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50 free Pompeii trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Pompeii trivia covers the best-preserved snapshot of Roman life anywhere: a wealthy town of ten to twenty thousand people buried under metres of ash and pumice when Vesuvius erupted for two days in 79 AD, then forgotten for centuries until an aqueduct engineer bumped into painted walls in 1592. This quiz runs from the Oscan villages and the Greek, Etruscan and Samnite phases through Sulla's siege, the amphitheatre riot of 59 AD, the earthquake of 62 and Nero's visit, to the eruption itself: the eighteen hours of pumice rain, the pyroclastic surges, the 33-kilometre column, Pliny the Elder's fatal rescue voyage and his nephew's letters to Tacitus, and the evidence that has moved the date from August to October. It then covers the rediscovery under the Bourbons, Fiorelli's plaster casts and his grid of regions and blocks, the great houses and mosaics, the Lupanar and the graffiti, Herculaneum's carbonised scrolls, and the modern afterlife from Pink Floyd's audience-free concert to Bastille's hit. Easy questions suit anyone who has heard of Vesuvius; the expert tier is for classicists. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on Pompeii, the eruption and its sites, and the supporting sentence is attached to each question.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which volcano buried Pompeii in 79 AD?
Vesuvius
It also buried Herculaneum, Stabiae and many surrounding villas under 4 to 6 metres of ash and pumice.
Q 02Pompeii lies near which modern Italian city?
Naples
It sits in the Campania region, about 8 km from the volcano and today some 700 metres inland from the sea.
Q 03Roughly how deep was the layer of ash and pumice that buried Pompeii?
4 to 6 metres
Up to twelve separate layers of tephra fell; Herculaneum was buried far deeper by pyroclastic flows.
Q 04The name Pompeii is thought to derive from the Oscan word 'pompe', meaning what?
Five
It may refer to five original hamlets founded by the Oscans in the 8th century BC.
Q 05Which Roman general besieged Pompeii in 89 BC, leaving ballista craters in its walls?
Sulla
Pompeii had joined the revolt of the Social War; it became a Roman colony settled by Sulla's veterans.
Q 06What happened in Pompeii's amphitheatre in AD 59?
A deadly riot between Pompeians and Nucerians
The Senate banned games there for ten years; a fresco records the brawl.
Q 07Pompeii's amphitheatre, built around 70 BC, is notable as what?
One of the oldest surviving Roman amphitheatres
It was designed to hold about 20,000 people, roughly the whole population of the town.
Q 08A severe earthquake damaged Pompeii on 5 February of which year, seventeen years before the eruption?
AD 62
It is estimated at magnitude 5 to 6, and much of the town was still being rebuilt in 79.
Q 09Which emperor visited Pompeii around AD 64 with his wife Poppaea and made gifts to the temple of Venus?
Nero
Venus was the city's patron deity; Nero was probably in the area to perform in the theatre of Naples.
Q 10Who was emperor when the volcano erupted in 79 AD?
Titus
He appointed two ex-consuls to organise relief and visited the site twice, but no recovery work was done.
Q 11How long did the eruption of 79 AD last?
Two days
The first phase, about 18 hours of pumice rain, let most inhabitants escape; the pyroclastic flows came later.
Q 12How high did the volcano's column of tephra and gas reach in 79 AD?
About 33 km
It ejected material at 1.5 million tons per second, releasing 100,000 times the thermal energy of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs.
Q 13A 2010 study concluded that most people at Pompeii died from what?
Extreme heat from pyroclastic flows
Flows of at least 250 °C were enough to kill instantly, even indoors, ten kilometres from the vent.
Q 21Which architect hit Pompeii's painted walls digging an aqueduct in 1592, and kept it secret?
Domenico Fontana
His channel to the mills of Torre Annunziata still runs under a large part of the city.
Q 22In what year did excavation of Pompeii begin under the Spanish engineer Alcubierre, for the Bourbon king?
1748
The city was only positively identified in 1763, when an inscription naming the 'Rei Publicae Pompeianorum' was found.
Q 23Which king sponsored the early digs, and kept an interest even after leaving to become King of Spain?
Charles of Bourbon
Herculaneum had been rediscovered in 1738 by workers digging foundations for his summer palace.
Q 14Roughly how many bodies have been found at Pompeii itself?
About 1,150
The number suggests most of the town's inhabitants escaped during the initial hours of pumice fall.
Q 15Which writer left the only eyewitness account of the eruption, in two letters to Tacitus?
Pliny the Younger
He watched from Misenum across the bay; volcanologists now call such eruptions 'Plinian'.
Q 16How did Pliny the Elder die during the eruption?
Attempting a rescue by sea as admiral of the fleet
He sailed toward Stabiae saying 'Fortune favours the brave', and could not get away again.
Q 17What did a 2022 study conclude was the most likely date of the eruption?
24–25 October
Autumn fruit in the shops, sealed wine jars, heavier clothing and a charcoal note dated 17 October all point away from the traditional August date.
Q 18What discovery in 2018 undermined the traditional August date for the eruption?
A charcoal inscription dated 17 October
Written in charcoal, it could not have survived long, so the eruption must have come soon after.
Q 19Which town near Pompeii, buried deeper by pyroclastic flows, preserved wooden roofs, beds and papyrus scrolls?
Herculaneum
It was smaller and wealthier than Pompeii, and was rediscovered first, in 1709.
Q 20Where in the wealthier neighbouring town were the skeletons of at least 300 people found?
In the boat houses on the shore
They had fled to the beach and were killed by the pyroclastic surge.
Q 24Which archaeologist, in charge from 1863, invented pouring plaster into voids left by decayed bodies?
Giuseppe Fiorelli
He also divided the city into nine regiones and numbered blocks and doorways, a system still used today.
Q 25What material has replaced plaster in modern casts of Pompeii's victims?
Clear resin
It is more durable and does not destroy the bones inside, allowing later analysis.
Q 26Into how many regions (regiones) did Fiorelli divide the city?
Nine
Addresses at Pompeii still read region, insula, doorway, such as VII, 12, 18 for the Lupanar.
Q 27Which archaeologist first dug beneath the 79 AD layers in the 1920s and led the last big digs in the 1950s?
Amedeo Maiuri
His reconstructions are hard to tell from original ruins, a lasting headache for scholars.
Q 28The Alexander Mosaic, showing Alexander the Great facing Darius, was found in which Pompeian residence?
The House of the Faun
The largest and most expensive residence in Pompeii, it fills a whole block; the original mosaic is now in Naples.
Q 29The famous bronze 'dancing faun' that names Pompeii's largest residence is technically what?
A satyr
Its lower body is a man's; it stood beside the limestone impluvium in the atrium and was found in October 1830.
Q 30The frescoes in Room 5 of the Villa of the Mysteries are usually interpreted as showing what?
A bride's initiation into a mystery cult
They are among the rare survivals of first-century-BC Roman painting; the villa was excavated from 1909.