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 um Empire so um 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 what the Romans believe we actually don't know okay so um around this time Rome it's just like a small insignificant Kingdom in the middle of Italy okay it's it was started on the Tyber this is Rome and it's part of Italy um called a Latin area Okay so this these people are known as the Latins now at this time um and over the next centuries Rome would be a small poor uh Kingdom or was at war with its neighbors okay primarily the sabins over here and then you have other tribes as well at this time the dominant civilization is what we call the atrians and the atrans are the most advanced civilization in Italy um during this time and it is very similar to Greece in that there are different city states um and they trade with each other other and because they are by the Sea they are able to access um cultures and ideas and goods from all around the world okay um then across the Mediterranean you have a place called Carthage um here is Italy uh Sicily okay and I call Sicily SI Sicily is important because it's basically the main island of the Mediterranean so if you want to control the the Mediterranean Sea and the trade you have to control Sicily all right um so across the sea is Carthage and Carthage is um 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 okay so they'll they'll they'll travel and sail all around the world and found new colonies and slowly they'll build up um their own little Empire across the Mediterranean and they are for the longest time the wealthiest city um in Europe basically okay and um of course over here are the Greeks right and we spend a lot of time discussing the 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 the tristans the Greeks uh the carthaginians and then the then you have these Romans um 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 answer 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 uh because it's not because the Romans are not afraid to die and because the Romans have a different conception of sinship than the Greeks okay remember the Greeks were extremely jealous of CIP uh it was very hard to become an Athenian it was very hard to become a Spartan you basically you basically have to be born into the Polish uh same thing with the carthaginians they were much they were not as um strict as the Greeks they were pretty inflexible as well they're very proud of being of being a citizen Rome because it was the poorest and smallest it it had no choice if you wanted to immigrate to Rome they welcome you as a citizen and as such they could throughout his history draw on the vast uh Manpower pool in the surrounding areas okay and as such um with their almost unlimited uh Manpower resources they could eventually overwhelm the Greeks and the carthaginians become the dominant power in the Mediterranean by about 200 BC okay that's the easy answer and that's what most historians and most scholars believe but I want to be I I want to be more precise okay 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 that ultimately determine their fate and future okay does that make sense all right so um so about 500 BC Rome becomes a republic and at this time the rusian culture is dominating Rome in fact um for three out of Rome seven Kings previously were a Tristian okay so culturally and traditionally speaking the Christians have this huge impact on Rome but because Rome is very good at War it's slowly able to expand and conquer ER the trishkin and basically control all of Italy okay and because the Romans are expansionist by Nature they are they are a warlike people they are basically a war machine they all they now want to control um Sicily and the coast okay and this brings them into conflict with the Greeks because remember the Greeks when they built colonies they buil 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 aan okay and in about 280 the Greeks in southern uh Italy they call for help and remember at this time the Greek world is dominant throughout the world okay so Alexander conquered most of the world and his generals now control most of the ter to and one of the successors to Alexander his name is pyrus okay he decides this is opportunity for him to build his own Empire So he responds to uh the Greeks who call for help against Rome okay so Rome is threatening the Greeks in southern Italy the Greeks are asking for help from the compatriots pyrus um comes with an army to help his comp Patriots and remember at this time the Greeks had the best military in the world because of the hobik phallic and pyus is destroying the Romans battle after battle pyus is destroying and decimating the Romans eventually pyus says this wow um 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 will have no more soldiers left okay and this this is what the F this is where the phrase peric Victory comes from right you can win but the costs 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 okay 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 more military dominant than the Romans but eventually because of the Roman way of War Rome will eventually conquer the Greeks okay so that's the Greeks um eventually the Romans went Sicily and this brings them brings them into direct conflict with Carthage and they 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 sucks they lose a lot of ships and so the Romans build more ships and they get slaughtered by the caragan at Sea so they build more ships and more ships and more ships eventually they overwhelm the carthaginians and so after 20 years of war in what is called the first Punic War um Rome becomes a dominant Naval power in the Mediterranean carage becomes