76. Devoted to Death

I'm starting our episode today with a warning, something I've never done before. This episode contains glorification of suicide. Not because I find suicide to be glorious, but because the ancients did. Or at least, many of them did. So if you are feeling suicidal, or if you find yourself in a place mentally where you don't think you can handle such talk, I would skip this episode. There's no shame in that. 

And I don't usually start episodes out with warnings, despite the fact that many of our episodes have had an awful lot of violence in the past. The reason why is because this is history, it really happened, and antiquity was a violent and brutal place. And in general, I think people should be encouraged to learn about our past, even when it's dark, rather than being warned away from it. But this episode is different.

 When we talk about the storming of Avaricum, or the crucifixion of the Spartacus Rebels, I have no fear of any of you listeners going out and imitating this behavior in your local towns. That behavior would be wildly out of the norm in our modern societies. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about suicide. It is a common modern problem. And as I said, this episode contains not just suicide, but the glorification of suicide. So again, if you are not in a mental place to handle an episode like this, there is no shame in skipping it. With all that being said and our warning having been given, let's get this episode started. 

Welcome to episode 76 of the March of History. We left off with the Spanish campaign against Afranius and Petreius’ ending via a dramatic act of clemency by Julius Caesar. And with that defeat in Nearer Spain, Pompey lost five of his most experienced legions.
 
However, further Spain is still unconquered and under control of the polymath genius himself, Varro, in command of two legions. So while Varro may be a genius in a scholarly sense, he's about to face off against a man who is a military and political genius. That is, of course, Julius Caesar. Now Varro is actually an old friend of Caesar's, which makes sense since they're both, for lack of a better term, literature buffs, and I'm sure they would have bonded over that shared love. Partially because of this friendliness, partially because he isn't exactly a military man, Varro has been hedging his bets since Caesar crossed the Rubicon.
 
Caesar tells us that as he was first blitzing Italy and Pompey was fleeing, Varro went around speaking about Caesar in friendly terms. However, he also said that he was aware of his duties as a lieutenant of Pompey in Spain, which though were no stronger than his ties to Caesar. He was also aware that his own resources were limited and that the whole province of further Spain had goodwill for Caesar. As you can see with this kind of talk, he is wobbling back and forth on the fence, not really choosing either side. Caesar says he took this attitude in everything he did and therefore made no moves in any direction.

 Later though, Varro got word that Caesar was detained at Massilia and that Afranius and Petreius were gathering a mighty host with the full support of nearer Spain. Then he received detailed and exaggerated reports from Afranius that Caesar was being starved out outside Ilerda. And at this point, Caesar says Varro began to move in step with fortune. He began to hold levies throughout the province, raised two new legions at full strength, and added 30 auxiliary cohorts. He collected large amounts of food which he sent to Afranius and and the Massiliotes.
 
He ordered the people of Gades to build 12 warships, other ships he had built at Hispalis. He sent six cohorts to put a friend of Ahenobarbus, an equestrian named Gaius Gallonius, in control of Gades. He began to hold public assemblies where he would rail against Caesar. He would make frequent announcements from his dais that Caesar had suffered reverses, large numbers of his troops had defected to Afranius. He assured people he had all of this news on good authority.

 He compelled the Roman citizens of the province to give him 18 million sesterces, 20,000 pounds of silver, and 120,000 pecks of wheat. He imposed even heavier burdens on communities he deemed friendly to Caesar. In these towns, he installed garrisons and brought individuals to trial, presumably for being too pro-Caesar, too outspokenly Caesar. He forced the whole province to swear allegiance to him and to Pompey, and anyone who spoke against the Roman state got their property confiscated. All of this Varro does AFTER the war seems to have been decided.
 
At least according to Caesar, he does all of this only once it looks like Caesar has lost so that he can appear to be fully on side with the victors. But then Varro learns of Caesar's victory in Nearer Spain, and the surrender of Afranius and Petreius. And suddenly it looks like he's going to have to really fight the war that he was only pretend preparing for. According to Caesar, Varro quickly decides that the entire province of Further Spain is just too pro-Caesar to be held. So instead he makes a plan to retreat with his two legions to the city of Gades on the western portion of the southern coast of Spain, where he will gather all the food and ships he can.

