The ancient Greek city-states such as Athens and Sparta ceased to be independent political entities with the Roman conquest of Greece in 146 BCE. Rome had a military conquest, but you could argue that Greece eventually conquered Rome culturally. Greek became the language of Roman scholarship, and eventually the lingua franca of the entire empire. If you wanted to be able to communicate with anyone in the Empire, you learned Greek, not Latin.
The Romans adopted the Greek gods, mapping them to existing Roman deities with similar domains, e.g. the Greek god of war Ares became the Roman god of war Mars. Greek influence pervaded art and architecture and philosophy, while Greek instructors and teaching methods became the gold standard in Roman education. Eventually, the Eastern Roman Empire become predominantly Greek in language and culture.
But why, you may ask, does any of this matter from a trivia training point of view?
Even after the Roman conquest, Greece continued to produce intellectuals, artists, scientists, and philosophers of historical stature. But these guys were Greeks who lived in ancient times, and there already is a Bzzwords trivia training category for Ancient Greeks. Why do we need another?
We, the expert faculty of Bzzwords University, feel that the Greek scholars under Roman rule were a different breed of cat. They were as much Roman as they were Greek.
Knowing the handful of Roman-Era Greeks that we’ve included here will give you an advantage over run-of-the-mill quizzers. These names will show up on elite trivia shows like Jeopardy, Masterminds, or the Chase, and you will be the only one in the room to know them. Even if you’re just watching one of these shows, and you know that yellow bile is one of the “four humors” of the Greek physician Galen, you will impress the heck out of your date. And how can you call yourself civilized if you don’t know who Plutarch is?
It’s easy to learn. Just drill for a minute here and a minute there at Bzzwords University Trivia Training.
