Curated playlist

Characters in the Divine Comedy

Julius CaesarJulius Caesar was stabbed at least twenty-three times by some sixty conspirators.
Thomas AquinasThomas Aquinas's family held him prisoner for nearly a year. At nineteen he chose to join the Dominican preachers.
Alexander the GreatAt ten, Alexander the Great tamed a horse that his father had ordered taken away.
PlatoPlato never speaks in his own voice in his dialogues. Socrates does the talking in every one but the Laws.
AristotleOnly around a third of Aristotle's original writings survive, and none was meant to be published.
AbrahamAbraham is revered by billions, yet most scholars now read him as literature, not history.
NoahNoah's flood story matches an older Mesopotamian tale point by point.
Adam and EveIn Islam, Adam and Eve share equal blame for the forbidden fruit. God forgave them.
Dante AlighieriDante was condemned to exile from Florence and threatened with burning at the stake.
HoraceHorace, the Roman poet, said he ran from the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC without his shield.
AvicennaIn a fortress prison, Avicenna imagined a man falling through air. It became known as the Floating Man.
VirgilVirgil wanted his unfinished Aeneid burned, but Augustus overruled him. The emperor ordered two executors to publish it.
Saint PeterSaint Peter denied knowing Jesus three times on the night Jesus was arrested. Later, he three times said he loved him.
SatanIn the Hebrew Bible, Satan began as a heavenly prosecutor working for God. He later became the Western symbol of evil.
AugustusAt nineteen, Augustus accepted a dead man's will and took Julius Caesar's name.
AeneasTwice in Homer's Iliad, gods snatch the Trojan Aeneas from death. He was a minor warrior who became Rome's first hero.
Judas IscariotIn the Gospel of Nicodemus, a roasting chicken crowed and Judas ran to hang himself.
HectorHector, Troy's prince, fights the Greeks knowing Troy will fall.
Frederick II, Holy Roman EmperorFrederick II won back Jerusalem while excommunicated, and was vilified for it.
Marcus Junius BrutusBrutus fell on his own sword on a hillside near Philippi in 42 BC. Two years earlier, he helped kill Julius Caesar.
Seneca the YoungerThe Roman philosopher Seneca survived bleeding and poison, then died from steam in a warm bath.
Paris (mythology)Paris of Troy was left on a mountain as a baby and survived. A she-bear nursed him after a herdsman disobeyed the king.
HippocratesHippocrates argued that illness was not a punishment from the gods. He blamed diet, habits and environment.
HomerHomer, credited with the Iliad and the Odyssey, may never have lived. No one can say for certain that he existed.
Justinian IJustinian I nearly fled Constantinople by sea during the Nika riots. His wife Theodora refused to leave, and he stayed.
StatiusPublius Papinius Statius, a Latin poet who lived from about 45 to about 96 CE, three times received a golden crown directly from an emperor's hand. The emperor was Domitian, and the prize was handed out at the Alban Festival. Statius left…
AliAli stayed in Mecca as a decoy so the prophet Muhammad could escape in 622. He was Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law.
SaladinSaladin died of a fever in Damascus on the 4th of March 1193, and all he owned was one piece of gold and forty pieces of silver. The Kurdish commander who left so little had once ruled a realm that reached across Egypt, Syria, Upper…
MuhammadMuhammad had lost his father, mother and grandfather by age eight. He founded a religion that spread across Arabia.
SocratesSocrates wrote nothing, so everything known about him comes from other people.
Gaius Cassius LonginusCassius died believing he had lost a battle his side had actually won. Brutus had beaten Octavian's camp at Philippi.
CerberusOne ancient Greek writer said Cerberus was not a dog at all, but a large venomous snake.
TrajanTrajan, born in a small Spanish town without baths or a theater, became Rome's emperor.
AverroesIn 1169, a caliph asked the philosopher Averroes if the heavens had a beginning.
Cato the YoungerCato the Younger tore open his own wound rather than accept Caesar's pardon. He died at Utica in April 46 BC.
AttilaAttila took a princess's engagement ring as a marriage proposal. He then demanded half the western Roman Empire.
SinonSinon, a Greek warrior of the Trojan War, carries a name drawn from the Greek verb sinomai, which means to harm or to hurt. He is also known as Sinopos. Few names in mythology promise so much damage so plainly. The man who bore it never…
Pope Boniface VIIIIn 1303, soldiers paid by France's king broke into Pope Boniface VIII's palace. They held him captive for three days.
Simonides of CeosThe poet Simonides of Ceos stepped out of a banquet just before the hall collapsed.