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My Third Falco Quiz

This one covers the three novels in "Falco on the Loose", Lindsey Davis's second Falco omnibus volume, containing "Last Act in Palmyra", "Time To Depart", and "A Dying Light in Cordoba".

A multiple-choice quiz by bingleyausten. Estimated time: 6 mins.

Author
bingleyausten

Time
6 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
286,882

Updated
Dec 03 21

# Qns
15

Difficulty
Tough

Avg Score
9 / 15

Plays
192

One at a Time - Single Page - Timed Game

Question 1 of 15

1. In "Last Act in Palmyra", what instrument does Sophrona play? Hint

Lyre

Tambourine

Pipes

Water organ

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Question 2 of 15

2. What cover story do Falco and Helena Justina use to explain Musa's presence, in "Last Act in Palmyra"? Hint

He is their bodyguard.

He is their intepreter.

He has employed Falco to look for his long-lost sister.

He is preparing Helena Justina for initiation into mystical rites.

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Question 3 of 15

3. In "Last Act in Palmyra", which play by Aristophanes is in the theatrical company's repertoire? Hint

Lysistrata

The Clouds

The Frogs

The Birds

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Question 4 of 15

4. How did Helena Justina nearly die in "Last Act in Palmyra"? Hint

From drowning

From a scorpion sting

From being squeezed by a python

From drinking bad water

5. Although Marcus Didius Falco's play "The Spook That Spoke" has been lost, it must presumably have survived down to Elizabethan and Jacobean times. Which of Shakespeare's plays seems to have been influenced by it? Hint

Macbeth

The Merchant of Venice

The Tempest

Hamlet

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Question 6 of 15

6. In "Time to Depart", what kind of establishment is Plato's Academy? Hint

A theatre

A girls' school

A brothel

A philosophy club

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Question 7 of 15

7. What is the relationship between Alexander, Nonnius Albius's doctor, and Scythax, the doctor assigned to Petronius's squad, in "Time to Depart"? Hint

They are professional rivals.

They are former classmates.

They are father and son.

They are brothers.

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Question 8 of 15

8. On surveillance, Falco saw Helena Justina going into a brothel. Why? ("Time to Depart") Hint

To get an abortion

To ransom Falco's kidnapped niece

To find out what really happens in such places

To collect the rent

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Question 9 of 15

9. What had happened to Lalage's ear, "Time to Depart"? Hint

The lobe was torn off when a thief stole her earrings.

Falco had bitten it.

A careless hairdresser cut half the ear off.

She was born with one ear deformed.

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Question 10 of 15

10. What happened to the baby boy Falco found in his skip, in "Time to Depart"? Hint

Falco and Helena Justina adopted him.

Falco sold him.

Falco found the boy's parents and returned him to them.

Falco's childless sister and her husband adopted him.

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Question 11 of 15

11. Early on in "A Dying Light in Cordoba", Anacrites was attacked and nearly killed. Where did Falco hide him while waiting for him to recover or die? Hint

The temple of Aesculapius

Falco's mother's home

The Praetorian Guard's barracks

Petronius's home

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Question 12 of 15

12. Falco ran into Cornix, an old enemy, at a silver mine in the Mariana mountains. They had a fight and Falco won. What did he do to Cornix? ("A Dying Light in Cordoba") Hint

He pushed Cornix down a mine shaft.

He gouged out Cornix's eyes.

He broke Cornix's ribs and legs with a mine prop.

He stabbed Cornix with a pick axe.

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Question 13 of 15

13. Who disposed of Selia, the dancing girl who, together with her musicians, killed Valentinus and attacked and nearly killed Anacrites, in "A Dying Light in Cordoba"? Hint

Tiberius Quinctius Quadratus

Helena Justina

Perella

Marius Optatus

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Question 14 of 15

14. Where was Falco's and Helena Justina's baby born? ("A Dying Light in Cordoba") Hint

On the way to catch a ship back to Rome

On the ship back to Rome

On her family's Baetican estate

In their apartment in Rome

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Question 15 of 15

15. The dedication of "A Dying Light in Cordoba" reads "In Memory of Edith Pargeter". Edith Pargeter wrote detective fiction under a pen name. What was her detective called? Hint

Gordanius the Finder

Sir John Appleby

Brother Cadfael

Lord Peter Wimsey

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. In "Last Act in Palmyra", what instrument does Sophrona play?

Answer: Water organ

The water organ was invented by Ctesibius of Alexandria and was very popular in Nero's reign. A light touch on the keys was enough to pump water into the pipes compressing the air and producing sound.

2. What cover story do Falco and Helena Justina use to explain Musa's presence, in "Last Act in Palmyra"?

Answer: He is their intepreter.

In fact, Musa had been assigned by The Brother, the Chief Minister of Nabatea, to keep an eye on Falco, who The Brother suspected of being a Roman spy.

