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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Michael McGill 🏛

@mcgillmd921

Sep 17

Rome’s greatest epic was almost lost forever.

Virgil wanted The Aeneid destroyed. Augustus refused.

Here’s the story of the poet, the emperor, and the poem that became Rome’s eternal myth. 🏛️🧵

Who was Virgil?

Born in 70 BC in Cisalpine Gaul, Publius Vergilius Maro was quiet, scholarly, and deeply thoughtful.

He lived through Rome’s bloody civil wars, and longed for peace.

Virgil first wrote the Eclogues, dreamy pastoral poems.
Then the Georgics, celebrating farming and Roman virtue.

These works made him famous.

But his true masterpiece was yet to come.

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Michael McGill 🏛

@mcgillmd921

Sep 13

“He was a consul of Rome.”

In 48 BC, Caesar had just won the civil war. His enemy Pompey fled to Egypt.

When Caesar arrived, the Egyptians gave him a gift: Pompey’s severed head.

But instead of joy, Caesar wept. Why?

This is the story of Rome’s most infamous "gift." 🧵

Let’s rewind.

Pompey Magnus “the Great” was one of Rome’s most celebrated generals.

He won triumphs, cleared the seas of pirates, and expanded Rome’s empire.

He wasn’t just Caesar’s rival.

He was his former ally, and his son-in-law.

Together with Crassus, Caesar and Pompey formed the First Triumvirate; a political alliance that dominated Rome.

To cement the bond, Pompey married Caesar’s daughter, Julia.

But Julia’s death in childbirth], and Crassus’ death in battle, left the alliance in ruins.

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