73 - Crassus III: Battle of Carrhae

Check out Ralston College's FUNDED MA program: https://www.ralston.ac/humanities-ma !

...Plutarch offers some advice on how to choose your friends, and how to be a good one.  Examples include Alexander the Great, Cato, Carneades, Plato, Dionysius the Tyrant, and more.

(Here depicted: the monument of Philopappus in Athens, to whom Plutarch's essay is dedicated)

An interview with Barry Strauss, Spartacus expert, and author of The Spartacus War

In this episode: 

-How Spartacus' Slave revolt almost failed in its early stages
-Overcoming short term thinking as a leader
-Spartacus' influence on modern leaders

A method for reading that can transform your life.

W/ help from Dana Gioia, California Poet Laureate, Chairman, National Endowment for the Arts 2003-2009.

Get his new book Sentences from Seneca, here!

Some Sources:

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius/Letter_108
https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Sallust/Bellum_Jugurthinum/3*.html
https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/Sayings_of_Spartans*/main.html
https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/Sayings_of_Spartans*/Agesilaus.html
https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Agesilaus*.html
https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Lysander*.html
https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Sertorius*.html

Why does Achilles, slaughterer of men, play the lyre? A conversation with Spencer Klavan of the Young Heretics podcast.

Check out the Cost of Glory Men's Leadership Retreat: costofglory.com/retreat !

Spencer on Twitter: @spencerklavan
In this conversation, we discuss:
-Spencer & Alex's common ground training as classicists
-How one gets into these ancient books in the first place
-The theory of "Art for Art's Sake": Why it's interesting, plausible, and wrong.
-Epic heroes singing Epic Poetry
-Great books for busy dads

And much, much more...

The fall and political struggles of the great Lucullus, rival of Pompey and Caesar.

Cost of Glory Men's Retreat 2024 application open! - costofglory.com/retreat 

Thanks to our sponsor Ancient Language Institute - Tutoring now available:

Latin: https://ancientlanguage.com/latin-tutorials/ 

Ancient Greek: https://ancientlanguage.com/ancient-greek-tutorials/ 

Cicero's Pro Archia

https://www.attalus.org/cicero/archias.html 

People in this episode: 
Mithridates, King of Pontus 
Tigranes, King of Armenia 
Clodius, the Brother in Law 
Pompey 
Clodia, the Bad Wife
Servilia, also a Bad Wife 
Cato the Younger 
Cicero 
Caesar 

Places in this episode:
Tigranokert 
Artaxata 
Nisibis 
Pontus 
Armenia 
Rome 

Lucullus drives Mithridates out of Pontus, and war escalates

In this episode:
-The power of concentration
-Nothing is more important than sleep
-Bold Barbarian Queens
-The value of bad news
-Battle of Tigranocerta

Book Rec - Gareth Sampson, Rome's Great Eastern War

Lucullus, Conqueror of Armenia.  Highlights from Plutarch's biography of the great foe of Pompey

Cost of Glory Men's Retreat 2024 application open! - costofglory.com/retreat 

Thanks to our sponsor Ancient Language Institute - Tutoring now available:

Latin: https://ancientlanguage.com/latin-tutorials/ 

Ancient Greek: https://ancientlanguage.com/ancient-greek-tutorials/ 

In this episode: 
-How to get noticed early on in your career 
-Seducing your way to warlord status 
-Taking the time to do the math 

The vice of "dysopia" brings down even the strongest.  Plutarch gives some advice on how to fortify ourselves against it. 

Reach out to alex@ancientlifecoach.com for more info on the 2024 Cost of Glory Men's retreat in Rome!

Link to a translation of Plutarch's text : https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/De_vitioso_pudore*.html

What happened to Crassus' captured soldiers?  To his family?  What can we learn from his successes and his world-historic failure? 

ANNOUNCEMENT! Cost of Glory Men's Leadership Retreat in Rome - July 2024.  Reach out to alex@ancientlifecoach.com if you're interested.

Buy the books:

-Penguin edition of Plutarch including Life of Crassus
-Sallust's war with Catiline
-Tom Holland's Rubicon
-Barry Strauss' book on Spartacus
-Edward Watts's Mortal Republic
-Gareth Sampson, "The Defeat of Rome" on Parthian Expedition
-Peter Stothard, The First Tycoon 

See also Gruen, Last Generation of the Roman Republic; Ward, Crassus and the Late Roman Republic; Rawson, Crassorum Funera (in journal Latomus).

Pictured: Roman Soldier next to a Han noble, statue group in Liqian, China.  Photo: Natalie Behring

Crassus' famous campaign against the Parthians - what motivated it?  What happened at Carrhae?  What can we learn from it?

Thanks to our Sponsor!

Ancient Language Institute:
https://ancientlanguage.com

Key Figures
Marcus Licinius Crassus - The Protagonist 
Gaius Pompeius Magnus - Pompey, the Rival 
Lucius Licinius Crassus - the Orator 
Publius Licinius Crassus - Crassus' father 
Publius Licinius Crassus - Crassus' Son 
Publius Clodius Pulcher - The Playboy Mobster 
Titus Annius Milo - Anti-Mobster 
Marcus Tullius Cicero - The Mentor 
Gaius Julius Caesar - The Triumvir 
Marcus Porcius Cato - The Nemesis 
Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus - The Challenger 
Ptolemy XII "Auletes" - The Piper King 
Aulus Gabinius - Pompey's Crony in Syria 
Trebonius - Willing Tribune 
Ateius (Capito) - Unwilling Tribune 
Gaius Cassius Longinus - The Assassin 
Octavius - The Junior Officer 
Orodes II - King of Parthia 
Mithradates IV - Parthian Usurper 
Surena - the Parthian Commander at Carrhae 

Key Places 
Rome 
Ravenna - City in Northern Italy (cisalpine Gaul) 
Luca - City in Northern Italy (Etruria/Cisalpine Gaul) 
Curia - The Senate house 
Syria - Roman Province 
Mesopotamia 
Iraq 
Seleucia 
Babylon 
Ctesiphon 
Carrhae 
Euphrates River 

Italian quote at the beginning: Dante, Purgatorio XX