His belief, or hope, is that once he gathers all the ships and food in Gades, which is an island city at this time, he will be able to hold out against Caesar and protract the war. By the way, Gades is the modern city of Cadiz in Andalusia, Spain. It's one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in Europe, originally founded by the Phoenicians circa 1100 BC. And as I said, while today Cadiz is a peninsula, in Caesar's day it was an island. And one more fun fact, in many regions of Spain today, the people of that region are called by a demonym that originates in the city or region's ancient Latin name.
 
A demonym, if you don't know, is what the people of a region or a place are called. For example, I taught in Huelva, Spain, but the people of Huelva are not called Huelvans, they are called Onubenses, and I apologize if I got that pronunciation wrong, but they're called this, or something approximate to that, because the name of the city during ancient Roman times was Onuba. Similarly, the people of modern Cadiz are called Gaditanos, since Cadiz was called Gades in ancient Roman times. 

But moving back to our story, of course Varro isn't the only one making moves, and no one moves faster than Julius Caesar. Caesar puts two legions under the command of a tribune of the plebs named Quintus Cassius Longinus, and he orders them to march to further Spain.This Cassius is not the famous Cassius who helped to assassinate Caesar, he's a different Cassius. 

Meanwhile, as this Cassius is marching with his two legions, Caesar rides with 600 cavalry and force marches them to Further Spain. Ahead of even this fast-moving group, he sends messengers throughout the province. These messengers deliver an edict stating the day on which Caesar expects all the magistrates and Spanish tribal chieftains to meet him in the city of Corduba. Corduba, by the way, is the same as the modern Spanish city of Cordoba, one of my favorite Spanish cities.
 
And if it sounds like I'm saying the same name twice, it's because it's only spelled a little bit differently. In ancient times it was C-O-R-D-U-B-A, and in modern times it's C-O-R-D-O-B-A, so it's only a single letter difference. Anyway, Cordoba is located in what you might call the central part of Andalusia, southern Spain. Well, the cities and tribes of further Spain can see which way the wind is blowing in the civil war, and they have no intention of hitching their wagon to a losing cause. Especially since Caesar is well-known in further Spain, having been a Pro Quaestor and a Pro Praetorian governor there.
 
In Roman civil wars, reputation is always a huge factor, and Caesar has a far more formidable reputation than Varro. And so, Cordoba decides to clearly plant their flag on the side of Caesar. On their own initiative, they close their gates to Varro and his forces. They post guards on the towers and walls of their city. They also enlist the help of two cohorts known as the colonials to help guard the city.
 
These cohorts are so-called because they were raised in the colonies. Caesar tells us that they had come to Cordoba by chance. And Cordoba isn't the only city which moves to demonstrate to Caesar that they are on his side. The city of Carmo, home to what Caesar describes as the strongest tribe in the province by far, drives out three cohorts from their city that Varro had installed as a garrison in their citadel. They then shut their gates to Varro and his forces.
 
Now, moving back to the meeting in Cordoba Caesar had sent an edict out about, all the Spanish tribes and portions of their ruling bodies to Cordoba by the specified date and every Roman of repute shows up as well. Varro gets word of this. At this point, he still hasn't made it to Gades yet. But hearing of this meeting and all these moves cities and tribes are making to join Caesar, he redoubles his efforts to reach Gades before he can be cut off. But by this point, Caesar tells us, strong and enthusiastic support for Caesar was being revealed all over the province.

And Varro soon receives a dispatch from the city of Gades. In this dispatch, the city informs Varro that as soon as they had received Caesar's edict about the meeting in Cordoba, they had come to an agreement with the military tribunes in charge of the garrisons holding their city, to drive Gallonius out of the city and hold Gades for Caesar. And just to remind you, these cohorts were originally sent by Varro to hold the city on behalf of Gallonius and himself. Well, these cohorts are now defecting to Caesar unprompted. They warn Gallonius to leave the city of his own accord while he could still safely do so.
 
