Roman Britain quiz: What do you know about the Empire's conquest of the British Isles?

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The Romans took over a large chunk of Great Britain 2,000 years ago. The conquest was anything but smooth sailing.

a group of Roman re-enactors cross a road in a recreation of the iconic Beatles Abbey Road photo
A group of Roman re-enactors cross a road in Dorchester, England. (Image credit: Finnbarr Webster via Getty Images)

Julius Caesar decided to invade Britain in 55 B.C. as a strategic military move, since he thought the Britons were conspiring with the Gauls against him. But he hit immediate resistance when landing in what is now England and failed to conquer any territory.

For the next century, Roman emperors tried unsuccessfully to make inroads into Britain. But in A.D. 43, Emperor Claudius launched a series of campaigns that resulted in the Romans establishing a capital at Camulodunum, now called Colchester.

The Romans suppressed a series of uprisings led by Celtic chiefs and, under Emperor Hadrian, built a defensible wall across the new northern frontier of the Roman Empire in A.D. 122. Even though Caesar got tossed out of England, the country is full of evidence the Romans ruled the province of Britannia for nearly four centuries.

Think you're an encyclopedia of Britannia? Start the quiz below to find out if you're a font of Roman knowledge or if you'll end up in ruins.

Remember to log in to put your name on the leaderboard; hints are available if you click the yellow button!

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Kristina Killgrove
Kristina Killgrove
Staff writer

Kristina Killgrove is a staff writer at Live Science with a focus on archaeology and paleoanthropology news. Her articles have also appeared in venues such as Forbes, Smithsonian, and Mental Floss. Killgrove holds a PhD in biological anthropology and an MA in classical archaeology, and she was formerly a university professor and researcher. She has received awards from the Society for American Archaeology and the American Anthropological Association for her science writing.

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