second then something strange happens okay um Carthage it is a trading power is a maritime power and but and while it's able to dominate its neighbors okay it establish Empire in Northern Africa and in Spain it it it loses a lot of Wars against the Greeks and the Romans who are just better Warriors okay but then the carians produce a man named hanb Hannibal harba Hannibal Barka and Hannibal Bara is considered by many military historians to be the greatest General who ever lived as a military strategist Hannibal had no um 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 Comfort Carthage so this better to take the fight to Rome first than to wait for Rome to come to you okay now um Carthage at this time it is basically a republic like Rome and it's run by people call by something called Council of Elders okay these are the wealthiest citizens in um Carthage and there's elements of democracy and arlock is as well but it's 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 Hannibal did two things okay the first thing is um he was in charge of civil mines in Spain and what he did was he conquered a lot more a lot of Spanish territory for Carthage and and and so he was able to amass more wealth he took this wealth and he used it to basically bribe the coun 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 hanal did was he did something that thought that was unimaginable before he took his army and he crossed cross the Alps okay he crossed the Alps sorry the Alps are here into Italy he is now at Rome's doorstep and again before Hol did this it was fought un it was found impossible to cross the Alps especially in winter with an army okay but hell did that he lost a lot of men and elephants war elephants in his Crossing but he was able to to cross and when he crossed he was able to summon all lot of allies to his side okay because Rome was at war with everyone in Italy and with the guls to the north of Italy and France okay so so Rome had a lot of enemies and so Hannibal was able to replenish his forces once he landed in Italy it was also very charismatic uh speaker a great General okay um Rome heard about this and at first r were shocked but they weren't scared War 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 uh 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 world's largest army okay 880,000 men and at this time Hannibal had about 40,000 men and then we'll take these 880,000 soldiers and we'll just throw at Hannibal and Crush Hannibal and the war will be over okay and that's the strategy that's just the Roman way okay the Romans are not creative they are just uh brutal bold and direct okay that's just that that's just their way of War and so at and so henbo meets his 880,000 um 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 2 to1 and what hanal does is he decides Ides 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 it's the value is small they're forced to march in a straight line as opposed in a wide line okay you have if you have more numbers you want to march in a wide line but because of the geography they're forced to march in a uh straight long line okay so they're marching this way Hannibal is uphill with his army and he does something strange he organizes his army not in a straight line but in a concave line okay 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 it's a sign of weakness it means the military under handable it's undisciplined they're just amateurs this will be over in an hour okay so the Romans are Marching confidently in against Hannibal they're attacking on the wings of both armies are the horsemen the calvalry okay so what happens as the Romans March against Hannibal is Hannibal sends his Cavalry against the Roman calvalry and they overwhelm the Roman Cavalry okay and now they're turning back in to attack the flank or the back meanwhile the Roman attack it's so powerful the surch is so strong that the concave of Han's Army Turns Upside Down okay it turns upside down when it does so it traps the Roman army in a circle okay do do you see this okay now they are inside a circle and the Army is coming around and attack him from the back okay militarily we call this the double envelopment strategy okay double envelopment strategy and so the Romans are are Circle completely and what follows is the greatest massacre in history militarily until War one the army of 880,000 that uh the Romans sent lost almost 70,000 men 70,000 men died that day and again no military lose so much men until 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 history up to this point the disaster is so great that right now Rome has lost 20% okay 20% of its adult male population to put that in context in World War I the 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 Han sends envoys to Rome and says listen um the war is over I'm willing to negotiate a peace settlement I am willing to negotiate peace terms and there 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 um come attack us come we we will be ready for you and this is completely unexpected okay hbal does not know what to do and this war continues and this again is 2116 um this war continues for another 15 years and then 15 years later the Romans have won they destroyed the carthaginian presence in Spain and they've conquered and they've Len it in in Africa and forced carford to surrender all right 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 okay because at that time Hannibal basically unit the entire world against Rome against Rome and Rome in the end even though it was very costly right they did win so that's a mystery okay so um first thing we need to understand is traditional military Doctrine about who wins Wars it's basically wrong traditionally we understand