If not, they will take action. This strikes fear into Gallonius and he takes off from the city. That is the last we hear of Gallonius. One of Varro's two legions, known as the ‘homebred’, meaning raised in the province, gets word of this development. This ‘homebred’ legion decides they have no desire to be on the losing side of a civil war.
 
So, as Varro watches, they remove their standards from his camp and withdraw to the city of Hispalis, modern Sevilla, or in English, Seville, in the Southwest of Spain. There they peacefully set up camp amidst the city's forum and colonnades without doing any damage to the city. The Roman citizens of Hispalis highly approve of this move by the homebred legion and they eagerly receive these soldiers into their homes. 

Caesar tells us that Varro was thoroughly frightened by these events, so he changes course and sends word that he will be marching for Italica, the Roman city where the Emperor Trajan will one day be born, just outside of Hispalis, which is modern Seville. In fact, the ruins of the city of Italica are still there today, and the Spaniards in the area are very proud of them. Unfortunately, they are ruins I never got the chance to see, but it does give me a reason to return. 

Anyway, Varro makes for Italica, but is soon informed that the gates of Italica have also been closed against him. At this point, Varro sees all of his paths blocked. He sees no avenues of resistance left to him. So he sends word to Caesar, saying that he is willing to hand over his remaining legion to anyone Caesar designates.

And this is where Caesar's policy of clemency pays dividends. If Caesar behaved like Marius or Sulla or the Optimates and killed his enemies without mercy, then they would have no incentive to surrender and every interest in fighting to the bitter end. But since he forgives off his enemies and lets them go unharmed, they are much more willing to surrender to him. Well, Caesar tells Varro to give his legion over to Sextus Caesar, one of those minor Caesars just kind of floating around out there that occasionally pop into our stories. In this case, I believe he is the son of Caesar's first cousin, which I think makes him a first cousin once removed.
 
Anyway, Varro then joins Caesar in Cordoba, where he meets with Caesar and gives him an account of the public money and hands over what funds he has to Caesar. He also indicates where all of the food stores and ships are located. Finally, Caesar holds his much-anticipated meeting in Cordoba. There he thanks the Roman citizens for their zeal in taking the town into their own hands. He thanks the Spaniards for having driven out the garrisons in their city.
 
He thanks the people of Gades for having foiled his adversaries' plans and for having retained their independence. He even thanks the centurions and military tribunes stationed in Gades for lending their support to the people of Gades. Caesar then remits to the Roman citizens the money they had promised to pay Varro toward the treasury. He also restores the property to people who had suffered confiscation by Varro for speaking too freely. Finally, Caesar tells us he bestowed rewards on communities and individuals and filled the rest with hopes for the future.
 
All of this takes only two days, at which point Caesar leaves Cordoba and heads to Gades. In Gades, Caesar orders the funds of the Temple of Hercules, which is in Gades, to be restored; Varro had removed these funds. He then assigns control of Spain to Quintus Cassius, along with the command of four legions. This will be a disastrous choice on Caesar's part, but that is a story that takes some time to play out, so we will leave that there for now. Caesar himself commandeers a number of ships the city of Gades had built at Varro's orders and sails to Tarraco, which is modern Tarragona in Catalonia.
 
In Tarraco, deputations from virtually all tribes of Nearer Spain wait for Caesar. Caesar says he bestowed honors on certain tribes and individuals. Caesar then travels by land to the city of Narbo on the Mediterranean coast of modern France, and from there he goes to the city of Massilia, where his legates are still busy besieging the city. And with that, the first Spanish campaign of the Civil War is officially and completely over. Now, it's not at Massilia, but I consider Massilia almost a separate, independent theater of war.
 
But going back to the Spanish campaign and the Spanish theater, though there were setbacks along the way and things did not always go smoothly for Caesar, in the end, Caesar achieved his set objective. He defeated Pompey's most experienced legions and took both Spanish provinces in a matter of months. Summing up this taking of Further Spain, Florus writes, “Thus hither Spain was recovered, nor did further Spain delay Caesar long: for what could one legion do after five had been defeated? After the voluntary surrender of Varro, Gades, the Straits, and the Ocean all obeyed Caesar's lucky star.”
 
