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Michael McGill 🏛

@mcgillmd921

Dec 13, 2025

The victors of Rome’s civil wars ruled very differently.

Sulla chose terror.
Julius Caesar chose mercy.
Augustus chose a mixture of both.

Three men won civil wars. Three chose different paths. Only one ruled Rome for life. 🏛️🧵

When Sulla marched on Rome and seized power in 82 BC, he unleashed the proscriptions.

Lists of enemies were posted publicly. Anyone could kill them.

Property was seized and families were ruined.

The horrible brilliance of Sulla’s system was its clarity.

Zero ambiguity. No appeal. No mercy.

Fear became law and violence became governance.

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Michael McGill 🏛

@mcgillmd921

Nov 6, 2025

For centuries, Rome ruled the world — except in the East.

Across the Euphrates stood Parthia, the empire Rome could never tame. From Crassus to Julian, they all tried, and all failed.

This is the story of Rome’s greatest rival. ⚔️🧵

The Parthians were heirs of Persia. They were horsemen, archers, and masters of feigned retreat.

Where Rome fought in tight formations, Parthia fought with speed and deception.

They were the mirror opposite of Roman warfare, and the perfect foil.

The rivalry began in 53 BC, when Crassus, Rome’s richest man, sought glory to match his fortune.

He marched east with seven legions into the Mesopotamian sands.

At Carrhae, Parthia shattered him.

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Michael McGill 🏛

@mcgillmd921

Nov 4, 2025

In 60 BC, three men made a private deal to control the Roman Republic itself: Caesar the politician, Pompey the general, and Crassus the banker.

Together they ruled Rome without titles and decided its future in secret.

This is the story of the First Triumvirate. 🏛️🧵

The year was 60 BC.

The Roman Republic was fractured by rivalries, corruption, and ego. Elections were chaos, the Senate paralyzed.

Personal ambition had replaced national honor.

Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus — Pompey the Great — had conquered the East and expanded Rome’s empire farther than any man before him.

But when he returned, the Senate refused to ratify his settlements or grant land to his veterans.

He was furious, and looking for allies.

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Michael McGill 🏛

@mcgillmd921

Oct 28, 2025

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.

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Michael McGill 🏛

@mcgillmd921

Oct 27, 2025

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.

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Michael McGill 🏛

@mcgillmd921

Oct 18, 2025

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.

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