Good evening. This is John Bachelor.

Conversation with Professor Barry Strauss of Cornell University for his book,

The War that Made the Roman Empire.

This is the story of a romance, Antony, Cleopatra, and Octavian at Actium

is the battle won by Actium, one by Octavian,

and Antony and Cleopatra fled back to Egypt.

Eclapatra was a queen, far, far beyond the reach of men such as Antony and Octavian.

She's the Queen of the Nile, Queen of Egypt. men such as Antony and Octavian.

She's the Queen of the Nile, Queen of Egypt,

the bread basket of the Mediterranean basin 2,000 years ago.

Caesar adored her and understood acquiring her as a wife, as a mistress, gave him power.

Caesar's death moved her to Anthony.

Anthony sought the same thing.

It's a wonderful, romantic, unbelievable story.

Can't make it up.

It ends with Anthony dead and Cleopatra committing suicide

but not before a lengthy conversation with Octavian. All true. The war that made the Roman Empire, Antin Cleopatra and Octavian at Actium, the battle that

decided that Octavian was going to prevail. Octavian became Augustus of course, the

founder of the Roman Empire. It's a compelling story of women in command relevant to right now in the United States.

And then recalling my conversation with Victor Davis-Hanson of the Hoover Institution earlier in the Biden term,

how progressive elites, tribalism, and globalization are destroying the idea of America.

The themes that Victor touches upon have all been illustrated these last months.

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