Q 01/05

Naples is the capital of which Italian region?

A) Campania

B) Calabria

C) Apulia

D) Lazio

Answer · why

A) Campania

Campania's capital ruled a kingdom covering all of southern Italy for nearly 600 years, until unification in 1861 reduced it to a regional seat.

Q 02/05

The first Greek colony on the site of Naples was named after which mythological figure?

A) Aeneas, the Trojan hero

B) Parthenope, a Siren

C) Neptune, god of the sea

D) Persephone, queen of Hades

Answer · why

B) Parthenope, a Siren

Parthenope, a Siren, is said to have drowned herself when her song failed to lure Odysseus, and her body washed up where the first colony was founded.

Q 03/05

What does Neapolis, the Greek name that became Naples, mean?

A) City of the sun

B) Fire mountain

C) New town

D) Sacred harbour

Answer · why

C) New town

New town it literally was: Greek settlers built it about 600 BC beside an older colony, which came to be called Palaepolis, the 'old city'.

Q 04/05

Which boy emperor, deposed in 476, was sent to live in Naples?

A) Flavius Honorius

B) Julius Nepos

C) Valentinian III

D) Romulus Augustulus

Answer · why

D) Romulus Augustulus

Romulus Augustulus was spared for his youth, given a pension by the general who deposed him, and housed in a villa on the islet where the city's seafr...

Q 05/05

How did the Byzantine general Belisarius get into Naples in 536?

A) Through an aqueduct

B) Over the sea wall at night

C) By bribing the gates open

D) Through the catacombs

Answer · why

A) Through an aqueduct

Through an aqueduct: a soldier exploring the dry channel found a gap in the rock, engineers quietly widened it, and troops slipped in by night to open...