Alex Petkas - Cost of Glory
@costofglory
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I quit academia to teach you what they should have taught you | Heroes, Persuasion, Tradition - Energy from the Past | Princeton PhD | Cost of Glory podcast
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Sulla was Rome's deadliest general.
He almost had young Julius Caesar executed.
But thousands loved Sulla, too.
9 keys to Sulla's effectiveness, that can make you just as deadly:
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The US is entering uncharted waters.
Political prosecutions are what brought down the Roman Republic.
Here's how. 🧵
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How to eliminate a political opponent.
Here are 20 classic tricks.
1. Arrest & prosecute them.
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Julius Caesar was Rome's 2nd greatest orator
(after Cicero)
Here are 9 lessons from a brilliant early speech of his,
that made his career take off.
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Everyone should understand the real reasons behind Julius Caesar's assassination.
Unfortunately, most don't...
A deep dive into the untold story from the eyes of one of Caesar’s closest ally, Brutus: 🧵
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FINALLY the proof we've been waiting for.
Pythagoras claims of reincarnation VINDICATED
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Have you heard of the Roman Eagle?
Before it symbolized Roman imperial power,
The Romans thought it stood for something else.
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A lady bought this at a Goodwill in Austin for $35 in 2022.
It's a genuine bust of Pompey the Great.
There's still stuff like this out there.
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If you attempt a coup...
and fail,
What might happen to you?
Some classic examples:
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In response to
@davidsacks
,
@elonmusk
wondered if the US needs a modern day Sulla.
What would that mean?
Why are people still fascinated by this ancient Roman dictator?
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Were the Spartans losers?
A response to Devereaux's claim
That we should stop looking to the Spartans for inspiration:
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These 10 architectural marvels of Rome will inspire you to greatness.
See them with your own eyes before you die.
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Pompey once ruled the Roman Republic.
He inspired Shakespeare, Washington, Adams, and many others.
He was the greatest commander Julius Caesar ever fought.
Also, he was a master of persuasion.
Learn from his famous example, persuading the Roman Senate, in 7 steps:
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The threat of prosecution motivates heads of state to cling to power in many "third world" countries.
A precedent has been set.
The Biden family now have reason to fear prosecution if they lose the election
The stakes have been raised, massively
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A single speech can start a revolution.
6 lessons on persuasion from Catiline,
who almost overthrew the Roman Republic:
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Donald Trump is the first US president to be indicted, let alone ruled a felon by a US court.
The court system of any society is designed to be a neutral arbiter of disputes;
Trust in the courts is crucial to prevent spirals of retributive violence.
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8 ancient Christian texts every Atheist should read.
I have spent just as much time on classic Christian books as classic Pagan ones.
I'm not an atheist, but if I were,
These are the ones these are the ones that would help me find God.
(besides the Bible)
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From Caesar's crossing of the Rubicon in 49 BC
... to avoid political prosecution
Until Actium in 31 BC,
Rome passed through a long period of civil war
Which ended in the establishment of a monarchy.
Is the die cast?
This is why we study history.
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10 great works of classic literature every young man should read in the next 6 months.
(And why they will make you stronger)
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Caesar took the Nuclear Option and crossed the Rubicon in January, 49 BC
(The Rubicon River was the boundary of Caesar's province: crossing it amounted to a declaration of war)
This explains why political trials can become so dangerous:
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Cicero explains Caesar's secret to success:
"We are dealing with a man who fears nothing and is ready for anything."
(Ad Atticum 126 (vii.3))
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In Rome, an office holder was immune from prosecution while holding office
A consul could not be prosecuted during his 1 year term
Same for a "proconsul" = a consul w/ term extended, usually serving as a general or provincial governor
in 50 BC, Julius Caesar was a Proconsul.
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What is the true Spartan mindset?
15 insights from Sparta's greatest King
That will help you build a legacy that outlasts you.
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The story of the speech that defeated Julius Caesar.
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How to break bad news, Spartan style.
Context:
-Athenians surprise Spartans at sea
-Sparta loses ENTIRE fleet (80 ships)
-Spartan Commander dies
-> Spartan commander writes home.
