Roman Empire Trivia

For roughly 500 years as a republic and another 500 as an empire, Rome set the template for law, engineering, and government that much of the Western world still runs on. Its roads, calendar, and alphabet outlived the empire itself by more than a millennium.

This quiz runs from the founding myth to the fall of the West.

From Republic to Empire

Rome spent centuries as a republic governed by the Senate before Augustus consolidated power and became its first emperor in 27 BC. The transition was gradual enough that many Romans barely noticed the republic had ended.

Engineering That Held Cities Together

Aqueducts carried fresh water dozens of miles into Roman cities, and a network of paved roads let armies and messages move at a pace Europe wouldn't match again for centuries.

A Fall That Took Centuries

The Western Roman Empire is traditionally said to have fallen in 476 AD, but the Eastern half, centered on Constantinople, carried on for nearly another thousand years.