60 free Marcus Aurelius trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Marcus Aurelius trivia quiz covers the last of the Five Good Emperors as ruler, philosopher and family man. The easy questions handle the dates of his reign, the school of philosophy he followed, the book he wrote to himself and the son who succeeded him. From there it moves into the details of his life: the hill he was born on, the priesthood he joined as a boy, the tutors who shaped him, the wife the army called Mother of the Camp, and the co-emperor with whom he shared power for the first time in Roman history. The harder end is for Roman history readers and Stoicism enthusiasts: the base where he wrote the second book of the Meditations, the city where it was first printed, the Parthian king who started his eastern war, the general who was proclaimed emperor on a false rumour, the magician credited with the rain miracle, and why his bronze statue was the one Roman equestrian to survive the Middle Ages. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries on Marcus, the Meditations, his family, the plague and the monuments, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, our Roman Empire, Stoicism and Roman emperors quizzes are natural next stops.
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Q 01Marcus Aurelius was Roman emperor between which years?
161 to 180
He was the last of the Five Good Emperors, and many historians end the Pax Romana with his death.
Q 02Marcus Aurelius is remembered as a practitioner of which school of philosophy?
Stoicism
His teacher Quintus Junius Rusticus, grandson of a martyr to Domitian's tyranny, was the strongest influence on him.
Q 03What does the original title of Marcus Aurelius's Meditations, Ta eis heauton, literally mean?
Things to himself
The familiar name was attached centuries later; the emperor never intended the notes for publication.
Q 04In which language did Marcus Aurelius write his Meditations?
Greek
He wrote the twelve books in Koine Greek while on campaign, and internal notes place the first book 'in the country of the Quadi'.
Q 05How many books make up the Meditations?
12
The first known mention of a division into twelve books is in the Byzantine Suda.
Q 06The Meditations was first printed in 1558 in which city?
Zurich
Wilhelm Xylander worked from a manuscript that was reportedly lost soon afterwards; the oldest complete copy is a 14th-century Vatican manuscript.
Q 07The second book of the Meditations was written at which Roman legionary base on the Danube?
Carnuntum
The site lies on the Danube in modern Austria, close to the front line of the Marcomannic Wars.
Q 08Marcus Aurelius was born in 121 on which of Rome's hills?
Caelian
He grew up in his mother's villa, the Horti Domitia Calvillae, and referred fondly to 'My Caelian'.
Q 09Marcus's father's family, the Annii Veri, had settled in Ucubi, a colony in which Roman province?
Baetica
The town lay south-east of Córdoba in what is now Andalusia; the family claimed descent from the legendary king Numa Pompilius.
Q 10Marcus's mother, Domitia Lucilla, inherited a fortune built partly on which business?
Brickworks
Rome was booming with construction, and her kilns on the city's outskirts were highly profitable.
Q 11How old was Marcus when his father died?
3
He was raised by his mother and paternal grandfather, and thanked the grandfather in the Meditations for teaching him 'good character and avoidance of bad temper'.
Q 12As a young man Marcus joined the Salii, priests devoted to which god?
Mars
The order kept the sacred shields called Ancilia; Marcus also trained in wrestling and boxing.
Q 13Which painting master is credited with first introducing the boy Marcus to the philosophic way of life?
Diognetus
At his prompting the 11-year-old took up the philosopher's rough cloak in 132.
Q 21The Antonine Plague, which struck the empire from about 165, is thought by most scholars to have been what?
Smallpox
The physician who described it noted fever, diarrhoea and pustular skin eruptions; some researchers argue for measles instead.
Q 22The Antonine Plague is also named after which physician who described it?
Galen
He was in Rome when the disease arrived in 166 and recorded its symptoms in his Methodus Medendi.
Q 23Roughly how many people is the Antonine Plague estimated to have killed?
Five to ten million
It began during the siege of Seleucia in Mesopotamia and may have killed Marcus's co-emperor in 169.
Q 14Which emperor adopted Antoninus Pius in 138 on condition that Antoninus in turn adopt Marcus?
Hadrian
Antoninus also had to adopt Lucius, son of Hadrian's first choice as heir, Aelius Caesar, who had died earlier that year.
Q 15Marcus's tutors included Herodes Atticus and which orator, whose letters to Marcus survive?
Cornelius Fronto
Fronto grumbled that Marcus's 'conversion to philosophy' was a young man's escape from boring rhetorical exercises.
Q 16Whom did Marcus marry in 145?
Faustina, Antoninus's daughter
She was his cousin, and after her death he took a concubine rather than give his children a stepmother.
Q 17Marcus and Faustina had at least how many children in their 30-year marriage?
14
They included two sets of twins; only one son and four daughters outlived their father.
Q 18What honorary title did the army give Faustina, who accompanied Marcus on his northern campaigns?
Mother of the Camp
Mater Castrorum in Latin; she was deified after dying at the military camp of Halala in 175.
Q 19With whom did Marcus share the throne on his accession in 161?
Lucius Verus
His adoptive brother took charge of the Parthian war in the East and married Marcus's daughter Lucilla.
Q 20Which Parthian king invaded Roman client Armenia in 161, starting the eastern war of Marcus's reign?
Vologases IV
He expelled the Armenian king and installed his own Arsacid relative, Pacorus.
Q 24A Roman traveller reached which Chinese dynasty's court in 166 claiming to represent 'Andun'?
Han
Roman gold medallions from the period have turned up at Óc Eo in Vietnam, then part of the Kingdom of Funan.
Q 25The Marcomanni, who crossed the Danube in 166 and began Marcus's northern wars, came from where?
Bohemia
They had been Roman clients since AD 19; the Lombards, Iazyges and Costoboci joined the invasions.
Q 26Marcus Aurelius planned two new provinces beyond the Danube; along with Marcomannia, what was the other?
Sarmatia
The scheme was abandoned after his death; the wars are the subject of the spiral reliefs on his column in Rome.
Q 27Marcus reduced the silver purity of the denarius from 83.5% to what?
79%
The silver weight dropped from 2.68 to 2.57 grams as war and plague strained the treasury.
Q 28Which general was proclaimed emperor in 175 after a false report of Marcus's death?
Avidius Cassius
His 'dream of empire' lasted three months and six days before a centurion killed him; Faustina was accused of encouraging him.
Q 29Which Egyptian magician do non-Christian sources credit with Marcus's 'rain miracle'?
Harnuphis
Christians later attributed the same storm to the prayers of Christian soldiers; the scene appears on Marcus's column.
Q 30Marcus Aurelius died in 180 in a military camp in which modern city, or nearby Sirmium?
Vienna
The Roman name was Vindobona; his ashes rested in the imperial mausoleum now called Castel Sant'Angelo until the Visigoth sack of 410.