--> Their letter is intercepted.
It contained 12 words.
Here's its subtle genius:
1.
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Caesar's enemies - Cato and friends - were publicly vowing to prosecute Caesar when his term ended
Caesar had been a successful general for nearly 10 years, conquered all of Gaul
Cato claimed they had 10 years worth of crimes to prosecute him for.
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If there is no neutral arbiter, the recourse is usually violence
Caesar claimed Cato & Senate were corrupt, motivated by personal animosity
(they did undo some laws, after all)
Cato & co. said "Caesar is a threat to the Republic"
Who could adjudicate, except the gods of war?
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Forgot to mention this...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY GAIVS JVLIVS!
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If you think one man can't change the course of history,
You're underestimating the power of influence.
Here's how a world without Julius Caesar would look:🧵
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Julius Caesar: Consul 4 times
(consul=Rome's highest office)
Pompey - 3x
Sulla - 2x
Gaius Marius: SEVEN times
(Record holder for the Roman Republic)
Marius, "Third Founder of Rome," was Caesar's uncle.
Here is the most important speech of his career and how he nailed it:
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Caesar asked the authorities for an exception - to "run in absentia"
(in recognition of his achievements on behalf of Rome)
Thus he could keep immunity over the transition to new office
In 52, a law was passed to allow this
But by 50, Caesar's enemies had unwound the law.
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Caesar wanted to run for Consul again, to renew his immunity.
Unfortunately, to run for consul in Rome, you have to lay down your proconsular office & enter the city.
Caesar would have to become a private citizen in Rome for several months
(Plenty of time for a prosecution)
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Normalize saying "girlfriend" and "boyfriend" instead of "partner"
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Cato & Friends now forced Caesar into a dilemma:
Either
a) Lay down your office & face prosecution,
OR
b) start a Civil War
(in 50, Caesar's legal term of office was expiring)
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Cato & Friends drew Rome's other greatest leader, Pompey, onto their side
Caesar tried to negotiate
Pompey dug in his heels
Ultimatums were issued.
They all thought Caesar would back down.
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Today, the Romans, at the Battle of Cannae, 216 BC
Were defeated by Hannibal and Carthage
The consul, Lucius Aemilius Paullus, died in battle.
(depicted below)
His grandson, Scipio Aemilianus,
Destroyed Carthage, in 146 BC.
Leave heirs.
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This account will help you become like the great men of the past.
I taught Classic Greek and Roman Literature at universities for 15 years.
Follow me if you want to think, lead, write, and act like your heroes.
The Cost of Glory is always great.
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Caesar on the Roman genius:
"Pride did not keep our ancestors from adopting foreign institutions, provided they were honorable. They adopted weapons from the Samnites, the insignia of magistrates from the Etruscans... In short, they preferred to imitate rather than envy good
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4. Accuse your opponent of colluding with a foreign power.
Worked against Themistocles of Athens, Pausanias of Sparta, Opimius of Rome, and many others.
Can even work on patriots.
Say "follow the money," and mention exotic luxuries (fine wine, Persian rugs, ostrich eggs).
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Aemilius Scaurus once prosecuted the Stoic Rutilius Rufus for bribery.
It was ridiculous. Rufus was honest.
Even if the charge doesn't stick, you tar their reputation,
Maybe enough to get a conviction next time.
See also: Critias and Theramenes of Athens.
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2. Use bribery to sway the outcome in their trial
Cicero's nemesis, Clodius Pulcher, was known for this.
Prosecuting?
-> Bribe witnesses, not jurors.
Securing false testimony is essential. Pay what you need to.
The "respectable" are more expensive, but also more convincing.
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#1
: Name the emotions your audience is feeling
(That you need them *NOT* to act on)
Chris Voss calls this "Tactical Empathy"
Caesar begins by doing this, in order to clear a little room for reason:
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Unmarried dog owners: "It's not a slippery slope!"