the military about three things okay Manpower how many soldiers do you have technology how good are your weapons and resources how wealthy are you okay traditionally we've understood War making um like if you're good at War you will have these three things okay lots of soldiers lots of technology and lots of money and if you an it an analyze it this way then Rome should be no match against carage right Carthage is a lot wealthier uh it has more technology it has the greatest General in Hannibal but then at the same time the the Athenians should not have been able to defeat the 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've have a lot of instances cases where smaller armies have been able to defeat much larger armies so think of gang Khan think of Muhammad okay so clearly this is wrong but if this is wrong what is a better way to understand military strength well I would argue how strong military uh is is based on three criteria the first is cohesion do the soldiers like and identify with each other are they United Okay cohesion second is the idea of discipline how well trained and experienced are they and the third is devotion how committed are they to winning okay 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 makes which gives it a certain character and this character will tell you you if they are likely to win a war or not okay all right so let's examine briefly the charact characteristics of Rome as opposed to the Greeks and the carthaginians okay so let's let's do a table let's just say okay you have Ro 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 er er just means Excellence you could be an you could be a jerk but you have ER like you have talent then you're a good person okay and the ER that the Greeks um are most concerned about um is the ability to speak well and the ability to fight well okay that's irritate second 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 Freedom okay and for them the idea Freedom means the ability to speak your mind in front of your peers okay the freedom of speech basically and the last question for the Greeks is what is the purpose of life okay and here the Greeks have an easy answer it's udonia remember udonia 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 okay so that's Greek culture and you you think about it this explains why the Greeks the most creative civilization in human history right they're very creative at the same time they're 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 city states 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 cagans okay now unfortunately we don't know anything about the carthaginians the reason why is Rome wiped Carthage out of History okay Rome destroyed Carthage killed everyone and erased Carthage from the history books but we do know they are a mertile Empire meaning they are focused on trade we also know that in their political system it's the wealthiest citizen who have the most political power okay and so they are basically a merchant culture a merchant mertile culture and from that we can we can make certain guesses about their value system okay so what is good for the cians it's the idea of being lucky right you succeed in life if you're lucky that's how business people right are that's why they're very superstitious the cians are notorious for being extremely religious and superstitious and one example of this is of all these major civilizations the cagans are known for practicing human sacrifice in fact in times of War they will even go as far as practicing child sacrifice killing children uh killing children and sacrificing them them to the gods and return for divine favor in times of War okay so they are known for focusing on Fortune and luck um what do they care about they care about their own interests right what's profitable what's their purpose in life accumulating wealth right does that make sense because these are business people they're Merchants so that's how they structure uh their society and their culture and that's why for most of their history they were extremely wealthy okay they were notorious for being extremely clever um business people who made a lot of money for themselves okay Rome uh let's look at Rome okay what is good for them what's a good person the answer is piety Pages means uh duty to the gods to the City Rome and to your father okay they believe they believe heavily in filial piety the best person was someone who practiced F piety okay what did they think was most valuable in their lives is thata of Liberty okay 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 what's 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 restructing a law could you be free otherwise we' all just be Savages okay that's the conception of Liberty now the last question then is what's the purpose of life and for the Romans what really mattered to them is the idea of Rua this is Latin and it's translated as usually public virtue for the public good okay 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 does that make sense setting for political office and being head of the military was the highest honor Rome could bestow on you that was the entire point of Point um of your life okay does that make sense okay so if you if we just do a comp a compared 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 carthaginians and the Greeks okay does that matter sorry does that make sense to you okay any questions so far is this clear my my argument carians yeah okay all right so Rome in the third pinic war from 149 to 146 they would go and Destroy Carthage they would burn it to the ground and then they they would burn all the books that um Carthage ever produced so we don't have anything written by them but we have a lot written by