80 The Roman Empire Trivia Questions with Answers

80 public questions with answers, drawn from the well. How many can you answer?

Easy Easy difficulty.
The Roman Empire

In the Roman calendar, which month was renamed in 8 BCE to honor Emperor Augustus?

Answer

August

Intermediate Intermediate difficulty.
The Roman Empire

Which Roman general defeated Hannibal at the Battle of Zama in 202 BCE?

Answer

Scipio Africanus

Intermediate Intermediate difficulty.
The Roman Empire

What Roman name did the city now called Lyon use during the imperial period?

Answer

Lugdunum

Easy Easy difficulty.
The Roman Empire

Which Roman decree of 313 CE granted religious toleration to Christians throughout the Roman Empire?

Answer

Edict of Milan

Intermediate Intermediate difficulty.
The Roman Empire

Which Roman emperor was nicknamed “the Apostate” for rejecting Christianity and restoring traditional Roman religion?

Answer

Julian

Hard Hard difficulty.
The Roman Empire

What was the largest temple in ancient Rome, dedicated to Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva?

Answer

Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus

Intermediate Intermediate difficulty.
The Roman Empire

Which Roman emperor made Dacia a province after conquering it in 106 CE?

Answer

Trajan

Easy Easy difficulty.
The Roman Empire

What title did the Roman Senate grant Octavian in 27 BCE?

Answer

Augustus

Intermediate Intermediate difficulty.
The Roman Empire

Which Roman leader defeated Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE?

Answer

Octavian

Hard Hard difficulty.
The Roman Empire

Which Roman emperor was assassinated in 192 CE after ending the Antonine dynasty?

Answer

Commodus

Hard Hard difficulty.
The Roman Empire

What was the name of the Roman silver coin that replaced the denarius as the main imperial silver denomination?

Answer

Antoninianus

Hard Hard difficulty.
The Roman Empire

Which Roman emperor built the Arch of Titus in Rome to commemorate the sack of Jerusalem?

Answer

Domitian

Intermediate Intermediate difficulty.
The Roman Empire

Which Roman historian wrote Germania, a description of the peoples living beyond Rome’s Rhine frontier?

Answer

Tacitus

Intermediate Intermediate difficulty.
The Roman Empire

Which Roman emperor granted citizenship to nearly all free inhabitants of the empire in 212 CE?

Answer

Caracalla

Intermediate Intermediate difficulty.
The Roman Empire

What name did Roman citizens give to the vast public bath complex built by Diocletian in Rome?

Answer

Baths of Diocletian

Intermediate Intermediate difficulty.
The Roman Empire

Which Roman emperor built the Colosseum, whose formal ancient name was the Flavian Amphitheatre?

Answer

Vespasian

Intermediate Intermediate difficulty.
The Roman Empire

What Roman engineering structure carried water across valleys using raised arches?

Answer

Aqueduct

Intermediate Intermediate difficulty.
The Roman Empire

Which Roman emperor ordered the construction of a massive wall across northern Britain beginning in 122 CE?

Answer

Hadrian

Easy Easy difficulty.
The Roman Empire

What was the name of the Roman currency made of silver and commonly used during the Republic?

Answer

Denarius

Easy Easy difficulty.
The Roman Empire

Which Roman emperor divided the empire into four rulers through the Tetrarchy in 293 CE?

Answer

Diocletian

Easy Easy difficulty.
The Roman Empire

What modern English city grew from the Roman settlement of Londinium?

Answer

London

Easy Easy difficulty.
The Roman Empire

Which Roman emperor voluntarily abdicated in 305 CE and retired to grow cabbages?

Answer

Diocletian

Hard Hard difficulty.
The Roman Empire

Which Roman emperor defeated the usurper Avidius Cassius in 175 CE without a battle?

Answer

Marcus Aurelius

Intermediate Intermediate difficulty.
The Roman Empire

Which month was renamed July to honor Julius Caesar after his calendar reform?

