History’s Trainwrecks

What Good Is a Lawyer In An Army Camp?

“Not bad for a lawyer.”

Marcus Tullius Cicero, former Roman consul, famed orator, Senator, and jurist, had been sent to govern the province of Cilicia, near modern-day Turkey. He had vanquished some roving bands of thieves, sent a…

Pompey the Gr — Sort of Okay, Kind Of

It was every man for himself.

The First Triumvirate was collapsing. Julia, the beloved daughter of Julius Caesar and adored wife of Pompey the Great, died in childbirth in 54 BC. Her daughter lived only a few days. Pompey fell into deep…

Cato vs. The Dancing Girls of Ancient Rome

The dancing girls would take their clothes off, but not while Cato the Younger was in the audience.

It was 55 BC, and the Floral Games were in full…um…bloom. The Games were the culmination of a week-long festival celebrating…

Exiled By A Lovelorn Crossdresser

Cato the Younger’s exile from Rome began with a cross-dressing aristocrat who had a crush on Julius Caesar’s wife.

In 62 BC, Publius Clodius figured that the best way to get close to Pompeia — Mrs. Caesar — was to dress as a female lute player…

The Rise of Caesar

It’s almost like Cato the Younger had no idea he was putting his head in the lion’s mouth.

The Republic vs The Empire Builders

The battle for the fate of the Roman Republic was on.

On one side were the empire-builders: Julius Caesar and his right-hand man Marc Antony (and sickly little Octavian in the next tent), Pompey the Great, and Marcus Crassus, who wanted to…

Cato vs. Caesar (And Everyone Else)

“Who is better qualified to be the standard-bearer of the desperate,” the insurgent Catiline asked his massed followers, “than a man who is bold and desperate himself?”

The Last Days of Theodore Roosevelt

A message was sent from Paris in the summer of 1918 to American news agencies.

“Watch Sagamore Hill in event of…”

The rest of the message had been deleted by wartime censors, but Theodore Roosevelt knew what it meant.

Major General Theodore Roosevelt?

There was no way Woodrow Wilson was going to let former President Theodore Roosevelt anywhere near Europe during the First World War.

The Republicans had nominated Justice Charles Evans Hughes to carry their torch in the 1916 presidential…