3: public display
Q4: Under what auspices did public displays  come during the Principate?
A4: Imperial
Q5: Who paid for the most lavish of festival events?
A5: emperors
The meaning and origin of many archaic festivals baffled even Rome's intellectual elite, but the more obscure they were, the greater the opportunity for reinvention and reinterpretation — a fact lost neither on Augustus in his program of religious reform, which often cloaked autocratic innovation, nor on his only rival as mythmaker of the era, Ovid. In his Fasti, a long-form poem covering Roman holidays from January to June, Ovid presents a unique look at Roman antiquarian lore, popular customs, and religious practice that is by turns imaginative, entertaining, high-minded, and scurrilous; not a priestly account, despite the speaker's pose as a vates or inspired poet-prophet, but a work of description, imagination and poetic etymology that reflects the broad humor and burlesque spirit of such venerable festivals as the Saturnalia, Consualia, and feast of Anna Perenna on the Ides of March, where Ovid treats the assassination of the newly deified Julius Caesar as utterly incidental to the festivities among the Roman people. But official calendars preserved from different times and places also show a flexibility in omitting or expanding events, indicating that there was no single static and authoritative calendar of required observances. In the later Empire under Christian rule, the new Christian festivals were incorporated into the existing framework of the Roman calendar, alongside at least some of the traditional festivals.

Q1: What did obscure festivals offer Romans the opportunity to do?
A1: reinterpretation
Q2: What did Augustus wish to do for Roman religion?
A2: reform
Q3: What poet wrote a long poem describing Roman religious holidays?
A3: Ovid
Q4: What was lacking in the presentation of religious events in Rome?
A4: authoritative calendar
Q5: Under whose rule were new Christian festivals added to previous Roman holidays?
A5: Christian
The Latin word templum originally referred not to the temple building itself, but to a sacred space surveyed and plotted ritually through augury: "The architecture of the ancient Romans was, from first to last, an art of shaping space around ritual." The Roman architect Vitruvius always uses the word templum to refer to this sacred precinct, and the more common Latin words aedes, delubrum, or fanum for a temple or shrine as a building. The ruins of temples are among the most visible monuments of ancient Roman culture.

Q1: Around what aspect did the Romans a lot space?
A1: ritual
Q2: What religious practice did Rome use to determine ritual?
A2: augury
Q3: What Roman word was used to refer to the scared precinct?
A3: templum
Q4: What common Latin words were used to mean a shrine or building?
A4: aedes, delubrum, or fanum
Q5: What monuments were the some of most visible of Roman culture?
A5: temples
All sacrifices and offerings required an accompanying prayer to be effective. Pliny the Elder declared that "a sacrifice without prayer is thought to be useless and not a proper consultation of the gods." Prayer by itself, however, had independent power. The spoken word was thus the single most potent religious action, and knowledge of the correct verbal formulas the key to efficacy. Accurate naming was vital for tapping into the desired powers of the deity invoked, hence the proliferation of cult epithets among Roman deities. Public prayers (prex) were offered loudly and clearly by a priest on behalf of the community. Public religious ritual had to be enacted by specialists and professionals faultlessly; a mistake might require that the action, or even the entire festival, be repeated from the start. The historian Livy reports an occasion when the presiding magistrate at the Latin festival forgot to include the "Roman people" among the list of beneficiaries in his prayer; the festival had to be started over. Even private prayer by an individual was formulaic, a recitation rather than a personal expression, though selected by the individual for a particular purpose or occasion.

Q1: What did each offering require to be valid in Roman religion?
A1: prayer
Q2: What did Pliny the Elder think that a sacrifice without prayer was?
A2: useless
Q3: What act alone had power in Roman thought?
A3: Prayer
Q4: What was missing in the formulas of prayer in Rome?
A4: personal expression
Q5: What knowledge was of importance in the potency of prayer?
A5: correct verbal formulas
Sacrifice to deities of the heavens (di superi, "gods above") was performed in daylight, and under the public gaze. Deities of the upper heavens required white, infertile victims of their own sex: Juno a white heifer (possibly a white cow); Jupiter a white, castrated ox (bos mas) for the annual oath-taking by the consuls. Di superi with strong connections to the earth, such as Mars, Janus, Neptune and various genii – including the Emperor's – were offered fertile victims. After the sacrifice, a banquet was held; in state cults, the images of honoured deities took pride of place on banqueting couches and by means of the sacrificial fire consumed their proper portion (exta, the innards). Rome's officials and priests reclined in order of precedence alongside and ate the meat; lesser citizens may have had to provide their own.

