The History of Republics Podcast

The History of Republics is a podcast studying the great republics of the past to inform how we think about the republics we live in today.

[The History of Republics Podcast @HistRepublics]

@x_Aurelion Nobody is writing epic biographies of the guy who keeps everything running behind the scenes, even though maybe they should

[The History of Republics Podcast @HistRepublics]

@WheelPodcast @x_Aurelion The only other financiers I could think of were 19th century and Napoleon’s War WAR was too good not to have him

[Daily Roman Updates @UpdatingOnRome]

We should stop being surprised.

[The History of Republics Podcast @HistRepublics]

https://t.co/Lv75tKpWHp

[The History of Republics Podcast @HistRepublics]

Apple: https://t.co/OkF1pbYDU7
Spotify: https://t.co/zqANgDIXxl
YouTube: https://t.co/Q1SJsifZs1

[The History of Republics Podcast @HistRepublics]

The Battle of Hastings is an incredible story and this is a phenomenal thread about it, HOWEVER if you want to hear about an event that was EVEN MORE influential on England’s development (according to John Stuart Mill) listen to this week’s episode on the Battle of Marathon!

[Historical Chronicles @HistoriaJack]

On this day in 1066, the fate of England was decided when Duke William of Normandy and King Harold Godwinson clashed at...

The Battle of Hastings

A thread 🧵

[The History of Republics Podcast @HistRepublics]

@x_Aurelion It’s also wild how many options there are for general compared to the others (depending on how broadly you define “lawgiver” I suppose)

[Historical Chronicles @HistoriaJack]

On this day in 1066, the fate of England was decided when Duke William of Normandy and King Harold Godwinson clashed at...

The Battle of Hastings

A thread 🧵

[The History of Republics Podcast @HistRepublics]

Apple: https://t.co/OkF1pbYDU7
Spotify: https://t.co/zqANgDIXxl
YouTube: https://t.co/Q1SJsifZs1

[The History of Republics Podcast @HistRepublics]

Episode 6 - Marathon - is up! In which a cultural misunderstanding turns into one of the most significant days in all of Western history.

[The History of Republics Podcast @HistRepublics]

@x_Aurelion State capitols collect the darnedest things sometimes (there’s a full-size replica of Nike of Samothrace in the Idaho one)

[The History of Republics Podcast @HistRepublics]

Found this bust of Cleisthenes, founder of Athenian democracy and subject of this week’s episode of The History Of Republics, in the basement of the Ohio State Capitol in Columbus. Great to see us still honoring the greats thousands of years later!

[The History of Republics Podcast @HistRepublics]

@x_Aurelion The Republic built the empire, the Empire consumed the republic. Poetic, almost

[Aurelion @x_Aurelion]

The Roman Empire was not built by emperors.

By the time Augustus took power, Rome already controlled most of the Mediterranean.

The emperors inherited an empire largely conquered by a republic.

[Aurelion @x_Aurelion]

“The study of History is... an education and a training for political life.”

— Polybius, Histories

[The History of Republics Podcast @HistRepublics]

“…but if said neighbors, although inferior to it, draw money from it, then that is a great sign of its weakness."

[The History of Republics Podcast @HistRepublics]

In which Machiavelli absolutely flames modern American foreign policy (Discourses on Livy II.30):

[The History of Republics Podcast @HistRepublics]

“Among the other signs by which the power of a strong state is known is seeing how it lives with its neighbors. And if it governs itself so that to keep it friendly the neighbors become its tributaries, then it is a certain sign that state is powerful;

[eburke @JamesWHankins1]

OTD, October 10, 732 AD, the Franks under Charles Martel ('the Hammer') defeated a Moorish attempt to sack the rich shrine of St. Martin of Tour. Gibbon famously remarked that if the Franks had lost, students at Oxford might be studying the Qu'ran rather than the Bible.

[eburke @JamesWHankins1]

Political parties were illegal in premodern republics on the grounds that they were structurally unable to serve the common good. Organizing a political party was seen as seditious. After 2 centuries of experience with political parties we can see the point of that. Simone Weil put it more strongly, calling for abolishing political parties on the grounds that they were evil institutions that destroyed the capacity for truth, justice, and attention to the public interest. Probably the best we can do now is to have more than two viable parties, but how we get there I leave to persons better informed than I am about the mechanics of political change.