CYOL with Jeremy Ryan Slate Archive 1

About CYOL with Jeremy Ryan Slate Archive 1

The first 300 episodes of Create Your Own Life

Publisher

Jeremy Ryan Slate

Category

business · business

Language

en

Explicit

Yes

First episode

17 Nov 2015

Latest episode

2 Nov 2026

Latest episodes

9 of 1,451 episodes have a transcript.

1. 2 Nov 2026

   Crossing the Rubicon (49 BC): The War That Ended the Republic (61)

   Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon in January of 49 BC, and over the next four years his civil war against Pompey the Great and the Senate ran from Italy to the battles of Pharsalus in 48 BC, Thapsus in 46 BC, and Munda in 45 BC, where the last army fighting in the Republic's name was destroyed. Weeks before the crossing, on December 1, 50 BC, the Senate voted 370 to 22 for Caesar and Pompey to give up their armies together, and the consul Gaius Claudius Marcellus set the vote aside. A small group of hardliners held the procedure of the chamber, and on January 7, 49 BC they passed the final decree against Caesar. The tribunes Mark Antony and Quintus Cassius fled north to him, and Caesar crossed with one legion. This episode follows what came after the river. Pompey and the consuls abandoned Rome and left the treasury behind. Caesar pardoned Domitius Ahenobarbus at Corfinium and called mercy a new way of conquering, then threatened to kill the tribune who stood at the treasury doors. He beat Afranius and Petreius in Spain, risked everything crossing to Greece, nearly lost at Dyrrachium, and broke Pompey's cavalry at Pharsalus with a hidden fourth line. Pompey was murdered on the beach at Pelusium, and Caesar wept when he was handed his signet ring. Cato read Plato through the night at Utica and chose death over Caesar's pardon. By 45 BC every institution that existed before the Rubicon was still standing, and every one of them operated with the permission of the man who had won. Caesar's own account of the war never mentions the Rubicon, so I'd encourage you to read his Civil War next to Plutarch's lives of Caesar, Pompey, and Cato and notice where Caesar goes quiet. This is Episode 137 of The Roman Pattern. The Money, Borders, Power framework primer is episode 115. CHAPTERS 00:00 The Republic outlived the Rubicon by four years 01:29 Welcome back 03:05 When did Caesar's command run out? 05:39 The Senate votes 370 to 22 for peace 07:18 The final decree and the tribunes flee 08:21 Crossing the Rubicon, January 49 BC 12:23 Pompey abandons Rome and Caesar's mercy at Corfinium 14:35 Seizing the treasury and paying for the war 19:22 Dyrrachium and the Battle of Pharsalus (48 BC) 24:20 Pompey's murder in Egypt 26:19 Thapsus, Cato at Utica and Munda 32:51 The Republic still standing, on one man's permission SOURCES Sources: Caesar, The Civil War; Plutarch, Lives of Caesar, Pompey, and Cato the Younger; Suetonius, The Deified Julius; Appian, Civil Wars, Book 2; Cicero, Letters to Atticus; The African War and The Spanish War (by officers of Caesar); Cassius Dio, Books 41 to 43. Modern: Adrian Goldsworthy, Caesar: Life of a Colossus (2006); Robert Morstein-Marx, Julius Caesar and the Roman People (2021); Ronald Syme, The Roman Revolution (1939).

