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Welcome to Uncommon Knowledge, I'm Peter Robinson.

Victor Davis Hanson, a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution.

Dr. Hanson is the author of many books, including the classic study, A War Like No Other,

How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War.

Dr. Hanson's newest column, published this very month of October.

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

Victor, welcome.

Thank you for having me.

Alright, let's begin with the text for today, The Acts of the Apostles, chapter 22.

And an incident that took place 2,000 years ago, St. Paul is testifying in Jerusalem.

The crowd reacts so violently that Roman soldiers intervene and the commander orders Paul flogged.

I'm going to pick it up at verse 25.

As they stretched him out to flog him, Paul said to the centurion standing there,

Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen?

When the centurion heard this, he went to the commander and reported it.

The commander went to Paul and asked, Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?

Yes, I am, he answered.

The commander was alarmed when he realized he had put a Roman citizen in chains.

Close quote.

The story continues, Paul demands a trial in Rome and indeed he has taken to Rome where he is martyred.

2,000 years ago, citizenship meant something so definite, so meaningful, so specific,

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