📜History

Lessons from Robert Caro, famous biographer of Lyndon Johnson

• Battle of Spartans vs. Thebans at Lutra

  • Theban commander Pamanund put his best men 50 lines deep up against Spartans 12 lines deep and took away from the rest of his army, where he positioned the weak side into diagonal lines shifting away from the enemy, like a sledgehammer to take out irreplaceable Spartan fighters. Breaks the rules of Greek warfare of the time and takes down an unbeatable army. 

  • This was a big inspiration of Philip and later Alexander’s army configuration that involved 6-7 ft spears and tightly packed men that was outrageously successful for the unbeatable Macedonian army

  • I think it’s interesting how he approached a battles and the two armies as simply two immovable objects meeting each other. The stronger immovable object wins, so he brought a literal sledgehammer made of men to the battle. And the way to beat this, or the strategy of a battle, would involve re-placing the pieces of the army that would be met by these immovable objects and creating velocity elsewhere. A lot can be learned from the reframing of things in this way. An army isn’t an army, it’s a tool. Units of energy or productivity or projects delivered aren’t only what they may seem to be, they are also tools that can be recontextualized in the terms of whatever “battle” is being fought in the moment. 

• Philip the 2nd was a “Warrior Diplomat Fixer” 

  • If a city couldn’t be conquered with force or diplomacy, it could be conquered with gold and sly infiltration of the city

  • Equal parts diplomat, warrior, and opportunist

• Alexander the Great was taught by Aristotle

  • He was a “philosopher king,” but one with a very high body count. Begs the question whether a utopic, idealistic and enlightened society is worthwhile if you kill 50 million people to achieve it?

This is interesting and it seems to verify the location of the burial of Alexander the Great, King Philip, and Cleopatra. This struck me as interesting at the time because I’ve recently listened to several Hardcore History episodes on Persian kings - “Kings of Kings” and “Mania for Subjugation”