Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Number One At Being Number Two

Episode Date: October 15, 2020

History remembers the rulers and the leaders. We know of Napoleon, Caesar, Elizabeth, Ghengis Khan, and Captain Picard. However, for every one of the people I just listed, their success was due in large part to the people who worked underneath them. The ones who carried out their orders and made sure things got done. They had to have a competent number two. In this episode, I will put forward that the greatest number two in history was Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

History remembers the rulers and the leaders. We know of Napoleon, Caesar, Elizabeth, Gingus Khan, and Captain Picard. However, for every one of the people I just listed, their success was due in large part to the people who worked underneath them, the ones who carried out their orders and made sure things got done. They had to have a competent number two. In this episode, I'll put forward that the greatest number two in history was Marcus Vipsanias Agrippa. Learn more about the person who was number one at being number two on this episode. episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

Fear is the virus is trending on TikTok. Vaccines are poison. Then your yoga teacher says that sex traffic children are being sacrificed by satanic liberals, but it's all okay. The great awakening is coming. What is happening? Every week on Conspiruality Podcast, we explore the fever dreams that suck friends, family, and wellness gurus down the right-wing cult spiral in a

search for salvation. This episode is sponsored by Audible.com. The audiobook I would recommend for today's show is Augustus, First Emperor of Rome by Adrian Goldsworthy. You really can't tell the story of Marcus Agrippa without knowing the story of Rome's first, greatest, and longest-serving emperor, Augustus. Friends, since they were boys, they grew up together,

rose and power together, and helped shape the greatest empire that Europe has ever known. You can get a free one-month trial to Audible and two free audiobooks by going to Audibletrial.com everything everywhere, or by clicking on the link in the show notes. Agrippas origin story is very unlikely for a successful Roman. He wasn't from Rome, and his family wasn't in the nobility. He was born somewhere around 62 to 64 BC, somewhere out in the provinces. We aren't exactly sure where.

Some scholars think he might have come from the region around what is today Pisa, Italy. His family was well off, having reached the rank of equestrian, which was just below that of a senator. He served with Julius Caesar as a very young man. in the Civil War against Pompey, and he performed well enough that Caesar sent him to study with his great-nephew Octavian at an academy in Apollonia in what is today Albania. After only four months at the academy, both his and Octavian's world changed forever. They set out to meet Roman legions in Macedonia. On the way, they received news that Agrippa's benefactor and Octavian's uncle had been assassinated

in Rome. The two boys were only about 17 or 18 years old at the time, still too young to begin a public life and to start the climb up the cursus honorum. Rather than march on Rome with the Macedonian Legions, Octavian took Agrippa and their friend Rufus and went to Rome in a small group. When they arrived, they received more shocking news. Octavian had been posthumously adopted by Julius Caesar in his will and was given the vast majority of his fortune. Agrippa's friend, with the stroke of a pen, just became the Roman version of Ritchie Rich. Octavian wasn't going to sit back and hang out in a villa. He was going to jump head first into the political whirlpool, which was Roman politics after the death

of Julius Caesar. And this is where their partnership took off. Octavian knew he needed to raise troops to be taken seriously. He sent Agrippa South to convince Caesar's legions to follow Octavian, which he successfully did. When Octavian legally prosecuted the plotters in the assassination against Caesar, the role of lead prosecutor against the ringleader Cassius Longginus was given to Agrippa. Octavian needed to make sure that none of his laws would be vetoed. so he got Agrippa elected to the Tribune of the Plebs, which also granted him membership to the Senate. He was a military commander when Octavian fought Mark Anthony,

and later helped negotiate the truce between the two of them at Brumdizium. When still in his 20s, he was named governor of Trans Alpine Gaul, today's France, where he put down a revolt, and then also fought German tribes, becoming the second Roman general after Julius Caesar, to cross the Rhine River. When called back to Rome, he refused to triumph, a grand victory parade,

because he didn't want to take any credit or attention away from Octavian. During the Second Triumvirate, he was appointed consul before the age of 30, circumventing every tradition and rule about the office. Agrippa was assigned the task of ridding the pirates led by Pompey's son, Sextus, who controlled Sicily and were stopping all shipments of grain from Egypt. What did this man who had zero experience in naval warfare do? He constructed a hidden harbor in a lake near Naples, which he named Portis Julius after Octavian,

who was going by the name Julia Caesar after his adoption. Agrippa created a fleet of ships with many technical improvements. He developed a new grappling hook that could be used in combat. He trained all of his men in both naval and land combat. After a setback due to weather, he finally met Sextus in combat and demolished his fleet at the Battle of Noculus. Sextus' fleet went from 300 ships to 17. After the defeat of Sextus, grain prices plummeted in Rome and Octavian's popularity skyrocketed. Octavius granted Agrippa the Naval Crown, an award never given before or after.

