The Celts
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50 free The Celts trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Celts never built an empire in the Roman sense. They were hundreds of tribes, spread across much of Europe and beyond, who shared related languages, a taste for dazzling metalwork and a talent for alarming their neighbours. Greek and Roman writers left most of what we know about them, so the story comes with plenty of bias and a few tall tales. This quiz covers the ground a Celtic history round should: the Iron Age cultures of central Europe, the Gauls who sacked Rome and later fought Julius Caesar, the tribes of Britain who faced the legions, and the priests, poets, festivals and gods that outsiders found so strange. It also follows the trail into Irish and Welsh legend, medieval art and the living Celtic languages. The questions start broad and get tougher, so the quiz suits a classroom, a pub night or anyone who has wondered how much of the popular picture of the Celts is true. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which queen of the Iceni led a revolt that burned Roman London to the ground around AD 60?
Boudica
Boudica is thought to have left 70,000 to 80,000 dead as her army burned three towns. Tacitus says the revolt began after Romans flogged her and raped her daughters.
Q 02According to legend, which birds woke Rome's defenders as Gauls scaled the Capitoline Hill by night?
Geese
Geese sacred to the goddess Juno raised the alarm after the guards and the dogs heard nothing. The night attack failed, and the Gauls later accepted a ransom in gold.
Q 03Which modern holiday is widely thought to draw on Samhain, the Gaelic festival that opens winter?
Halloween
Halloween falls on the eve of Samhain, when Gaels lit bonfires and went door to door in costume. Irish and Scottish immigrants carried the customs to America.
Q 04Which European capital, known to the Romans as Lutetia, takes its name from a Gallic tribe?
Paris
Paris is named after the Parisii, whose stronghold Lutetia stood on the Seine. Julius Caesar summoned an assembly of the Gallic tribes there in 53 BC.
Q 05The Galatians, Celts who left the Balkans in 278 BC, made their home in which modern country?
Turkey
Turkey holds the old Celtic land of Galatia, in the highlands around Ankara. Its Christians were the Galatians who received a letter from Paul the Apostle in the New Testament.
Q 06Julius Caesar wrote that Britons painted themselves which colour to look more frightful in battle?
Blue
Blue is the colour Caesar reported, from a substance he called vitrum. It is usually translated as woad, a plant dye, though the Latin word more often means glass.
Q 07Which priestly class of ancient Gaul and Britain trained its pupils for up to twenty years?
Druids
Druids were exempt from taxation and military service. Their pupils spent the long training memorising a huge body of verse.
Q 08Which Arverni chieftain united the Gauls against Julius Caesar before surrendering at Alesia?
Vercingetorix
Vercingetorix offered himself up to spare his people. He was held in Rome for six years, displayed in Caesar's triumph and then executed.
Q 09Which comic series follows a Gaulish village that resists Roman occupation thanks to a magic potion?
Asterix
Asterix was written by René Goscinny and drawn by Albert Uderzo. It has been translated into more than 100 languages, the most of any comic book series.
Q 10Which English monument was once credited to Celtic priests, though building began around 3100 BC?
Stonehenge
Stonehenge was first tied to the Celtic priesthood by John Aubrey in the 17th century. Its last phase dates to about 1600 BC, long before the Iron Age.
Q 11Pliny the Elder wrote that Gaulish priests cut which plant from oak trees with a golden sickle?
Mistletoe
Mistletoe was caught in a white cloak as it fell, and was gathered on the sixth day of the moon. Pliny's passage is the only surviving account of the rite.
Q 12Hallstatt, the Austrian village that names the early Celtic Iron Age, grew rich by mining what?
Salt
Salt from the Hallstatt mines made the village wealthy and also preserved the miners' shoes, cloth and backpacks, which survive in good condition today.
Q 13The torc, a twisted metal ornament of high-ranking Celts, was worn around which body part?
Neck
Neck torcs were prized enough that the Roman Titus Manlius took one from a Gaul he killed in single combat. He wore it so often that he was nicknamed Torquatus.
Q 21Which Italian city began as Mediolanum, a town of the Celtic Insubres taken by Rome in 222 BC?
