Q 01/05

What did the citizens of the Byzantine Empire call themselves?

A) Byzantines

B) Romans

C) Greeks

D) Hellenes

Answer · why

B) Romans

Romans they remained in their own eyes for over a thousand years; the label 'Byzantine' was coined by historians only after the empire had fallen.

Q 02/05

'Byzantine' comes from Byzantion, which was what?

A) A Persian frontier province in Mesopotamia

B) The Greek settlement on which Constantinople was built

C) A Roman legion stationed on the Danube

D) A Bulgarian tribe from the northern Balkans

Answer · why

B) The Greek settlement on which Constantinople was built

The Greek settlement on which Constantinople was built lent its name only to that city's residents; nobody called the whole empire 'Byzantine' until a...

Q 03/05

What did Constantine I call his new eastern capital, rebuilt between 324 and 330?

A) Byzantium

B) Constantia

C) New Rome

D) New Jerusalem

Answer · why

C) New Rome

New Rome was his name for it, but the city soon became known by his own name instead: Constantinople, the city of Constantine.

Q 04/05

Constantine legalised Christianity, but which later emperor made it the state religion and was the last to rule the whole empire?

A) Julian

B) Justinian I

C) Valentinian I

D) Theodosius I

Answer · why

D) Theodosius I

Theodosius I left the empire to his two sons when he died in 395, one ruling from each capital, and no single emperor ever held east and west together...

Q 05/05

Which emperor divided the Roman Empire into eastern and western halves under the Tetrarchy?

A) Diocletian

B) Constantine

C) Theodosius

D) Valens

Answer · why

A) Diocletian

Diocletian judged the empire too big for one ruler and shared it among four; in 305 he became the first Roman emperor to step down of his own accord.