Ancient Rome I Test | Ancient History

Answer: 753 BC

This is only the traditional, mythological date of the founding of Rome. Romulus, too, is a mythical person. The story went that he and his brother Remus (who were sons of the war god Mars) had been raised by a wolf, and Romulus eventually killed his own brother, and then settled into Rome.

In truth, at this time, Rome was a swamp, and the people began to drain it about a century later.

Answer: Etruscans

The Etruscans come from an area just north of Rome. They had set up a monarchy in Rome, who lasted till 509 BC.

Answer: Polybius

After Horatius made the bridge collapse, Polybius writes that he fell to his death. Plutarch didn't cover this era of Roman history, Ovid wrote love stories and Thucydides wrote about Greek history.

Answer: Gauls

Gaul is now modern day France. This raid destroyed any recorded Roman history. Anything before 387 BC strongly relies on archaeology.

Answer: Samnites

This war continued into the early 3rd century BC. It was a very long war, but Rome had a decisive advantage with their roads, allowing them to move troops more easily.

Answer: Mithridates

Mithridates was a long reigning King in the East. He tried to conquer Egypt in 168 BC, but the Egyptians turned to Rome for help. Rome complied and Mithridates was intimidated and left. Rome considered Egypt to be 'amici et socii', which means friends. But Rome would go on to truly exploit Egypt over the centuries, because of its great wealth.

Answer: 30 BC

After the death of Julius Caesar, Rome had been split into three, shared by Marcus Lepidus, Octavian and Marc Antony. Lepidus retired in 37 BC, leaving Octavian (Caesar's nephew) to rule the West and Antony (Caesar's friend) to rule the East. Antony wasted a lot of time trying to please his wife, Cleopatra.

They had a real fight for power, which culminated into a war. Octavian eventually crushed Antony at Actium (in Greece) in 31 BC. After this, Antony flew to Egypt, resource-less, where he and Cleopatra committed suicide. Octavian would eventually go on to transform Rome into an Empire.

Answer: Octavius

The Senate granted him the honorific title Augustus Caesar/Caesar Augustus after his defeat of Antony, which he then used extensively.

Answer: Cassius

Cassius never gets much attention. Brutus had a history with Caesar, probably why he gets all the attention.

Answer: Governor

In 33 AD, Pontius Pilate read off the charges and declared that Jesus was innocent and should be freed. The people however felt otherwise. Pilate was already under some scrutiny, so he gave in to the people's demands. However, before he did, he washed his hands and said that anything that happens to Jesus will be on their hands, not his. The crowd openly accepted this.