Milan
Milan was settled around 590 BC under the Celtic name Medhelanon, which the Romans Latinised. Centuries later it served as a capital of the Western Roman Empire.
Q 22The Celtiberians, whose town Numantia defied Rome for twenty years, lived in which modern country?
Spain
Spain preserves the ruins of Numantia on a hill near Soria. The Senate finally sent Scipio Aemilianus to destroy the town in 133 BC.
Q 23Which Greek sanctuary of Apollo did a Gaulish army under Brennus try to loot in 279 BC?
Delphi
Delphi was where the huge Gaulish invasion of Greece collapsed. The attackers were driven off, and their badly injured leader took his own life.
Q 14Which illuminated manuscript, made by Celtic monks around AD 800, is kept at Trinity College Dublin?
Book of Kells
The Book of Kells takes its name from the Abbey of Kells in County Meath, its home for centuries. It has stayed at Trinity College since a bishop presented it in 1661.
Q 15Which Celtic language was carried from Britain to northwestern France by early medieval migrants?
Breton
Breton is the only Celtic language still in use on the European mainland. Its closest relative is Cornish, since both descend from the speech of southwestern Britain.
Q 16Which garment, called braccae by the Romans, set Gaulish men apart from tunic-wearing Romans?
Trousers
Trousers reached Rome from the Gauls, by the Romans' own account, and the Latin word braccae was itself borrowed from Gaulish.
Q 17Which flexible armour, later standard for Roman legionaries, is commonly credited to Celtic smiths?
Chain mail
Chain mail is thought to have first met the Romans on Gauls they fought in northern Italy. The legions then copied it as the lorica hamata.
Q 18According to Julius Caesar, the Gauls burned living men inside huge figures made of what material?
Wicker
Wicker images filled with victims appear in Caesar's account, while Strabo describes a colossus of straw and wood. No archaeological find has confirmed either story.
Q 19The Helvetii, Gauls beaten by Julius Caesar near Bibracte, give which country its Latin name?
Switzerland
Switzerland is officially Confoederatio Helvetica in Latin, which is why its country code is CH. The Helvetii lived on its central plateau before the Roman conquest.
Q 20Which Gallic tribes, called the bravest of all by Julius Caesar, gave a modern kingdom its name?
Belgae
The Belgae live on in the name of Belgium. Caesar put their courage down to living furthest from Roman luxuries and nearest to the Germans across the Rhine.
Q 24Which conqueror asked Celtic envoys what they feared most, only to hear that it was the sky falling?
Alexander the Great
Alexander the Great had expected the Celts to name him. Strabo, citing Alexander's general Ptolemy, adds that they politely ranked his friendship above everything else.
Q 25According to Livy, what did the Gaul Brennus throw onto the scales as Rome's ransom was weighed?
His sword
His sword made the Gauls' already heavy weights heavier still, and he added a taunt in Latin meaning woe to the conquered.
Q 26Which emperor began the lasting conquest of Britain in AD 43, long after Julius Caesar's raids?
Claudius
Claudius put the senator Aulus Plautius in charge of the invasion force. Cassius Dio says the emperor also brought war elephants, a claim modern historians doubt.
Q 27Which captured British chieftain won a pardon from the Roman emperor with a speech?
Caratacus
Caratacus had already been sentenced to death when his words changed the emperor's mind. He reached Rome as a captive after Cartimandua, queen of the Brigantes, handed him over.
Q 28Which island, called Mona by the Romans, was invaded in AD 60 to break the power of Celtic priests?
Anglesey
Anglesey was taken by the general Suetonius Paulinus, who destroyed its shrine and sacred groves. He then had to hurry east because a revolt had broken out behind him.
Q 29Lindow Man, an Iron Age body found in Cheshire in 1984, had been preserved for centuries in what?
A peat bog
A peat bog kept him so intact that he is now on display at the British Museum. A sinew cord at his throat may have been a garrotte, though it could simply have been jewellery.
Q 30The Gundestrup cauldron, a silver vessel crowded with Celtic gods, was found in which country?
Denmark
Denmark was probably not where the cauldron was made. Its metalwork follows the Thracian tradition, so it seems to have travelled far north before it was buried in pieces.