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Curated playlist

2nd-century Romans

  • IrenaeusWhy did a bishop in Gaul insist on exactly four gospels? Irenaeus is the earliest witness to that claim.
  • TertullianTertullian distrusted philosophy yet gave Latin Christianity its word "trinity."
  • Cassius DioCassius Dio's Roman History is one of only three written Roman sources on Boudica's revolt.
  • JuvenalJuvenal never mentions exile in his Satires, yet every surviving biography says he was exiled.
  • Clement of AlexandriaClement of Alexandria argued that Greek philosophy prepared the way for the Gospel.
  • PtolemyOne critic called the ancient astronomer Ptolemy "the most successful fraud in the history of science".
  • MartialMartial, a Roman poet, mocked landlords who set fires for insurance money.
  • SuetoniusPliny the Younger asked Emperor Trajan for a tax break on behalf of the historian Suetonius.
  • Gaius (jurist)Roman jurist Gaius is known only by his first name. Yet a later emperor made his opinions binding on judges.
  • Maximinus ThraxRoman emperor Maximinus Thrax never once visited Rome during his entire reign. His own soldiers killed him in 238.
  • Pliny the YoungerPliny the Younger, then 17 or 18, watched Vesuvius erupt in 79 AD while his uncle died in the cloud.
  • PlutarchPlutarch watched the emperor Nero compete at the games at Delphi. He later served as a priest of Apollo there.
  • LucianLucian opened A True Story by promising that everything in it was a lie. Then a whirlwind dropped him on the Moon.
  • HerodianHerodian, a Roman historian, was probably just a minor civil servant. Yet he left a rare eyewitness account.
  • MacrinusMacrinus became Roman emperor without ever entering the Senate. He then ruled from Antioch and never visited Rome.
  • PudentianaManila's patron saint was picked because of a church calendar date. Legazpi arrived on her feast day in 1571.
  • ApuleiusApuleius stood trial around 158 AD on a charge of using magic spells to win a rich widow.
  • PapinianUnder a 426 CE law, the jurist Papinian's view won when four other famous Roman legal writers disagreed.
  • FrontinusFrontinus began fixing Rome's water supply by ordering maps of every aqueduct. They showed pipes tapped by thieves.
  • Apollodorus of DamascusOne ancient account says Hadrian had the architect Apollodorus of Damascus killed for mocking him.

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