Plutarch:
"On seeing certain wealthy foreigners in Rome carrying puppies and young monkeys about in their bosoms and fondling them, Caesar asked if the women in their country did not bear children, thus in right princely
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Remember Caesar's speech when you need to calm a room down:
1. Tactical Empathy
2. Tell a Story
3. Identify its point
4. Affirm emotions
5. Praise opponent
6. Appeal to Tradition
8. Recommend Alternative
9. It's worth it even if you lose
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5. Bribe the voters so your opponent loses his election
Use parties, theater tickets, vacation experiences, "bread and circuses"
Classic Roman style. It's almost obligatory in the Late Republic.
Marius, Sulla, Pompey, Caesar, Crassus...
The list goes on.
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For the full story, listen to some of my bios from the Cost of Glory Podcast.
Such as Pompey, Episodes 83-85
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Your favorite Roman Imperator Julius Caesar had risen dramatically to power...
...and become the wealthiest man in Rome, thanks to his military triumphs.
His popularity was soaring: statues built, temples dedicated, and even a month renamed after him:
Julius → July!
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Reminder of Seneca’s advice for reading:
“Multum, non multa”
“Much, not many.”
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What's the lesson?
Always question unchecked power, even if it comes from a close ally.
If you become too powerful, ask yourself whether you should really expect your friends to compromise your principles and accommodate you.
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3. Accuse your opponent of Using Bribery
Cicero played this card well against the rich Verres.
Even if Verres hadn't tried to bribe his way out of conviction for embezzlement, it was a believable that he did.
Emphasize to the audience how bad bribery is for the state.
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8/
The power vacuum led to a series of civil wars.
Brutus, facing certain defeat, took his own life.
Ironically, the assassination led to the end of the Republic and the concentration of power under the office of the Emperor (princeps)
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Reminder:
These were built by reasonably compensated, free men, who loved their ruler for his ambition:
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The eagle was a military standard.
In battle, one soldier's *entire job* was to hold the eagle up for his unit.
It was Gaius Marius (157-86 BC) who standardized the eagle for the Roman army.
He is pictured below triumphing over one of Rome's great enemies, Jugurtha.
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1/
Brutus was a firm believer in the principle that no single man should hold too much power.
His belief stemmed from a personal connection - he claimed descent from Lucius Junius Brutus,
the man who helped overthrow a tyrannical king in the past.
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6. Cause rioting in the streets to scare them and their supporters
Caesar and Pompey used this to win a vote against Cato and Bibulus.
7. Exile them.
Gaius Marius sent Metellus Numidicus packing to Albania.
Countless examples.
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Where did the Colosseum get its name?
After the great fire of Rome in 64 AD, Nero confiscated much of the land under the buildings that burned down.
On the land, he built a giant palace complex, called the Domus Aurea ("golden House").
Crowning it off was a giant statue of
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8. Have them sent far away to a lame, "important" job
... such that it amounts to exile.
Clodius had Cato forcibly "awarded" a mission to Cyprus as governor.
The job involved mountains of accounting.
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20. The Nuclear Option
If nothing else works...
Just assassinate them.
Caution: this often backfires.
Drusus' assassination caused the Social War and the Italians were made citizens anyway.
Caesar's assassins soon ended up dead losers, too.
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The aftermath was chaotic.
Rome was in a state of panic.
The public loved Caesar and saw the Senate as a corrupt aristocracy.
Brutus and the other assassins had underestimated this.
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But Caesar's power was becoming too much for many senators.
He had been granted the title of 'dictator' multiple times.
And in 44 BCE, he was made 'dictator perpetuo', potentially for an unlimited term.
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2) Charm
Good storytelling is an essential ingredient in charm.
So is humor.
Both are trainable, Sulla trained both.
One enemy, Papirius Carbo, said of him:
"Sulla is half lion, half fox. The fox half is more dangerous."
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This sparked fear among senators.
They dreaded a return to monarchy, which their ancestors fought hard to abolish.
Thus, a group of conspirators, led by Brutus and his friend Gaius Cassius Longinus, started planning Caesar's assassination.
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The conspirators struck on March 15th.
At a Senate meeting, they surrounded Caesar, stabbing him from all sides.
Caesar tried to defend himself but,
When he saw Brutus among his attackers, he covered his face and gave up the fight.
