For roughly five centuries Rome had no king and no emperor, and the arrangement that replaced them was strange enough to be worth understanding. These ten questions cover how it ran and how it came apart.
The Roman Republic was built on a deep suspicion of one man holding power for long. Offices came in pairs, terms lasted a year, and even the emergency post of dictator had a time limit written into it. For a long stretch the system held, mostly because the men competing inside it agreed on the rules. What broke it was not a single villain but a slow discovery that armies could be loyal to a general rather than to the state. Once Sulla had marched on Rome, the precedent existed for everyone who came after. The questions here move from the machinery of government to the civil wars that ended it.
Every question in this quiz is listed below with its correct answer and the reasoning behind it. Play first if you would rather not see the answers — or read through as a study sheet.
Play it insteadAnswer: D. Two
Why: The republic split its highest office between two men serving a one-year term, each able to block the other. That power of refusal is where the word veto comes from, meaning "I forbid" in Latin.
Answer: C. Pompey and Crassus
Why: Around 60 BC the three pooled money, veterans and influence in a private understanding rather than a formal office. It fell apart after Crassus, reputedly the wealthiest man in Rome, was killed campaigning against Parthia.
Answer: B. The Rubicon
Why: The Rubicon marked the southern edge of his province, so bringing an army across it was an open act of war. Its exact course is still disputed, which is why more than one small river in the region claims the name.
Answer: A. Dictator
Why: A dictator was appointed legally, usually for no more than six months, to handle a military crisis. Caesar broke with that convention by having himself named dictator for life shortly before he was killed.
Answer: D. The Senate and People of Rome
Why: Senatus Populusque Romanus was shorthand for the Roman state itself, stamped on standards, coins and public buildings. The modern city still puts the four letters on its street signs and drain covers.
Answer: C. Spartacus
Why: Spartacus broke out of a gladiator school at Capua and held off Roman armies for two years before Crassus defeated him. Ancient writers report that thousands of the captured were crucified along the road back to Rome.
Answer: B. Sulla
Why: Sulla marched his legions on Rome itself, something no Roman commander had done before, and later governed as dictator. He then did something equally unusual and retired to private life.
Answer: A. Proscription
Why: Names were nailed up in the forum, and whoever killed the man on the list took a share of his confiscated property. Cicero was among those hunted down in the proscriptions of 43 BC.
Answer: D. The Punic Wars
Why: Punicus was the Latin word Romans used for the Carthaginians, so the name is simply "the Carthaginian wars". Three were fought between roughly 264 and 146 BC, ending with Carthage destroyed.
Answer: C. Romulus and Remus
Why: The legend has the brothers suckled by a she-wolf, with Romulus killing Remus and giving the city his name. Romans conventionally dated the founding to 753 BC, though the story was written down many centuries later.
Floods, tricksters and dying gods turn up across unconnected cultures. Three explanations, and how to tell which applies.
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