But not all fronts have gone so well for Caesar. As will be the case for Napoleon, Caesar finds that things never seem to go as well when he's not there in person. But while Napoleon has some superb marshals operating under him, Caesar's subordinates in the Civil War are not exactly the varsity team of Roman military men. In fact, that was true in the Gallic Wars too, with some exceptions, like Labienus. 

But in this particular front I'm referring to, where things have not gone well, Caesar has a pair of especially unreliable men running the show. Their names are Gaius Antonius and Publius Cornelius Dolabella. Gaius Antonius is the younger brother of Marcus Antonius, better known to us as Mark Antony. Gaius is the middle brother, with Lucius being the youngest. 

Dolabella, meanwhile, is Cicero's new son-in-law. And to give you an idea of Dolabella's character, I'll add that though born a patrician, like Clodius, Dolabella will have himself adopted by a plebeian so that he can become a tribune of the plebs. He's a profligate spender and generally just an unreliable person. And his marriage to Tullia, which by the way, Cicero was not in favor of, it was instead organized by his wife and daughter while he was governing Cilicia, so they kind of pulled a fast one on him, but this marriage will not be a long or happy one. 

Well, before Cicero left Rome for Spain, he had put Dolabella in charge of gathering a fleet in the Adriatic and Gaius Antonius in charge of protecting his province of Ilyricum. And if you're wondering why Cicero would pick these two guys for such important roles, well, they were aristocrats with connections and Caesar didn't have a large list of options. And perhaps both of these men could have become capable commanders given time to mature and learn and to gain experience, or if performing under Caesar's guidance, but at this point they are both young and inexperienced men.
 
Now, Caesar only mentions this whole disaster in the commentaries in an indirect way or in a passing way, but some historians believe he wrote about it in some detail, but that section of the commentaries is lost. Well, the disaster starts at sea with Dolabella. According to historian Mathias Gelzer, Dolabella had a fleet of 40 ships. Again, his job is to hold the Adriatic or at least some portion of it for Caesar. Sailing against him is a Pompeian fleet of unknown size commanded by two men, Marcus Octavius and Lucius Scribonius Libo.
 
We don't know any of the details, but the Pompeian fleet defeats Dolabella sometime in May of 49 BC and, as Gelser writes, deprives him of 40 ships. Considering ships are an absolute necessity in Caesar's war strategy, that is disastrous. Remember, he requires a fleet to sail his army across the Adriatic from Italy to Greece in order to fight Pompey. Well, that plan isn't looking so hot right now. Now we're left with Gaius Antonius and his 15 cohorts, or about a legion and a half.

 Unfortunately, Gaius Antonius has stationed his army on the island of Curicta off the coast of modern Croatia. We are told he did this in an attempt to come to Dolabella's aid. It's unclear exactly how he could come to Dolabella's aid without ships, perhaps he did have a few ships, I don't know. This is a very hazy incident in the history of the Civil War. And I should add, back during the Rubicon episode when I listed all of the modern countries the Civil War takes place in and spreads to, the one unknown Balkan country that I mentioned was in fact Croatia. I couldn't find at the time the exact location of this event, but here we have it, it is Croatia. 

Anyway, having 15 cohorts stationed on an island when the enemy just won superiority of the seas is not a great position to be in. The Pompeians duly blockade the island and, after the natives turn on Gaius Antonius and his men, they begin to starve. With their hunger and desperation growing, a number of men start constructing rafts in an attempt to escape to the mainland. These are not true ships, but seaworthy enough to get them to the mainland.
 
But among the Pompeian ships are Cilicians from modern southern Turkey. Cilicians, at the time, are famous for being pirates. These Cilicians deploy some kind of underwater cables or nets to tangle up and catch the rafts. This is a great success for the Cilicians and most of the rafts are caught. All of these rafts surrender except for one. The one remaining raft is filled with 1,000 men from Opitergium, it must have been a very large raft. Opitergium, by the way, is modern Oderzo in the northeast of Italy. This group of men, all from the same town, refuse to surrender and continue to resist and fight the Pompeian fleet that has surrounded them. This fighting continues until night comes. That night, the reality of their situation sets in for the Opitergini.
 
