Cost of Glory

Mass murderer or brilliant patriot?  Whatever your take on Sulla, it's worth analyzing the qualities that made him a joy to his friends, and a terror to his enemies.

How do you keep your team together in a civil conflict?  Can a country right itself by warring with itself?  What are the limits to which one man will go to punish his enemies?     In this episode, Sulla’s most famous, or rather infamous, acts as a leader.       —People— Sulla Plutarch King Pyrrhus  Cinna Metellus Pius Marcus Licinius Crassus Carbo Gaius Norbanus Lucius Cornelius Scipio (Asiaticus...

How does a great commander handle being undermined by his government back home?  How should we treat opponents we defeat?  And how do we negotiate the best deal when our backs are against the wall and our counterparts know it?   In this episode: Sulla goes to Greece, to war against Rome’s arch rival Mithridates of Pontus.  Can he hold out against a vastly superior enemy army?  And can he weather t...

How do we get Fortune on our side?  What are the qualities necessary for daring unthinkable, unspeakable acts? When is it justifiable to massacre your enemies?   Sulla: A man of contradictions.  Enjoyer of dramas and hedonistic pleasures; most successful general of his generation, and one of the greatest of all time.  Patriot and champion of the ancient constitution; the Roman responsible for more...

A principle for building exercises to control your anxiety or fear.  Favorinus, a philosopher from the time of Plutarch, offers some deft observations about Socrates.

Plutarch offers insight on relating to people above your station

Plato gives some insight in how to undermine your enemies.

How to turn bad luck around.  SPOILER: it's not just more effort. Stories of Timotheus and Sulla

What happened after Lysander died?  What was his legacy?  What can we learn from his life?  

Lysander returns from his setbacks at Sparta with a revolutionary plan.  He consults the gods about the Spartan Kingship; and some of his own prophecies about Greek geopolitics come true. In this episode: How should protegés treat mentors?  How do you change a deeply conservative state?  And, as always, what is the cost, for an individual, for a state, of striving for supreme glory? Characters: Al...

Lysander - The Spartan who took down Athens.  In this episode: the dangers of success. How (and why) Lysander installed the notorious "Thirty" at Athens, and how he came to be worshipped as a god.  Could Sparta contain such a man? Characters: Lysander Socrates Theramenes Critias King Pausanias King Agis Thrasyboulus The Thirty The Mob   Key Virtues: Patience Flexibility Obedience Indifference to M...

A Spartan; first Greek honored as a god during his lifetime; destroyer of Athenian naval supremacy.   In this episode: his rise to power, how he pulled off the greatest naval upset in Greek history, and WHY he did it.   Characters: Lysander Socrates Xenophon Alcibiades Prince Cyrus the Younger Agesilaus King Agis Kallikratidas The Mob   Key Virtues: Patience Flexibility Obedience   Key Places: Ath...

A story about how Socrates reacted when he got publicly shamed.

Harry Truman was a great admirer of Plutarch's lives, and recommended them often.  He discusses why. Quotes taken from Miller's oral biography of Truman, "Plain Speaking."

How do we translate the advice Plutarch gives on free speaking, with the example of Pericles, into the world of modern media?

What combination of habits produces both strength and peace?  How do we become more sovereign over our lives, over ourselves?  With some references from a famous, classic text from Plutarch's works.

Why do we work? How should we spend our leisure?  Also, announcing the next biography subjects!

What did Pyrrhus and Marius had in common, what lessons can be drawn for leaders?

A transcript of an article from Antigone Journal.  Read the article here: https://antigonejournal.com/2022/03/publius-rutilius-rufus/ Rutilius was a side character in the Life of Marius, but deserves his own treatment here.  See also his treatment in the book Lives of the Stoics by Holiday and Hanselman, which inspired this essay.

3 Lessons for Leaders from the Life of Marius.  Also, what happened after Marius died?

This is the story of how Gaius Marius went from being the Greatest Man in Rome to Public Enemy #1. But Marius, usually master of the political narrative, ended up having his story written by his political rivals.  What was the true character of this surprisingly elusive figure? What is worth imitating? What is worth avoiding?   Before fully answering these questions, we must understand the details...

In this episode, Gaius Marius goes from upstart commander to Third Founder of Rome. Roman writer and historian Sallust said Marius possessed Virtus (“manliness, prowess, virtue” - but, was Marius ultimately a “good man”?  In part two of The Life of Gaius Marius, Marius captures Jugurtha, he enlists the help of a prophetess to annihilate an army of Teutones, and triumphs over the Cimbri at the Batt...

Hated by many contemporaries, admired by even more - and later Romans, such as the emperor Augustus.   “Seven times Consul, Praetor, Tribune of the Plebs, Quaestor, Augur, Military Tribune, Marius waged war against Jugurtha, the King of Numidia and captured him. He annihilated an army of Teutones. He triumphed over the Cimbri…” Gaius Marius, an outsider, an Italian…  A story of rising from obscuri...

Why did Plutarch write biographies?  What does one hope to get out of a biography podcast?

Plutarch reads the Odyssey