When Good People Lose Themselves to Tyrants | James Romm (PT. 2)
The Daily Stoic
Daily Stoic | Backyard Ventures
4.6 • 4.7K Ratings
🗓️ 16 August 2025
⏱️ 60 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
History has a way of looking calmer than it really was. In this PT. 2 episode, Ryan sits down with historian and author James Romm to talk about the messy, dangerous, and often absurd reality of life in ancient Greece and Rome, especially for the philosophers who tried to “advise” the powerful. From Plato’s naïve trips to Syracuse, to Seneca’s complicated dance with Nero, to Marcus Aurelius resisting the pull of corruption, they discuss the timeless tension between access and integrity.
James Romm is an author, reviewer, and a Professor of Classics at Bard College in Annandale, NY. He specializes in ancient Greek and Roman culture and civilization. His reviews and essays have appeared in the New Yorker, the Wall Street Journal, the London Review of Books, the Daily Beast, and other venues. He has held the Guggenheim Fellowship (1999-2000), the Birkelund Fellowship at the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Writers and Scholars at the New York Public Library (2010-11), and a Biography Fellowship at the Leon Levy Center of the City University of New York (2014-15).
Follow James on Instagram @James.Romm and check out more of his work at his website, www.jamesromm.com
📚 Get signed copies of James' latest book Plato and the Tyrant, and his other books Dying Every Day, How To Die, and How To Give, at The Painted Porch | https://www.thepaintedporch.com/
📚 View the full list of books mentioned in this episode here: https://www.thepaintedporch.com/collections/james-romm
🎥 Head to Ryan Holiday’s YouTube Channel to watch him give James Romm book recommendations at The Painted Porch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUuxMfJRc2c
🎙️ Listen to James Romm’s first episode on The Daily Stoic Podcast: https://dailystoic.com/romm/
📖 Preorder the final book in Ryan Holiday's The Stoic Virtues Series: "Wisdom Takes Work": https://store.dailystoic.com/pages/wisdom-takes-work
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Transcript
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