Curated playlist
Ancient Roman adoptees
- Tiberius GemellusSoldiers handed Tiberius Gemellus a sword and had to guide it themselves. Caligula had ordered his cousin to die.
- TiberiusMobs shouted "To the Tiber with Tiberius" when Rome's second emperor died.
- Constantius ChlorusThe Roman emperor Constantius Chlorus never heard the name Chlorus. Byzantine-era historians coined it after he died.
- AugustusAt nineteen, Augustus accepted a dead man's will and took Julius Caesar's name.
- Marcus AureliusMarcus Aurelius wrote a private journal that sold 100,000 copies in 2019.
- NeroEmperor Nero was crowned winner of a chariot race he did not finish.
- Marcus Junius BrutusBrutus fell on his own sword on a hillside near Philippi in 42 BC. Two years earlier, he helped kill Julius Caesar.
- Lucius VerusRome had its first two equal emperors in 161. Marcus Aurelius refused to rule unless Lucius Verus got equal powers.
- HadrianWhen Antinous drowned in the Nile, Emperor Hadrian wept, and then founded a city in his honor.
- GalbaRoman emperor Galba refused to pay the Praetorian Guard, and it cost him his life.
- Pliny the YoungerPliny the Younger, then 17 or 18, watched Vesuvius erupt in 79 AD while his uncle died in the cloud.
- TrajanTrajan, born in a small Spanish town without baths or a theater, became Rome's emperor.
- Antoninus PiusEmperor Antoninus Pius ruled Rome for 23 years and likely never came within 500 miles of a legion.
- GermanicusRomans began mourning Germanicus before the Senate ordered it. He died in Antioch in AD 19, aged thirty-three.
- Scipio AemilianusScipio Aemilianus wept as Carthage burned in 146 BC. He had ordered the city destroyed and feared Rome's own fate.
- SejanusA letter read aloud to the Senate brought down Sejanus, the second man in Rome.
- Severus AlexanderSeverus Alexander was ruling the Roman Empire alone by age thirteen.