Predictive History - The Story of "Civilization", "Secret History", "Game Theory" and more - Civilization #14 - Hannibal Barca, Lucius Brutus, and the Triumph of Rome

Episode Date: October 7, 2025

Civilization #14 - Hannibal Barca, Lucius Brutus, and the Triumph of Rome

Okay, so we start Rome today, and we will spend the next four classes on the rise of the Roman Republic, and then the rise of the Roman Empire. So, Rome, traditionally, we believe Rome was founded in the year 753 BC, but we don't know, okay? That's just what tradition says, that's what the Romans believe, but we actually don't know. So, around this time, Rome, it's just like a small, insignificant kingdom in the middle of Italy. Okay? It was started on the Tiber. This is Rome.

And it's part of Italy called a Latin area. Okay? So these people are known as the Latins. Now, at this time, and over the next centuries, Rome would be a small, poor kingdom, at war with its neighbors, primarily the Sabins over here, and then you have other tribes as well. At this time, the dominant civilization is what we call the Etrishans. And the Etrishans are the most advanced civilization in Italy during this time. And it is very similar to Greece in that there are different city-states and they trade with each other.

with each other and because they are by the sea they are able to access cultures and ideas and goods from all around the world okay then across the Mediterranean you have a place called Carthage here is Italy Sicily okay and I don't call Sicily is important because it's basically the main island of the Mediterranean so you want to control the the Mediterranean Sea and the trade that they control Sicily. All right. So across the sea is Carthage.

And Carthage is from, it's a colony of Phoenicia, which is in the Lavant. Okay? And over the next few hundred years, Carthage would become the dominant economic power of the Mediterranean. Because they're very good at trade and they're very good at, um, sailing. So they'll travel and sail all around the world and found new colonies. And slowly they'll build up their own little empire across the Mediterranean. And they are for the longest time the wealthy city in Europe basically. And of course over here are the Greeks, right, and we spend a lot of time discussing the Greeks. Greeks. So around this time about 500 BC, if you would look at these three major

civilizations, right, or sorry, there's actually four, right? The Trishkins, the Greeks, the Carthaginians, and then these Romans, no one could expect or predict that the Romans would become the great empire that it did become, right? So what we will look at the first class is how did Rome become so powerful? And the easy answer is, it's good at war. It's really good at war. And then the question then is, well, why is it good at war?

Why is it better than the Greeks or the Carthaginians? And the answer is because the Romans are not afraid to die and because the Romans have a different conception of sinnorship than the Greeks. Remember, the Greeks were extremely jealous, of citizenship. It was very hard to become an Athenian. It was very hard to become a Spartan. You basically have to be born into the Polis. Same thing with the Carthaginians, they were much, they were not as strict as the Greeks, but they were pretty inflexible as well. They're

very proud of being a citizen. Rome, because it was the poorest and smallest, it had no choice. If you wanted to immigrate to Rome, they welcome you as a citizen. And as such, they could, throughout its history, draw on the vast manpower pool in their surrounding areas. And as such, with their almost unlimited manpower resources, they could eventually overwhelm the Greeks and the Carpidunians and become the dominant power. in the Mediterranean by about 200 BC. That's the easy answer, and that's what most historians and most scholars believe. But I want to be more precise.

I want to show you that ultimately it's the value system or what is known as the character of these different civilizations that ultimately determine their fate and future. Does that make sense? All right, so about 500 BC Rome becomes a republic, and at this time, the Eritusian culture is dominating Rome. In fact, three out of Rome's seven kings previously were Eitrishian. So culturally and traditionally speaking, the Eritians have this huge impact on Rome. Because Rome is very good at war, it's slowly able to expand and conquer the Trishans and basically control all of Italy.

And because the Romans are expansionist by nature, they are a warlike people, they are basically a war machine. They now want to control Sicily and the coast. And this brings them into conflict with the Greeks. Because remember the Greeks, when they build colonies, they build it either on islands or near the coast, because that's what allows them to trade and also connect with the Greek diaspora around the Mediterranean and the Aegean. And in about 280, the Greeks in southern Italy, they call for help. And remember at this time, the Greek world is dominant throughout the world. So Alexander conquered most of the world and his generals now control most of the territory.

And one of the successors to Alexander, his name is Pyrus, he decides this is an opportunity for him to build his own empire. So he responds to the Greeks who call for help against Rome. So Rome is threatening the Greeks in southern Italy. Greeks are asking for help from the compatriots, Pyris comes with an army to help his compatriots. And remember at this time, the Greeks have the best military in the world because of the hop-like phallix. And Pyrus is destroying the Romans. Battle after battle, Pirates is destroying and decimating the Romans.

Pirate says this, wow, I'm winning so many wars, I'm winning so many battles, and if I continue to win battles, I will be completely out of men. I want no more soldiers left. And this is what the phrase, Pyrrhic, victory comes from, right? You can win, but the cost of victory are so high, you might as well have lost. All right? And so what this means is even though the Romans were militarily inferior to the Greeks, the Romans weren't afraid to die and they inflicted so many casualties on the Greeks that the Greeks

eventually had to withdraw. And this will start many centuries of war between the Romans and the Greeks. Remember at this time in the beginning, the Greeks are wealthier, more numerous, and and more military dominant than the Romans. But eventually, because of the Roman way of war, Rome will eventually conquer the Greeks. So that's the Greeks. Eventually, the Romans went Sicily.

