This Roman mythology trivia quiz has 80 free questions with answers and covers the gods, goddesses, festivals and founding legends of Rome. It starts with the stories everyone half-knows, Romulus and Remus, the she-wolf, the Sabine women, Aeneas and Dido, and works through the Vestal Virgins, Janus's doors, Saturnalia, Lupercalia and the Sibylline Books. A full round is given over to Roman goddess trivia: Juno and her peafowl, Minerva bursting from Jupiter's head, Venus as Caesar's ancestress, Diana's triple cult at Lake Nemi, Vesta's flame, Ceres and Proserpina on the Aventine, Bellona, Flora, Pomona, Bona Dea's women-only rites and the scandal that ended Caesar's marriage, Victoria, Libertas and her cap, and the black stone that was Cybele. It suits a classics student, a pub quiz history round or anyone who wants to know why the months are named as they are. Every answer has been checked against an encyclopaedic source and each question shows its citation once you have answered.
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Q 01Which three deities made up the Capitoline Triad, the centre of official Roman religion?
Jupiter, Juno and Minerva
The older Archaic Triad was Jupiter, Mars and a third deity; the Capitoline version came under Etruscan influence and shared one temple on the Capitoline Hill.
Q 02Which god completed the Archaic Triad alongside Jupiter and Mars?
Quirinus
By the 2nd century BC Romans identified him with the deified Romulus; the Quirinal Hill and the word Quirites, for citizens, share his name.
Q 03Which second king of Rome, a Sabine, is credited with founding Roman religion and its priesthoods?
Numa Pompilius
Legend says the nymph Egeria advised him; Livy and Ovid's Fasti are the main sources for the stories.
Q 04Who was the mother of Romulus and Remus?
Rhea Silvia, a Vestal
Her usurping uncle Amulius had forced her into the priesthood so she would have no heirs; the god Mars had other ideas.
Q 05What was the name of the shepherd who found the twins with the she-wolf and raised them?
Faustulus
The cave where the wolf nursed them, the Lupercal, later gave its name to the Lupercalia festival.
Q 06In the augury contest to decide who would found the city, how many birds did Romulus claim to see?
Twelve
Remus saw six first, Romulus twelve afterwards; the dispute over which counted ended with Remus dead.
Q 07What did modern dating suggest about the Capitoline Wolf, long thought to be Etruscan?
It was cast in medieval times
The suckling twins were added around 1471, probably by Antonio del Pollaiuolo; Mussolini handed out replicas, including one to Rome, Georgia.
Q 08At which religious gathering did Romulus's men abduct the Sabine women?
Games for Neptune
Rome had almost no women; when the Sabines came for revenge the women threw themselves between the armies, and Titus Tatius ruled jointly with Romulus.
Q 09Which Roman noblewoman's rape and suicide sparked the revolt that founded the Republic?
Lucretia
Lucius Junius Brutus paraded her body in the Forum and had the Tarquins banished; Shakespeare retold it in The Rape of Lucrece.
Q 10What did the doors of the Temple of Janus in Rome signify when they were closed?
Peace
They were shut only a handful of times: once in the third century BC, three times under Augustus and once by Nero.
Q 11Which Roman god had no Greek equivalent at all?
Janus
The two-faced god of doorways and beginnings was invoked first in every ceremony, whatever deity was being honoured.
Q 12How many Vestal Virgins served at any one time?
Six
Chosen before puberty, they served at least 30 years and could pardon a condemned man simply by crossing his path.
Q 13What was the punishment for a Vestal Virgin who broke her vow of chastity?
Burial alive
The crime was called incestum; the burial site near the city boundary was the Campus Sceleratus, the 'field of wickedness'.
Q 21Who wrote the Aeneid?
Virgil
He worked on it from 29 to 19 BC and wanted it burned when he died; Augustus overruled his executors and had it published.
Q 22How many books does the Aeneid have?
12
The first six, Aeneas's wanderings, echo the Odyssey; the last six, the war in Italy, echo the Iliad.
Q 23What are the opening words of the Aeneid?
Arma virumque cano
'Of arms and the man I sing' - Virgil announces war and a hero in three words.
Q 24Whom does Aeneas carry out of burning Troy on his shoulders?
Q 14Which privilege did Vestal Virgins enjoy that ordinary Roman women did not?
Owning property without a male guardian
They also had reserved seats at the games and could travel by carriage inside the city.
Q 15The Lares were guardian gods of the household. Where were they honoured?
At a lararium shrine at home
They were shown as two lively dancing youths and their statues came to the table at meals; the Penates guarded the storeroom.
Q 16Which god's stone refused to be moved when the Temple of Jupiter was built on the Capitoline?
Terminus
He was the god of boundary markers, honoured at the Terminalia on 23 February; his stone was simply enclosed within the new temple.
Q 17On what date was the Saturnalia originally held?
17 December
By the 1st century BC it ran to 23 December, with gambling allowed, masters serving slaves and a mock 'King of the Saturnalia'.
Q 18What did Roman citizens, normally bare-headed, wear during the Saturnalia?
A freedman's felt cap
Catullus called the festival 'the best of days'; several of its customs may have bled into Christmas.
Q 19At the Lupercalia on 15 February, what did the Luperci priests do after sacrificing goats and a dog?
Ran near-naked whipping women with thongs
The thongs were called februa, which gave February its name; women got in the way on purpose, believing it helped fertility.
Q 20Which famous refusal happened at the Lupercalia of 44 BC?
Julius Caesar declined a crown offered by Mark Antony
Antony was running as one of the Luperci; a month later Caesar was dead.
His father Anchises
Creusa is lost in the escape; young Ascanius, also called Iulus, gave the Julian family its claim to descend from Venus.
Q 25How does Dido, queen of Carthage, die in the Aeneid?
Stabs herself on a pyre
Her dying curse of eternal hatred between Carthage and Troy's descendants foreshadows the Punic Wars.
Q 26According to legend, how did Dido acquire the land for Carthage?
By cutting an oxhide into strips to encircle a hill
The hill was named Byrsa, 'hide'; she had fled Tyre after her brother murdered her husband.
Q 27Who guides Aeneas through the underworld in Book 6 of the Aeneid?
The Cumaean Sibyl
He carries the golden bough as his passport and meets his father Anchises, who shows him the future heroes of Rome.
Q 28How does the Aeneid end?
Aeneas kills Turnus
He hesitates over Turnus's plea for mercy, then sees the belt of his dead friend Pallas and strikes - the poem stops there.
Q 29What did King Tarquinius end up with after an old woman kept burning the prophecy volumes he refused?
Three, at the full price
The Sibylline Books were kept under the Capitoline temple and consulted in crises by a college of fifteen priests until Stilicho burned them around 405.
Q 30Which Roman general finally destroyed the Sibylline Books in the early 5th century AD?
Stilicho
They had already been lost once, in the fire of 83 BC, and reassembled from oracles gathered across the Mediterranean.