There is no escape for them. But rather than shamefully surrendering, the Opitergini, led by a man named Volteius, decide on a shocking course of action. They decide, all 1,000 of them, to enter into a murder-suicide pact. As for why they do this, Lucan, who writes a poem about this whole affair about 100 years later, provides us with a series of motivations in a speech he has their leader Volteius giving. Now, as I said, Lucan was writing an epic poem and I don't think what he writes can be relied on as a factual speech by Volteius.
 
I am going to share it with you anyway, though, because it is still instructive as to how antiquity viewed this incident. And it shows us how the Roman culture viewed such sacrifice. So, all that being said, Lucan has Volteius saying to his men, in quite a poetic speech, that it is a positive thing to be able to choose your ending and embrace your fate, no less heroic than being the conqueror. He says by killing themselves here and now in such a dramatic fashion, they will avoid falling unknown amidst the fog of war. He says that many brave men die unknown and inglorious, but they, on their raft, with their enemies watching from ships and enemies and allies from the shore cliffs, they will be remembered.
 
He says in this way, they will gain fame and glory and be remembered as heroes. He then admits, though, that to fall on their swords for Caesar is little, meaning, of course they would fall on their swords for Caesar, and nor would they consider this some huge sacrifice. He then tells his men, “Yet let these hostile thousands fear the souls that rage for battle and that welcome death and know us for invincible.”; meaning he sees this as a way of intimidating the Pompeians and over-awing them. Lucan's Volteius says he wishes the Pompeians would bid them to hope for a pardon and for life. That way, when they kill themselves anyway, they will obtain that much more glory and no one will blame their suicide on despair and fear.
 
He goes on to say that their end must be epic if their little band is to be remembered by Julius Caesar amidst the hosts who fight his battles. And so when dawn comes and as the enemy watches in, according to Lucan, an extremely bloody affair, one thousand men on a raft in the middle of the sea start killing each other and killing themselves. Lucan describes the Caesarians as stabbing each other and running into swords to impale their chest or throats up to the hilt. And to be clear, they aren't fighting here, they want to be stabbed. They are helping each other out by killing each other to save their companions the emotional struggle of having to commit suicide.
 
Lucan says even fathers and sons and brothers did not falter. They showed their love for each other by striking true so that no second wound was needed, no unnecessary pain inflicted. Lucan describes them as devoted to death. And in the end, he says, half living, they dragged their mangled bodies to the edges of the raft and into the sea flowed a crimson stream of slaughter. This whole section of the much longer poem Pharsalia is like an ode to suicide by Lucan.
 
Near the end, he writes, “…the sword was given for this, that none need live a slave.”, Meaning, you always have a sure escape from slavery…suicide. And by taking your life and avoiding slavery, you retain your honor and your dignity, or at least that is the case Lucan is making. And in one of the great and terrible ironic twists in history, Lucan himself will die by suicide at the tender age of 25 after the Emperor Nero orders him to kill himself…if you can really call that suicide. 

And if that weren't enough dark irony, Tacitus tells us that after Lucan slits his wrists and as he was bleeding out, he recalled a passage in one of his own poems where a soldier dies in much the same way. He then recited the passage by heart and died with these as his final words. A poet's death if ever I heard one. 

Well, getting back to our mass suicide on the raft and Lucan's poem, it is stuff like this that reminds us of how alien the ancient world can be. We live in societies where suicide is never championed, certainly never in heroic terms in grand poems. But there's an intensity about antiquity that you simply don't find in our modern world. At least not in most parts of the world. I for one am glad of that. And though Lucan's telling of this story is part art, part history, these men from the town of Opitergium really did enter into this suicide pact. Cassius Dio, Florus, and Livy all mention it. 

And I have to think that made a profound impression on the Pompeians. What kind of men are we fighting? What would lead men to behave in this way? Sure you're more likely to see this sort of behavior in ancient times, but it's still far from common. Most people want to live.  And so if these men serving Caesar are so fanatical that they will engage in mass suicide rather than surrender, what does that mean for the coming war?
 
They are willing to engage in a sort of unthinkable, horrific suicide pact to avoid surrendering. Do you have that kind of willpower? Are you and your fellow soldiers that committed, that fanatical? And if not, how do you expect to win? So in the end, that display of mass murder and suicide is intimidation.
 
