Q 01/05

The word pagan derives from the Latin paganus, which originally meant what?

A) Unbeliever

B) Country dweller

C) Fire worshipper

D) Foreigner

Answer · why

B) Country dweller

It also meant civilian in army slang; early Christians saw themselves as soldiers of Christ and everyone else as paganus.

Q 02/05

In the Greek-speaking eastern Roman Empire, pagans were most commonly called what?

A) Heathens

B) Gentiles

C) Barbarians

D) Hellenes

Answer · why

D) Hellenes

The word meant Greeks, but for a thousand years it was a religious rather than a cultural label.

Q 03/05

Which church father wrote The City of God against the Pagans after the sack of Rome?

A) Jerome of Stridon

B) Augustine of Hippo

C) Ambrose of Milan

D) Tertullian of Carthage

Answer · why

B) Augustine of Hippo

Pagans were murmuring that the old gods had protected Rome better than the Christian one.

Q 04/05

Which Roman emperor's persecution of paganism preceded the Visigoth sack of Rome by about 15 years?

A) Julian

B) Constantine

C) Theodosius I

D) Diocletian

Answer · why

C) Theodosius I

Julian, by contrast, tried to restore the old religion and earned the nickname the Apostate.

Q 05/05

Which was among the last areas of Europe to be Christianised, in 1387?

A) Iceland

B) Norway

C) Hungary

D) Lithuania

Answer · why

D) Lithuania

Its revived native faith, Romuva, won state recognition in 2024.