And this brings them into a direct conflict with Carthage. And this starts what is called the first Punic War. Now, there's a problem. Carthage is a naval power. Rome is a land power. Rome has no navy. So what Rome does is slowly over time it builds its own navy. And at first it sucks.

They lose a lot of ships. And so the Romans build more ships. And they get slaughtered by the Carthians at sea. So they build more ships and more ships and more ships. And eventually they overwhelm the Carthaginians. And so after 20 years of war, in what is called the First Punic War, Rome becomes a dominant naval power in the Mediterranean. Carvitz becomes second. Then something strange happens.

Carthage, it is a trading power, is a maritime power. And while it's able to dominate its neighbors, okay, it establishes an empire. in Northern Africa and in Spain, it loses a lot of wars against the Greeks and the Romans who are just better warriors. But then the Carthaginians produce a man named Hannibal Carba, Hannibal Barka. And Hannibal Barka is considered by many military historians

to be the greatest general who ever lived. As a military strategist, Hannibal had no competitor, okay? And Hannibal Barka, he hates Rome with a passion. He understands this. He understands that Rome is fundamentally an expansionist military power. Rome will not stop until it has conquered the world. So even though technically Carthage and Rome are at peace, eventually Rome will come for Carthage. So it is better to take a fight to Rome first than to wait for Rome to come to you. Now, Carthage at this time, it is basically a republic like Rome.

And it's run by people call, by something called Council of Elders. And these are the wealthiest citizens in Carthage. And there's elements of democracy and Arlachar as well, but it's primarily. primarily republic, okay? It's run by these people. And these are merchants, these are wealthy people. War is bad for business, okay? So they were not supportive of Hannibal

in his desire for war against Rome. So Hannibal did two things, okay? The first thing is he was in charge of civil minds in Spain, and what he did was he conquered a lot more, a lot of Spanish territory for Carthage. And so he was able to amass more wealth. He took this wealth and he used it to basically bribe the counts of elders,

to leave him alone, okay, and to support his military adventures in Spain. And again, these are business people. If it's profitable, they will support you. And then what Hannibal did was, he did something that was that was, was unimaginable before he took his army and he crossed the Alps okay he crossed the Alps sorry the Alps are here into Italy he is now at Rome's doorstep and again

before Humboldt did this it was fought on him it was found impossible to cross the Alps especially in winter with an army okay but Hemelah did that he lost He lost a lot of men and elephants, war elephants, in his crossing, but he was able to cross, and when he crossed, he was able to summon a lot of allies to his side, okay? Because Rome was at war with everyone in Italy and with the Gulf to the north of Italy in France, okay? So Rome had a lot of enemies, and so Hannibal was able to replenish his forces once he landed in Italy. also very charismatic speaker, a great general. Rome heard about this, and at first Romans were shocked, but they weren't scared.

Rome is a war machine, okay? So they decided to send an army against Hannibal. And army after army fell against Hannibal. Hannibal was able to defeat Roman soldiers and armies using superior military tactics and strategies, okay? Then the Romans decide, you know what, here's what we're going to do. We'll take two years off and we're going to build the world's largest army. 80,000 men.

And at this time, Hannibal had about 40,000 men. And then we'll take these 80,000 soldiers and we'll just throw at Hannibal and crush Hannibal and the war will be over. And that's the strategy, that's the Roman way. The Romans are not creative. They are just brutal, bold, and direct. That's just their way of war. And so, and so Hannibal meets this 80,000 soldier army

at something called, at a place called Canine. And they fight something called the Battle of Canine in 216 BC. And this is the most famous battle in human history. Okay? Remember, the Romans outnumber Hannibal two to one. And what Hannibal does is he decides on a place to face the Romans, okay?

And in this place, it's a small valley. And so even though the Romans are numerically superior because the valley is small, they're forced to march in a straight line, as opposed to in a wide line, okay? If you have more numbers, you want to march on a wide line, but because of the geography, they're forced to march in a straight long line.

So they're marching this way. Hannibal is uphill, where his army, and he does something strange. He organizes his army not in a straight line, but in a concave line, like this, concave. And the Romans look at this, and they laugh because they've never seen anything like this before. And they think it's a sign of weakness. It means the military under Hannibal, it's undisciplined. They're just amateurs. This will be over in an hour.

So the Romans are marching confidently against Hannibal. They're attacking. On the wings of both armies are the horsemen, the cavalry, okay? So what happens as the Romans march against Hannibal is, Hannibal sends his cavalry against the Roman cavalry and they overwhelm the Roman cavalry. And now they're turning back in to attack the flank or the back. Meanwhile, the Roman attack, it's so powerful, the search is so strong that the concave of Hanelow's army turns upside down. okay it turns upside down when it does so it traps the roman army in a circle okay do you see this okay

now they are inside a circle and the army is coming around and attacking from the back okay militarily we call this the double envelopment strategy double envelopment strategy and so the The Romans are circled completely and what follows is the greatest massacre in history militarily until World War I. The army of 80,000 that the Romans sent lost almost 70,000 men. 70,000 men died that day. And again, no military will lose so much men until war. World War I, when they had much larger armies, like millions of people, and when they had

like machine guns. All right? So this is like the greatest military disaster in human industry up to this point. The disaster is so great that right now, Rome has lost 20 percent, okay? 20 percent of its adult male population. To put that in context in World War I, the Germans' lives. Germans lost anywhere between 10 to 15% of their adult male population before they were forced to surrender to the allies. Okay, so Rome has lost 20%. It's lost a third of the Senate. The Senate is the highest governing body of Rome.