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19. Make a lot of foreigners new citizens to undermine their voting base
Livius Drusus tried to do this against Marcius Philippus.
He proposed enrolling large numbers of Italians as Roman citizens.
Drusus was later found stabbed to death in his house.
Which brings us to...
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Where all the mess started.
The temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, Rome.
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9. Declare that they hold office illegitimately
The demagogue Tiberius Gracchus used this tactic against his aristocratic colleague Octavius, who allegedly violated "sacred" principles of democracy as tribune.
Octavius was voted out in an extraordinary plebiscite.
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11. March on the Capital and have them declared Public Enemy
As Sulla did against Marius at Rome.
12. March on the Capital (again) and have THEM declared Public Enemy
As Marius did against Sulla in return, also at Rome.
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Summary: Keys to Sulla's deadly effectiveness:
1) Storytelling
2) Charm
3) Resist Stories
4) Courage
5) Faith
6) Relaxation
7) Mentors
8) Quick Study
9) Giver
His tombstone:
“Here lies Sulla, whom no friend ever surpassed in doing kindnesses, nor any enemy in doing mischief.”
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10. Threaten to have them hauled off to prison
As Marius did as tribune, against both Cotta and Metellus in the Senate.
Sometimes just the threat is enough to silence them.
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9/
Brutus' legacy is divisive.
Some see him as a selfless fighter against dictatorship, others as an opportunistic traitor.
But his story points to the price of liberty and the conflict between personal loyalties and universal ideals.
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Let's take a closer look at a few.
1). Devereaux says Spartans were "famously very poor at littoral operations."
famously?
They won one of the greatest naval upsets in history against Athens at Aegospotami (405 BC),
...in a brilliant littoral operation.
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5/
Choosing to conspire against Caesar wasn't easy for Brutus.
Despite their political differences, Caesar treated Brutus like a son.
But Brutus' fear of Caesar's ambitions won out in the end.
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15. Start, then lead, a foreign war
Caesar picked a fight with the Gauls, then Germans.
This will increase your status over your opponent, and distract from your illicit activities at home.
16. Steal leadership of a foreign war from your opponent
As Pompey did with Lucullus.
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13. Plant moles and thwarters in their retinue
Cicero planted Quintus Curius as a mole in Catiline's conspiracy.
Easiest to do if you have sallacious dirt on the mole.
Cicero had damning evidence from Curius' ex girlfriend (who was another man's wife).
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The eagle had prophetic significance for Marius.
When he was a young boy living in the country, he caught an eagle's nest falling from a tree.
It had 7 eaglets in it.
The seers told his parents: Their son was destined to hold supreme power (consulship) 7 times.
He did.
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The most aesthetically pleasing ancient city I've ever been to:
Messene, Greece.
Built in a single year by Epaminondas of Thebes,
369 B.C.
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But this is not enough.
#2
: Tell a story as quickly as possible
(Or several)
Preferably stories that appeal to the audience's identity.
Stories from History are good,
Especially if you are speaking to a group.
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14. Accuse them of impiety in absentia.
Athenian demagogues accused Alcibiades of profaning the Mysteries & desecrating the Herms, while he was off in Sicily.
Identify people's most irrational taboos and sacred cows.
Rage over the alleged insult will make the people pliable.
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If you learned something, RT the first in thread to share.
Want more time tested strategies for winning in business and life?
-> Follow.
Also, check out my podcast, Cost of Glory, available on all platforms, including YouTube.
Based on antiquity's greatest heroes.
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1) Storytelling
Before embarking on his public career, Sulla spent a lot of time around the Roman theater.
He wrote funny plays, and partied with actors.
He was training.
Winning a civil war - a psychological contest, above all - requires being the better storyteller.
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On the Cost of Glory podcast, I'm in the middle of a long series on the men who knew and walked with Caesar:
Crassus, his mentor and financier
Pompey, his friend and later mortal enemy
Cato, his lifelong antagonist (coming next)
...Caesar, Brutus, Cicero, and others soon too
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Hannibal, age 9, swears an oath of eternal hatred toward Rome.
He lays his hands on the victim.
