Forget the emperors for ten questions. This one is about where ordinary Romans slept, what they ate, how they kept warm and where the water came from.
Roman engineering is usually admired for its scale, but the more impressive part is how much of it was ordinary. Cities had piped water, heated floors, covered drains and public baths that almost anyone could afford, which is not a bad standard of living for the first century. The domestic side is just as revealing. Most people lived in cramped rented flats rather than the villas that survive in photographs, cooked with a fermented fish sauce that would clear a modern kitchen, and jotted notes on wax they could rub out and use again. These ten questions stay at street level.
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. Thermae
Why: A set of thermae usually combined hot, warm and cold rooms with an exercise yard and often a library. Entry cost very little, so bathing was a daily social routine rather than a luxury.
Answer: C. Insula
Why: The name means "island", from the way a block sat surrounded by streets on all sides. The cheapest rooms were at the top, furthest from the water supply and hardest to escape from in a fire.
Answer: B. A steady downhill gradient
Why: Surveyors laid out a continuous gentle fall, in places only a few centimetres per kilometre, and used arches only where the ground dropped away. Most of the length actually ran underground rather than on the famous arcades.
Answer: A. Hypocaust
Why: Floors were raised on short brick pillars so air from a furnace could pass underneath and rise through flues built into the walls. It burned a lot of fuel, so it was mostly limited to bath houses and wealthy homes.
Answer: D. The Cloaca Maxima
Why: It began as an open channel to drain the marshy ground below the forum and was later roofed over, emptying into the Tiber. Sections of the original stonework are still in place.
Answer: C. Toga
Why: The toga was heavy, awkward and almost impossible to put on without help, which is partly why it became reserved for formal business. Women of standing wore the stola instead.
Answer: B. Garum
Why: Garum was made by salting fish and letting them break down in the sun before the liquid was strained off. It was produced on an industrial scale, with processing sites dotted along the Spanish and North African coasts.
Answer: A. Wax tablets
Why: A pointed stylus scratched letters into wax set in a wooden frame, and the flat end at the other end rubbed them out again. Papyrus was saved for documents meant to last.
Answer: D. The Circus Maximus
Why: The track filled the valley between the Palatine and Aventine hills and was rebuilt repeatedly over the centuries; estimates of its capacity vary widely but run well into six figures. Racing teams were organised into colour factions with followings much like modern clubs.
Answer: C. Julius Caesar
Why: Caesar was born in that month and had reformed the calendar in 46 BC, so it became July. Sextilis was later renamed August, which is why September through December still carry names meaning seven to ten.
Floods, tricksters and dying gods turn up across unconnected cultures. Three explanations, and how to tell which applies.
6 min readEach correct answer awards 10 XP. There is zero point penalty for incorrect guesses, encouraging learning through exploration.
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