So a third of their leadership is dead. At the same time, Hannibal is able to convince the Greeks to start a second front against the Romans. Okay? So at this point, the war is basically over. And Hannibal sends envoys to Rome and says, listen, the war is over, I'm willing to negotiate a peace settlement. I am willing to negotiate peace terms. And that's something strange happens.

And this is unique in human history, okay? The Roman Senate, they come together and they discuss a situation. It's bleak. It's hopeless. But they're Romans. Romans do not surrender. So the Senate told Hannibal, we will continue the war. We will raise another army. If you want to come attack us, come. We will be ready for you. And this is completely unexpected, okay? Hannibal does not know what to do. And this war continues. this again is 216. This work continues for another 15 years and then 15 years later the Romans have won. They destroyed the Carfetian presence in Spain and they

conquered and they've lent it in Africa and forced Carpherets to surrender. Alright? Okay so this is a mystery. Why did the Romans not surrender? And how were the Romans able to defeat not just the Carthaginians, but also the Greeks? And also like everyone else. Because at that time, kind of will basically unite the entire world against Rome and Rome. In the end, even though it was very costly, right, they did win. So that's a mystery. Okay.

So, first thing we need to understand is traditional military doctrine about who wins wars. about who wins wars, it's basically wrong. Traditionally, we understand the military about three things. Manpower, how many soldiers do you have? Technology, how good are your weapons and resources? How wealthy are you? Traditionally, we've understood war making. Like, if you're good at war, you will have these three things,

lots of soldiers, lots of technology, and lots of money. And if you analyze it this way, then Rome should be no match against Carthage. Carthage is a lot wealthier. It has more technology. It has the greatest general in Hannibal. But then at the same time, the Athenians should not have been able to defeat the Persians. At the same time, Alexander and the Macedonians should not have been able to defeat the Persians. In fact, throughout human history, we have a lot of instances, cases where smaller armies

have been able to defeat much larger armies. So think of Gangat Khan, think of Mohammed, okay? So clearly this is wrong. But if this is wrong, what is it a better way to understand military strength? Well, I would argue how strong a military is based on three criteria. The first is cohesion. Do the soldiers like and identify with each other? Are they united?

Cohesion. Second is the idea of discipline. How well trained and experience are they? And the third is devotion. How committed are they to winning? So if you want to see how powerful a nation is militarily, you have to ask yourself these three questions. Are they cohesive? Are they disciplined? Are they devoted? Okay. And I would also argue that each nation has a certain culture, a certain value system,

which gives us a certain character. And this character will tell you if they are likely to win a war or not, okay? All right, so let's examine briefly the characteristics of Rome as opposed to the Greeks and the Carthaginians. So let's do a table. Let's just say, okay, you have Greeks, you have Carthage, you have Rome. All right, we know a lot about the Greeks. And there are three major concepts that define Greek culture. okay all right so the first question is what makes you a good person for the Greeks it was the idea of erete okay erete just means excellence

you could be an asshole you could be a jerk but if erete like you have talent then you're a good person okay and the erete that the Greeks are most concerned about is the ability to speak well and the ability to fight well okay that's eritate Something is, what is the thing that matters to you, okay? The most valuable thing in your life? Well, why do you fight? Well, for the Greeks, it was the idea of freedom.

And for them, the idea of freedom means the ability to speak your mind in front of your peers. The freedom of speech, basically. And the last question for the Greeks is, what is the purpose of life? purpose of life. Okay? And here the Greeks have an easy answer. It's eudaimonia. Remember, eudaimonia is Greek for flourishing. You can only be happy as a person if you are achieving your true potential, if you are flourishing as a person. So that's Greek culture. And if you think about it, this explains why the Greeks were the most creative civilization in human history, right? They're very creative. time they were also very selfish right and that's why they were never able to

come together except in times of national emergency like when the Persians invaded and only then but but even then only a few of the Greek cities came together and some even joined the Persians okay so the Greeks are notorious for being creative but also being for being selfish so that's Greek culture now let's look at the Carthaginians okay now unfortunately we don't know anything about the Carthaginians The reason why is Rome wiped Carfidge out of history, okay? Rome destroyed Carfetched, killed everyone, and erased Carfetched from the history books. But we do know they are a mercantile empire, meaning they are focused on trade.

We also know that in their political system, it's the wealthiest citizens who have the most political power. Okay? And so they are basically a merchant culture, a merchant mercantile culture. And from that, we can make certain guesses about their value system, okay? So what is good for the Confucians? It's the idea of being lucky, right? You succeed in life if you're lucky. That's how business people are, and that's why they're very superstitious.

