70 free Augustus trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Augustus trivia quiz covers the sickly great-nephew of Julius Caesar who marched on Rome at 19, outlasted Antony and Cleopatra, and spent forty years building an empire while pretending to restore a republic. The easy questions cover the outline: his birth name, his great-uncle, the triumvirate, Actium, the meaning of the title Augustus, the month named after him and the stepson who succeeded him. The harder half is for readers of Suetonius and Syme: the cognomen from Thurii, the share of Caesar's estate, the illness at Philippi, the executions on the Ides of March, the golden shield's four virtues, the town in Spain he governed from, the physician who saved him in 23 BC, the standards recovered from Parthia, the size of the standing army, the tax on slaves, the fossil collection on Capri, the fig, and the last words about a play well acted. Every answer was checked against Augustus's encyclopaedia entry before publishing. If you enjoy this, try our Cleopatra, Julius Caesar and Roman Empire quizzes next.
30 of 70 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What was Augustus's birth name?
Gaius Octavius
Historians call him Octavian for the years between Caesar's death and 27 BC, though there is no evidence he used the name himself.
Q 02Which great-uncle named the young Octavius as his primary heir?
Julius Caesar
The will required him to take the dead dictator's name, which he did against his stepfather's advice.
Q 03On which of Rome's hills was Octavius born in 63 BC?
The Palatine
His official residence as emperor, the Domus Augusti, later stood on the same hill.
Q 04Per Suetonius, the infant's cognomen Thurinus marked his father's victory over followers of whom?
Spartacus
Brutus later sneered at him as plain Octavius, rejecting his adoption by Caesar.
Q 05Octavius's mother Atia was what relation to Caesar?
His niece
When Caesar's sister Julia died, the young Octavius delivered her funeral oration, his first public appearance.
Q 06Where was Octavius when Caesar was assassinated in March 44 BC?
Apollonia, in Illyria
He consulted Caesar's officers in Macedonia before sailing to Italy to test his prospects.
Q 07What share of Caesar's estate did his will leave to Octavius?
Three-quarters
He also demanded 700 million sesterces stored at Brundisium for Caesar's planned Parthian war.
Q 08How old was Octavian when he marched on Rome and became consul in August 43 BC?
19
He was Rome's youngest elected consul; his co-consul Quintus Pedius set up a tribunal that convicted Caesar's assassins in absentia.
Q 09With Mark Antony and which third man did Octavian form the Second Triumvirate in 43 BC?
Marcus Aemilius Lepidus
The lex Titia legitimised the three-man regime for five years.
Q 10The three triumvirs first met to seal their alliance near which city in October 43 BC?
Bononia
Octavian sealed the deal by getting engaged to Antony's stepdaughter Claudia.
Q 11Roughly how many men did the triumvirs' proscriptions target as outlaws?
300
They were split about evenly between senators and equestrians, and thousands more lost their property.
Q 12At which 42 BC battle did Antony and Octavian defeat Caesar's assassins Brutus and Cassius?
Philippi
Both assassins died by suicide after two battles in Macedonia.
Q 13Antony called Octavian a coward at Philippi because he was where during the first engagement?
Ill in bed, away from the command
He had handed command to Agrippa on his doctor's advice, but did capture Brutus's camp in the second battle.
Q 21Which naval commander won the Battle of Actium for Octavian?
Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa
He later married Octavian's daughter Julia and was granted powers almost equal to the emperor's.
Q 22What city did Octavian found near the site of his great naval victory of 31 BC?
Nicopolis
The name means victory city.
Q 23After its conquest in 30 BC, Egypt was treated as what?
Octavian's personal property
He ran it through an equestrian prefect and its wealth paid off his civil-war debts.
Q 14Who was the mother of Octavian's only surviving child, Julia?
Scribonia
He divorced her on the very day Julia was born, in order to marry Livia.
Q 15When Octavian fell for Livia, she was already married and pregnant by which man?
Tiberius Claudius Nero
She gave birth to her second son, Drusus, months after divorcing him and marrying Octavian.
Q 16After the siege of Perusia in 40 BC, Octavian executed 300 Romans on which symbolic date?
The Ides of March
The reprisals, on the anniversary of Caesar's murder, sullied his reputation for years.
Q 17The renegade Sextus Pompey used which island as the base for his blockade of Italy?
Sicily
His blockade caused food riots in Rome, and a starving mob once attacked Octavian and Antony.
Q 18At which battle in September 36 BC did Agrippa all but destroy Sextus Pompey's forces?
Naulochus
Octavian himself had been shipwrecked off Sicily earlier in the campaign.
Q 19After forcing Lepidus into retirement in 36 BC, Octavian let him keep which office for life?
Pontifex maximus
Octavian only took the high priesthood himself when Lepidus died in 12 BC.
Q 20In which year was the Battle of Actium fought?
31 BC
Octavian later founded a city called Nicopolis, victory city, near the site.
Q 24Which group did Augustus forbid to travel to Egypt?
Senators
He never visited the country again himself after 30 BC.
Q 25What does the honorific title 'Augustus', granted by the Senate in January 27 BC, mean?
The revered
It was a title of religious rather than political authority, suggesting he approached divinity.
Q 26Which alternative title, after Rome's legendary founder, was rejected in 27 BC as too monarchical?
Romulus
He preferred to be princeps, first citizen, and Imperator Caesar divi filius.
Q 27The golden shield the Senate awarded him in 27 BC listed four virtues: valor, piety, justice and what?
Clemency
It hung in the Curia; he also won the right to hang the civic crown above his door.
Q 28From 26 to 24 BC Augustus governed the Empire from which town in Roman Spain?
Tarraco
He was overseeing the campaigns that completed the conquest of the Iberian peninsula.
Q 29Which personal physician nursed Augustus through his near-fatal illness of 23 BC?
Antonius Musa
Expecting death, Augustus had prepared to hand his signet ring to Agrippa.
Q 30Which nephew of Augustus, married to his daughter Julia, died in 23 BC and has a theatre named for him?
Marcellus
He was 19, and Augustus pointedly left him nothing when he thought he was dying.