Q1: When did the sacrifices to the deities of the heavens occur?
A1: daylight
Q2: What color was the sacrifice mandated to be for heaven deities?
A2: white
Q3: What event was held after the sacrifice?
A3: banquet
Q4: What type of sacrifices were offered to gods with earth connections?
A4: fertile
Q5: Who ate the meat of the sacrifice during the after sacrifice  banquet?
A5: officials and priests
Chthonic gods such as Dis pater, the di inferi ("gods below"), and the collective shades of the departed (di Manes) were given dark, fertile victims in nighttime rituals. Animal sacrifice usually took the form of a holocaust or burnt offering, and there was no shared banquet, as "the living cannot share a meal with the dead". Ceres and other underworld goddesses of fruitfulness were sometimes offered pregnant female animals; Tellus was given a pregnant cow at the Fordicidia festival. Color had a general symbolic value for sacrifices. Demigods and heroes, who belonged to the heavens and the underworld, were sometimes given black-and-white victims. Robigo (or Robigus) was given red dogs and libations of red wine at the Robigalia for the protection of crops from blight and red mildew.

Q1: When were the gods below and the dead celebrated?
A1: nighttime
Q2: What type of sacrifice victims were the dark gods offered?
A2: dark, fertile
Q3: How was the sacrifice to the gods below handled?
A3: burnt offering
Q4: What daylight event was not celebrated after the dark sacrifice?
A4: shared banquet
Q5: What feature had importance in sacrifices?
A5: Color
The same divine agencies who caused disease or harm also had the power to avert it, and so might be placated in advance. Divine consideration might be sought to avoid the inconvenient delays of a journey, or encounters with banditry, piracy and shipwreck, with due gratitude to be rendered on safe arrival or return. In times of great crisis, the Senate could decree collective public rites, in which Rome's citizens, including women and children, moved in procession from one temple to the next, supplicating the gods.

Q1: What elements had the power of benefit or harm in Roman religion?
A1: divine agencies
Q2: What was expected when the divine intervention benefited the patron?
A2: gratitude
Q3: What kind of intervention could be sought to avoid disasters?
A3: Divine
Q4: What act was decreed in times of crisis in Rome?
A4: public rites
Q5: What was the point of public procession to the god's temples?
A5: supplicating the gods
Extraordinary circumstances called for extraordinary sacrifice: in one of the many crises of the Second Punic War, Jupiter Capitolinus was promised every animal born that spring (see ver sacrum), to be rendered after five more years of protection from Hannibal and his allies. The "contract" with Jupiter is exceptionally detailed. All due care would be taken of the animals. If any died or were stolen before the scheduled sacrifice, they would count as already sacrificed, since they had already been consecrated. Normally, if the gods failed to keep their side of the bargain, the offered sacrifice would be withheld. In the imperial period, sacrifice was withheld following Trajan's death because the gods had not kept the Emperor safe for the stipulated period. In Pompeii, the Genius of the living emperor was offered a bull: presumably a standard practise in Imperial cult, though minor offerings (incense and wine) were also made.

Q1: What type of circumstances were called for in times of extreme difficulties?
A1: Extraordinary
Q2: What offering was Jupiter promised during the Second Punic War?
A2: every animal born
Q3: From whom was Rome asking for protection?
A3: Hannibal
Q4: What happened to the sacrifice if the god failed to uphold the agreement?
A4: withheld
Q5: What was the offering for the Emperor in Pompeii?
A5: bull
The exta were the entrails of a sacrificed animal, comprising in Cicero's enumeration the gall bladder (fel), liver (iecur), heart (cor), and lungs (pulmones). The exta were exposed for litatio (divine approval) as part of Roman liturgy, but were "read" in the context of the disciplina Etrusca. As a product of Roman sacrifice, the exta and blood are reserved for the gods, while the meat (viscera) is shared among human beings in a communal meal. The exta of bovine victims were usually stewed in a pot (olla or aula), while those of sheep or pigs were grilled on skewers. When the deity's portion was cooked, it was sprinkled with mola salsa (ritually prepared salted flour) and wine, then placed in the fire on the altar for the offering; the technical verb for this action was porricere.

