Three rounds of ten, easy to hard, plus a tiebreaker. Tap any question to reveal the answer. Every answer here has been checked, and where a popular quiz answer is wrong, we've flagged it at the bottom, so nobody in the room can catch you out.
Roman Empire rounds are a crowd favourite, and a risky one. Plenty of quiz sites repeat myths as answers, and there's always one person in the room who knows better. This set is built to survive that person.
Round I: Easy
1What does SPQR stand for?
Senatus Populusque Romanus: "the Senate and People of Rome."
2Who was the first Roman emperor?
Augustus (Octavian), in 27 BC. Not Julius Caesar, who was never emperor.
3Which two months are named after Romans?
July (Julius Caesar) and August (Augustus).
4Which volcano buried Pompeii in AD 79?
Vesuvius.
5What language did the Romans speak?
Latin. Greek was also widely spoken, especially in the eastern half of the empire.
6Which river runs through Rome?
The Tiber.
7What is 50 in Roman numerals?
L.
8Which garment marked a man as a Roman citizen?
The toga.
9Which general crossed the Rubicon in 49 BC?
Julius Caesar.
10What was the Roman god of war?
Mars.
Round II: Medium
11What was the Colosseum's official name?
The Flavian Amphitheatre.
12Which emperor ordered a wall across northern Britain in AD 122?
Hadrian.
13Which year had four different emperors?
AD 69: Galba, Otho, Vitellius and Vespasian.
14Which city did Rome fight in the three Punic Wars?
Carthage.
15What does the nickname "Caligula" mean?
"Little boot", from the miniature army boots he wore as a child.
16What was garum?
A fermented fish sauce, used in Roman cooking the way we use salt or ketchup.
17Which emperor wrote the private notebook we call the Meditations?
Marcus Aurelius.
18What was a thermopolium?
A street shop selling hot food and drink: Roman fast food.
19What was the job of Rome's vigiles?
Firefighting and night patrols.
20What is the conventional date for the fall of the Western Roman Empire?
AD 476. (The Eastern Empire lasted until 1453.)
Round III: Hard
21Who was the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire, deposed in 476?
Romulus Augustulus.
22Which city did Constantine dedicate as a new capital in AD 330?
Constantinople (modern Istanbul).
23What was the Cloaca Maxima?
Rome's great sewer, parts of which still carry water today.
24Which emperor extended citizenship to almost every free person in the empire in AD 212?
Caracalla.
25What was the main duty of the Vestal Virgins?
To keep the sacred fire of Vesta burning.
26What did Romans call the Mediterranean?
Mare Nostrum, "our sea."
27What was a pilum?
A legionary's javelin, designed to bend on impact so it couldn't be thrown back.
28How long was the year 46 BC, after Caesar's calendar reform?
445 days, to bring the calendar back in line with the seasons.
29Which Roman senator ended his speeches demanding that Carthage be destroyed?
Cato the Elder.
30What curved tool did Romans use to scrape oil and dirt off their skin at the baths?
A strigil.
Tiebreaker
?Roughly how many spectators could the Colosseum hold? Closest answer wins.
About 50,000. Estimates range up to around 80,000, so accept anything in that zone generously.
Popular quiz answers that are wrong
If you're borrowing questions from elsewhere, check for these. Each is a common "answer" that someone in the room may rightly challenge.
| You'll see | Why it's wrong |
|---|---|
| The first emperor was Julius Caesar | Caesar was dictator. The first emperor was Augustus. |
| Nero fiddled while Rome burned | Fiddles didn't exist. See the fire. |
| A vomitorium was a room for vomiting | It was a passageway for crowds to exit a venue. |
| Roman soldiers were paid in salt | The word "salary" relates to salt, but pay was in coin. |
| Rome sowed salt on Carthage's fields | No ancient source says so; the story is much later. |
| Thumbs-down meant "kill him" | The meaning of the gestures is genuinely uncertain. |
| Gladiators always fought to the death | Many fights ended with one fighter yielding. |
| Caesar was born by caesarean section | His mother lived for decades afterwards, which the surgery then made near-impossible. |
| A precise share of the empire was enslaved | Figures are scholarly estimates and vary widely. Avoid it as a quiz answer. |
| There were exactly X emperors | It depends on how you count co-emperors and usurpers. |
Want to go deeper for a themed round?
Our 100 true Roman facts is built to be mined for questions, the "Did the Romans have…?" page makes a great true-or-false round, and emperors in order is ideal for a hard picture or dates round.
Sources: standard references on Roman history, checked against the ancient sources used across our fact archive. Free to use for your quiz night, classroom or pub; a mention of where you found it is appreciated but not required.
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