Rome's War To Defeat Homer

Greek civilization begins in openness. Source trail 0:00 Okay, good morning. So this is going to be a very long class today, and I'm going to throw a lot of information at you, okay? The reason why is I want to summarize and review what we've learned about Rome so far, compar... It is scattered across the Aegean and the Mediterranean, tied to colonies, trade, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Persia. Rome begins differently. It is inland, conservative, surrounded by enemies, and forced to become the world's greatest military machine. Its culture is built from piety, liberty, and republic: loyalty to gods, Rome, and fathers; hatred of kings; sacrifice for public glory.

That system works when Rome is poor, small, and always under threat. Source trail 2:484:145:49 right piety obedience and loyalty to the gods to Rome and to your fathers second principle is the idea of liberty which puts the nobility at the very heart and center of Roman society liberty means no Kings no no dictat...you're a small and poor and nation always at war with larger nations but this isn't breaks down when you become rich big Empire and you're the main major hegemon in the area and this system will lead to three major prob... It breaks when Rome becomes rich, enormous, and imperial. Civil war, inequality, and corruption push authority into Augustus' hands. He centralizes the army, uses Egypt to bankroll professional soldiers, and builds a security force loyal to the emperor. The military problem can be solved by command. The spiritual problem cannot.

Augustus needs legitimacy, so the Julii must be older than Romulus and Brutus. Source trail 7:128:219:43 The first is Romulus, right? The first king of Rome. The second is Lucius Brutus and the founding of the Roman Republic. Now, Julius Caesar and Augustus Caesar are not, do not come from either of these two myths or fami...So, in other words, Romulus is descended from Aeneas, but Julius Caesar is also descended from Aeneas. Okay? So, that is how Augustus Caesar will cement his legitimacy, by promoting the idea that his ancestor was Aeneas... Aeneas becomes the ancestor who reaches back before Rome itself. He also needs to kill the old republican reflex. If Brutus means liberty, then Brutus also means the duty to kill kings and tyrants. A cultural identity can become a threat to the ruler it produced, so the emperor has to make a new Roman soul centered on piety and obedience.

Rome has conquered the Mediterranean, but Greek culture still educates the mind. Source trail 9:4311:06 Because it will encourage other Buddhists to come kill you, the emperor. So, you have to change this. You have to get rid of the idea of liberty and repulchre, okay? You have to promote a new Roman identity focused on o...Mark Anthony became more Greek now that's why he betrayed Rome. Augustus Caesar also believe that's why Rome began descending into civil wars because Rome was starting to embrace Greek culture and it made everyone more... Homer, Plato, Thucydides, and Aeschylus give the Greeks prestige even under Roman power. In Augustus' diagnosis, this culture has already seduced Mark Antony and helped turn Rome toward civil war: more Greek means more hedonistic, more individualistic, more selfish.

That is why Augustus has to defeat Homer. Source trail 11:0612:34 Mark Anthony became more Greek now that's why he betrayed Rome. Augustus Caesar also believe that's why Rome began descending into civil wars because Rome was starting to embrace Greek culture and it made everyone more...So he invited a man named Virgil, who at this time is considered the greatest man in the world. He invited this living Roman poet to write another epic in Latin to replace Homer as a cornerstone of the education system.... The Iliad and Odyssey are the bible of Greek civilization, the texts children memorize to learn how to speak, think, and argue. Armies can conquer provinces; schools reproduce souls. A Roman empire therefore needs a Roman epic to replace Homer in education.

Virgil supplies the poetry, Augustus supplies the vision. Source trail 12:3413:4515:18 So he invited a man named Virgil, who at this time is considered the greatest man in the world. He invited this living Roman poet to write another epic in Latin to replace Homer as a cornerstone of the education system....It will establish a new Roman cultural identity focused on Rome. piety over liberty and it will show that Greek culture is one of corruption and hedonism and it must be repelled okay so you can make the argument that Vi... The Aeneid will establish the Julii as Rome's first family, put piety over liberty, and recode Greek culture as corruption. Homer is an educator at the beginning of civilization; Virgil is a propagandist for an empire that is everywhere and everything. The lecture's literary comparison begins there.

Achilles is offered a heroic choice that is not really a choice: live old and unknown, or die young at Troy and be remembered forever. Source trail 18:5620:1521:27 And Odysseus says, listen Achilles, we're dying out here. If you don't fight for us, we're all going to die. Hector is destroying us. If you fight for us, Agamemnon will give you everything. All these treasures we are p...And be remembered forever as the greatest champion of the Greeks. And for Achilles, that's not a choice. Because for him, as a warrior, he loves to fight. He can only achieve eudaimonia in battle. So for him to sit in a... For a warrior who can only achieve eudaimonia in battle, glory wins before the choice begins. But pride traps him. Agamemnon will not apologize; Achilles will not yield; Patroclus enters the battle and dies.

