My Name Is Julius Trivia Quiz

Answer: Gaius Julius Caesar

So, we must begin with someone who probably enjoyed thinking that his name meant "descended from Jupiter", but first - an explanation of his name. Gaius was Caesar's praenomen, or personal name, and was likely the name his friends called him. Julius was his nomen, or clan name. Caesar was his cognomen. It specified which branch of the Julius clan to which his immediate family belonged.

The Roman Republic was dying, and no one seemed to care or know how to fix it. After holding political office and with opposition growing toward his ideas, Caesar made an alliance called the First Triumvirate with two other similarly minded men. He took his army to Gaul, and over a ten year period added a territory to the Roman empire which doubled it in size. Afterwards he was the victor in a bloody civil war.

When he returned to Rome he was in a position to influence the Senate and make reforms. He was given the office of dictator, and, as such, he lowered debts, taxes, and interest rates. Veterans were given free land away from crowded Rome, and new jobs were created for them. More people were granted the privilege of citizenship. Caesar adopted a new calendar and codified new laws. The Romans, however, had an aversion to kings and dictators. Caesar was murdered on the Ides of March, 44 BC; his heir, Octavian, punished the conspirators and began a new era in Roman history.

Answer: Julius Erving

Julius Erving was already known as the Doctor in high school. One of his teammates on the New York Nets added the J. He played with the Nets in the ABA as a five time All-Star, winning two championships, and three MVP awards. When the ABA and NBA combined in 1976, he went on to have an eleven year tenure with the Philadelphia 76ers, where he was an eleven time MVP and added another championship and MVP award to his collection.

Dr. J was best known for his athleticism, acrobatics, and his dunks that started from the free throw line. He was a flyer, and one of the first players to make dunks a part of the game. His "Rock the Baby" dunk against the Lakers in 1983 is considered to be one of the greatest dunks for all time. A member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (1993), Erving was also named to the NBA's 50th and 75th Anniversary Teams.

Answer: Julius Marx

Julius Marx once said, "I loathe the name Julius". He said he was named after an unemployed uncle who lived in the family home. The nickname Groucho, which either alluded to his grouchy disposition or his grumpy clothes, suited him just fine. In their vaudeville act, influenced by a comic strip Sherlocko the Monk, the brothers all adopted nicknames that ended in "o" for comic affect.

Groucho and his brothers made thirteen films, including "Animal Crackers" (1930), "Duck Soup" (1933), and "A Night at the Opera" (1935). Known for his quick wit and distinctive appearance, Groucho transitioned from vaudeville, Broadway, and movies to host his own quiz show, "You Bet Your Life" (1947-1961). He won a Grammy Award in 1972 for the record that was made of his one-man comedy show at Carnegie Hall, and an Honorary Academy Award in 1974 for the Marx Brothers achievements in motion picture comedy.

Answer: Julius Robert Openheimer

His birth certificate says Julius, but Oppenheimer preferred J. Robert Oppenheimer, saying at one time that the name Julius meant nothing. Some theorize that he took this position because he had been named for his father, who was a living relative. According to European Jewish tradition, babies are not named for living relatives. The older Julius had immigrated to the U.S. with nothing in 1888 and by 1912 was a wealthy executive at a textile company. This wealth enabled his son to have quite an eclectic education; when he entered Harvard in 1922 he settled on chemistry as a major and graduated "summa cum laude" with a BA after three years.

Robert, as he preferred to be called, went on to earn a doctorate in physics. He became a professor at University of California, Berkeley, in 1936, and made significant contributions in quantum mechanics and astrophysics. In 1943 he was asked to serve as the director of Los Alamos Laboratory for the Manhattan Project. Known today as the Father of the Atomic Bomb, he later advised the U.S. government concerning the use of nuclear weapons.

Answer: Julius Rosenberg

Honestly, looking at Rosenberg's life, his first name was probably one of his least concerns. He became a leader in Young Communist League USA while he was a student at City College of New York in the 1930s. His degree in electrical engineering opened up opportunities for him to gain jobs that led him to information about electronics, radar, and guided missile programs; many times once his politics were revealed, however, he was fired.

He was recruited to spy for the Soviet Union in 1942, which is really a bit curious since the United States and Soviet Union were allies at the time. Most of the information that Rosenberg passed on was from his brother in law, David Greenglass, who worked at Los Alamos on the Manhattan Project. Even though his co-conspirators were given prison sentences for their part in the spy operation, Rosenberg and his wife, Ethel, were sentenced to death. While it has been confirmed over the years that Julius did commit acts of treason, Ethel's exact role is still debated.

