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Michael McGill 🏛

@mcgillmd921

Oct 28

Julius Caesar conquered by the sword and ruled by mercy.

He spared defeated enemies and forgave traitors. Rome called it clementia, the noblest trait of a victor.

This is the story of how Caesar's clemency cost him his life — and how his heir refused to make the same mistake🧵

Clementia made Caesar look untouchable.

Only a man absolutely secure in power can afford to forgive.

Clemency became part of his myth as a merciful conqueror.

But mercy preserves the living, and the living still pose a threat.

The men Caesar showed clemency towards were the same men who filled the Senate on the Ides of March.

Men who should have been indebted to him became his assassins.

Read 10 tweets

Michael McGill 🏛

@mcgillmd921

Oct 27

For nearly 1,000 years Rome worshipped the old gods.

Then, on this day in 312 AD, Constantine witnessed a vision in the night sky that changed the course of world history.

Here is the story of the battle that turned pagan Rome into Christian Rome. ✝️🏛️🧵

In 312 AD, the empire was cracking apart under rival emperors and civil war.

In the West, two men remained: Constantine and Maxentius.

Only one would rule.

The decisive clash would happen just outside Rome — at the Milvian Bridge over the Tiber.

A narrow choke point that would decide the fate of the West.

Read 11 tweets

Michael McGill 🏛

@mcgillmd921

Oct 18

Before Caesar crossed the Rubicon, before the Republic gasped its last breath, two men showed Rome what civil war would look like:

Gaius Marius and Lucius Cornelius Sulla.

Friends. Colleagues. Then bitter enemies who turned Rome’s streets into a bloody battlefield. ⚔️🏛️🧵

Marius was the outsider. A “new man” from no noble line who rose by sheer talent and refusal to lose.

He reformed the army, letting the poor enlist for pay.

He created soldiers whose loyalty was to a general, not the state.

Sulla was the opposite: old blood, old pride, old Rome in human form.

Cold. Disciplined. Patient.

If Marius was force of will, Sulla was force of calculation.

Read 11 tweets

Michael McGill 🏛

@mcgillmd921

Oct 12

In 1863, deep in the countryside north of Rome, workers unearthed a marble statue in the villa of Livia, wife of the first emperor.

It would become the defining image of Roman power:

The Augustus of Prima Porta 🏛️🧵

Named after the place it was found — Prima Porta, “First Gate” on the Via Flaminia — the statue stood guard over the emperor’s household.

It shows Augustus not as a weary ruler, but as a godlike commander, frozen forever in triumph.

Today, you’ll find him in the Vatican Museums, towering in the Braccio Nuovo gallery.

But what you see in marble is a copy. The original bronze was likely cast around 20 BCE, celebrating Rome’s diplomatic victory over Parthia.

Read 15 tweets

Michael McGill 🏛

@mcgillmd921

Oct 4

Rome, 63 BC.

The Roman Republic is in a state of unrest and turmoil. Into the chaos steps a patrician with nothing to lose, and a "new man" with everything to gain.

This is the story of the Catiline, Cicero, and a conspiracy that nearly toppled Rome. 🏛️🧵

Catiline was born noble but fell into scandal.

Corrupt, reckless, drowning in debt, he sought power as the solution to his ruin.

Twice he ran for consul. Twice he failed. By 63 BC, desperation drove him to plot revolution.

His plan was bold.

Assassinate leading senators, burn Rome, cancel debts, and seize power.

Support came from bankrupt nobles, veterans of Sulla, and men who felt cheated by the Republic’s elites.

Read 13 tweets

Michael McGill 🏛

@mcgillmd921

Oct 2

In the 4th century, Christianity was rising fast in the Roman Empire.

But one emperor tried to turn back the tide and restore the old gods. His name was Julian.

History remembers him as Julian the Apostate.

This is the story of Rome's last pagan Emperor 🏛️🧵

Julian wasn’t born a rebel. He was raised Christian, the last surviving nephew of Constantine the Great.
But family politics were bloody. Most of his relatives were slaughtered in dynastic purges.

Julian survived and turned inward to books, philosophy, and secret faith.

While publicly a Christian, in private he was captivated by the old pagan traditions. He read Homer, Plato, and the Neoplatonists. He worshipped in secret, performing sacrifices at night.

The empire thought it had a Christian prince.

It had a pagan.

Read 13 tweets

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