The revenge story collapses into psychology. Source trail 21:2722:45 And then what happens? He gets killed. Achilles hears about the death of Patroclus. And Achilles is so angry at the death of his best friend that he forgives Agamemnon. He lets go of his anger at Agamemnon and directs i...But it turns out he falls into a deep depression. He cannot sleep. He cannot eat. All he does is think about Patroclus. But he's so depressed he can't even cry for Patroclus. So this is where Homer is really the first p... Achilles kills Hector, humiliates the corpse, and should be satisfied. Instead he cannot sleep, eat, or cry. The hidden truth is brutal: Hector did not really kill Patroclus; Achilles did. His rage at Hector is displaced guilt, and Homer becomes the first psychologist because the heroic surface hides a broken self.

Priam could stab Achilles. Source trail 24:1325:3627:04 believes at this time that the dead can only find peace in the afterlife if they're buried. Okay? So for Achilles to torment Hector's body like this means that Hector can never find peace in the afterlife. His father Pr...And in response, Achilles stands and he is in awe of this old man who at this moment has demonstrated more courage, more strength than Achilles has ever witnessed. Okay? So, in this act of submission, Priam has emotiona... Instead he kneels and kisses the hand of the man who killed his beloved son. Submission becomes victory. Priam emotionally defeats Achilles, forgives him, and gives Achilles permission to forgive himself. The tears finally come, and those tears release him from the ghost of Patroclus. This is the Iliad's civilizing movement: a cold warrior becomes capable of pity, self-reflection, and self-forgiveness.

Odysseus does not want Troy. Source trail 28:2729:4130:42 But you can see how rich and complex, sophisticated the Iliad is. Okay? It is, by reading it, you'll be inspired to reimagine yourself and the world around you. Okay? That's how powerful it is. All right. Now let's move...Okay? So, he pretends to be crazy, insane. And so, what he does is he takes salt and a plow. And he plows the field and salts it, which kills the field. Okay? So, clearly, this is a sign of insanity. But the Greek soldi... He wants Ithaca, Penelope, and Telemachus. His worldview tells him why he fights: justice against Troy, a legacy for his son, and the reunion of a broken family. A worldview is what lets a person exist because it explains who we are, what we want, and what we should do.

Then Troy breaks the worldview. Source trail 32:0833:2734:58 The problem is after Odysseus comes up with a Trojan horse, they sneak into the city and they open the gates. The Greeks come flooding in. Okay? And now it's total mayhem because the Greeks are killing everyone inside t...And so what happens is Odysseus is traumatized by what he sees. Okay? And this is what we call PTSD, right? Post Traumatic Stress Order. And after Troy, Odysseus becomes lost at sea and he becomes like a sex slave calle... Odysseus came for justice and reunion, but the Greeks slaughter families. Reality no longer matches the story that made him human. That is cognitive dissonance. The hero becomes ashamed, traumatized, and stuck with Calypso, crying on the beach because he cannot face home. Penelope is stuck too. Telemachus is stuck. The whole family is depressed.

Love restores what war broke. Source trail 35:5937:2038:4039:58 So they're just stuck there. Athena, who is the goddess of wisdom, okay, and she favors Odysseus. And she pities the family. And she resolves to bring the family back together again. So she goes and tells Calypso, hey,...So he doesn't even know if his wife still loves him. So he meets with Penelope, okay? And again, he's still this guy. Penelope has no idea who he is. And he cannot reveal himself to her. He sees Penelope is distraught.... The lost brooch survives because it is implanted in Odysseus' mind; Penelope recognizes him through the intimate memory only he could carry. The bow completes the resurrection. When Odysseus strings it, he strings his worldview back together: father, husband, hero, fighter for justice, protector of family. The Odyssey's argument is that love heals trauma after war.

Virgil opens where Homer does not: the Trojan Horse. Source trail 41:1142:44 Okay? So that's the Iliad and the Odyssey. Does that make sense? And again, the argument is love is the basis of civilization. It is the thing that makes us human. It is what gives us our strength, our courage, our powe...And they decide to sail home. And to ensure their safe journey home, they built a wooden horse for the gods to win their favor. Okay. And the story is so moving and so beautiful that Trojans believe him. Okay. And they... A Greek soldier tells a beautiful false story with logic, beauty, and power, and Troy believes him. The point is not subtle. The real Trojan Horse is Greek culture: logic, philosophy, and theater. If Rome embraces that culture, Rome lets the enemy inside the walls.

Priam's death is the anti-Homeric answer to Achilles and Priam. Source trail 44:14 Okay? So, Aeneas goes and he tries to save Priam. He runs to the palace and Priam is on his throne and he sees one of his sons being killed by Achilles' son, Neo -Ptolemus. Okay? Neo -Ptolemus. And Priam curses Neo -Pto... In Homer, the old king's vulnerability opens forgiveness. In Virgil's propaganda logic, that world is exposed as a lie. There is no place for love, friendship, or forgiveness. Only brutality and force triumph in the end.

