The Basement: Alex Petkas | Julius Caesar's Final 24 Hours
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What is the opening advertisement and introduction to Alex Petkas about?
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Today I'm talking with Alex Petkus. He has a PhD in classics from Princeton, and he failed history in high school. He was busy being the top monk on his EverQuest server.
Top monk on EverQuest? I was once a level 60 dominatrix on a Turkish gambling server. I respect the grind.
Now he hosts Cost of Glory, where he retells the lives of Plutarch's heroes. He sold the family business to go all in. Today we're covering how Plato got played by a tyrant in Sicily, a coup in ancient Thebes pulled off by men in dresses.
Men in dresses pulled off a coup? Did I ever tell you a story when Uncle Sal tried that at Thanksgiving? We refer to it as the incident, and I got him a lawyer.
and the Roman Library, a volcano buried 2,000 years ago. AI just read one of its scrolls start to finish. Alex helped produce the documentary about it with Ridley Scott's company. And the night before Caesar was murdered, he asked the dinner table what the best way to die would be. One of his killers was sitting right there. That one gave me chills.
Yeah, this one died.
Would you please let me get... It's the middle of the night. Will you let me...
Sorry, sorry. I forgot you get chills over a guy who didn't even clock his own murder sitting right there. Dammit,
Jim. After our conversation, I'll come back and break down the talk.
How does the conversation shift to Caesar’s statue and his emotional moment?
Let's go down to the basement.
Thank
you for being here, sir.
Yeah.
Alex Petra's Cost of Glory. I love your podcast. I'm obsessed with it, which is why today's going to be, it's going to be hectic. So there's going to be a lot of rifling through papers. It's so much to cover. I'm hoping you'll come back and we can drill down to specific stories. Like we can, I've got Catalyne here for 18 minutes. That's not fair. So we're just going to have to muscle through it. What I'd like to start with. Honored, by the way. Stop. I love your work.
Get out of
here. I won't
accept
it. It's a real achievement. I appreciate that. Thank you. It was a lot of luck and accident.
I was a little afraid because I know you do really good research. And look at that stack of papers.
Why afraid? I've never hurt anyone's feelings. I've only made six grown men cry. That's not... Fair. Okay. Well... Are you feeling emotionally open today?
I am feeling
quite
emotionally open.
Yeah. Okay. I noticed the posture change when I asked. Interesting. I want to learn about you, but I pride myself on being novel and asking questions and that... that the guest doesn't expect, that are fun for you, that people won't hear on the circuit because everybody does the circuit. But before we do that, just maybe a five-minute retelling of Caesar and the Statue.
Yeah, this is one of my favorite episodes, and I think that people don't. read it right they don't interpret it the way that i do at least so famous story people might have heard of it julius caesar is uh 32 he's a quester in spain chief of staff for some you know provincial governor and paper
paper pusher
yeah you know the the the the document guy the the gopher um and he is you know they're doing the whole uh assizes tour probably you know so they're in cadiz or cadiz in spain which is an old phoenician city and there's a temple there that was probably a temple to Melkart, but they converted it to a temple to Hercules. Hercules is Melkart. And in this temple, as one does, they've put a lot of art, statues and paintings, and there's a statue. Caesar's going through there with his friends. It's kind of like a museum, and they're kind of appreciating the art, maybe toss a little incense on the pyre. And his friends, at some point, they're kind of moving along from statue to statue. And they look back and they see Caesar is not with them.
What personal story does Alex share about his teenage years, self‑help books, and learning Greek?
He's standing in front of a statue of Alexander the Great.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the opening advertisement and introduction to Alex Petkas about?
0:00–1:43
2
How does the conversation shift to Caesar’s statue and his emotional moment?
1:43–4:37
3
What personal story does Alex share about his teenage years, self‑help books, and learning Greek?
4:37–9:18
4
How does the discussion move from Alex’s academic career to Plato’s involvement in Syracuse and the Dion coup?
9:18–1:25:20
5
How did the Theban general Epaminondas overthrow Spartan dominance?
1:25:20–1:33:59
6
What evidence links Julius Caesar to Epicurean philosophy?
1:33:59–1:44:25
7
How are the Herculaneum scrolls being read with modern CT‑scan and AI?
1:44:25–2:03:39
8
Why is the Classical Society’s men‑only fellowship controversial today?
2:03:39–2:51:04
Speakers
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