The Carthetians are notorious for being extremely religious and superstitious. And one example of this is, of all these major civilizations, the Catholic unions are known for practicing human sacrifice. In fact, in terms of war, they will even go as far as practicing child sacrifice, killing children, killing children and sacrificing them to the gods and return for divine favor in times of war. So they are known for focusing on fortune and luck. What do they care about? They care about their own interests, right?

What's profitable? What's their purpose in life? Acquivating wealth. Does that make sense? Because these are business people, they're merchants. So that's how they structure their society and their culture. And that's why, for most of the history, they were extremely wealthy, okay? We're notorious for being extremely clever business people who made a lot of money for themselves.

Rome, let's look at Rome, okay? What is good for them? What's a good person? The answer is piety. Piety just means duty to the gods, to the city, Rome, and to your father. They believe heavily in filial piety. The best person was someone who practiced filial piety. What did they think was most valuable in their lives?

It's the idea of liberty. But liberty is a different conception for the Romans than for the Greeks. Remember, for the Greeks, what mattered was the opportunity and the ability to speak your mind in front of your peers. Okay? That's what freedom was. The Romans believed liberty was about respect. respecting the law, the institutions, and the history of Rome. But it is only by restricting a law, could you be free?

Otherwise, we all just be savages, okay? That's a conception of liberty. Now, last question then is, what's the purpose of life? And for the Romans, what really matter to them is the idea of re publica. Re publica, this is Latin. And it's translated as usually public virtue. for the public good and this is where we get the term republic from and so for

Romans the highest honor the highest privilege the purpose of life was to serve Rome and make it stronger and better okay doesn't make sense setting for political office and being head the military was the highest honor Rome could bestow on you those entire point of point point of point of of your life. Does that make sense? So if we just do a compare and contrast, we could easily figure out, oh, it's the Roman ethical system

that will allow them the most cohesion, discipline, and devotion in their military. And therefore, over time in a war, the Romans should be able to defeat both the Carfaginians and the Greeks. Does that matter? Sorry, does that make sense to you? Okay, any questions so far?

Is this clear? My argument? Carthaginians. Yeah. Okay. All right. So, Rome in the Third Pentee war from 149 and 146, they would go and destroy Carthage.

They would burn it to the ground. And then they would burn all the books that Carthage ever produced. So we don't have anything written by them. But we have a lot. lot written by Greeks and Romans, right? These Greeks and Romans were always in conflict with the Carthaginians. And what's interesting for us is, before all the conflicts started in about 300 BCE, the Romans and the Greeks had nice things to say about the Carthaginians.

They were good fighters, they were brave, they were very prosperous. Carfitz was like the wealthy city in the world, okay? They had all these praises for Carthage when war started between the Carthaginians and the Romans, then they focused on child sacrifice. The Carthaginians were offended the gods because they practiced child sacrifice, which is barbaric, and that's why the gods smited Carthage.

Remember back at this time in human history, we didn't believe in human agency. Everything was ordained by the gods. So if Carthus is destroyed, it's because of gods will it, God's will it. Why do the gods will it? Because the Carfugean practice child sacrifice. Okay, and that's what the Romans and the Greeks insisted. Of course, that means we have to be skeptical of what they say, right? But at the same time, we've done a lot of archaeological excavations around Carfetchage and we have found human remains

that show signs of human sacrifice. Okay? So we have the we have Also, Carthage comes from Phoenicia, right? We know a lot about Phoenician culture. So we've lost a lot of information about Carthage, but we're able to piece them back together slowly. Does that make sense? Yeah. All right.

Okay, but again, unfortunately, we know nothing about their culture, right? We don't know nothing about their literature, about their mythology, about their religion, because it's all been destroyed. the writing has all been destroyed by the Romans. Okay, so these three characteristics that define the Roman identity, right? Piety, liberty, and Republica,

I wanna explain them slowly, okay? So what the Romans really did well is they basically created history as mythology. So the Greeks separated mythology from history. Mythology is what the Greeks did. History is what humans did. Okay, so basically the Greeks invented history. The Romans, they basically elevate their history into mythology. Their history became their religion, okay? So let me explain what I mean by that. So there are legends that surround the founding of Rome.

So Rome was supposed to be founded in 753 BCE by Romulus. And there are legends surrounding Romulus. And there are lots of legends surrounding Romulus. But the idea is this. There was a king, and he was overgrown by his brother. And the brother banished the king's daughter to a temple, to be a virgin for the rest of her life. But then she got pregnant.

And so the brother says, to the king's daughter, why are you pregnant? And the daughter says, I was visited by Mars, the god of war, and he impregnated me. The king's brother obviously does not believe her, so he banishes her, and he orders for the twins who are born to be killed. But as a case with these legends,

the person charged. with killing the twins takes pity on them and somehow they are left to die in the woods. A she wolf, a wolf, comes and nurses them before another shepherd comes and adopts them. Eventually they realize who they are and they help the king over throw the brother and take back the throne. Now the brothers are asked to go and basically, their own city so they go to Rome and it's all just hills right and they decide this is the place to build their kingdom because there's a river the tiber and there are all these hills that provide good defense okay the problem is this

they're twins there's two of them Romulus and Remus so and only one can be king so they're so they get into a battle and Romulus kills Remus okay and that's the founding legend of Rome and from this legend we can sort of understand or make some extrapolations about the Roman psychology they believe that violence is at the core of human existence right I mean like sometimes you have to kill your own brother and that's the right thing to do because that is ordained by the gods okay so that's the first legend Second legend is this.