It's also a clear example that there is always an honorable route available to avoid accepting Caesar's clemency. Suicide. The Caesarean men just took that route en masse rather than accepting Pompeian clemency. The Pompeians always had this option available too, but thus far they've always opted to accept Caesar's clemency instead. 

But moving on from murder and suicide, Gaius Antonius and the rest of his men, it would seem, are still on the island. And with their hunger growing, an officer named Titus Pulio betrays Gaius Antonius and he is forced to surrender. Gaius Antonius is taken prisoner and all of his men are pressed into Pompey's army. In fact, Titus Pulio, the man that betrayed Gaius Antonius, will later fight valiantly against Caesar's men at Dyrrhachium. And I should say, I've seen on Wikipedia and different YouTube videos claims that this Titus Pulio is the same man as Titus Pullo, the centurion who, along with Lucius Vorenus, competed in killing Gauls outside of Quintus Cicero's camp. And just a reminder, Pullo and Vorenus are the main characters in HBO's show Rome, those names being taken from the real men in Caesar's gala commentaries.
 
And that's why I bring all of this up. Pullo is a much-beloved TV character. And if the real-life Pullo turned traitor against Caesar, I think that would shock many fans of the show. But that all hinges on whether or not these two are the same man. Well, I looked into this and as best I can tell, they may be the same man, but we can't be sure. I know that's not at all a satisfying answer, but I'm not going to make up a definite one if we simply can't know for sure. For one, their names are slightly different. Titus Pullo versus Titus Pulio in my translation. The difference in spelling is P-U-L-L-O versus P-U-L-I-O. I've seen other spellings too, I think, but those are the spellings I had in my translations.
 
But of course, I mean, those are small differences, and it wouldn't be the first time someone in a position of high authority like Caesar mixed up the name of a person much lower on the totem pole than they are. You can imagine it. Caesar's sitting there cranking out the Civil War commentaries. He's got a million things to do, a lot of really pressing things, and he thinks, oh, what was the name of that guy who fought outside of Cicero's camp and then later betrayed us in the Civil War? Titus Pullo? No, Titus Pullio, that was it, and getting his name wrong. I know I've had many coaches and teachers and even bosses get my name wrong over the years, so it definitely happens. But in an attempt to figure this all out, I did check every primary source I could find, and none of them draw a connection between Pullio and Pullo. None of my books written by modern historians do either. Though none of these sources say that they aren't the same man, they all just sidestep or ignore the issue.
 
The only historian I found that actually writes directly about this confusion is historian Ross Cowan. In an article written for Ancient Warfare Magazine, Cowan basically states that there are similarities beyond just their names. They are both said to fight bravely. They are both ambitious for promotion and recognition. But he stops short of actually saying that they are the same man. Why? Because it seems there is no way we can really know for sure. 

There is one final footnote of a happy ending to this whole disastrous campaign. As we have long since learned, Caesar always looks out for his own and always makes sure to reward his allies. A scholium to Lucan's Poem; a scholium is an explanatory note made by a later author. So a scholium tells us that later, Caesar awarded the town of Opitergium for their heroism and loyalty by exempting the town from military service for 20 years and by expanding their lands by 300 centuries. This same note tells us that six of the men on the raft did survive. And if this is the case, I'm sure it must have been one awkward reunion when they returned home. 

And that is where we will end our narrative today. In our next episode, we will be covering the doomed African expedition of Gaius Scribonius Curio. I asked you guys on social media if you wanted to hear this story in detail and overwhelmingly the answer was yes. So the people have spoken and I will deliver. But don't go yet. If you aren't aware, I always have a quote or a story from some point in history, in this case Caesar's life, at the end of the episode, at the very, very end. So it's worth sticking around for.
 
But before we get to that, let me just make a quick announcement and give a few quick shout outs and I promise I will make it quick this time. First, I'm excited to announce the March of History now has merchandise. On our website, which is themarchofhistory.com,  you can find it in our show notes as well, I have listed three items thus far and the list is growing. 

