Ancient Rome Quiz

20 questions · Ancient Rome · Answers explained · Updated 15 October 2026

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1. Ancient Rome

   1. Why did the decline of small farmers worry Rome's leaders?

   1. The legions recruited only men who owned property
   2. Small farmers paid most of Rome's taxes
   3. Farmers held most of the seats in the Senate
   4. Small farms supplied most of the city's grain
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   A. The legions recruited only men who owned property. Service in the legions required a property qualification, so fewer small landowners meant fewer eligible soldiers. Land reform was a military question as well as a social one. Rome's grain increasingly came from provinces such as Sicily. Read the full story →

2. Ancient Rome

   2. Who were the capite censi whom Marius recruited?

   1. Italian allies without Roman citizenship
   2. Freed slaves from the eastern provinces
   3. Veterans recalled from earlier wars
   4. Citizens too poor to be listed by property
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   D. Citizens too poor to be listed by property. Capite censi means “counted by head”: citizens with too little property to be placed in a census class. Traditionally they did not serve. Marius accepted them as volunteers, deepening soldiers' dependence on their generals. Read the full story →

3. Ancient Rome

   3. What did Rome gain when the First Punic War ended in 241 BCE?

   1. Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica together
   2. Sicily; Sardinia was seized three years later
   3. The silver mines of southern Spain
   4. Carthage's whole fleet and its harbour
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   B. Sicily; Sardinia was seized three years later. The peace of 241 BCE gave Rome Sicily and a large indemnity. Rome took Sardinia and Corsica in 238 BCE while Carthage was fighting its own mercenaries, an act even Polybius called unjust. Read the full story →

4. Ancient Rome

   4. What did Romans take the name “Brutus” to mean?

   1. Dullard
   2. Avenger
   3. Lion-heart
   4. Truthful
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   A. Dullard. Livy says Lucius Junius Brutus pretended to be slow-witted so that the suspicious king would not see him as a threat, and the nickname Brutus, “dullard”, stuck. Read the full story →

5. Ancient Rome

   5. Sulla held the office of dictator until the day he died.

   1. True
   2. False
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   B. False. Sulla gave up the dictatorship, served as consul in 80 BCE and retired to private life before dying in 78 BCE. Caesar later mocked him for resigning. Read the full story →

6. Ancient Rome

   6. Which evidence supports the tradition that early Rome had kings?

   1. A royal tomb inscribed with Tarquin's name
   2. Coins showing the faces of all seven kings
   3. A Greek eyewitness account of Lucretia's death
   4. An early Forum inscription using the word “king”
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   D. An early Forum inscription using the word “king”. The Lapis Niger inscription, carved in the 6th century BCE, contains the word recei, “to the king”. Rome minted no coins until long after the monarchy, and no contemporary account of Lucretia exists. Read the full story →

7. Ancient Rome

   7. Gaius Gracchus proposed Roman citizenship for Rome's Latin allies.

   1. True
   2. False
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   A. True. He did, and it cost him support among Roman voters reluctant to share their privileges. The allies' frustration later exploded in the Social War of 91–88 BCE. Read the full story →

8. Ancient Rome

   8. Suetonius reports that Caesar's last words were “Et tu, Brute?”

   1. True
   2. False
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   B. False. Suetonius says Caesar died without a word, only a groan, adding that some writers claimed he said “You too, child?” to Brutus in Greek. “Et tu, Brute?” is Shakespeare's line, from 1599. Read the full story →

9. Ancient Rome

   9. Why was the Vandal capture of Carthage in 439 so damaging?

   1. It let the Vandals march straight on Constantinople
   2. It ended Roman control of the city of Rome
   3. It killed the western emperor and his heirs
   4. It cut off the West's richest source of taxes and grain
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   D. It cut off the West's richest source of taxes and grain. Roman Africa paid much of the western government's bills and fed Rome. Without that income the West could not pay enough soldiers, which made it more dependent on barbarian allies. Read the full story →

10. Ancient Rome

    10. In December 50 BCE, what did the Senate vote by 370 to 22?

    1. That Caesar should be declared a public enemy
    2. That Pompey should take sole command in Italy
    3. That Caesar and Pompey should both give up their commands
    4. That Caesar could stand for consul in his absence
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    C. That Caesar and Pompey should both give up their commands. A large majority wanted both men to disarm and avoid war. Caesar's hardline opponents ignored the result, and in January 49 the Senate passed its emergency decree against him instead. Read the full story →

11. Ancient Rome

    11. What did Tiberius Gracchus's land law propose?

    1. Seizing every private estate larger than a farm
    2. Giving each veteran a farm in a conquered province
    3. Enforcing a 500-iugera cap on holdings of public land
    4. Selling public land to pay for a new war fleet
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    C. Enforcing a 500-iugera cap on holdings of public land. The law revived an old limit on how much public land (ager publicus) one person could hold, and shared out the surplus in small plots. Private land was untouched, but many rich families had treated public land as their own for generations. Read the full story →

