Person
Julius Caesar
Subject of analysis (not a guest); Roman military commander and statesman
Roman general and statesman, widely regarded as history's greatest military commander; the calendar month of July and titles like Tsar and Kaiser are named after him. This episode is not a guest interview but Phill Agnew's analysis of Caesar's persuasion tactics, almost all organized around Costly Signaling: demanding pirates raise his own ransom (see Caesar Pirate-Ransom Costly-Signal Case), extravagant debt-funded public parties and giving up a rare military "triumph" ceremony, wearing a nonconforming long-sleeved toga (see Red Sneakers Effect (Nonconformity Status Signal)), and leadership tactics that built his army's devotion (memorizing soldiers' names, addressing them as comrades, eating and sleeping alongside them — see Caesar Army-Leadership Signaling Cases) and reframing inedible wartime bread as "food of kings" (see Caesar Winter-Bread Reframing Case).
Discussed in
- Episode 101 — Julius Caesar- How to influence an empire