Answer: Julius II

Giuliano della Rovere served the Roman Catholic Church as Pope Julius II from 1503-1513. He is known as the Warrior Pope because of his extensive intervention in Italian political affairs of the time. Many sources agree that his name was chosen to honor Julius Caesar rather than Pope Julius I, and his war-like nature seems to agree with that story.

His actions away from politics, however, were possibly even more consequential. He oversaw the third 1506 ratification of the Treaty of Tordesillas which divided the New World between Portugal and Spain. He hired Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel that needed renovating, and Raphael to paint frescoes in his library. He established the Vatican Museum, and provided for the rebuilding of St. Peter's Basilica using money for the sale of indulgences (which led to all sorts of things down the road). And his connection with Michelangelo's famous statue called "Moses"? It guards Julius II's tomb at the Basilica of San Pietro in Vincoli.

Answer: Julius Buckler

Julius Buckler (1894-1960) was a German flying ace during WWI. So, why wasn't he as famous as the Red Baron? While the Red Baron had a confirmed 80 aerial victories, Buckler only had 36 - 29 planes and 7 balloons - with two of his victories left unconfirmed. Only? But the Germans highly publicized the Red Baron with his Flying Circus and Buckler was not part of that.

After joining the Infantry Life Regiment 117 and receiving a bad wound on the Western Front, Buckler applied for the German Army Air Service and trained to be a pilot. He joined the fighter squadron "Jagdstaffel 17", as a founding member, and eventually served as its commanding officer by the end of the war. Over time, two designated planes in the squadron - Mops and Lilly - were for his personal use.

For his service, he was awarded the Prussian Pilot's Badge, Iron Cross of 1914 (First and Second Class), Gold Military Merit Cross (Prussia 1917), The Honour Cross of the World War, among others. He may have been the only German ace to have received the Golden Wound Badge, which was for those who were wounded five or more times.

Answer: Julius Axelrod

Julius Axelrod (1912-2004) was born in New York City and received a BA in biology from the College of the City of New York in 1933. His subsequent inability to be accepted into medical school probably shaped his later career. He worked for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene while earning his masters in sciences from New York University. Then he took a job at Goldwater Memorial Hospital, which turned his attention to research.

In the 1940s while researching non-aspirin pain relievers, Axelrod found that acetanilide caused a blood disorder. He discovered, however, that the body turned acetanilide into acetaminophen, which was crucial to the discovery of Tylenol. But it was his research in brain chemistry, however, that led to a Nobel Prize in Physiology of Medicine in 1970. His study found how nerve transmitters like epinephrine or adrenaline are stored and released, and that led to the development of antidepressants like Prozac. His later research of the pineal gland led to a better understanding of melatonin and its effects throughout the central nervous system. Tylenol, Prozac, and melatonin. I know you've heard of at least one of them!

Answer: Julius Petri

Have you ever heard of a Petri dish? This simple mainstay of any biology lab wasn't invented until 1887. At that time Julius Petri (1852-1921), who had previously earned a medical degree, a doctorate, and served as a military doctor, was an assistant to Robert Koch, who is considered to be the founder of modern bacteriology.

They were having difficulty keeping the bacteria cultures they were studying from becoming contaminated. In Koch's lab agar plates were being used for study under the microscope, so Petri's idea wasn't exactly a new one, but his design of the dish was more practical. It was shallow and had a lid, which minimized the possibly of the cultures being infect by airborne germs.

Petri's small dish fit easily under a microscope, protected the cultures, and made them easy to store with stacking. The design of the Petri dish hasn't changed much since 1887. Petri left Koch's laboratory in 1882 to run a sanatorium for tuberculosis patients, and later became the director of the Museum of Hygiene in Berlin. During this time he authored many papers related to his studies, which helped people to better understand how to fight against infectious diseases.

Answer: Julius Nyerere

Julius Nyerere (1922-1999) was born in Tanganyika and was a key figure as the country struggled to free itself from British colonial rule. In 1954 he became the co-founder of TANU, the Tanganyika African National Union. When the country became independent in 1961, he served as its first prime minister and later as president. He also worked with the Organization of African Unity, which was founded in 1963.

A year later, Nyerere played an important role in the unification of Tanganyika and Zanzibar, which created the United Republic of Tanzania. Inspired by the American and French Revolutions and also Gandhi's work in India, Nyerere worked toward a national democratic government in the new Tanzania.

He served as president of the country from 1964-1985, and then voluntarily stepped down to set an example for a peaceful transition of power. During his tenure as president he encouraged education and increased the number of schools in the country. He worked toward a more self-reliant economy, and tried to unite the country by making Kiswahili the national language. In 1978 he led Tanzania in war against Uganda, which led to the overthrow of Idi Amin. While Tanzania faces many struggles today, the foundation for freedom from colonization and national unity was established by Julius Nyerere, the Father of the Nation.