Greeks and Romans right because the Greeks and Romans Were Always In conflict with uh the carthaginians and what's interesting for us is before all the collect started in about 300 BC the Romans and the Greeks had nice things to say about the carthaginians okay they were good Fighters they were Brave they were very prosperous carage was like uh the wealthiest city in the world okay they were they had all these Praises for carage and after when War started between uh the cagans and the Romans then they focus on like child sacrifice the carthaginians were offended the G Gods because they practice child sacrifice which is barbaric and that's why the gods smited Carthage okay remember back at this time in human history we didn't believe in human agency everything was was ordained by the gods okay so if car is destroyed it's because of God's will it why do the God's will it because the cagans practiced child sacrifice okay and that's what the Romans and the Greeks insisted of course that means we have to be skeptical IAL of what they say right but at the same time we've done a lot of archaological excavations around carage and we have found uh human human remains that show signs of human sacrifice okay so uh we have the we have uh we also Carthage comes from Phoenicia right we know a lot about photian culture Okay so we've lost a lot of information about Carthage but we're able to piece them back together um slowly does that make sense all right okay but again uh 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 um piety Liberty and R Papa I I want to explain them slowly okay so what the Romans really did well is they they basically created history as mythology okay so the Greeks separated mythology from history mythology is what the Greeks did history is what humans did okay so basically the Greeks invented uh um history the Romans they basically Elevate their history into mythology they're their history became their religion okay so 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 7 753 BCE by ramulus okay and there there are legends surrounding Romulus and there are lots of Legends surrounding romules but the idea is this there was a king and he was overthrown 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 then so the brother says to uh the King's Daughter why are you pregnant and the daughter says I was visited by Mars the god of war and he impregnant me okay the king's brother obviously does not believe her so she ban he banishes her and he orders uh for the twins who are born to be killed okay but um as the case with these Legends uh the person charged with killing the twins takes pity on them and somehow they are are left to die in the woods a She Wolf a wolf comes and nurses them before another Shepherd comes and adopts them okay eventually they realize who they are and they help the king overthrow the brother and take back the take back the throne now the brothers are asked to go and basically uh found 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 a river the Tiber and there are all these Hills that provide good uh defense okay the problem is this they're twins there's two of them Romus and Remis so and only one can be king so they're so they get get into a battle and Romus kills Remis okay and that's the founding Legend of Rome and from this Legend we 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 the 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 uh Legend second Legend is this Romas has to build Rome and he becomes a very open person he welcomes immigrants into Rome and he grants some citizenship and Status right away okay Rome becomes a nation of immigrants eventually their rise startles their neighbors and their neighbors go to war with them at once but the Romans are so good at war that they fight back the neighbors uh the neighbors are called the saines the saines decide listen we can't put them in war but at the same time Rome is only has MA males right Rome only has males so we will just isolate Rome our daughters will not marry into Rome and in and in 20 years time Rome will have no population okay ROM hears of this plan and he devises a strategy what he does is he organizes a huge Festival invites all his neighbors so fathers bring their daughters to attend this festival at this Festival um the women are kidnapped and they're basically raped that night raminus visits every one of uh these women and apologizes for what has 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 and the brothers are obviously very upset about this so they organized this huge Army and they March against Rome the Roman uh citizens come out to face them in battle okay and just 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 Romus appears and says he will make everyone a citizen of Rome okay and by doing that he basically double the population of Rome all right again from this Legend we we can understand the Roman psychology which is everything can be sacrificed in the pursuit of Roman glory and basically uh to ensure that Roman that Rome survives okay because what matters is Rome okay it's a cult of Rome all that matters is survival of Rome morals don't matter nothing matters all that matters is survival role so after this Rome starts to grow slowly and this is a period known as as the seven Kings so there's 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 taranis taranas Superbus okay Superbus is Latin for arrogant so he's often referred to as Tarkin the proud okay okay so T proud he is as his name suggests a very arrogant King what makes him what makes him arrogant is his hubris he refuses to listen to the nobility in fact those in in the nobility who challenge his authority often get killed right um he he has a second son and the