Q1: What were the exta of a sacrifice?
A1: entrails
Q2: How were the exta read in Roman religious practice?
A2: disciplina Etrusca
Q3: What part of the sacrifice were reserved for the gods?
A3: exta and blood
Q4: What part of the sacrifice was shared among humans?
A4: meat
Q5: Into what was the god's portion of the sacrifice placed?
A5: fire on the altar
Human sacrifice in ancient Rome was rare but documented. After the Roman defeat at Cannae two Gauls and two Greeks were buried under the Forum Boarium, in a stone chamber "which had on a previous occasion [228 BC] also been polluted by human victims, a practice most repulsive to Roman feelings". Livy avoids the word "sacrifice" in connection with this bloodless human life-offering; Plutarch does not. The rite was apparently repeated in 113 BC, preparatory to an invasion of Gaul. Its religious dimensions and purpose remain uncertain.

Q1: What type of sacrifice was rare in Rome?
A1: Human
Q2: What act was repulsive to Romans?
A2: Human sacrifice
Q3: How were sacrifices of humans carried out in Rome?
A3: buried
Q4: Before the invasion of what area was human sacrifice carried out?
A4: Gaul
Q5: When was the invasion of Gaul by Rome?
A5: 113 BC
In the early stages of the First Punic War (264 BC) the first known Roman gladiatorial munus was held, described as a funeral blood-rite to the manes of a Roman military aristocrat. The gladiator munus was never explicitly acknowledged as a human sacrifice, probably because death was not its inevitable outcome or purpose. Even so, the gladiators swore their lives to the infernal gods, and the combat was dedicated as an offering to the di manes or other gods. The event was therefore a sacrificium in the strict sense of the term, and Christian writers later condemned it as human sacrifice.

Q1: During what war was the first gladiator munus held?
A1: First Punic War
Q2: How was the gladiatorial combat described?
A2: funeral blood-rite
Q3: What was not the ultimate purpose of gladiatorial rites?
A3: death
Q4: In what way was gladiatorial combat considered?
A4: as an offering
Q5: How did later Christians view Gladiatorial combats?
A5: human sacrifice
The small woolen dolls called Maniae, hung on the Compitalia shrines, were thought a symbolic replacement for child-sacrifice to Mania, as Mother of the Lares. The Junii took credit for its abolition by their ancestor L. Junius Brutus, traditionally Rome's Republican founder and first consul. Political or military executions were sometimes conducted in such a way that they evoked human sacrifice, whether deliberately or in the perception of witnesses; Marcus Marius Gratidianus was a gruesome example.

Q1: Who was the founder of the Roman Republic?
A1: L. Junius Brutus
Q2: What were stand-ins for child sacrifices to Mania?
A2: woolen dolls
Q3: Who was Mania in Roman religion?
A3: Mother of the Lares
Q4: What leader was the first consul of the Roman Republic?
A4: L. Junius Brutus
Q5: What acts were sometimes arranged so as to be sacrifices?
A5: executions
Officially, human sacrifice was obnoxious "to the laws of gods and men." The practice was a mark of the "Other", attributed to Rome's traditional enemies such as the Carthaginians and Gauls. Rome banned it on several occasions under extreme penalty. A law passed in 81 BC characterised human sacrifice as murder committed for magical purposes. Pliny saw the ending of human sacrifice conducted by the druids as a positive consequence of the conquest of Gaul and Britain. Despite an empire-wide ban under Hadrian, human sacrifice may have continued covertly in North Africa and elsewhere.