3. In "Last Act in Palmyra", which play by Aristophanes is in the theatrical company's repertoire?

Answer: The Birds

We get the expression "Cloudcuckoo Land" from "The Birds". Everybody had to play a part: Helena Justina played a dabchick, and Falco played an informer.

4. How did Helena Justina nearly die in "Last Act in Palmyra"?

Answer: From a scorpion sting

Fortunately Thalia, who had been looking for Falco, arrived with some mithradatium, a universal antidote.

Answer: Hamlet

According to "Last Act in Palmyra", the only known performance of "The Spook That Spoke" was in the amphitheatre of the Roman garrison outside Palmyra. The performance of the play was interrupted by a duel between Falco and the murderer of Heliodorus and Ione.

6. In "Time to Depart", what kind of establishment is Plato's Academy?

Answer: A brothel

It is also known as The Bower of Venus. It was most unfortunate that as Falco and Petronius were leaving Plato's Academy after questioning the madam, they met Falco's mum in the street outside. She naturally assumed the worst.

7. What is the relationship between Alexander, Nonnius Albius's doctor, and Scythax, the doctor assigned to Petronius's squad, in "Time to Depart"?

Answer: They are brothers.

At Petronius's suggestion, Alexander told Nonnius Albius he was dying so that he would agree to testify against Balbinus Pius and be able to retire as an underworld enforcer. Nonnius Albius pretended to go along with this because he wanted to take over Balbinus Pius's crime empire.

8. On surveillance, Falco saw Helena Justina going into a brothel. Why? ("Time to Depart")

Answer: To ransom Falco's kidnapped niece

Falco was horrified because his brother-in-law, Famia, had told him Helena Justina was thinking of getting rid of the baby she was carrying and a brothel was a good place to get an abortion (obviously a service prostitutes would need in the days before birth control).

Unfortunately, the kidnappers had mislaid Tertulla, Falco's niece so they couldn't give her back. Searching the brothel, Helena Justina seems to have found out more than she really wanted to know.

9. What had happened to Lalage's ear, "Time to Depart"?

Answer: Falco had bitten it.

Lalage (though she wasn't called that in those days) and Falco went to school together. She was trying to be friendly, but he thought she was after the school fees he was bringing to the teacher and accidentally bit through her ear.

10. What happened to the baby boy Falco found in his skip, in "Time to Depart"?

Answer: Falco's childless sister and her husband adopted him.

Although Falco and Helena Justina did manage to track down the boy's parents, they pretended they'd never had a child. They didn't want him back after he was kidnapped because he was deaf.

11. Early on in "A Dying Light in Cordoba", Anacrites was attacked and nearly killed. Where did Falco hide him while waiting for him to recover or die?

Answer: Falco's mother's home

Falco said he was going to hide Anacrites at the temple of Aesculapius, but that was a bluff. He actually took him to his mother's home. When Falco left Rome for Baetica, he had Anacrites transferred to the Praetorian Guard's barracks.

12. Falco ran into Cornix, an old enemy, at a silver mine in the Mariana mountains. They had a fight and Falco won. What did he do to Cornix? ("A Dying Light in Cordoba")

Answer: He broke Cornix's ribs and legs with a mine prop.

Cornix was the brutal overseer in "The Silver Pigs" who made Falco's undercover stint as a mine slave in Britain even more hellish than it need have been.

13. Who disposed of Selia, the dancing girl who, together with her musicians, killed Valentinus and attacked and nearly killed Anacrites, in "A Dying Light in Cordoba"?

Answer: Perella

Perella was the dancing girl who Selia replaced as the entertainment at the dinner party. Perella was also one of Anacrites's spies.

Tiberius Quinctius Quadratus had arranged for Selia to replace Perella.

14. Where was Falco's and Helena Justina's baby born? ("A Dying Light in Cordoba")

Answer: On the way to catch a ship back to Rome

Falco arrived just in time to deliver the baby. He used olive oil as a lubricant. Helena Justina gave him a black eye and broke one of his fingers during the birth. The baby was a girl.

15. The dedication of "A Dying Light in Cordoba" reads "In Memory of Edith Pargeter". Edith Pargeter wrote detective fiction under a pen name. What was her detective called?

Answer: Brother Cadfael

Edith Pargeter wrote historical fiction under her own name, and under the name Ellis Peters more or less invented the historical detective genre with her novels and stories featuring the 11th-century monk, Brother Cadfael.

Dorothy Sayers wrote detective fiction about Lord Peter Wimsey in the 1920s and 1930s. J. I. M. Stewart wrote detective fiction about Sir John Appleby under the pen name Michael Innes for half a century from 1936 to 1986.

Gordanius the Finder features in the fiction of Steven Saylor, who at the time of writing (May 2008), is still very much with us.

Source: Author bingleyausten

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