Question

1. stephenus went to the roman chariot races with 64 denarii. on each of the six races, he bet half the money that he had on a chariot that paid even money for winning (if you bet one, you receive two back in total. if you bet four, you receive eight back in total, etc.). half the chariots he backed won and half lost. strangely, it doesnt matter on which races he won and lost! how much did he end up with?
2. an emperor is an individual who wields supreme power over an empire. the romans had many emperors in its history. below are the names of six men. five of them were roman emperors and one was not. circle the one you think was not a roman emperor:

nero trajan augustus
constantine hadrian julius caesar

1. roman agents intercepted the following message as it passed between two barbarians. it identifies the nationality of the barbarian secret agent and where he is hiding. see if you can find the pieces of information:

she must see why the pea green shoes are easy on the eye. oh, and tea time lengthens the queue you should join, aye? the golf tee she can owe me.

Explanation:

8

Step1: Initial money

He started with 64 denarii.

Step2: First - race calculation

After the first race, if he bets half his money and half of his bets win and half lose. Let the initial amount be $M = 64$. He bets $\frac{M}{2}$. After the race, his new amount $M_1$ is calculated as follows: The money from winning bets is $\frac{1}{2}\times\frac{M}{2}\times2$ (since he gets double for winning bets), and the money from losing bets is $\frac{1}{2}\times\frac{M}{2}\times0$ (losing bets give 0 back). So $M_1=\frac{1}{2}\times\frac{M}{2}\times2+\frac{1}{2}\times\frac{M}{2}\times0=\frac{M}{2}+\ 0=\frac{M}{2}$.

Step3: Generalizing for 6 races

Since this process repeats for each of the 6 races, and each time the amount of money is halved. After $n = 6$ races, the final amount $A$ is given by the formula $A=\frac{M}{2^n}$. Substituting $M = 64$ and $n = 6$, we have $A=\frac{64}{2^6}$. Since $2^6=64$, then $A = 1$ denarius.

Nero, Trajan, Augustus, Constantine, and Hadrian were Roman emperors. Julius Caesar was a Roman general, statesman, and dictator but was not an emperor in the formal sense as the title 'emperor' (imperator) had a more defined meaning after the establishment of the Roman Empire by Augustus.

We look for words that can be decoded to give nationality and hiding - place. By taking the first letter of each word: "She must see why the pea green shoes are easy on the eye. Oh, and tea time lengthens the queue you should join, aye? The golf tee she can owe me." gives "Spain" (nationality) and "Eye" (hiding - place).

Answer:

1 denarius

9