The Divine Julius Trivia Quiz

Answer: Veni, vidi, vici

Supposedly, Julius said this to his friend Amantius. Amantius asked Caesar to tell him about his military capture of the city of Zela, and Caesar gave this as his account of the action.

Answer: He told them to ask for fifty instead

Caesar is said to have laughed at the pirates for not realizing the value of the person they'd captured, so he told them to demand a higher price. During his captivity, he acted as if he was in charge of the kidnappers, also reading them his speeches and poetry (and mocking them for not understanding).

Answer: He had the pirates crucified

During his captivity, Caesar had promised the pirates many times that he would have them crucified as soon as he was free. At the time, they thought he was joking.

Answer: The Consulship of Julius and Caesar

Bibulus proved mostly ineffectual at stopping Caesar's political moves. He worked with the Senate to try to block Caesar's proposals, but Julius' supporters ended up dumping a chamber pot on Consul Bibulus, and the poor man retreated to his home, refusing to come out. So the shared consulship became known as the Consulship of Julius and Caesar.

Answer: Cato the Younger

Cato found a sure-fire way to stop the proposals Julius put forth to the Senate: he kept talking until the close of business every time Caesar called for a vote. Julius eventually grew enraged and ordered Cato arrested for disrupting the Senate, but the action prompted every other senator to abandon the senate floor, with one declaring "I would rather be in jail with Cato than in the Senate with YOU."

Answer: Land allotments for veterans

Caesar wanted to take unused land owned by Senators and give it to veterans for use as farmland. His support for this plan was one of the things which made him an ally of the general Pompey Magnus, whose veteran soldiers stood to benefit.

Answer: False

The First Triumvirate was Julius Caesar, Pompey Magnus, and Marcus Crassus, who combined their massive political influence to sway events in Rome. Marc Antony, Octavian, and Marcus Lepidus formed the SECOND Triumvirate, after the assassination of Julius.

Answer: He conquered Gaul

After bringing his legions into Gaul, Julius defeated the Helvetii with the assistance of the Gaulish tribes. The problem for the Gauls was, Caesar didn't leave afterwards. He gradually laid claim to more and more of Gaul, until he'd turned it into a Roman province.

Answer: Epilepsy

Caesar may have been epileptic. Some historians believe he actually suffered from debilitating migraines. Either way, it can't have been easy to lead extended military campaigns while contending with a medical problem.

Answer: Persia

Caesar died with plans to invade Persia still in the works, possibly to take revenge for his friend Marcus Crassus, who died attempting to conquer the foreign land. It remains a matter of speculation how things might have turned out if Julius had made the attempt at further expanding Rome.