2. 26 Oct 2026

   The Murder of Clodius: The Day Rome's Elections Stopped Mattering

   Publius Clodius Pulcher was killed on the Appian Way in January of 52 BC, his supporters burned the Senate House around his body, and within weeks Bibulus and Cato the Younger proposed making Pompey the Great sole consul of Rome. This episode follows the four years that led there. In 55 BC armed men attacked Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus on his way to the consular elections and killed his torchbearer, and Pompey came home from the elections for aedile with blood on his toga. In 54 the consuls struck a secret deal with two candidates, Gaius Memmius and Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus, trading their support for perjured testimony, and Cicero writes that so much money was borrowed to buy votes that the interest rate in Rome doubled. Memmius read the agreement out in the Senate, the elections collapsed, and Rome began 53 with no consuls at all. By 52 the city had two private armies, one led by Clodius and one by Titus Annius Milo. After Clodius was killed near Bovillae, the Senate passed its emergency decree, and the men who had spent years resisting Pompey gave him an office Rome had never had, a consulship with no colleague. Pompey passed new laws against violence and bribery, ringed the forum with soldiers for Milo's trial, and then passed a law on magistrates that put Caesar's right to run from Gaul in doubt until he added an exception for him. Most of what we know about the killing comes from Asconius, who went back to the official records a century later, and his commentary on Cicero's speech for Milo is the best way to compare Cicero's version with the record. Fall of the Republic series: Tiberius Gracchus • Marius • The Social War • Sulla • Spartacus • The Men Who Bought the Republic • Pompey • Julius Caesar • The Secret Deal That Ended the Roman Republic • The Day Rome's Elections Stopped Mattering (you are here) • The Last Stand of the Roman Republic • The Ides of March • Cicero • The Pattern: How Republics Really Die Next: The Last Stand of the Roman Republic, from the Rubicon on January 10, 49 BC, through Pharsalus and Munda. The Money, Borders, Power framework primer is episode 115. CHAPTERS 00:00 The year Rome's elections stopped deciding anything 01:42 Welcome back 02:49 Violence at the elections of 55 BC 06:16 The bribery scandal of 54 BC 09:14 A year with no consuls 11:00 Clodius, Milo, and the murder on the Appian Way 14:19 The Senate House burns 16:05 Pompey becomes sole consul 19:26 Pompey's laws and the trial of Milo 21:47 The law that let Caesar run from Gaul Sources: Asconius, Commentary on Cicero's Pro Milone; Cicero, Pro Milone, Letters to Atticus 4.15 to 4.18, and Letters to His Brother Quintus; Plutarch, Lives of Pompey and Cato the Younger; Appian, Civil Wars 2.19 to 2.25; Cassius Dio, Roman History, Books 39 and 40; Suetonius, The Deified Julius 26 to 28. Modern: Ronald Syme, The Roman Revolution (1939); Erich Gruen, The Last Generation of the Roman Republic (1974).

3. 19 Oct 2026

   Caesar and Pompey's Secret Deal at Luca That Ended the Republic

   In April of 56 BC, Julius Caesar met Marcus Licinius Crassus at Ravenna and Pompey the Great at Luca, modern Lucca in Tuscany, and the three men renewed the First Triumvirate by dividing up Rome's consulships and armies for the next five years. By the spring of 56 the alliance was close to breaking. Publius Clodius Pulcher's street gangs had made Pompey afraid to walk through Rome, Pompey believed Crassus was backing a plot against his life, and Cicero, just back from exile, moved to reopen Caesar's land law of 59. Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus was running for the consulship of 55 on a promise to take Caesar's legions away. Caesar couldn't enter Rome without losing his command, so he stayed inside his province and invited his partners north. Plutarch and Appian say more than 200 senators followed them there, though those numbers may be exaggerated, and Cicero, our only witness from the time, describes them as two separate meetings. Over the next year Rome made the deal legal. Cicero gave his speech On the Consular Provinces arguing that Caesar should keep Gaul, the Senate voted to pay Caesar's legions, Pompey and Crassus were elected consuls for 55 under an interrex, the Lex Trebonia gave them Spain and Syria for five years, and the Lex Pompeia Licinia extended Caesar's command by five more. I follow Ronald Syme in reading Luca as the moment Rome's biggest decisions moved outside its institutions, and I give Erich Gruen's case against that reading too, so you can weigh them yourself. Fall of the Republic series: Tiberius Gracchus • Marius • The Social War • Sulla • Spartacus • The Men Who Bought the Republic • Pompey • Julius Caesar • The Secret Deal That Ended the Roman Republic (you are here) • The Day Rome's Elections Stopped Mattering • The Last Stand of the Roman Republic • The Ides of March • Cicero • The Pattern: How Republics Really Die Next: The Day Rome's Elections Stopped Mattering. From the election of 55 BC to 52 BC, the year the Senate made Pompey consul with no colleague at all. The Money, Borders, Power framework primer is episode 115. CHAPTERS 00:00 The deal at Luca, April 56 BC 01:42 Welcome back 04:00 How Caesar nearly lost his command 06:08 Clodius, Cicero's exile, and Pompey's grain command 09:07 Egypt, an oracle, and the alliance cracking 11:06 Cicero and Domitius go after Caesar 12:54 Ravenna and Luca: the Senate comes north 15:46 What was decided, and how Cicero backed down 18:59 The laws of 55 BC make the deal legal 20:22 Why Luca changed where Rome's decisions were made Sources: Cicero, Letters to Friends 1.9 (to Lentulus Spinther), Letters to Atticus 4.5, Letters to His Brother Quintus 2.3 and 2.5, and On the Consular Provinces; Plutarch, Lives of Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus; Appian, Civil Wars 2.17; Suetonius, The Deified Julius 24; Cassius Dio, Roman History, Book 39. Modern: Ronald Syme, The Roman Revolution (1939); Erich Gruen, The Last Generation of the Roman Republic (1974).

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[…] So if tariffs aren't really supplying the economic security that we're looking for, like, you know, I guess there is the trickle down effect of bringing industry back here, right? I think that is one part of it. How do we actually fix the economy then? Like how do we, how do we fix things that way? […]

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YouTube

93

Engagement

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