I’m so excited to be joined on the newest episode of Compendium by historian Barry Strauss. He’s a classicist, Military Historian, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Professor Emeritus at Cornell University, and he’s written the great books: Ten Caesars, Masters of Command, and The War That Made the Roman Empire.
His newest release is Jews Vs. Rome, a look at two hundred years of revolt in Judea under Roman rule. I asked him why this subject, and why now?
“What actually interested me was the fact that it’s Jews vs. Rome plus the Iranian connection.At this time in history, Iran was an empire called Parthia. It was ruled by a dynasty that came from Parthia, which is in what is nowadays northeastern Iran. And far from being an enemy of ancient Israel, Judea, as it was called at the time, Parthia was a friend, an ally, a would-be partner against Rome. And Judea was not only on the eastern edge of the Roman Empire, but it was actually caught between two empires, between the Roman Empire, in the Roman Empire, but also constantly looking towards the Parthian Empire to the east.”
We also talked about some of history’s greatest military commanders, and what made them great:
Augustus was not a great military man, but he was a great strategist. He certainly knew instinctively the godfather’s motto of keeping your friends close and your enemies even closer. When he and Mark Antony are vying for control of the Roman Empire, he marries his sister to Mark Antony, and she is a go-between, as it were, almost a spy…It’s been compared to mafia marriages nowadays, but that was a very wise strategy.
Caesar was a great strategist, again, in part because he knew the importance of diplomacy. He knew the importance, when he conquered Gaul, of keeping his Gallic enemies divided. The Romans, in fact, never did have the motto divide and conquer that comes later, but they practised that without even having the motto, and Caesar practised it very well.
All of that and a whole lot more in the episode with Barry Strauss!
