The Rise of History’s Greatest Emperor: An Untold Story - Alex Petkas - #1085

Modern Wisdom

Chris Williamson

Health & Fitness, Society & Culture

4.6 • 5.9K Ratings

🗓️ 16 April 2026

⏱️ 121 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Alex Petkas is a historian, writer, and podcaster. What can one of history's greatest empires, and its most notorious leaders, teach us about the modern world? We all know the story of Julius Caesar and his famous assassination... but what really happened? And what lessons from Ancient Rome still shape our lives today? Expect to learn why learning about Roman history is useful or instructive at helping us in the modern world, what Caesar's life teaches us about being a good person, what actually happened the night Caesar crossed the Rubicon, how Cleopatra managed to secretly meet Caesar inside the palace at Alexandria, what Caesar's his last night looked like, the convincing argument that convinced Brutus that killing Caesar was necessary and much more... Sponsors: See discounts for all the products I use and recommend: ⁠⁠⁠https://chriswillx.com/deals⁠⁠⁠ Get a free bottle of D3K2, an AG1 Welcome Kit, and more when you first subscribe at ⁠https://ag1.info/modernwisdom⁠ Get a Free Sample Pack of LMNT’s most popular flavours with your first purchase at ⁠https://drinklmnt.com/modernwisdom⁠ Get the brand new Whoop 5.0 and your first month for free at ⁠https://join.whoop.com/modernwisdom⁠ Get 35% off your first subscription on the best supplements from Momentous at ⁠https://livemomentous.com/modernwisdom Get ChatGPT to explore ideas, solve problems, and learn faster at ⁠⁠https://chatgpt.com⁠ Timestamps: (00:00) Why Roman History Still Matters Today(05:18) Julius Caesar: Genius or Tyrant?(09:58) The Origins of Caesar’s Ruthless Ambition(25:48) The Pirate Story That Defined Caesar(29:25) How Caesar Won the the People of Rome(34:02) The Strategy Behind Caesar’s Loyal Following(40:58) Caesar & Pompey: Allies or Enemies?(47:32) When Did Caesar and Pompey Become Enemies?(55:41) Was Crossing the Rubicon a Declaration of War Against the Senate?(01:03:07) How Pompey’s Murder Led Caesar to Egypt(01:16:13) Cleopatra’s Winning Tactics Over Caesar(01:21:14) Were Caesar and Cleopatra Lovers?(01:25:18) Inside the Final Day of Caesar’s Life(01:38:25) The Bad Omens That Caesar Ignored(01:49:50) The Decisions That Sealed Caesar’s Fate(01:58:23) Where to Find Alex Extra Stuff: Get my free reading list of 100 books to read before you die: ⁠⁠https://chriswillx.com/books⁠⁠ Try my productivity energy drink Neutonic: ⁠⁠https://neutonic.com/modernwisdom⁠⁠ Episodes You Might Enjoy: #577 - David Goggins - This Is How To Master Your Life: ⁠⁠lnkfi.re/SN-Goggins⁠⁠ #712 - Dr Jordan Peterson - How To Destroy Your Negative Beliefs: ⁠⁠lnkfi.re/SN-Peterson⁠⁠ #700 - Dr Andrew Huberman - The Secret Tools To Hack Your Brain: ⁠⁠lnkfi.re/SN-Huberman⁠⁠ - Get In Touch: Instagram: ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx⁠⁠ YouTube: ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/modernwisdompodcast⁠⁠ Email: ⁠⁠https://chriswillx.com/contact⁠⁠ - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Why is learning about Roman history useful or instructive at helping us in the modern world?
0:05.9	Why should anybody care?
0:07.6	I think that...
0:10.7	So when I was starting my podcast, I'd been doing it for a couple of months with a kind of hunch on this question,
0:20.5	and I wasn't really able to articulate
0:22.4	it to my satisfaction. But a friend of mine, a few months in, recommended that I read this book
0:30.6	by Nietzsche, one of his early books that, and I'd read some Nietzsche before, it's called On the Advantage and
0:40.2	Disadvantage of History for Life. And Nietzsche talks in there about how history can sort of drain
0:50.1	the life out of you and turn you into a kind of crippled, you know, shell of a person.
0:57.1	It can kind of get you in this state where you question all of your decisions.
1:04.1	It can kind of overload you with knowledge and cause you to retreat into the cloister or the library or, you know, be a kind of opiate for a life that is not fulfilling.
1:19.0	But he says that, and he quotes Gerta at the beginning of that book, that something like Gertta said,
1:26.8	I hate all knowledge that does not quicken and enlivened me,
1:32.1	like away with it. And history can be very quickening and enlivening. And the way that Nietzsche
1:38.0	frames it is the most like enlivening approach to history is embodied by one of his favorite authors, Plutarch,
1:47.0	this great ancient philosopher, who was also one of history's most widely read and entertaining
1:53.7	biographers. And Plutarch embodies this mode of reading history or mode of like approaching any number of
2:04.3	subjects really, not just history, kings and battles, but like art history or like engineering,
2:12.4	statuary. And he calls it monumental, the monumental approach to history, where you're looking not so much
2:20.9	for precise facts, although the facts kind of matter for the story. You're looking for
2:27.4	examples of greatness. And you're looking for those examples, and this is me interpreting Nietzsche
2:33.2	a little bit, but I think of history as a kind of source for finding your true self.
	...

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