second son he's a jerk he likes to abuse his power the one thing that he like 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 lucrecia and the prince thinks raping her will be the most fun okay because she will um be the most insulted by this so he rapes her and then she order she goes and confronts her husband husband okay her husband and her husband has a friend his name is Lucius Brutus Lucius Brutus happens to be the nephew of the king and he is very much opposed to the tyranny of the king and lucua says to her husband and to his friend Lucius brutes I've been raped will you promise me to avenge my honor and the husband and Lucius Buddhas see she's distraught okay and so they sue her and promise her they will do uh everything they can in the morning and lucrecia um she she doesn't really believe them so what she does is she takes a knife out from her dress and she stabs herself in the heart and she dies before them now they are HonorBound to avenge her death and so what Lucius Buddhist does is he calls a meeting of of the of the nobility and they decide to gather to overthrow the king the king is out campaigning for war he he's basically at War and what they do is they lock the gates of Rome now the king is furious okay and so what the king does is he decides he's going to go back to aishka where he's from and he's going to Rally the other the his friends the Kings okay because if the Romans can overthrow him well other people can overthrow their kings right so this is a bad president so he's going to organize a huge Army to March against Rome meanwhile lucus brutas he's instituting the Republic okay now the king the thing of the king is that all powers are invested in the king these powers include military judicial um deciding cases uh legislative making laws uh administrative bureaucratic right um and religious Okay so these are the five major duties of the king and this is where his power comes from so what Lucius Buddhist and Romans do is they separate his powers not into individuals but into institutions that are now elected by the people okay this is the heart of republicanism so the military will now run by the council the council is basically the head of the state okay and again he's elected the the judicial is run by the pror legislator is the Senate uh administrative is the adile and the religious is the pontifex Maximus and again they 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 was much separation between nobility and Ordinary People Okay so are what we call patricians the patricians and the ordinary people are what we call the plebians and honestly there was not that much difference the patricians are just come from uh the longest like the families who have been in Rome the longest the oldest families and they were wealthy but not that much wealthier from orary Romans so maybe you have one cow right well I have three cows also um the people could go visit each other's homes without any ceremony okay so you could be the head of state you could be the councel but if I'm an ordinary person I can just come to your house and have dinner with you okay there were no doors there were no guards there's no separation okay so lucus BR Buddhas 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 had was three things the laws the history or traditions and the institutions okay that's the Republic and this system unbelievably incredibly will not change for about 500 years okay 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 okay the atrians right 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 and this conspiracy was discovered and everyone was caught and imprisoned it turns out lucus Buddhist has two sons okay he has two sons and they were both part of this conspiracy they were Tried by the Senate they were all sentenced to death including two two sons of Lucius Buddhas okay the problem is this the problem is the council has to oversee the execution of the prisoners whose Council lucus Buddhas is Council okay so lucus Buddhas has to oversee the execution of his two sons now if Lucius Buddhist is like you know what I'm going to resign my office or hey you know what I'm I'm sick everyone would be like we understand take the day off don't worry about it okay instead lucus Buddhist um showed up for work and he oversaw the execution of his two sons all of Rome came to the execution okay it was a public event everyone was watching the face of Lucius Buddhist okay you we know the two sons are going to die they're going to get beheaded but everyone wanted to see luc's Buddhist reactions he was crying throughout the execution these are his two sons right he has no more Sons this is his legacy now and his two sons are are about to be killed in fact he's 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 tar kinis uh talking the proud hears about this he gets really angry so he allies himself with Kings and they marched against Rome Lucius budus is Council he's in charge of military so he marches his Army against Tarkin the proud one of the sons of Tarin the proud sees lucus Brutus and he charges ahead because he wants to kill the man who insulted his family lucus budha sees the King's son running they they're both on horses right running Galloping towards him and lucif buddist gets angry and so he charges ah head as well Lucius Buddhist frows 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 okay and for most of Roman history he will be considered the greatest Roman whoever lived until Julius Caesar okay and it was in the memory and honor of Lucius Buddhist that they would assassinate Julius Caesar but we we'll discuss this next class okay so um the king's Army is overwhelming the Romans and the Romans have to flee back into the city there's a