Caligula opened with popular reforms—amnesties, tax relief, transparency—but after a severe illness turned to theatrical provocations, fiscal exactions, and ritual self‑cult, alienating elites and Praetorians and prompting his assassination: coercive strategy over madness.
From Augustus to Constantine, the Praetorian Guard evolved from imperial protectors into kingmakers—policing Rome and wielding military force to decide succession.
How Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus transformed the late Roman Republic: agrarian reform, grain laws, rise of populares, and the turn to political violence.
How Rome’s tribunes transformed politics: sacrosanct veto, popular legislation, and the revolutionary careers of the Gracchi, Saturninus, and Sulpicius.
Julius Caesar: military genius, politician, and reformer whose Rubicon, affair with Cleopatra, and assassination on the Ides of March reshaped Rome and Western history.
Caius Marius transformed Rome’s legions in 107 BCE: recruiting the poor, standardizing arms, creating cohorts and the eagle standard—paving the path to empire and civil war.
Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus: the young Roman general who turned the tide of the Second Punic War—conquered Spain, defeated Hannibal at Zama, and secured Rome’s supremacy.
