Curated playlist
Ancient Roman generals
- Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (son of Pompey)Pompey the Great's eldest son was killed weeks after his army shattered at Munda. Gnaeus had fought Caesar for years.
- Marcus Junius BrutusBrutus fell on his own sword on a hillside near Philippi in 42 BC. Two years earlier, he helped kill Julius Caesar.
- Gnaeus Octavius (consul 87 BC)Roman consul Gnaeus Octavius waited on the Janiculum Hill in 87 BC instead of fleeing, and was beheaded.
- Gaius Cassius LonginusCassius died believing he had lost a battle his side had actually won. Brutus had beaten Octavian's camp at Philippi.
- TitusEmperor Titus reportedly died saying, "I have made but one mistake." No one agrees what it was.
- Lucius Antonius (brother of Mark Antony)Lucius Antonius, Mark Antony's brother, marched on Rome in 41 BC and vowed to abolish the triumvirate.
- TrajanTrajan, born in a small Spanish town without baths or a theater, became Rome's emperor.
- Nero Claudius DrususAncient sources say a ghostly woman warned Drusus back from the Elbe in 9 BC. He died within weeks.
- Lucius Junius BrutusAt Delphi, Lucius Junius Brutus pretended to trip and kissed the ground. He read the oracle's "mother" as the earth.
- Lucius Cornelius CinnaEarly in 84 BC, the Roman leader Cinna was killed by his own soldiers in a mutiny.
- Marcus Vipsanius AgrippaAgrippa's name is still on the Pantheon in Rome, though Hadrian built it. The emperor kept the original inscription.
- Gaius Asinius PollioGaius Asinius Pollio, who lived from 75 BC to AD 4, was present when Julius Caesar deliberated over whether to cross the Rubicon and start a civil war. He was a soldier, a politician, an orator, a poet, a playwright and a literary critic.…
- Marcus Furius CamillusRome's hero Camillus may be almost as fictional as Romulus. Historian Mary Beard makes that case.