Getting your questions ready
Getting your questions ready
Beat the crowd
10 questions No timer
70 free Julius Caesar trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
62 free Julius Caesar trivia questions with answers. Julius Caesar conquered Gaul, crossed the Rubicon, rewrote the calendar and was stabbed at least twenty-three times in a Senate meeting, and every part of that story is in this quiz. It covers his early life under Sulla and his kidnapping by pirates, the First Triumvirate with Pompey and Crassus, the Gallic Wars and Alesia, the invasions of Britain, the civil war and Pharsalus, Cleopatra and Caesarion, the dictatorship for life, the Ides of March, and what happened to Brutus, Cassius and Octavian afterwards. There is a short section on Shakespeare's play too, since that is how most people first meet him. Easy questions ask which river he crossed and what 'veni, vidi, vici' means; the hard ones want the month that was renamed for him, the astronomer behind his calendar, the number of stab wounds and where the Senate was actually meeting that day. Written for history buffs, students and pub-quiz teams. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on Caesar, his battles and his assassination, and each question carries the sentence that backs it up.
30 of 70 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which year BC was Julius Caesar assassinated?
44 BC
He had been declared dictator for life only weeks earlier, in February of that year.
Q 02On which date, known by its Roman calendar name, was Caesar killed?
The Ides of March
Until the mid-2nd century BC the 15th of March had been the day new consuls took office, which added to its symbolism.
Q 03Which river did Caesar famously cross with his army in January 49 BC?
The Rubicon
He brought a single legion, the Thirteenth, across the little river that marked the northern boundary of Italy.
Q 04Which Greek playwright was Caesar reportedly quoting with 'let the die be cast'?
Menander
Plutarch and Suetonius say he spoke the line in Greek; the Latin 'alea iacta est' came later.
Q 05Which single legion did Caesar lead into Italy in January 49 BC?
Legio XIII Gemina
Pompey and much of the Senate fled south, wrongly assuming Caesar was racing straight for Rome.
Q 06Along with Caesar, which two men formed the First Triumvirate in 60 BC?
Pompey and Crassus
Mary Beard calls the secret alliance the 'Gang of Three'; it was never a formal office.
Q 07Which of Caesar's relatives married Pompey to seal their alliance?
His daughter Julia
Her death in 54 BC removed one of the last personal ties holding the two men together.
Q 08Caesar's Gallic Wars ended with the surrender of which chieftain at Alesia?
Vercingetorix
He was paraded in Caesar's triumph six years later and then executed.
Q 09In which year did the climactic Battle of Alesia take place?
52 BC
The Gauls sat inside Caesar's ring of fortifications while a relief army attacked from outside, so Caesar was besieger and besieged at once.
Q 10Which battle earlier in 52 BC did Caesar lose to the Gauls before winning at Alesia?
Gergovia
It was the capital of Vercingetorix's own tribe, the Arverni.
Q 11Which island did Caesar invade in 55 and 54 BC?
Britain
To Romans it was an 'island of mystery'; he withdrew when Gaul rose in revolt behind him.
Q 12Across which river did Caesar build a bridge as a show of Roman engineering power?
The Rhine
The bridge marked the river as Rome's frontier with the Germanic tribes.
Q 13Which migrating tribe did Caesar stop near Geneva in the first engagement of the Gallic Wars?
The Helvetii
He built a wall to block them and defeated them at Bibracte before sending them home.
What is the Latin title of Caesar's own account of the Gallic Wars?
Q 21What does 'veni, vidi, vici' mean?
I came, I saw, I conquered
Pharnaces of Crimea had grabbed his father's old kingdom of Pontus while Caesar was in Egypt.
Q 22Which staunch republican killed himself at Utica rather than accept Caesar's pardon?
Cato the Younger
Caesar later wrote an 'Anticato' attacking him in reply to Cicero's eulogy.
Q 23The last battle of Caesar's civil war, fought in Spain in 45 BC, was at which town?
Munda
His enemies were treated as rebels and massacred; the celebrated triumph over fellow Romans was widely thought unseemly.
Commentarii de Bello Gallico
Its clear prose made it the traditional first real text for Latin students; the eighth book was finished by Aulus Hirtius.
Q 15How many books of the Gallic Wars did Caesar write himself?
Seven
Each covered a year of campaigning and was published as a kind of dispatch from the front to keep Rome on his side.
Q 16At which battle in 48 BC did Caesar decisively defeat Pompey?
Pharsalus
Pompey fled to Egypt, where he was murdered on arrival; Cicero and Brutus begged Caesar's pardon.
Q 17Where was Pompey killed after fleeing from Caesar?
Alexandria, Egypt
Caesar arrived three days later and was trapped in the city by the Etesian winds.
Q 18Which Egyptian queen became Caesar's lover during the Alexandrine war?
Cleopatra
He installed her as ruler after beating her brother Ptolemy XIII at the Battle of the Nile, and the pair cruised the river in triumph.
Q 19What was the nickname of the son the Egyptian queen bore Caesar?
Caesarion
'Little Caesar' was the last pharaoh of Egypt; Octavian had him executed in 30 BC.
Q 20Caesar wrote 'veni, vidi, vici' after which quick victory?
Zela, over Pharnaces
The three words were also a dig at Pompey, whose earlier wars in Pontus had taken far longer.
Q 24How many triumphs did Caesar celebrate in Rome in September 46 BC?
Four
They were nominally over Gaul, Egypt, Asia and Africa; each soldier received 24,000 sesterces, a lifetime's pay.
Q 25Which Roman month was renamed in Caesar's honour?
Quintilis
It became Julius, our July, the month of his birth; Sextilis later became August.
Q 26Caesar's calendar reform set the standard year at how many days, plus a leap day every fourth?
365
The old republican calendar was lunisolar and had drifted badly out of step with the seasons.
Q 27Which Alexandrian astronomer is credited as the principal designer of the Julian calendar?
Sosigenes
Caesar had seen Egypt's fixed 365-day year while stuck in Alexandria and wanted something better.
Q 28The Julian calendar took effect on 1 January of which year?
45 BC
It stayed the West's calendar for over 1,600 years until Pope Gregory XIII trimmed the leap days in 1582.
Q 29Caesar increased the size of the Senate from 600 to how many members?
900
The extra seats rewarded supporters and helped administer the enlarged empire.
Q 30Which two destroyed cities did Caesar refound as Roman colonies?
Carthage and Corinth
Both had been razed by Rome in 146 BC; the colonies helped move Italy's surplus population into the provinces.