Fact File: Who's Who?

Question 1

When was Diodorus Siculus alive?

Answer 1

1st c. BCE

Question 2

Who wrote Biblioteca?

Answer 2

Diodorus Siculus

Question 3

When did Diodorus Siculus travel to Egypt between?

Answer 3

c. 60 - 57 BCE

Question 4

What did Diodorus Siculus write on?

Answer 4

Universal history - concerned with the role of Greece in the emergence of civilisation.
Disproving the perceived Egyptian claim of civilisational priority and superiority

Question 5

Which source quoted another writer, and who was he?

Answer 5

Strabo quoted Polybius

Question 6

When was Polybius alive?

Answer 6

c. 200 - c. 118 BCE

Question 7

Who said the Egyptians were “an acute and civilised race”?

Answer 7

Polybius

Question 8

When was Plutarch alive?

Answer 8

c. 40 - 120s CE

Question 9

What ethnicity was Plutarch?

Answer 9

Greek

Question 10

Who overtly presented Cleopatra as a seductress?

Answer 10

Plutarch

Question 11

Who wrote that Dionysus abandoned Antony by fleeing Alexandria?

Answer 11

Plutarch

Question 12

Who enjoyed high status and positions of power under both Hadrian and Trajan?

Answer 12

Plutarch

Question 13

When was Suetonius alive?

Answer 13

c. 69 - 122 CE

Question 14

What ethnicity was Suetonius?

Answer 14

Roman

Question 15

Who was the director of the imperial archives under Trajan?

Answer 15

Suetonius

Question 16

Who was dismissed by Hadrian for an alleged affair with Vibia Sabina?

Answer 16

Suetonius

Question 17

When was Cassius Dio alive?

Answer 17

c. 165 - c. 235 CE

Question 18

What ethnicity was Cassius Dio?

Answer 18

Roman citizen, but wrote in Greek

Question 19

How did Cassius Dio present Antony?

Answer 19

Siding with Egypt against Rome

Question 20

When was Philo alive?

Answer 20

c. 20 BCE - c. 50 CE

Question 21

What ethnicity was Philo?

Answer 21

Hellenistic Jewish philosopher, lived in Alexandria, wrote in Greek

Question 22

How many Jews lived in Egypt, according to Philo?

Answer 22

No less than 1 million

Question 23

How many districts of Alexandria was inhabited by Jews, according to Philo?

Answer 23

2 out of 5

Question 24

When was Horace alive?

Answer 24

65 - 8 BCE

Question 25

Who was the leading Roman lyric poet under Augustus?

Answer 25

Horace

Question 26

What does Horace say on Cleopatra?

Answer 26

Criticises her band of effeminate men, but praises her strength and then courage when she commits suicide

Question 27

When was Tacitus alive?

Answer 27

c. 56 - c. 120 CE

Question 28

When was Ulpian alive?

Answer 28

c. 170 - 223/228 CE

Question 29

Who was Ulpian?

Answer 29

Roman jurist

Question 30

When was Strabo alive?

Answer 30

64/63 BCE - 24 CE

Question 31

What ethnicity was Strabo?

Answer 31

Greek

Question 32

What did Strabo say on Alexandria?

Answer 32

Critical of Egyptian ethnicities. Complementary to pieces of the city that could be claimed as Greco-Roman

Question 33

What did Strabo write about the head of the Idios Logos?

Answer 33

"...he who investigates ownerless property and property which ought to fall to Caesar."

Question 34

When was Dio Chrysostom alive?

Answer 34

c. 40 - c. 115 CE

Question 35

What ethnicity was Dio Chrysostom?

Answer 35

Greek

Question 36

What did Dio Chrysostom write about Alexandria?

Answer 36

Geographically advantageous: dominated trade routes; monopoly on the immediate landscape

Question 37

Who was a critic of Domitian?

Answer 37

Dio Chrysostom

Question 38

Who was banished by Domitian?

Answer 38

Dio Chrysostom

Question 39

Who was a friend to Nerva, who ended his exile?

Answer 39

Dio Chrysostom

Question 40

When was Josephus alive?

Answer 40

c. 37 - 100 CE

Question 41

What ethnicity was Josephus?

Answer 41

Roman-Jewish historian and military leader

Question 42

Why was Josephus favoured and by which emperor?

Answer 42

Claimed that the Jewish-Messianic prophecies that initiated the first Jewish-Roman war made reference to Vespasian becoming emperor

Question 43

Name all 6 of the Greek sources:

Answer 43

Strabo Diodorus Siculus Dio Chrysostom Polybius Plutarch Philo (Hellenistic Jew)

Question 44

Name all 6 of the Roman sources:

Answer 44

Suetonius Cassius Dio (Roman citizen) Horace Tacitus Ulpian Josephus (Romano-Jewish)