This episode picks up the Roman story on two fronts at once: Cameron and Ray debate Schrodinger’s cat, Minecraft physics and the metaphysics of Tylenol, before steering the ship back into Tacitus’ account of the Batavian revolt. The Rhine frontier is in chaos, the Batavians are dancing across marshes, Roman legions sink into swamps, and the wonderfully named rebel leader Julius Civilis continues to torment the Flavian regime. We follow Tacticus through legionary humiliations, swamp warfare, surprise rear attacks, desertions, rainstorms and burnt camps, and the eventual fading of Civilis from history altogether. The second half of the episode dives deep into the mystery of Tacitus’ missing books: how we lost so much of his writing, why early Christians disliked him, how the Renaissance rediscovered him, and how Machiavelli weaponised him. It’s a mix of history, profanity, swamp fights, lost manuscripts, and one last goodbye to the old curmudgeon himself.
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