drawbridge that connects Rome uh to the mainland okay so there's the river Tyber crosses it crosses around uh 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 run all into Rome one guy he's name his cockos 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 this it's just one guy there's one random guy okay and what he does is he starts shutting 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 like there's thousands of them okay they have absolutely no idea what's going on this is one guy on a bridge shining insulting insulting them okay so they they freeze eventually they realize oh this guy is just distracting us because his uh friends the other soldiers are trying to cut down the bridge so they run to him at this point two two other Romans okay two officers run besides cockos and together the three of them hold off the invading Army together okay with their Shields they fight for their lives eventually the bridge is about to be um cut down okay the two officers run away and caual makes the Last Stand and the bridge Falls and what Kos does is before it falls completely he jumps into the Tyber and he survives he doesn't drown so this tells us hey anyone can be a hero of Rome right Lucius Buddhist he's the king's nephew he's nobility but caual he's just an ordinary Roman who had the courage he had the Devotion to fight for Rome okay 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 young man his name is musas and he's a Roman nobleman okay he goes to the Senate and he says to the Senate listen uh we're being surrounded by an enemy Army the're huge we're starving to death I have a plan to win this war I'm going to swim across the typer sneak into the enemy camp and kill the enemy King and this war way the Senate gives muus his approval and muus sneaks into the enemy camp it's payday which means the soldiers are getting their wages right musia 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 the king and one's the secretary they look the same muus doesn't know who's the king and who's the secretary you know at this point an orinary person would be like I'll come back later okay like let let me figure out let me spy first and figure out who who the king is and then when the better opportunity arises I'll kill the king mushes is like it's 50/50 man so he takes his knife rushes to him and stabs 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 there are other spies in the camp and the King says to muus tell me the truth or I will burn you alive okay and he shows um musas the P okay with this huge fire musas said says I am one of a 100 young Romans who have pledged their lives to kill you to free Rome okay he's lying this is not true you kill me there be 99 more okay we are not afraid of you you say you 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 luc's Buddhist as he orders the execution of his two sons right because ordering 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 bu's go and the war is over okay 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 that can be taught to anyone who becomes a citizen if you are a Roman you you it's because you believe in this history believing 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 uh that makes you Rome uh unique or powerful is the idea of Liberty okay what Kos did what musas did what Lucius Buddhist did was preserve the liberty of Rome remember what Liberty means is respecting and following the laws institutions and history of Rome because that's what makes Rome Rome that's what allows you to have freedom okay and that's why in 2016 even though Hannibal 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 have Liberty your life isn't worth living give me life or Give me liberty Okay the third element of Roman greatness is the idea of this right repu right so what this means is every no nobleman if you have the ability you want to serve Rome okay so what they did was this they turned wom politics into a competition to to produce the best men okay was basically meritocracy so once you have the financial means you stood for election and this system was basically a meritocracy okay you first stood for election to become an edile and then you became a pror and then you became a councel once you're a councel you have the opportunity to win the highest Glory okay what you could do is become a governor of a far away Province and if you are governor of this part 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 senate 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 cpio 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 re receive the Triumph then you then you will remembered by Rome 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 okay all right so sorry Luci is Buddhist okay Lucius Buddhist over the king they established the Roman Republic Ro 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 uh what the what the story what the and again we don't know if these stories are true they're probably not true okay what the story is telling us is if the founder of the Roman Republic can sacrifice his family in order to make sure Republic survives well you can as well okay no sacrifice um every sacrifice must be made to ensure Roman greatness that's basically the message right any more questions that's a great question okay so how do we know this the answer 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 Um this oral history was written down in books but because Rome was at War so much um Rome was conquered once and um Rome was burnt down and so we lost a lot of the written history okay now the problem with oral history is there are different versions of oral history okay so there are different versions of these stories and then um a man name Nam Livy uh during the time of