Romless has to build Rome and he becomes a very open person. He welcomes immigrants into Rome. He grants them citizenship and status right away. Rome becomes a nation of immigrants. Eventually, their rise startles their neighbors, and their neighbors go to war with them at once. The Romans are so good at war that they fight back the neighbors. The neighbors are called the Sathlines.

The Simmons decide, listen, we can't put them in war, but at the same time, Rome only has males, right? Rome only has males. So we will just isolate Rome. Our daughters will not marry into Rome, and in 20 years time, Rome will have no population, okay? Romans hears of this plan, and he devises a strategy. What he does is he organizes a huge festival

and invites all his neighbors. So fathers bring your daughters to attend this festival. At this festival, the women are kidnapped, and they're basically raped. That night, Romulus visits every one of these women and apologizes for what has happened and promised that they will be safe in Rome, that they are now citizens of Rome,

and therefore they will be protected by him, personally the king. The fathers in the bruce, are obviously very upset about this so they organize this huge army and they march against Rome the Roman citizens come out to face them in battle okay and just as they're about to clash in battle the woman come and run between them and beg the new husbands and their fathers and brothers not to fight at this point Romulus appears and says he will make everyone a citizen of Rome okay and

And by doing that, he basically doubled the population of Rome. All right? Again, from this legend, we can understand the Roman psychology, which is, everything can be sacrificed in the pursuit of Roman glory. And basically, to ensure that Rome survives, okay? Because what matters is Rome, okay? It's a cult of Rome. All that matters.

is the survival of Rome. Morals don't matter. Nothing matters. All that matters is a survival of Rome. So after this, Rome starts to grow slowly. And this is a period known as the seven kings. So there are seven kings who rule Rome, and they do so for a very long time,

about 200 plus years, and most of them are very, very good kings, except the last king. His name is Tarkinus, Tarkanius superbus, okay? Superbus is Latin for arrogant, so he's often referred to as Tarkin the Proud. So if Tarka the Proud, he is, as his name suggests,

a very arrogant king. What makes him arrogant is his hubris. He refuses to listen to nobility. In fact, those in the nobility who challenge his authority often get killed. He has a second son, and the second son, he's a jerk. He likes to abuse his power. And one thing that he enjoys doing is raping the woman of Rome.

There's one woman who's notorious or who's famous for her virtue. His name is Lucretia. And the prince thinks raping her will be the most fun, because she will be, because she will be the most insulted by this. So he rapes her and then she goes and confronts her husband, okay, her husband, and her husband has a friend. His name is Lucius Boutis. Lucius Boutis happens to be the nephew of the king and he is very much opposed to the tyranny of the king. And Lucreus says to her husband and to his friend Lusius Boutis, I've been raped. Will you promise me to avenge my honor?

And the husband and Lucius Buddhist see she's distraught, okay? And so they sue for her and promise her they will do if they can in the morning. And Lucretia, she doesn't really believe them. So what she does is she takes a knife out from her dress, and she stops herself in the heart, and she dies before them. Now they're honor bound to avenge her death. And so what Lucius Buddhist does is he calls a meeting of the nobility and they decide to gather to overfall the king. The king is out campaigning.

He's basically at war. And what they do is they lock the gates of Rome. Now the king is furious. And so what the king does is he decides he's going to go back to Etritska where he's from and he's going to rally these. other the his friends the kings okay because if the Romans can overflow him well other people can overflow their kings right so this is a bad president so he's going to organize a huge army to march against Rome meanwhile luci's Buddhist he's instituting the Republic okay now the king the thing of the king is

all powers are invested in the king these powers include military judicial deciding cases, legislative, making laws, administrative, bureaucratic, right, and religious. So these are five major duties of the king, and this is where his power comes from. So what Lucius Brutus and the Romans do is they separate his powers, not into individuals, but into institutions that are now elected by the people. This is the heart of republicanism. So the military will now run by the council. The council is basically the head of the state.

And again, he's elected. The judicial is run by the praetor. Legislator is the Senate. Administrative is the ad-dial. And the religious is the Pontifex Maximus. And again, they're all elected by the people. Now what's important to understand is it's usually nobility who are on the, or who are all, who are in these offices. But back then, there wasn't much separation between nobility and ordinary people, okay?

So nobility are what we call patricians, the patricians, and the ordinary people are what we call the plebeians. And honestly, there was not much difference. The patricians are, just come from the longest, like the families who have been in Rome the longest, okay, the oldest families. And they were wealthy, but not that much wealthier from ordinary Romans. So maybe you have one car, right? Well, I have three cows. Also, the people could go visit each other's homes without any ceremony. So you could be the head of state.

You could be the council, but if I'm an ordinary person, I can just come to your house and have dinner with you. There are no doors, there were no guards. There was no separation. Okay? So, Lusius Buddhists instituted a new system where the king's powers were divided among different institutions. And now, people didn't have to obey the king, they have to obey the republic. The republic was three things. The laws, the history, or traditions, and institutions, okay?

