Curated playlist
Ancient Roman generals
- Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (son of Pompey)Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus died on the 12th of April 45 BC, cornered and killed by a man named Lucius Caesennius Lento, weeks after watching his army shatter at a battle in southern Spain. He was perhaps thirty years old. His name was…
- Marcus Junius BrutusMarcus Junius Brutus died on the 23rd of October 42 BC, on a hillside near Philippi, by falling on his own sword. He had just lost two battles in quick succession to the armies of Octavian and Mark Antony. Four legions remained with him.…
- Gnaeus Octavius (consul 87 BC)Gnaeus Octavius died on the Janiculum Hill in 87 BC, beheaded by a cavalry officer named Gaius Marcius Censorinus, his head carried to the dictator Cinna and then nailed to the Rostra in the Roman Forum. He was a serving consul of the…
- Gaius Cassius LonginusGaius Cassius Longinus spent his life fighting against what he saw as tyranny, only to be remembered for the act that made him infamous: driving a blade into Julius Caesar's chest on the 15th of March, 44 BC. He was not the most famous…
- TitusTitus Flavius Vespasianus was born on the 30th of December 39 AD, in the same world that would later watch him tear down one of its most sacred buildings. He ruled Rome for just over two years. In that time, a volcano buried two cities, a…
- Lucius Antonius (brother of Mark Antony)Lucius Antonius lived his early years in the shadow of his older brother, one of Rome's most powerful men. He was nicknamed Pietas as a young man, a word that meant duty, loyalty, and devotion to family. That name would define nearly every…
- TrajanTrajan was born Marcus Ulpius Traianus on the 18th of September in AD 53, in a modest Roman colony called Italica, in what is now the Andalusian province of Seville in southern Spain. At the time of his birth, Italica was a small town…
- Nero Claudius DrususNero Claudius Drusus stood at the bank of the Elbe in 9 BC, further east than any Roman army had marched before. An apparition appeared before him, the ancient sources report: a Germanic woman warning him to proceed no further and…
- Lucius Junius BrutusLucius Junius Brutus died around 500 BC, and yet the questions his life raises have never stopped troubling historians. Was he a real man, or a myth invented to give Rome's republic a heroic origin? Did he truly watch his own sons be…
- Lucius Cornelius CinnaLucius Cornelius Cinna was killed by his own soldiers early in 84 BC. He died during a mutiny while trying to move his army across the Adriatic Sea near Ancona. By then he had already served as consul four times in a row, a feat the Roman…
- Marcus Vipsanius AgrippaMarcus Vipsanius Agrippa was born around 63 BC into a plebeian family of no great distinction in Roman public life, and yet he would become the man without whom, in the words of historian Glen Bowersock, Octavian might never have become…
- Gaius Asinius PollioGaius Asinius Pollio emerged from the hills of central Italy, born in the town known today as Chieti. His father bore the name Gnaeus Asinius Pollio, a man whose identity appears on surviving inscriptions. A brother named Asinius…
- Marcus Furius CamillusMarcus Furius Camillus was hailed as the second founder of Rome, a man credited with saving the city from Gallic invaders, capturing a legendary Etruscan stronghold, and holding the office of dictator five times. His name was so thoroughly…