Answer

Quintilis

Intermediate Intermediate difficulty.
The Roman Empire

What Roman frontier system is represented by Hadrian’s Wall and the Germanic-Raetian Limes?

Answer

Limes

Intermediate Intermediate difficulty.
The Roman Empire

Which Roman emperor built the temple complex now known as the Temple of Venus and Roma?

Answer

Hadrian

Intermediate Intermediate difficulty.
The Roman Empire

What was the Roman name for Egypt after Octavian annexed it in 30 BCE?

Answer

Aegyptus

Easy Easy difficulty.
The Roman Empire

Which Roman emperor launched the conquest of Britain in 43 CE?

Answer

Claudius

Easy Easy difficulty.
The Roman Empire

What elected Roman office was traditionally held by two colleagues for one year?

Answer

Consul

Easy Easy difficulty.
The Roman Empire

Which Roman battle in 216 BCE is famous for Hannibal’s double-envelopment victory?

Answer

Battle of Cannae

Easy Easy difficulty.
The Roman Empire

Which Roman emperor’s mausoleum later became Rome’s Castel Sant’Angelo?

Answer

Hadrian

Easy Easy difficulty.
The Roman Empire

Which Roman emperor commissioned the Basilica Ulpia in Trajan’s Forum in Rome?

Answer

Trajan

Hard Hard difficulty.
The Roman Empire

Which Roman emperor was known as the “Restitutor Orbis” after restoring imperial territory?

Answer

Aurelian

Easy Easy difficulty.
The Roman Empire

Which Roman author wrote the epic poem Aeneid?

Answer

Virgil

Intermediate Intermediate difficulty.
The Roman Empire

What was the name of the Roman army’s elite personal guard for the emperor?

Answer

Praetorian Guard

Intermediate Intermediate difficulty.
The Roman Empire

Which Roman city was destroyed by Mount Vesuvius alongside Pompeii in 79 CE?

Answer

Herculaneum

Easy Easy difficulty.
The Roman Empire

Which Roman general conquered Gaul before crossing the Rubicon in 49 BCE?

Answer

Julius Caesar

Easy Easy difficulty.
The Roman Empire

What was the name of the Roman festival honoring the god Saturn?

Answer

Saturnalia

Easy Easy difficulty.
The Roman Empire

Which Roman emperor was killed at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312 CE?

Answer

Maxentius

Intermediate Intermediate difficulty.
The Roman Empire

What was the name of the Roman military camp town that became the city of Chester in England?

Answer

Deva Victrix

Intermediate Intermediate difficulty.
The Roman Empire

Which Roman emperor was the first born in a Roman province outside Italy?

Answer

Trajan

Easy Easy difficulty.
The Roman Empire

Which Roman emperor became ruler after Domitian was assassinated in 96 CE?

Answer

Nerva

Hard Hard difficulty.
The Roman Empire

Which battle in 378 CE ended with the death of Roman emperor Valens?

Answer

Battle of Adrianople

Intermediate Intermediate difficulty.
The Roman Empire

Which emperor commissioned the Baths of Diocletian in Rome, completed in 306 CE?

Answer

Diocletian

Intermediate Intermediate difficulty.
The Roman Empire

What was the name of Rome’s first stone bridge over the Tiber during the Roman Republic?

Answer

Pons Aemilius

Easy Easy difficulty.
The Roman Empire

Which Visigothic leader captured Rome in 410 CE during the late Roman Empire?

Answer

Alaric

Hard Hard difficulty.
The Roman Empire

Which Roman emperor was nicknamed “the Philosopher” because of his Stoic writings?

Answer

Marcus Aurelius

Easy Easy difficulty.
The Roman Empire

What Roman road connected Rome with Brindisi in southern Italy?

Answer

Via Appia

Hard Hard difficulty.
The Roman Empire

What title did Roman emperors use for the commander of the Praetorian Guard?

Answer

Praetorian Prefect

Intermediate Intermediate difficulty.
The Roman Empire

Which Roman emperor constructed the Pantheon’s surviving temple in Rome?

Answer

Hadrian