After becoming a military hero in Gaul and at sea, he turned to the rather pedestrian role of Water Commissioner of Rome. He repaired aqueducts in Rome's water system. He was elected Adyle, a highly unusual move for a former consul to take a lower position. When Adial, he also set about fixing the roads and putting games on for the citizenry. He cleaned out the main sewer in Rome, the Cloaca Maxima, and set up baths for the populace. Augustus reportedly said that he found Rome a city of brick and left at a city of marble. Much of that construction was done by Agrippa. Perhaps his most noteworthy achievement occurred in one of the final battles between Octavian and Mark Anthony during their civil

war. At the Battle of Actium, he commanded Octavian's forces in a naval battle, which basically destroyed Mark Anthony as a military threat. His fleet either captured or destroyed almost every ship that Anthony controlled. After the end of the Civil War, Octavian was the sole ruler of Rome. Agrippa served two more terms as consul. Octavian was given the name Augustus, and they worked to stabilize the empire and solidify Augustus's rule. One of the highlights of Augustus's reign was the return of the legionary standards

lost to the Parthians, from what is modern-day Iran, when they defeated Crassus years before. It's believed that when Agrippa supposedly went into exile to become the governor of Syria, he was really there to negotiate the return of the standards. Given the importance that Augustus put on the mission, it's not surprising that he gave the assignment to Agrippa. He also put down revolts in Spain and along the Black Sea. He visited Judea where he met and became friends with King Herod. Herod respected him so much that he named his son Herod Agrippa. He conducted a survey of the entire empire, which was eventually made into a marble map on the floor of one of

the buildings in Rome. He established the measurements of the Roman foot and the Roman mile. He even wrote a biography and a treatise on geography, which sadly have been lost to time. Agrippa was eventually given powers almost the equivalent of Augustus himself. He was awarded what was called Proconsular Imperium, which was a wide-ranging authority and immunity from prosecution. And also Tribunica Potentis, which meant that his body was held sacrosanct. Eventually Agrippa was made a member of the family. His third wife was Augustus's daughter, Julia, with whom he had several children. In 23 BC, Augustus was ill and was thought he was going to die.

The only other person who could keep the empire together was Agrippa. Augustus gave his signet ring to Agrippa in case he was to pass away as a symbol of transferring power. Agrippa actually did not survive Augustus. As it turns out, Augustus would live a long life and Agrippa would die in his early 50s, while on campaign trying to subdue the area around the upper Danube. While Agrippa never became an emperor, his descendants did. through his daughter Agrippina the elder, from his marriage with Julia, he was the grandfather of the Emperor Caligula and great-grandfather of Emperor Nero. Probably the best preserved Roman building in the world is the Pantheon in Rome. It was originally built by Agrippa on the anniversary of his victory at the Battle of Actium.

If you visit it, you'll see written in large letters on the facade of the building the following. M. Agrippa L. F. Kaz, Tetrium Fakit. Once you translate the Latin and the abbreviations, and the Romans love to use abbreviations, it reads Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, built this when he was consul for the third time. Even though rebuilt and renovated by subsequent emperors, the name Agrippa remained the most prominent one on the building. If you look back, Agrippa's career was really amazing. He was an incredible general, diplomat, civil engineer, Geographer and a leader. And at no point, is there any evidence that Agrippa suffered any jealousy towards Augustus

or that he ever tried to usurp him or take control? If Augustus is the greatest emperor in Rome's history, it's only because he had the best number two by his side. Executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is James Mackala. Today's listener review comes from Nunn 12321 in Canada. They write, Gary has always been a great inspiration for travelers over the years, and his new podcast is equally inspiring for the curious. His ability to come up with such a wide range of unique and

fascinating stories never ceases to amaze me. Thank you very much, Nunn-12321, and to all of you who listen. Remember, if you leave a five-star review over on Apple Podcasts, I'll read your review on the air.