PrimeWire

I was struck by the characterizations of Julius Caesar and Nero. According to the episode Caesar was a showman who became well known to the elites and the general public as a big entertainment promoter of spectacles who used his connections and fame from producing spectacles as a strategy to rise in politics. He was known for over the top flourishes like adding polished silver to gladiator armor to make it glint in the sunlight. His combination of entertainment and politics was so successful that after 20 years they made him dictator for life. That all sounds very familiar. Nero was the other side of the coin — he was mainly interested in entertaining himself and his friends and seeing how far he could keep pushing the envelope. poured a lot of money into constructing a huge amphitheater meeting his own specific designs and preferences, and the senate wasn’t too happy with his grandiose behavior. He insisted that his amphitheater had to be the largest amphitheater in the world. He liked hanging out with celebrities and had a favorite gladiator. This also all sounds extremely familiar. The couple of decades that all of this was happening, Rome slid from republican government to autocracy followed by imperial rule.