Alex Petkas
@costofglory • 40,892 subscribers
Hero Cult Advocacy | CEO @ClassicalSoc - Building the ancient future | Cost of Glory podcast | Princeton PhD
Videos
New Video: Julius Caesar (Part 1) - Man of Destiny. On how Caesar's early rise made him into the man he became. 00:00 - Prologue: Concealed Dagger 02:20 - Why Caesar? 05:45 - Caesar’s seedy childhood -> secret power 07:35 - Underestimated Teenage priest 11:30 - Caesar's near miss was bigger than you think 20:30 - Caesar Homo rumors 27:30 - Kidnapped by pirates (and how he got revenge) 31:45 - Caesar as student: nerd vs. warlord 37:25 - Caesar has the High Life option 41:00 - Caesar's disturbing dreams 45:30 - Master of Symbols: The Marian Funeral 54:00 - World's Greatest Showman, massive debt 1:00:15 - The gamble for Pontifex Maximus 1:03:10 - Crucifying an Old Man? 1:11:00 - Caesar’s near-death experience with Catiline 1:24:00 - Wild associates and Caesar’s political judo 1:32:20 - The crossdressing cuckoldry scandal 1:39:50 - Beating the Filibuster 1:44:00 - Caesar's enemies consolidate 1:47:18 - Lessons from Caesar’s life: Opportunity & Destiny
Alex Petkas119,805 views • 9 months ago
Why was Caesar Rome's Greatest General? (new Cost of Glory video) I think the best illustration may be his Pharsalus campaign, where he faced Pompey and the combined grand army of his optimate antagonists, in the Civil War. It began with Caesar's humiliating strategic loss at Dyrrhachium. But one of Caesar's master strokes: In a campaign in which everyone else (including most historians today) thought Caesar had time working against him. He *kind of* did, since Pompey was vastly better provisioned with food, money, ships, etc. But Caesar realized an opportunity to turn the tables: When he retreated to the wide plains of Thessaly, great cavalry country, he was luring Pompey into a position where Pompey was obviously superior (Pompey had 7x the cavalry that Caesar did). Pompey kept refusing battle, knowing Caesar's great strength, while trying to make it look like Caesar was the one refusing battle (really Pompey was just offering it on insane terms, outside his fort, up on a hill). But Caesar was just waiting for the pressure to build on Pompey (much of the senate was literally watching, while camped out with Pompey, and getting impatient). Caesar at last called Pompey's bluff, and packed up to retreat. Now, if Pompey let Caesar go when he had him on easy territory, he'd be revealed as timid. Caesar knew that, to stay at the top of Rome's leadership, Pompey couldn't just wear Caesar down in a war of attrition. He had to challenge him man to man. The whole campaign came down not so much to military supremacy, as to a clash of egos, of politics, and Caesar exploited this fact to the maximum. To settle it then and there was militarily and strategically unnecessary, the military risk/reward calculation was bad. But Caesar offered a temptation too great to refuse for someone whose objective was not pure victory, but securing his reputation. Not unlike Alexander's approach to Darius III! Pompey marched out, fought, and lost. Battle details herein:
Alex Petkas55,965 views • 5 months ago
I recently discovered Victor Davis Hanson wrote a historical novel about his favorite classical hero (03:13), Epaminondas of Thebes. (We recorded this shortly before his recent surgery). One of my favorite memories of my year teaching Classics at Cal State Fresno was visiting Victor at his family farm with a colleague. Many people don't realize this, but he's an extremely generous guy, gracious host, fights hard for his friends, and is beloved by the locals. Also, he loves America and wants to see us rebound. In this interview, we talked about Thebes, a less discussed but fascinating classical Greek city which made a brief play for supremacy, after the decline of Athens and Sparta (6:40). Its hopes were crushed by Alexander the Great when he sacked it and sold its people into slavery (26:45). Towards the end, we discuss lessons for contemporary USA, Ukraine and more (44:10). Looking forward to seeing VDH get back in the saddle soon.
Alex Petkas17,957 views • 7 months ago
Your degree wouldn't impress Plato. He was a warrior who could kill you with their bare hands. Modern education forgot this. And that's why it fails. While we're producing fragile academics, the Greeks were creating elite leaders. By 18, every "intellectual" in ancient Greece was: • A trained horseman • An accomplished gymnast • A soldier ready for combat The was a deliberate system to forge individuals who could unite thought and action. Theory and practice. Wisdom and strength. This transforms everything about how we read classical texts: • When Plato writes about courage, he's sharing battlefield wisdom • When Aristotle discusses leadership, he's teaching from command experience • When they debate ethics, they're preparing men who will make life-or-death decisions Plato and Aristotle were commanders first, philosophers second. Modern education produces specialists who can quote the classics. Ancient education produced leaders who could write them.
Alex Petkas19,166 views • 1 year ago
The "Great Books" is intellectual surrender disguised as cultural resistance. Modern conservatives don't understand that they're fighting for scraps from a battle their ancestors lost in the 19th century. The classical education that built Western civilization wasn't about reading lists. It was about studying great men like Cicero, Machiavelli, and Caesar as masters of action, not just thought. When our institutions fell in the 19th century, we lost more than a reading list. We lost an entire education paradigm that trained leaders through intensive study of history's master practitioners of power and influence. Today's "Great Books" movement isn't preservation: it's taxidermy. Preserving dead texts while ignoring the living tradition of strategic wisdom that made these works matter. Want actual restoration? Stop treating historical texts as literature to analyze. Treat them as manuals of persuasion, power, and strategic action: as their authors intended.
Alex Petkas14,943 views • 1 year ago
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