Ancient Rome
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This Roman Empire trivia quiz has 147 free questions with answers and covers a thousand years of Rome: the legend of Romulus, the Republic and its consuls, Julius Caesar and the crossing of the Rubicon, Augustus and the emperors who followed, the legions, the Colosseum and the gladiators, Pompeii, the aqueducts and roads, and the slow fall of the Western Empire. Seventy questions run from ones any history-class graduate can answer to ones that will test a classics student. Each question is multiple choice with a short explanation after you answer, and every answer has been checked against a reliable reference. Play it solo, or use it as a ready-made ancient history round for a quiz night or classroom.
30 of 147 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Rome's first emperor shunned the titles of king and dictator and styled himself princeps, meaning what?
First citizen
First citizen: Augustus kept the Republic's offices and assemblies in place and posed as merely its leading man, while quietly holding the real power himself.
Q 02Which Roman god was the equivalent of the Greek god Poseidon, ruling over the sea and freshwater?
Neptune
Neptune probably began as a god of fresh water; only once the Romans matched him with Poseidon, by 399 BC, did he take charge of the sea.
Q 03Under which Roman Emperor did the construction of the Colosseum begin?
Vespasian
Vespasian began the Colosseum around AD 72 on the site of a drained artificial lake, returning the land to public use; his son Titus inaugurated it in AD 80 with 100 days of games.
Q 04Which ancient Roman road was famously known as the 'Regina Viarum' or 'Queen of Roads'?
Via Appia
Via Appia: after the slave revolt of Spartacus was crushed in 71 BC, some 6,000 captured rebels were crucified along it, all the way from Rome to Capua.
Q 05Which month did Romans call Quintilis, 'fifth', until it was renamed in 44 BC for a murdered dictator?
July
July: Quintilis became Julius in honour of Julius Caesar, who was born in that month; Sextilis, the sixth, was later renamed August for his heir.
Q 06Who were brought in to work the huge retractable awning that shaded the Colosseum's crowds?
Sailors
Sailors worked the awning, the velarium: used to ropes and canvas, hundreds of them hauled it out along masts fixed around the top storey.
Q 07Which Roman goddess of love, beauty and fertility is equated with the Greek Aphrodite?
Venus
Venus was honoured as the ancestor of the Roman people through her son Aeneas; Julius Caesar, whose family claimed descent from her, built her a temple in his new forum.
Q 08Which city, originally Byzantium, became the Roman Empire's new capital in AD 330?
Constantinople
Constantinople was dedicated in 330 as a 'New Rome' and outlived the empire's western half by almost a thousand years, falling to the Ottomans only in 1453.
Q 09In the Roman numeral system, which letter represents the number 1000?
M
M: the Roman word for a thousand was mille, and a Roman mile, mille passus, was a thousand paces, which is how English got the word 'mile'.
Q 10Which pale stone, quarried at Tivoli near Rome, forms the Colosseum's outer wall?
Travertine
Travertine blocks were pinned together with iron clamps; the pockmarks all over the walls are where later scavengers hacked the metal out.
Q 11According to Roman legend, which twin brothers were the mythical founders of the city of Rome?
Romulus and Remus
Romulus and Remus were said to have been suckled by a she-wolf; in the best-known version Romulus then killed Remus for mocking and jumping over his new city wall.
Q 12Which silver coin, introduced around 211 BC, was the standard unit of a legionary's pay?
Denarius
Denarius: the name outlived the coin, surviving in the dinar and in the 'd' that stood for pence in British money.
Q 13What was the earliest written code of Roman law, drawn up around 450 BC?
The Twelve Tables
Q 21Which Roman naturalist died at Stabiae in AD 79 while trying to rescue eruption victims?
Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder commanded the fleet at Misenum and sent its galleys across the bay toward the eruption, boarding one himself; his nephew's letters describe how he died on the shore.
Q 22What was the predominant language spoken in the western part of the Roman Empire?
Latin
Latin never really died: everyday spoken Latin slowly turned into Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian.
Q 23Which Roman goddess, wife of Jupiter, was queen of the gods?
Juno
Juno, queen of the gods, was also worshipped as Juno Moneta; Rome's coins were struck at that temple, which gave English both 'money' and 'mint'.
The Twelve Tables were posted in public so that anyone could read the law; the originals are said to have been lost when Rome was sacked around 390 BC.
Q 14What did Romans call the eagle standard that carried a legion's honor?
Aquila
The aquila was worth dying for: when Caesar's men hesitated to land in Britain, the Tenth's eagle-bearer jumped into the surf with it, and they followed rather than see it lost.
Q 15What alone moved water along Rome's aqueducts, with no pumps to push it?
Gravity
Gravity: each channel fell by a gentle, carefully surveyed slope, and most of the route ran in buried conduits rather than on the famous arches.
Q 16Which island, won from Carthage in 241 BC, became Rome's first overseas province?
Sicily
Sicily: to win it Rome, a land power, had to build a large war fleet almost from scratch, probably copying Carthaginian ships it had captured.
Q 17Which Roman emperor wrote the Stoic notebook 'Meditations' to himself?
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius wrote the Meditations in Greek as a private notebook for his own guidance, probably in army camps during his wars in central Europe.
Q 18Which of Rome's seven hills held the legendary first city and, later, the emperors' homes?
Palatine
Palatine: the emperors' residences there were so grand that the hill's name, Palatium, became the word 'palace'.
Q 19Which officials of the Roman Republic, elected to defend the common people, could veto the acts of other magistrates?
Tribunes
Tribunes were declared sacrosanct: the people swore that anyone who laid hands on one could be killed without penalty.
Q 20In which naval battle of 31 BC did Octavian's fleet under Agrippa crush Antony and Cleopatra?
Actium
Actium was settled when Cleopatra's squadron made for the open sea and Antony slipped away after her with a few ships, abandoning the rest of his fleet; both killed themselves the following year.
Q 24Which Roman emperor made Nicene Christianity the state religion with the Edict of Thessalonica in AD 380?
Theodosius I
Theodosius I: ten years later Bishop Ambrose of Milan barred him from communion until he had done months of public penance for a massacre at Thessalonica.
Q 25What was the primary initial purpose of the extensive Roman road network?
Moving troops rapidly
Moving troops rapidly was the aim, and surveyors drove the roads as straight as the ground allowed, cutting into hillsides and bridging valleys rather than going round.
Q 26Which gladiator of ancient Rome fought like a fisherman, with a weighted net and trident?
Retiarius
Retiarius means 'net-man': if his throw missed he had to run, gathering the net for a second cast while his opponent, the secutor or 'chaser', hunted him round the arena.
Q 27Which Roman historian wrote the Annals and the Germania?
Tacitus
Tacitus, a senator himself, gave Rome's enemies some of his best lines: in his life of his father-in-law Agricola, a Caledonian chief says the Romans 'make a solitude and call it peace'.
Q 28What was the draped woollen garment worn by male Roman citizens on formal occasions?
Toga
The toga was a Roman man's formal dress, and those standing for office whitened theirs with chalk: the toga candida, which is where the word 'candidate' comes from.
Q 29What is the Colosseum's formal name, after the dynasty of the three emperors who built it?
Flavian Amphitheatre
The Flavian Amphitheatre was the gift of the three Flavian emperors; the name 'Colosseum' came centuries later, most likely from the colossal bronze statue of Nero that stood beside it.
Q 30Which Roman goddess of the hunt, twin sister of Apollo, was equated with the Greek Artemis?
Diana
Diana's priest at Lake Nemi was always a runaway slave who had won the post by killing the man who held it, and who kept it only until a challenger killed him.