BLUE PLANET

During the Miocene and Pliocene, 12-1.6 million years ago, a diverse group of extinct proboscideans, elephant-like animals walked the Earth. Most had four tusks and likely a trunk similar to modern elephants. They were beasts of legend, inspiring myths and stories of fanciful creatures to the first humans to encounter them.

One such fellow was Quintus Sertorius, a Roman statesman come general, who grew up in Umbria. Born into a world at war just two years before the Romans sacked…