Q 01/05

Which Greek mathematician was killed by a Roman soldier when Syracuse fell in 212 BC, despite orders to spare him?

A) Euclid

B) Pythagoras

C) Archimedes

D) Ptolemy

Answer · why

C) Archimedes

Archimedes had helped hold the Romans off with weapons of his own design. In Livy's account he was drawing figures in the dust when a soldier who did ...

Q 02/05

Which Greek king of Epirus beat the Romans at Heraclea and Asculum at such cost that ruinous wins still bear his name?

A) Pyrrhus

B) Mithridates

C) Antiochus

D) Philip V

Answer · why

A) Pyrrhus

Pyrrhus is said to have remarked after Asculum in 279 BC that one more such win over the Romans would ruin him. A victory that costs too much has been...

Q 03/05

Which queen, the last active ruler of Egypt's Greek Ptolemaic dynasty, sided with Mark Antony and lost at Actium?

A) Nefertiti

B) Berenice

C) Arsinoe

D) Cleopatra

Answer · why

D) Cleopatra

Cleopatra spoke Koine Greek as her first language and was the only ruler of her dynasty known to have learned Egyptian. Her family descended from a Ma...

Q 04/05

Which general from Carthage marched war elephants over the Alps in 218 BC to invade Italy from the north?

A) Hasdrubal

B) Hannibal

C) Jugurtha

D) Hamilcar

Answer · why

B) Hannibal

Hannibal's elephants went on to fight at the Trebia, but Polybius says the cold that followed killed all but one. He still beat Roman armies at Lake T...

Q 05/05

Which month, known to early Romans as Quintilis, did the Senate rename in 44 BC in honour of Caesar's birth?

A) June

B) July

C) March

D) May

Answer · why

B) July

July was Quintilis, the fifth month, because the early Roman year began in March. The Senate renamed it for Julius Caesar, who was born in that month.