50 free The Punic Wars trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Punic Wars trivia quiz covers all three wars between Rome and Carthage, from the scrap over Messana in 264 BC to the six-day sack of Carthage in 146 BC. It begins with the basics: why the wars are called Punic, who the main source is, what a quinquereme carried and how the Romans, who had no navy, built one from a wrecked Carthaginian ship and bolted a boarding bridge to the front. It follows the first war through Mylae, Ecnomus, the disaster in Africa, the storms that sank whole fleets and the loans that paid for the last one. The second half is Hannibal's war and its aftermath: Saguntum, the Alps, the eye lost to conjunctivitis, the ambush at Trasimene, the double envelopment at Cannae, Fabius the Delayer, the Metaurus, Scipio in Spain and Africa, the elephants at Zama and the peace that left Carthage with ten warships. Then the third war: Cato's catchphrase, Masinissa's provocations, Scipio Aemilianus's mole, and the 19th-century myth about salt. For the general himself, see our separate Hannibal quiz. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the Punic Wars and their battles and commanders, and each question links to the page that establishes it. Fifty questions, free, with an explanation after every answer.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Between which years were the three Punic Wars fought?
264-146 BC
That is 43 years of actual fighting spread over more than a century, plus a four-year revolt against Carthage.
Q 02The word 'Punic' comes from a Latin adjective meaning what?
Phoenician
Carthage began as a Phoenician colony and grew into an empire.
Q 03Who is the most reliable ancient source for the Punic Wars?
Polybius
The Greek was sent to Rome as a hostage in 167 BC and interviewed participants on both sides; Livy relied heavily on him.
Q 04At the start of the First Punic War, what did Rome conspicuously lack?
A navy
Carthage, by contrast, was the dominant maritime power of the western Mediterranean.
Q 05Control of which Sicilian city-state sparked the First Punic War in 264 BC?
Messana
Modern Messina; the Romans gained a foothold there and then pressed Syracuse into alliance.
Q 06What did the Romans use as a blueprint for their first fleet of quinqueremes in 260 BC?
A shipwrecked Carthaginian quinquereme
Their early copies were heavier, slower and less manoeuvrable than the originals.
Q 07What was the corvus?
A spiked boarding bridge
The 11-metre bridge let legionaries board enemy ships instead of ramming, but made ships top-heavy in rough seas.
Q 08How large was the crew of a quinquereme?
300
That was 280 oarsmen and 20 deck crew and officers, plus 40 marines, or up to 120 if battle loomed.
Q 09The Romans' first major naval victory, using the corvus, came at which battle in 260 BC?
Mylae
They then seized a base on Corsica but were repulsed from Sardinia.
Q 10Which 256 BC battle is possibly the largest naval battle in history by number of combatants?
Cape Ecnomus
It was fought off the island's south coast as the Carthaginians tried to intercept the Roman invasion of Africa.
Q 11Which Spartan mercenary led the Carthaginian force that crushed the Romans at Tunis in 255 BC?
Xanthippus
He had been put in charge of training the Carthaginian army; infantry, cavalry and elephants routed the invaders.
Q 12How many men did Rome lose when a storm wrecked its fleet returning from Africa in 255 BC?
More than 100,000
The corvus may have made the ships unseaworthy; there is no record of it being used again.
Q 13Why did the Romans avoid battle on the island in 252 and 251 BC, according to the main source?
They feared the Carthaginian war elephants
Q 21Which Carthaginian general built a new power base in Iberia from 237 BC?
Hamilcar Barca
Hannibal's father won silver mines, manpower and shipyards; his son-in-law Hasdrubal and then Hannibal succeeded him.
Q 22Which river did the 226 BC treaty set as the northern limit of Carthaginian Iberia?
Ebro
Rome then made a separate deal with a city well south of the line, which Hannibal would attack in 219 BC.
Q 23Hannibal's capture of which city in 219 BC led Rome to declare war?
Saguntum
Historians still debate whether he was deliberately provoking Rome or Rome was seeking a pretext.
In 250 BC they drove the elephants off with javelins outside Panormus and the beasts routed through their own infantry.
Q 14Which battle was Carthage's greatest naval victory of the First Punic War?
Drepana
After it and Phintias, Rome was all but swept from the sea for seven years.
Q 15How did Rome finance the fleet that won the First Punic War in 243 BC?
Loans from wealthy citizens for one ship each
The loans were repayable from the reparations Carthage would owe once the war was won.
Q 16The First Punic War ended with a Carthaginian naval defeat where in 241 BC?
The Aegates Islands
The Treaty of Lutatius followed: 3,200 talents of silver and Rome's first overseas province.
Q 17What became Rome's first province under the treaty ending the First Punic War?
Sicily
The Greek historian who is our main source called it the longest, most continuous and most severely contested war known to him.
Q 18By how much had Rome's adult male citizen population fallen during the First Punic War?
17 percent
Goldsworthy calls the manpower losses appalling; Carthage was refused a 2,000-talent loan by Egypt.
Q 19What was the Mercenary War that broke out in 241 BC?
A revolt by unpaid foreign soldiers against Carthage
It began over wages owed to 20,000 troops; 70,000 oppressed Africans joined them, and it turned savage.
Q 20Which two islands did Rome seize from Carthage in 237 BC, an act called 'contrary to all justice'?
Sardinia and Corsica
Rome also demanded a further 1,200 talents; the grievance helped cause the Second Punic War.
Q 24How many days did Hannibal's army take to cross the Alps?
24
It arrived in Piedmont in early November 218 BC with 20,000 infantry, 6,000 cavalry and the surviving elephants.
Q 25How many elephants did Hannibal set out from Iberia with?
37
An unknown number survived the Alps; at Zama, years later, Carthage fielded 80.
Q 26Hannibal set out in 218 BC from New Carthage, which is which modern Spanish city?
Cartagena
Scipio would capture the lightly defended city in a carefully planned assault in 209 BC.
Q 27How did Hannibal lose the sight of his right eye in 217 BC?
Conjunctivitis while crossing the Arno marshes
He also lost a large part of his force in the marshy lowlands.
Q 28At which lake did Hannibal ambush and destroy a Roman army in 217 BC?
Trasimene
15,000 Romans died including their commander, and 15,000 were captured; allied prisoners were released.
Q 29Whom did Rome appoint dictator in 217 BC, with a strategy of avoiding battle?
Fabius Maximus
His surname Cunctator means the Delayer; the strategy was unpopular while Italy was being devastated.
Q 30How large was the Roman force raised for the Cannae campaign in 216 BC?
86,000
It was the largest army in Roman history to that point.