Aeneas wants revenge on Helen and then wants to die with Troy. Source trail 45:4946:52 She's a whore. She's a slut. If she just did her duty, if she just stayed at home where she was supposed to be, this war would have started. So, he really wants to kill her. Okay? In fact, he is about to kill her. Then...I'm going to fight until my dying breath to save my city. And the wife and the father are begging him to not go because you are one man against an entire army. You're going to get killed. But Aeneas is stubborn and he's... Each time, a command pulls him away from feeling and toward duty. Venus tells him to leave Helen and return to family. His son's fiery crown tells him that Rome, not Troy, is the future. He must carry the father and the son out of the burning city because the past has to be abandoned for the empire to exist.

The gendered lesson is deliberately severe in the lecture's reconstruction of Virgil: the bad wife follows love and independence; the good wife removes herself for the husband's destiny. Source trail 48:0349:0050:17 He goes back and he's discovered that his wife has killed herself. Why? Because she knows that in this new world that they're going to she can only be a hindrance, okay? She wants him to embrace the future and let go of...The gods look at Aeneas and says, hey man, we told you this many times but you have a destiny to go to Rome. Your son will be the founder of a great empire, okay? That's the plan, that's the destiny, that's your mission... Dido becomes the larger case. Aeneas is happy with her in Carthage, but happiness is the problem. The gods tell him to stop fooling around and obey. Dido's love becomes madness, suicide, and a command that Carthage must one day destroy Rome.

That is the reversal: love is no longer the unifying force of the universe. Source trail 49:0050:1751:44 The gods look at Aeneas and says, hey man, we told you this many times but you have a destiny to go to Rome. Your son will be the founder of a great empire, okay? That's the plan, that's the destiny, that's your mission...And that's why Hannibal went to attack Rome, okay? Again, this is that subtle propaganda. Aeneas ends up in Italy, like he's supposed to. And there, he meets the local king, his name is Latinus, and he's the king of the... Love is a disease, a plague upon the world. Helen's love causes Troy; Dido's love causes Carthage against Rome. At the end, Aeneas wants to show mercy to Turnus, then sees the belt taken from his dead friend. Mercy stops at the belt. He plunges the spear into Turnus, and the poem ends where duty defeats forgiveness.

Aeneas' transformation is complete when the gods no longer have to intervene. Source trail 53:06 and he only stopped because the gods intervened, okay? Remember, Aeneas wanted to abandon his family and get killed in the streets of Troy. The gods had to send him a message, okay? So another divine intervention. Remem... Earlier they had to stop him from killing Helen, dying in Troy, or staying with Dido. At the end he sees the choice himself. He recognizes duty and embraces it. He becomes the embodiment of piety and duty.

Destiny gives the action its direction. Source trail 53:0654:34 and he only stopped because the gods intervened, okay? Remember, Aeneas wanted to abandon his family and get killed in the streets of Troy. The gods had to send him a message, okay? So another divine intervention. Remem...by the gods because the real purpose of Aeneas is to go to Rome so that his son can build the Roman Empire. So another major message of this book is the end point of history is Augustus Caesar, okay? Everything that is... Aeneas goes to Rome so his son can found empire, and all history converges on Augustus Caesar. Pax Romana is the promise of eternal peace on earth: no more civil war, no more conflict, no more history as open struggle. Rome turns empire into the endpoint of history.

The metaphysical contrast is exact. Source trail 55:5757:35 What the Roman Empire will show is is that piety is the basis of civilization. Love is the force that comes from within you. Okay? It grows within you. Within. But piety is what is told to you. Okay? It is what you must...It is what destroys. It is basically you disobey that creates chaos and conflict. And so, we now have a transition from the Greek world to the Roman world that is focused on piety. What Virgil is trying to create is the... Love comes from within; piety is what you are told. Love embraces emotion; piety rejects emotion. Homer makes imagination the animating force of the universe, what gives life. Virgil makes imagination the destructive force of the universe, what creates chaos by disobedience. Homer gives infinity, the power to create the world through action and emotion. Rome gives eternity, the perfected order where history has stopped because perfection has been found.

Rome is not creative in this account. Source trail 58:53 Okay? Does that make sense? Any questions? One last point is this. Okay? The Romans were like the most non -creative people in the world. They were anti -creative. So, everything that they had they sold somewhere else.... It borrows, absorbs, and turns borrowed material into imperial order. The next source is Egypt, where Rome will find a usable sense of eternity. That matters because the lecture is not claiming that Roman piety instantly becomes social reality. It is describing a new conception of reality introduced by empire.

The Roman conception is weaker at first because Greek love and imagination are still more appealing. Source trail 58:531:00:42 Okay? Does that make sense? Any questions? One last point is this. Okay? The Romans were like the most non -creative people in the world. They were anti -creative. So, everything that they had they sold somewhere else....Okay? Okay. So, looking ahead the Romans will introduce a new idea that will make piety and obedience the cornerstone of society. Okay? This idea is called Christianity. Okay, looking ahead, right, I, like, this is not... It will take time. The future mechanism is Christianity, presented here as the religion that will make piety and obedience the cornerstone of society and civilization. Rome's war to defeat Homer does not end inside the Aeneid. It points forward to the next civilizational form.