His father helps him pronounce the right words in front of Lord Melqart.
By Benjamin West.
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Instead of the various odd animals, Marius wanted to pick a single standard for the army.
One that would project the unity
Unity that was. lacking at Arausio.
He chose the bird of Zeus/Jupiter Optimus Maximus:
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A Roman aristocrat on why we need gladiators:
"What gladiator of even average merit has ever uttered a groan or let an expression of terror slip across his face?
Who of them has disgraced himself either when standing or falling?
When have you ever seen one twist his neck away
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2). To claim Sparta's military reputation is "mostly a mirage" is tendentious and false.
(Let's not even go into the fact that reputation is itself a military tool, e.g. "In war, the moral is to the physical as three is to one" (Napoleon))
Let's examine the claim's foundations:
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3). Guess what other famous battle is listed as just one of the many "defeats"
...counting against the Spartan batting average
...thereby popping the mirage balloon of Spartan military excellence?
Yep, Thermopylae.
Checkmate, Sparta Bros.
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Early in his career, Caesar had no military victories to his name.
Even though came from a good family, most serious politicians didn't take him seriously.
He was in deep debt, and had a reputation as a playboy.
But at age 37, he took a stance everyone would remember.
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4). Physical Courage
Sulla once used himself as human bait in order to capture Jugurtha.
He often fought at the front lines.
In a scene reminiscent of George Washington at Monmouth, Sulla turned back a rout of his troops at Orchomenus, during the Mithridatic war:
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17. Question their birthplace or parentage
One of Sparta's kings died.
Leotychidas, his son, was a pawn of Lysander's enemies.
Lysander fomented suspicions of illegitimacy about Leotychidas.
He succeeded, and got his own candidate chosen - Agesilaus, the king's brother.
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18. Tempt them with illicit affairs
The Spartan commander of Oreus was a notorious lover of boys.
The Thebans waited until he left the citadel for a soirée in the village
Then seized the city.
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3). To begin with, the idea of quantifying military excellence by counting "battles won against peers" is absurd.
It also allows for sleight of hand:
E.g. He lists two "defeats" against Olynthus in 380s.
But fails to list the victories by which the Spartans won the war!
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Marius was also a populist.
He conscripted poor men into the army for the first time in Roman history.
Before, troops had to supply their own weapons & armor.
But Marius promised his poor troops land, liberty, dignity, and a new life.
He delivered, and defeated the Cimbri:
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@V_ShapeFitness
That was a core doctrine of the pythagoreans, the "transmigration of souls." Pythagoras himself claimed to be the reincarnated soul of (among other things) a hero from Homer's Iliad named Euphorbus.
So, why not a Babylonian mathematician too?
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The Romans suffered massive military catastrophe at the battle of Arausio, in Gaul, in 105,
At the hands of the Cimbri and Teutones
It was worse than Hannibal's massacre of the Romans at Cannae, over 100 years earlier.
The cause?
Disunity.
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3). He lists Mantineia II, 362, as Spartan "Defeat."
But it was a tactical draw, and a strategic victory: Epaminondas was killed, Thebes faded thereafter.
Tallying it a simple "Defeat" misleadingly parrots pro-Theban propaganda.
So, How would these affect the batting average?
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There was a time when dudes identifying as girls and showing up at all-female networking events was considered bold and sexy.
Here's the story of when it happened in Ancient Rome:
Julius Caesar's wife was hosting just such an all-female networking event at Caesar's mansion on
Males took over a women in tech career conference by registering as non-binary.
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The standard helps soldiers stick in cohesive order.
In the chaos of battle, victory hinges on maintaining order.
Before Marius, the Roman units carried around military standards with various other forms: a wolf, an ox, a boar.
But this was related to a major problem...
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"The greatest man that ever lived was Julius Caesar"
-Alexander Hamilton
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When you need to console a friend for a loss,
Here's the Roman style.
Setup:
-Cicero's daughter Tullia dies while bearing a child.
-Cicero is upset, and VERY emotional.
-Cicero also upset about losing in the Roman Civil War
Servius Sulpicius writes to comfort him.
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