uh the Roman Empire when it was first founded he sat down to WR the official History of Rome and this is where we get all these stories from okay and again uh we don't believe these stories to be that true okay there's probably there's Lucius bu probably a real person but he whether not he did these things we don't know okay it's debatable um but what matters is this is what Romans belied okay do you understand what matters is what they believe as opposed to what really happened and this is what uh creates the Roman identity right 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 that's a great question okay so like you want you want to know more about hanbal 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 is has been for the longest time been fighting its neighbors right once it conquer 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 okay that's the first thing second thing is is that when Hannibal invaded Italy he was doing so with many Gs okay who are the Invaders of Italy and these GS have traditionally been the enemy of the Italians so when hanal did so uh Rome's neighbors rallied to Rome's support to support Rome okay because they saw the goals and Hannibal as Invaders who threaten um their culture okay the second thing the third thing is Hannibal had an invading Army right but he had no organizational and logistic support he had no food supply because he was basically doing this on his own initiative Carthage is too far away okay and Rome had the best like Navy in the Mediterranean so there was no way that Carthage could we Supply um Hannibal sorry there's no way Carthage could resupply Hannibal right so Hannibal was forced to spend a lot of his time forging for food do you understand and that's why 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 of Canaan was they recognized this fact they recognized that uh Hannibal's m problem was Logistics and they started to not they they would they decided 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 his time forging for food meanwhile Rome could rebuild Itself by freeing its slaves okay and by um uh recruiting more neighbors to 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 you need to understand is while Hannibal was winning glory in Italy the C of Elders in car 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 it's going to cost a lot of money to to continue the war and listen Italy is poor so there's no profit to be made from conquering Rome okay that's the first problem second problem is if Hannibal were to win glory in Italy he put come back and make it's 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 gree and carage were divided into different political factions that's what caused um carage to ultimately uh be undermined so ultimately Rome was able to come back from the AED and defeat Carthage because Carthage again saw Hannibal uh as big as a a threat as Rome okay this would this would be costly for Carthage because after the war is over 50 years later uh Rome a Roman Senator named K the Elder he vs it 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 carage is able to accumulate more wealth than ever before it has so much wealth that that is able to pay off the indemnity that Rome imposed on it okay it's basically able to pay off pay Rome off and K kid the Elder he is uh traumatized by this he goes back to Roman and says we have to destroy Carthage okay there's a huge debate in the Senate he says listen if we let carage survive carage will always be a threat to us and the other senators were like listen KO I know you want to destroy Carthage but remember Carthage threatens us if we destroy Carthage we Rome will no longer have an enemy we will no longer have a threat we will change as a people if we destroy Carthage but C the Elder insisted eventually an army was dispatched to um 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 carfit was violating the peace treaty and the Roman said to carfit listen if you surrender all your weapons we will go away the carthaginian 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 Roman said to the carthaginians you know what um we also need you to move your City from the coast 10 kilometers in land okay and at this point the caragan knew Rome was going to destroy Carthage so there's a three-year Siege and and and then at the end of it Rome conquered Carthage killed everyone inside enslaved others burned all the books and wiped out carage 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 but because Carthage has a merchant culture run by business people they could never recognize the threat does that make sense all right any more questions good public virtue yeah okay so why do people when to come to Rome well the fact of matter is that for most of history for most of history people didn't want to go to Rome because Rome was considered a um like for example the Greeks didn't want to go to Rome because they thought Rome was uncivilized and and Roman but Romans wanted to go to Athens because they thought Athens was a height of civilization right the car carthaginians certainly didn't want to go go to Rome okay Rome was like Macedonia it's basically North Korea even you can even say it's like North Korea okay it's a militaristic 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 it became a republic you had no choice but to go to Rome because that's how you could build your career it it was the capital of the world okay does that make sense so I know we're 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 uh the Romans were uh repugnant in many ways okay they just they just were a repugnant people okay any more questions any more any more questions okay great so next class we it's a fun class we do Julius Caesar okay