Nero Was a Hero Trivia Quiz

Answer: Organised relief for the homeless and injured, and took part in the rescue of survivors.

Some Roman sources such as Cassius Dio claim that Nero started the fire, that he sang or played music while it raged, and that he planned it to create space for an ambitious building program; but the historian Tacitus says he was at Antium when it began, that he returned at once and opened his palace grounds to house the homeless and took an active and heroic part in the efforts to save lives and provide for the victims.

He also paid for supplies to relieve hunger and cold from his own funds. Given that Tacitus was actually alive at the time of the fire, and that the sources which paint Nero as an arsonist mostly were not even born within a century of the event, his version may be more reliable - especially as he does not attempt to gloss over some of Nero's other offences.

Answer: Messina, a Christian town in Sicily

Richard looted and burned Messina in 1190 CE, on the excuse that the ruler of Sicily had failed to give his sister Joan (widow of the former king of Sicily) her rightful inheritance. He also attacked Cyprus in 1191 CE before arriving in the Holy Land and turning his military ability on the actual enemy.

He had previously joined in numerous rebellions against both his father Henry II and his older brother who had been the heir to the throne, and his coronation was marked by extensive violence against the Jews in England. (When leading Jews brought gifts for him as their feudal lord and waited outside Westminster Abbey to present them they were savagely beaten up. Rumours spread to the effect that he had ordered this or even the killing of all Jews in London.

The violence spread to the provinces). Though king of England he never bothered to learn the language of the country, and spent only about six months there out of a ten year reign.

Answer: Issued invitations to his nephew Edward's coronation

Richard, far from showing signs of wanting to snatch the crown from his late brother's son, made diligent preparations for the boy's coronation in 1483 CE, including having expensive and lavish robes prepared for young Edward, sending out summonses to young squires who were to be knighted by the new king, and issuing invitations to various nobles. All proclamations and warrants issued were made in the name of the young king-in-waiting, not his uncle.

There is no evidence of a plot to seize the throne from the moment his brother died, nor of Richard having been involved in killing either of two previous kings or his own brother the Duke of Clarence, and it's unlikely he had his nephews murdered.

Answer: To put his father on the throne of Great Britain

The charming prince's only motive was to restore the ousted Stuart dynasty to the throne of Great Britain, which he saw as theirs by divine right. He neither knew nor cared about the sufferings of any of the nation's people. The whole enterprise had virtually no chance of success anyway, as the majority of the English and many Scots had no great desire to exchange even the unpopular but Protestant Hanoverian King George II for a Catholic pretender backed by the enemy nation of France. Though there were both English and Scots who did support Charles Edward, he coolly lied to the Highlanders about the extent of English support; it was his military incompetence which led to the massacre at Culloden; and in the aftermath he left his followers to suffer terrible reprisals while he fled back to France, where he died a drunk with a reputation for domestic abuse.

Answer: Paid him and commissioned him to design several more churches.

The glorious cathedral still stands today, as does the chapel Yakovlev added to it in 1588 CE, long after Ivan's death; it is only in folk tales that Ivan blinded the man so he could never surpass the church he built for the first Tsar of All Russia. Though Ivan I was no angel, his reign was marked by reform and modernisation, and he secured Russia's borders against enemies on all sides.

He opened up new trade routes and diplomacy in Europe and the east, and introduced printing presses to the country.

His 'reign of terror' was more of a response to a period of natural disasters and foreign invasions which needed drastic measures to combat. A better translation of his nickname is Ivan the Formidable.

Answer: Do it if he really must, but keep it secret

The secret marriage soon became not so secret and Philip threatened to tell everyone Luther advised him to do it. Luther's response? To 'tell a good, strong lie' and deny it. Luther may have had courage in his convictions but he was not a nice person; for instance he wrote pamphlets railing against the 'murderous, thieving hordes of peasants' and 'the Jews and their lies'. Angry that the common people had taken his criticism of the church's wealth as a signal to redistribute some of it, and that the Jews had rejected his efforts to convert them to Protestantism, he wrote tirades suggesting that peasants should be put down like mad dogs and that Jews' property should be seized or smashed and synagogues set on fire.

Answer: Freed hundreds from forced prostitution and gave them a refuge in a convent

Theodora may or may not have been a prostitute herself - sources differ - but it is certain that she led legal reforms which put an end to the prostitution of girls and women by force, provided places for victims of such trafficking to retire to, and made rape a capital offence.

She in fact championed women's rights to have some say over the custody and care of their children, increased their property rights, ended the death penalty for women who committed adultery (it had never applied to men), and abolished the practice of exposure of unwanted babies.

In other spheres her influence seems to have been equally forward-thinking and beneficial.

Answer: Stormed it, killing 6,000 men, women and children and taking thousands more as slaves

Thebes, along with many other Greek city-states, had been conquered by Alexander's father Philip II, and were not at all happy about it. So when word came Philip had been assassinated (which may have been at the orders of Alexander and/or his mother Olympia) they rebelled against Macedonian rule. Alexander made an incredible forced march and burst into the city, his troops slaughtering everyone in sight and hauling some 30,000 survivors off into servitude.

They also plundered and razed it, leaving only the temples and the house of the poet Pindar standing.

He followed the same pattern wherever he met resistance.

Answer: Encouraged cleanliness, regular exercise and consumption of fruit juice

Bligh was actually thought to be a lighter disciplinarian than many of his colleagues, preferring to give miscreants a tongue-lashing rather than a real lashing. Unfortunately his harsh scolding may have triggered the mutiny, though it probably had a lot more to do with his crew having spent a long time in Tahiti and formed attachments to the local lifestyle (and ladies), and not wanting to return to England. Bligh had given them an extra six months of shore leave when the breadfruit trees he was there to collect needed more time to mature; perhaps he should have done what other captains did, and sailed around the region mapping it instead.

Answer: Sacrificed 300 captive Roman soldiers to his spirit

Sources are limited for the facts of Spartacus' life, but at least two historians report that Spartacus killed people in Roman fashion to honour his fallen officers - and that does include making captives fight to the death in gladiatorial games, and at least once to crucifying them. Undoubtedly a brave fighter and a clever strategist, Spartacus was not fighting for an ideal of liberty or an end to slavery, but only to go home.