NEW for patrons - I'm obsessed with Julius Caesar and I hate it
As voted for by $10+ patrons, the subject that's been bouncing its way around in my mind lately. I guess this is kind of a companion piece to Three Dead Girls I Love in some ways; it's largely about the same historical forces, but this is a more specific thing that's been on my mind even as the video is out. Hope people enjoy!
Also seriously, Sumeriaheads if you have any book recommendations please hit me up, I already asked on Bluesky but I could always use more
Comments (11)
Fantastic video; extremely interesting & nuanced. Not to take away from Cæsar’s polymathery (nor anything said in this vid or the main one) but at the strong risk of a “well duh” I guess it is a little easier to win the archival violence if you’ve already ruthlessly won the actual violence ⚔️ Alan Turing was another out-&-out world-historical genius: all that work to crack the Enigma code during the war followed by writing a little paper which basically resulted in all of modern computing 🖥️ He died tragically at the age of 41 after being treated abysmally by the British government of the time; who knows what he might have achieved with another 20, 30, 40 years 🙌 We honour him now with statues & murals and he’s on the back of our most valuable unit of currency (the £50 pound note) but it’s obviously way too little much too late 😢
The hair and clothes stuff is interesting because I have heard historians basically say he was a Roman Counter Culture figure in his youth. Young people mimicked his style and a lot of the "fall of the Republic" stuff very much sounds like old people complaining about the youth. But it's part of why he was able to connect with a younger and discontented generation of Romans who very much felt like the older Senatorial class was out of touch.
As someone with some polymathic tendencies and a lot of well thought out ideas that I can effectively articulate about things of people care about, I sometimes have people get to know me and think that I’m extremely interesting. And I always say, “I’m the most interesting person you’ll ever meet, and I’m exactly as interesting as everybody else.”
You can't seriously be telling me Julius Cesar, fascist icon, was a messy bisexual bottom
I hate to say it but
I think that as knowledge has grown so much over the past few centuries it has become so much more specialised, so that it is now nearly impossible to become an expert in more than one field. I remember an article called “The Illustrated Guide to a Ph.D.” which shows all human knowledge as a big circle, and Ph.D. knowledge as a thin coloured wedge that tapers as it nears the edge. Part of it might also be the ‘great man’ attitude which treats the most prominent historical figures as exceptional individuals who shaped events and disregards any wider context, like the contributions of all the people under them and around them. We still have that with Silicon Valley billionaires like Elon claiming they are the world’s greatest engineers and taking credit for the work that was done by all their employees.
All cats think they are Julius Caesar
I wonder what Cardamom's Roman Empire is.
I'd still be up for the breaking bad video
relatable. my relationship with the prima pater is complicated at best. he did fix the calendar though
can't hate him for that