That's the republic. And this system, unbelievably, incredibly, will not be able to be able to be. will not change for about 500 years. So it's pretty stable. Now what's important to remember is these are not innovations. The Romans just basically copied this from the neighbors, the Etrishans. So the Romans have a republic.

The problem with the republic is everyone's equal. And so if you come from a privileged background, you find this very annoying. So now there's a conspiracy to bring back the king. And this conspiracy was discovered. and everyone was caught and imprisoned. It turns out Lewis's Buddhist has two sons, okay? He has two sons, and they were both part of this conspiracy.

They were tried by the Senate, and they were all sentenced to death, including the two sons of Lucia's Buddhists. The problem is this. The problem is the council has to oversee the execution of the prisoners. counsel, Luce's Buddhist is counsel. Okay? So Luce's Buddhist has to oversee the execution of his two sons. Now if Luce's Buddhist is like, you know what, I'm going to resign my office or hey, you know what, I'm sick, everyone would be like, we understand. Take the day off, don't worry about it, okay? Instead, Luce's Buddhist

showed up for work. and he oversaw the execution of his two sons. All of Rome came to the execution. It was a public event. Everyone was watching the face of Lusufus Buddhists. We know the two sons are going to die. They're going to beheaded. But everyone wanted to see Lusius' Buddhist reactions.

He was crying throughout execution. These are to his two sons, right? He has no more sons. This is his legacy now. and his two sons are about to be killed. In fact, he's the one charged with killing his own sons. He has to do it. He has no choice.

So everyone's watching him. And throughout this process, he's crying. His tears are flowing down his face. He can't help himself. But he's still standing still, and he's still slowly ordering the execution of his two sons. And the Romans are just shocked by this public display okay this is the idea of devotion right you are so devoted to Rome that you're willing to sacrifice your own children to ensure its

survival and its glory Tarkinus Tarkin the proud here's about this he gets really angry so he allies himself with kings and they march against Rome Lucius Buddhist is counsel he's in charge of military so he marches his army against Tarkin the Proud. One of the sons of Targna Proud sees Lusufus' Buddhist, and he charges ahead because he wants to kill the man who insulted his family. Lucious Buddha sees the king's son running, they're both on horses, right?

Running, galloping towards him, and Lusufth Buddha gets angry. And so he charges ahead as well. Lucid's Buddhist throws his spear, javelin, the king's son, the prince froze his spear as well, and they spear each other to death, and they both die. Okay? And so Lucius Buddhist is, at this point, considered the greatest Roman whoever lived. And for most of Roman history, he'll be considered the greatest woman whoever lived until Julius Caesar. And it was in the memory and honor of Lucius Buddhist that,

they would assassinate Julius Caesar. But we'll discuss this next class. Okay, so the king's army is overwhelming the Romans, and the Romans have to flee back into the city. There's a draw bridge that connects Rome to the mainland, okay? So the river, Tyber crosses around Rome. There's a garrison that's supposed to be protecting the bridge,

but they see the army coming, the enemy army marching towards them, they get scared, and they went all into Rome. One guy, he's been his cockles, he decides, I can't run away. Because I run away, the army just marches into Rome and kills everyone. So he descends, he decides to make a last stand.

And it's just one guy, there's one random guy, okay? And what he does is he starts shunning insults at the enemy army. He's like, you guys are slaves. We're Romans. We will always be free. And the enemy army, and there's thousands of them, okay? They have absolutely no idea what's going on.

This is one guy on a bridge shouting insulting them, okay? So they freeze. Eventually, they realize, oh, this guy is just distracting us because his friends, the other soldiers, are trying to cut down the bridge. So they run to him. At this point, two other Romans, okay? Two officers run besides Kalkals and together the three of them hold off the invading

army together with their shields. They fight for their lives. Eventually the bridge is about to be cut down. The two officers run away and Kalkos makes the last stand and the bridge falls and what Kogos does is before it falls completely he jumps into the tiber and he survives. doesn't drown. So this tells us, hey, anyone can be a hero of Rome, right? It loses Buddhist, he's the king's nephew, he's nobility. But Cawthos, he's just an ordinary Roman who had the courage, he had the devotion to fight for Rome. And by doing so, with his devotion,

he's able to save Rome by himself. So Rome right now is surrounded by this huge army. And one, One young man, his name is Muciaus, and he's a Roman nobleman, okay? He goes to the Senate and he says to the Senate, listen, we're being surrounded by an enemy army, they're huge, we're starving to death. I have a plan to win this war. I'm going to swim across the tiber, sneak into the enemy camp, and kill the enemy king, and this war will end. The Senate gives Musius his approval.

Musseus sneaks into the enemy camp. It's payday, which means the soldiers are getting their wages, right? Musseus sneaks into the front and he sees on the podium there are two individuals who are giving out wages to the soldiers. They both look like the king. One's a king and once the secretary. They look the same. Mooseus doesn't know who's the king and who's the secretary you know at this point an ordinary person would be like I'll come back later okay like let me figure out let me spy first and figure out who's who the king is and then when a better opportunity arises I'll kill the king Moose's is like it's 50-50 man so he takes his knife rush to support him and

stops one of the man who happens to be the secretary Okay, so he's arrested and the king is now interrogating him. He wants to know if there are other spies in the camp. The king says to Musias, Tell me the truth, or I will burn you alive, okay? And he shows Musius the pyro, okay, with this huge fire. Muscia says, I am one of a hundred young Romans who have pledged their lives to kill you to free Rome.

