Q 01/05

What was Augustus's birth name?

A) Marcus Octavius

B) Lucius Octavianus

C) Gaius Octavius

D) Gaius Julius

Answer · why

C) 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 02/05

Which great-uncle named the young Octavius as his primary heir?

A) Marcus Crassus

B) Julius Caesar

C) Pompey the Great

D) Cicero

Answer · why

B) Julius Caesar

The will required him to take the dead dictator's name, which he did against his stepfather's advice.

Q 03/05

On which of Rome's hills was Octavius born in 63 BC?

A) The Palatine

B) The Aventine

C) The Capitoline

D) The Esquiline

Answer · why

A) The Palatine

His official residence as emperor, the Domus Augusti, later stood on the same hill.

Q 04/05

Per Suetonius, the infant's cognomen Thurinus marked his father's victory over followers of whom?

A) Spartacus

B) Mithridates

C) Sertorius

D) Catiline

Answer · why

A) Spartacus

Brutus later sneered at him as plain Octavius, rejecting his adoption by Caesar.

Q 05/05

Octavius's mother Atia was what relation to Caesar?

A) His daughter

B) His sister

C) His niece

D) His cousin

Answer · why

C) His niece

When Caesar's sister Julia died, the young Octavius delivered her funeral oration, his first public appearance.