The first is the long awaited Bibulus t-shirt. This is the shirt I had the idea for way back in episode 19 during Caesar's consulship. The shirt has a cartoon picture of Bibulus having a bucket of what we'll keep it family friendly and say poop dumped on his head as Julius Caesar in a cheery mob watch. There's also a dialogue bubble coming from Bibulus that has him saying, “I'm a loser, not a quitter!” This is the sentiment that had motivated Bibulus and the Optimates to try to make a futile stand against Caesar during his consulship… that Bibulus ought appear a loser, not a quitter. It's a funny shirt and definitely a conversation starter. Someone will inevitably ask you why there's a guy, I think he's in a toga, Bibulus, having a bucket of poop dumped on his head on your t-shirt and that's your chance to tell them all about how Julius Caesar's pesky co-consul Bibulus had a bucket of poop dumped on his head at a public meeting and then hid in his house for the rest of the year. And buying this shirt, of course, is a great way to help support this show. 

We also have a coffee or tea mug with the podcast cover art on it and a great mousepad also with our cover art. Either one is great for your office or home and they'll both remind you to take bold action like Julius Caesar each and every day. So please support the show, go to our website, and please buy some merchandise. And I continue to work on new merchandise ideas and if I come up with new ones I will share them both via the podcast and via our social media channels. 

Moving on to Patreon, let me give a big welcome and thank you to our three newest patrons Zair, Glenn, and Tony. Your guys' generosity helps make this show possible and again I say thank you and if any other listeners are interested in supporting this show and becoming a patron of The March of History, the link is in the show notes of all of our episodes or you can go to our website themarchofhistory.com. So now to list all of our patrons, they are Mark, Liga, Laurie, Scott, Peggy, Carey, Desert Legionnaire, Vish, Jared, Timothy, Zair, Glenn, and Tony. The list is growing guys so thank you so much for your support for the show and I look forward to the list growing even longer.

 Next we have our five star reviews. The first is by Jay on our website and that's a good point I should point out. If you don't know, if you listen on Spotify and you haven't had a place to leave an actual review, it only lets you leave a star rating on Spotify, you can actually go on our website and leave a review there. 

So that's what Jay did. Jay's title says, “Bringing history alive and in context more than ever”. He then continues with his review, “Absolutely amazing, thank you guys, brilliantly detailed and fun. I've listened to the first 14 episodes, love it. When you guys are finished Caesar, please do Marcus Aurelius.”.  Thank you so much Jay for the wonderful review and for your kind words and I will certainly keep Marcus Aurelius in mind. 

The second review is by Z on Podcast Republic. Z writes, “The March of History is a must- listen for history fans. Host Trevor and Brandon…” I'll just correct it right there, his name is actually Brendan my brother. People get that confused all the time. It's B-R-E-N-D-A-N rather than B-R-A-N-D-O-N. It's like a family pet peeve. Of course you could not have known that, so no worries, but just letting everybody know, it's Brendan. So, “The March of History is a must-listen for history fans. Hosts Trevor and Brendan bring Julius Caesar and ancient Rome to life with sharp storytelling, rich detail and easy to follow insights. Perfect for anyone who loves Caesar or Rome.”.  Thank you so much Z, I really appreciate the review, misspelling of Brandon or Brendan's name aside, thank you so much for your support and for your review and I'm glad you're enjoying the show. 

And now for our ending quote or story.
 This episode has been a darker one than is usual, what with all the suicide, so this quote is a bit more, we'll call it wholesome. As I said at the end of last episode, ancient biographers like Suetonius and Plutarch tend to give a lot of anecdotes in their biographies without putting them into a clear timeline. Because of that, we don't always know exactly when these things happened. The quote I'm about to read you is one of those anecdotes by Suetonius about Julius Caesar. Suetonius writes, 

“His friends he treated with invariable kindness and consideration. When Gaius Oppius was his companion on a journey through a wild woody country, and was suddenly taken ill, Caesar gave up to him the only shelter there was, while he himself slept on the ground, out of doors.”.  May we all have friends like Caesar. 

That is all for today, keep on sharing the podcast with everyone you know, it really does wonders to help it grow, and I will talk to you in the next episode of the March of History.