He's lying. This is not true. You kill me, there'll be 99 more. We are not afraid of you. You say he will burn me if I do not tell you the truth? Now what he does is he puts his hand into the fire. His hand is burning, okay? And he holds it together. And what makes him hold it together is

what he sees is the face of Luce's Buddhist as he orders the execution of the body. his two sons, right? Because an execution of your two sons is a lot harder than burning your hand alive, okay, than burning your hand. And the king, he looks at this, and he thinks, the Romans are the craziest bastards I have ever met. Screw this, I'm going home. And he lets let Mushis go and the war is over. And that's how the Roman Republic survived the invasion and became the Republic. So this is the history of Rome.

And this history is something like me taught to anyone who becomes a citizen. If you are a Roman, it's because you believe in this history. Believe in this history, knowing this history is what makes you a Roman. Okay? So that's the first concept. Piety, loyalty to Rome. Second concept that makes Rome unique or powerful is the idea of liberty. What Cahuas did, what Moosius did, what Lusius Buddhists did was preserve the liberty of Rome.

Remember, what liberty means is respecting and following the laws, institutions, and the history of Rome because that's what makes Rome Rome that's what allows you to have freedom okay and that's why in 2012 had defeated the Romans the Romans refused to surrender because surrendering would mean surrendering their liberty right because Hannibal would impose peace terms that would that would make basically Rome into a client state of Carthage they would lose their liberty right and if you don't liberty your life isn't worth living Give me life or give me liberty.

The third element of Roman greatness is the idea of this, right? Repubriate. So what this means is every nobleman, if you have the ability, you want to serve Rome. So what they did was this. They turned women politics into a competition to produce the best man. It was basically a meritocracy. So once you have to find out what you mean you stood for election and this system was basically a meritocracy Okay, you first stood for election to become an adile and then you became a praetor and then you became a council

Once you were a council you have the opportunity to win the highest glory What you could do is become a governor of a faraway province and then is if you are governor of this part of your province province and you can win more territory for Rome then you'll be given something called a triumph triumph triumph is a big parade where you are celebrated by all the Roman people that's what every Roman soldier aspired to to become a great general who would receive his own triumph because he's won new territory for Rome okay and that's why even though a third of the Roman center was wiped out by Hannibal, they didn't give up because the other people were like, okay, now here's my opportunity to prove myself, right?

And one of these young people, his name is Scipio, he would go on and lead an army into Spain, conquer Spain, and then lead an army against Hannibal in North Africa in Carthage and destroy Hannibal. Okay? Because the point of life is to receive the triumph. And if you receive a, we receive, see the triumph, then you will remember by Romans in their history, which is what gives your life meaning. Okay. All right. So do we understand these concepts? Piety, liberty, and republica, because they are the essence of the Roman identity.

And they are what made Rome great. Sure. All right. So sorry. Luce's Buddhist, okay? Luce's Buddhist overfrew the king and he established the Roman Republic. The Roman Republic is now a nation of laws. His two sons are princes, and they lost their privileges,

so they partake in this conspiracy to bring back the king. Right? This conspiracy was discovered, and as punishment, they were all sentenced to death, because they wanted to destroy the Republic and bring back the king. Does that make sense? So, what the story, and again, we don't know if these stories are true. They're probably not true, okay? What this story is telling us is if the founder of the Roman Republic can sacrifice his family in order to make sure the republic survives,

well you can as well. Okay, no sacrifice every sacrifice must be made to ensure Roman greatness. That's basically the message. Any more questions? That's a great question, okay? So how do we know this? The answer is is this for most of this time this is what we call oral history okay so this is like you know mythology and it was basically passed from generation to generation this oral history was written down in books but because Rome was at work so much Rome was conquered once and Rome was burnt down and so we lost a lot of the written history okay now problem of oral history is there are different

versions of oral history okay so there are different versions of these stories and then a main name named Livy during the time of the Roman Empire when it was first founded he sat down to write the official history of Rome and this is where we get all these stories from okay and again We don't believe these stories to be that true, okay? There's probably, there's, Lucius Buddhist was probably a real person, but whether he did these things, we don't know, okay? It's debatable.

But what matters is, this is what Romans believe, okay? Do you understand? What matters is what they believe as opposed to what really happened. And this is what creates the Roman identity. Great. Any more questions? Okay. So, yeah, I mean, that's basically it, okay? This is what made Rome great, and that's what allowed them to come back from the defeats that Hannibal inflicted on them

to eventually win the war. Okay? Any more, any more questions? 80,000 army against Hannibal, yes. Okay, that's a great question, okay? So like, you want to know more about Hannibal's invasion of Italy, right? Okay, all right? So, Rome, what Rome is able to do is offer citizenship to anyone who fights for Rome. And Rome has for the longest time been fighting its neighbors, right? Once it conquered its neighbors, its neighbors promised to send soldiers to Rome in times of war. So Rome is able to draw on soldiers from all around the Italian peninsula. That's the first thing. Second thing is that when Hannibal invaded Italy, he was doing so with many goals, okay, who are the invaders of Italy.