Q1: What act did Romans view as obnoxious?
A1: human sacrifice
Q2: To whom was human sacrifice usually attributed?
A2: enemies
Q3: What did Rome do about human sacrifice?
A3: banned it
Q4: As what  did the law of 81 BC view human sacrifice?
A4: murder
Q5: What ruler banned human sacrifice empire wide?
A5: Hadrian
A pater familias was the senior priest of his household. He offered daily cult to his lares and penates, and to his di parentes/divi parentes at his domestic shrines and in the fires of the household hearth. His wife (mater familias) was responsible for the household's cult to Vesta. In rural estates, bailiffs seem to have been responsible for at least some of the household shrines (lararia) and their deities. Household cults had state counterparts. In Vergil's Aeneid, Aeneas brought the Trojan cult of the lares and penates from Troy, along with the Palladium which was later installed in the temple of Vesta.

Q1: Which individual in the household was responsible for the Vesta cult?
A1: wife
Q2: Who was the senior priest of the household in Rome?
A2: pater familias
Q3: Which ancient hero brought the lares cult to Rome?
A3: Aeneas
Q4: From what city did Aeneas bring the lares cult?
A4: Troy
Q5: What was put in the temple of Vesta?
A5: Palladium
Religious law centered on the ritualised system of honours and sacrifice that brought divine blessings, according to the principle do ut des ("I give, that you might give"). Proper, respectful religio brought social harmony and prosperity. Religious neglect was a form of atheism: impure sacrifice and incorrect ritual were vitia (impious errors). Excessive devotion, fearful grovelling to deities and the improper use or seeking of divine knowledge were superstitio. Any of these moral deviations could cause divine anger (ira deorum) and therefore harm the State. The official deities of the state were identified with its lawful offices and institutions, and Romans of every class were expected to honour the beneficence and protection of mortal and divine superiors. Participation in public rites showed a personal commitment to their community and its values.

Q1: On what kind of system was Roman religious law focused?
A1: ritualised
Q2: What form of religion was atheism considered to be?
A2: Religious neglect
Q3: What results did proper religious practices produce?
A3: harmony and prosperity.
Q4: What could deviations from proper religious practices cause?
A4: divine anger
Q5: What did participation in public religious rites show about the individual?
A5: commitment
Official cults were state funded as a "matter of public interest" (res publica). Non-official but lawful cults were funded by private individuals for the benefit of their own communities. The difference between public and private cult is often unclear. Individuals or collegial associations could offer funds and cult to state deities. The public Vestals prepared ritual substances for use in public and private cults, and held the state-funded (thus public) opening ceremony for the Parentalia festival, which was otherwise a private rite to household ancestors. Some rites of the domus (household) were held in public places but were legally defined as privata in part or whole. All cults were ultimately subject to the approval and regulation of the censor and pontifices.

Q1: What organization payed for the maintenance official cults?
A1: state
Q2: Who funded non-official religious cults?
A2: private individuals
Q3: What group benefited from non- official cults?
A3: own communities
Q4: What group presented the opening ceremonies of the Parentalia festival?
A4: Vestals
Q5: What individuals had the right to regulate all cults?
A5: censor and pontifices
Rome had no separate priestly caste or class. The highest authority within a community usually sponsored its cults and sacrifices, officiated as its priest and promoted its assistants and acolytes. Specialists from the religious colleges and professionals such as haruspices and oracles were available for consultation. In household cult, the paterfamilias functioned as priest, and members of his familia as acolytes and assistants. Public cults required greater knowledge and expertise. The earliest public priesthoods were probably the flamines (the singular is flamen), attributed to king Numa: the major flamines, dedicated to Jupiter, Mars and Quirinus, were traditionally drawn from patrician families. Twelve lesser flamines were each dedicated to a single deity, whose archaic nature is indicated by the relative obscurity of some. Flamines were constrained by the requirements of ritual purity; Jupiter's flamen in particular had virtually no simultaneous capacity for a political or military career.

Q1: What was lacking as to the profession of a priest class in Rome?
A1: separate priestly caste
Q2: What authority in a community sponsored religious rites?
A2: highest
Q3: What type of religious participants were available for consultation?
A3: Specialists
Q4: What were the earliest priesthoods?
A4: flamines
Q5: Which member of a family functioned as priest?
A5: paterfamilias