12. Ancient Rome

    12. In Livy's account, Brutus watched as his own sons were executed for plotting to restore the Tarquins.

    1. True
    2. False
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    A. True. Livy describes Brutus presiding as consul while his sons were flogged and beheaded. Romans retold it as the supreme example of putting the state before family. Read the full story →

13. Ancient Rome

    13. What was Fabius Maximus's strategy against Hannibal?

    1. Shadow his army and avoid pitched battles
    2. Invade Africa to force Carthage to recall him
    3. Bribe his Spanish troops to desert him
    4. Meet him at once in one decisive battle
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    A. Shadow his army and avoid pitched battles. Fabius, nicknamed Cunctator, “the Delayer”, avoided battle and wore Hannibal down. The strategy was unpopular at first, and Cannae, fought by commanders who abandoned it, showed its value. Invading Africa was Scipio's later plan. Read the full story →

14. Ancient Rome

    14. Why do most historians doubt the tradition that seven kings ruled Rome from 753 to 509 BCE?

    1. Archaeology shows no buildings in Rome before 509 BCE
    2. No Roman writer ever mentioned kings before the Republic
    3. Inscriptions show Rome was ruled by a council of priests
    4. Seven reigns would average almost 35 years each
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    D. Seven reigns would average almost 35 years each. Sharing 244 years among seven kings gives an average reign of almost 35 years, far longer than is plausible for a series of rulers. The list was probably tidied up later, although an early inscription shows that Rome really did have kings. Read the full story →

15. Ancient Rome

    15. What was the Senate's “final decree”, first used in 121 BCE?

    1. A ruling that removed the tribunes' veto for good
    2. An appeal to the consuls to protect the state by any means
    3. A law confiscating the property of convicted rebels
    4. An order that suspended the people's assemblies
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    B. An appeal to the consuls to protect the state by any means. Historians call it the senatus consultum ultimum. It had no clear legal limits, and Opimius used it to justify killing Gaius and his followers. The Senate would pass it again, including against Caesar in January 49 BCE. Read the full story →

16. Ancient Rome

    16. What did closing the doors of the Temple of Janus announce?

    1. That Rome was at peace
    2. That the emperor had died
    3. That the Senate had adjourned
    4. That a new year had begun
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    A. That Rome was at peace. The doors stood open in wartime. Augustus boasted they were closed three times in his rule, against twice in all Roman history before him: a powerful advertisement for his peace. Read the full story →

17. Ancient Rome

    17. What is Bryan Ward-Perkins's main evidence that the West suffered a real collapse?

    1. Letters from emperors admitting defeat
    2. Church records of falling attendance
    3. Archaeology showing scarcer, cruder goods
    4. Gothic chronicles boasting of conquest
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    C. Archaeology showing scarcer, cruder goods. Ward-Perkins points to material evidence: fewer coins, simpler pottery, fewer tiled roofs and even smaller cattle. It suggests ordinary people's living standards fell sharply, whatever survived at the top. Read the full story →

18. Ancient Rome

    18. Why did Augustus avoid titles such as king or dictator?

    1. The Senate had abolished both titles after Actium
    2. Romans linked those titles with the kings of Egypt
    3. Caesar had been killed for seeming to claim royal power
    4. He had promised to share power equally with Antony
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    C. Caesar had been killed for seeming to claim royal power. Caesar's dictatorship for life and royal-looking honours had provoked his murder. Augustus kept the substance of power while using modest labels like princeps, “first citizen”. Read the full story →

19. Ancient Rome

    19. Why did Caesar refuse to give up his army in 49 BCE?

    1. As a private citizen he faced prosecution by his enemies
    2. His legions had not yet been paid for the Gallic War
    3. He needed the army for a planned invasion of Parthia
    4. Roman law let governors keep armies until replaced
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    A. As a private citizen he faced prosecution by his enemies. Holding office gave Caesar immunity. His enemies, led by Cato, planned to prosecute him as soon as he became a private citizen, so he tried to pass directly from his command to a second consulship. Read the full story →

20. Ancient Rome

    20. Who deposed Romulus Augustulus in 476?

    1. Alaric
    2. Odoacer
    3. Attila
    4. Gaiseric
    Show the answer

    B. Odoacer. Odoacer, commander of the barbarian troops in Italy, deposed the boy and ruled as king. Alaric sacked Rome in 410, Gaiseric's Vandals sacked it in 455, and Attila died in 453. Read the full story →

About this quiz

Twenty questions on Roman history, from the legend of Romulus and the birth of the Republic to the Punic Wars, Caesar’s Rubicon, Augustus and the fall of the Western Empire. Each answer comes with a short explanation and a link to the full story.

The questions come from the lessons in Aurelius: Learn History, where each one follows a short illustrated story. They are written and checked by the Aurelius editorial team.

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