And these goals have traditionally been the enemy of the Italians. So when Hannibal did so, Rome's neighbors rallied to Rome's support, to support. support Rome, okay, because they saw the goals and Hannibal as invaders who threaten their culture, okay? The second thing. The third thing is, Hannibal had an invading army, right? But he had no organizational and logistics support. He had no food supply because he was basically doing this on his own initiative.

Carveridge is too far away, okay? And Rome had the best, like, Navy in the United. in the Mediterranean. So there was no way that Carthage could resupply Hannibal, sorry, so there's no way Carthage could resupply Hannibal, right? So Hannibal was forced to spend a lot of time foraging for food.

You understand? And that's ultimately why he lost the war, because it's possible for you to win all these battles because you're a military genius, but you still have to feed your soldiers. And what Rome did after the battle canine was they recognized this. fact, they recognize that Hannibal's main problem was logistics and they start to not,

they would, they decide we will never fight Hannibal in a battle again, we will cut off his food supply, okay? And so Hannibal had to spend most of this time foraging for food. Meanwhile, Rome could rebuild itself by freeing its slaves, okay, and by recruiting more neighbors to join their costs. to join their cause. Okay, does that make sense? Okay, that's why, that's why armies don't win wars. Nations win wars. Does that make sense?

So another thing that you need to understand is, while Hannibal was winning glory in Italy, the kinds of elders in Carpice, were they happy about this, do you think? These are business people, right? Are they happy about this? They're not happy about this because, one, it's going to cost them a lot of money to continue the war. And listen, Italy is poor. So there's no profit to be made from conquering Rome.

That's the first problem. Second problem is, if Hannibal were to win glory in Italy, he would come back and make it some king of Carthage, right? Does that make sense? So Hannibal was being undermined by Carthage itself, even though, Hannibal was trying to save Carthage. Does that make sense? And that's what makes Rome unique. Rome has been united for most of its history,

whereas most places like Greece and Carthage were divided into different political factions. And that's what caused Carthage to ultimately be undermined. So ultimately, Rome was able to come back from this defeat and defeat Carthage, because Carthage again saw Hannibal as big as a threat as Rome, okay? This would be costly for Carthage because after the war is over, 50 years later, Rome, a Roman senator named Cato the Elder, he visits Carthage because he's curious

what's happened to Carthage after the end of the war. And to his dismay and to his shock, Carthage has become wealthier than ever before. Okay? 50 years of peace means that Carthage is able to accumulate more wealth than ever before. It has so much wealth that is able to pay off the indemnity that Roman imposed on it. It's basically able to pay Rome off.

And Keito the elder, he is traumatized by this. He goes back to Roman and says, we have to destroy Carthage. Okay, there's a huge debate in the sense. He says, listen, if we let Carthage survive, Carfitts will always be a threat to us. And the other senators were like, listen, Cato, I know you want to destroy Carthage, but remember, Carthage threatens us. If we destroy Carthage, we will no longer have an enemy. We will no longer have a threat.

We will change as a people if we destroy the people. people if we destroy Carthage. But Caleb Elder insisted, eventually an army was dispatched to destroy Carthage. The Romans have a habit of always blaming the enemies for starting the war, okay? So they didn't want to instigate the war. So they made these dumb excuses and said that Carfitz was violating the peace treaty. And the Roman said to Carthage, listen, if you surrender all your weapons, we will go away. The Carthaginians believed the Romans and thought if they surrender all the weapons, they go away.

The Romans got all these weapons. They were like, we didn't expect this, man. So the Romans said to the Carthaginians, you know what, we also need you to move your city from the coast, 10 kilometers inland. Okay? And at this point, the Carthaginians knew Rome was going to destroy Carthage. there's a three-year siege and then at the end of it Rome conquered Carfetched killed everyone inside, enslaved others, burn all the books and wiped out Carfetch from history as well as the history books okay so that's a Roman mentality

devotion means all or nothing okay you don't surrender but you also don't show mercy to your enemies okay so Hannibal was right Rome was a threat to Carthage. Because Carthage has a merchant culture run by business people, they could never recognize the threat. Does that make sense? Any more questions? Good. Public virtue. Yeah. Okay, so why do people want to come to Rome? Well, the fact of the matter is that for most of history, people didn't want to go to Rome. Because Rome was considered a, like for example, the Greeks. didn't want to go to Rome because they thought Rome was uncivilized.

And Rome, but Rome wanted to go to Athens, because they thought Athens was the height of civilization, right? The Carthaginians certainly didn't want to go to Rome, okay? Rome was like Macedonia. So basically North Korea even, you can even say it's like North Korea, okay? It's a militaryistic society, that's barbaric, right? The Greeks like to watch theater, the Romans like to watch gladiator shows, or lions eat people, okay?

So for most of its history, people avoided Rome. When becoming a republic, you had no choice but to go to Rome because that's how you could build your career. It was the capital of the world. Okay? Does that make sense? So another saying this is,

there were many people who want to be Greek because they were attracted by the culture. Nobody wanted to be Roman. The Romans made everyone into a Roman through the conquest. So the Roman, Romans were repugnant in many ways. They just were a repugnant people.

Any more questions? Any more questions? Okay, great. So next class, it's a fun class, we do Julius Caesar.