AGreatDivorce

In the second part of his two-part Gracchi series, Bret turns to the young Gracchus, Gaius. Whereas Tiberius could be seen more easily as a victim of overreaction, Gaius will prove the more fiery and aggressive of the brothers. To Tiberius’ one law, Gaius will be responsible for several successful, and potentially de-stabilizing reforms. And while Tiberius was murdered in the midst of a political debate on legality, Gaius will perish amid a fully armed incident.   Anyone wishing to engage with Bret, check out these links:   Original post for this recording - https://acoup.blog/2025/01/31/collections-on-the-gracchi-part-ii-gaius-gracchus/ Dr. Devereaux’s blog, A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry - https://acoup.blog Dr. Devereaux’s Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/bretdevereaux.bsky.social Dr. Devereaux’s Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/user?u=20122096 Narrations on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0QwqosVQjvXWKovUxdSGpQ   And if you wish to support me, please like, share, and subscribe!   0:00 – Gaius Gracchus 7:01 - The Aftermath of 133 15:38 - Plutarch and the Early Career of Gaius Gracchus 24:31 - The Tribunates of Gaius Gracchus 35:47 - Things Fall Apart 52:47 - The Dust Settles 1:04:01 - Credits

In this two-part series, Bret takes a look at the life, careers, deaths, and legacies of the Brothers Gracchi: Tiberius Gracchus and Gaius Gracchus. Famous as Roman tribunes known for intensely pursuing populist reforms that, ultimately, get them killed, Bret offers a more detailed examination of the brothers than is normally possible in a quick, broad Roman survey course. In doing so, he highlights how their modern image as sterling progressive reforms killed merely for challenging the elite is one view... but not the only view one could take of the brothers’ actions. Beginning first with Tiberius Gracchus and his effort to rush through a radical land reform bill at any cost.   Anyone wishing to engage with Bret, check out these links:   Original post for this recording - https://acoup.blog/2025/01/17/collections-on-the-gracchi-part-i-tiberius-gracchus/ Dr. Devereaux’s blog, A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry - https://acoup.blog Dr. Devereaux’s Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/bretdevereaux.bsky.social Dr. Devereaux’s Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/user?u=20122096 Narrations on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0QwqosVQjvXWKovUxdSGpQ   And if you wish to support me, please like, share, and subscribe!   0:00 – Tiberius Gracchus 7:53 - The Sources and Tiberius Gracchus’ Background 14:36 - The Supposed Land Crisis 28:39 - Tiberius Gracchus’ Tribunate (133) 40:36 - The Elections for 132 50:08 - Remembering Tiberius Gracchus 56:38 - Credits

Coming to the end of his three part look at pre-industrial, army logistics, Bret now examines how the army moves. How do armies actually march, how do they pick routes, how do set time tables. And how do all of these things limit the movement options (and thus engagement and operational options) of armies.   Anyone wishing to engage with Bret, check out these links:   Original post for this recording - https://acoup.blog/2022/08/12/collections-logistics-how-did-they-do-it-part-iii-on-the-move/ Dr. Devereaux’s blog, A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry - https://acoup.blog Dr. Devereaux’s Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/bretdevereaux.bsky.social Dr. Devereaux’s Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/user?u=20122096 Narrations on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0QwqosVQjvXWKovUxdSGpQ   And if you wish to support me, please like, share, and subscribe!   0:00 – On the Move 3:25 - A Good Road 12:07 - Carrying Capacity 22:03 - Road Space 28:40 - Marching Speed 43:47 - Sink or Swim 54:27 - Now Add Hostile Armies 1:05:31 - Managing Operations 1:16:58 - Conclusions 1:20:52 - Credits

In the second part of his logistics series, Bret takes a look at the broad topic of “foraging,” a word which, as Bret explains, hides a great variety of human activity. In this case, from negotiated compromises and taxation to the horrors of war. To cover this wide range, Bret examines the different methods of foraging and the very different experiences those methods had for the armies as opposed to the peasant being foraged.   Apologies on this one as some sort of background hum got caught in the audio (I have no idea how) for the back half of the video and I really am at a loss for what caused it. It’s pretty consistent and small so it isn’t a massive interruption but it is strange.   Anyone wishing to engage with Bret, check out these links:   Original post for this recording - https://acoup.blog/2022/07/29/collections-logistics-how-did-they-do-it-part-ii-foraging/ Dr. Devereaux’s blog, A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry - https://acoup.blog Dr. Devereaux’s Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/bretdevereaux.bsky.social Dr. Devereaux’s Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/user?u=20122096 Narrations on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0QwqosVQjvXWKovUxdSGpQ   And if you wish to support me, please like, share, and subscribe!   0:00 – Foraging 27:25 - On Friendly Ground 47:46 - Foraging the Enemy 1:16:22 - Impact on the Countryside 1:42:35 - Credits

In this three-part series, Bret offers an overview of how logistics were handled by pre-modern armies. To start, he sets out the problem: what logistics needs does a typical pre-modern army have? As Bret explains, this problem encompasses not just “how does each individual soldier eat or carry his pack” but extends to the broader issue of “how many people are in a typical army, how many of them are non-combatants, and how many animals does that include?”   Anyone wishing to engage with Bret, check out these links:   Original post for this recording - https://acoup.blog/2022/07/15/collections-logistics-how-did-they-do-it-part-i-the-problem/ Dr. Devereaux’s blog, A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry - https://acoup.blog Dr. Devereaux’s Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/bretdevereaux.bsky.social Dr. Devereaux’s Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/user?u=20122096 Narrations on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0QwqosVQjvXWKovUxdSGpQ   And if you wish to support me, please like, share, and subscribe!   0:00 – Logistics, How Did They Do It 7:04 - The Backpack and the Belly 21:45 - The Problem 29:41 - The Rest of the Army 40:50 - Kick Them Out! 49:38 - Scale 56:34 - Credits

As an extra bonus: another non-ACOUP upload, this time sticking to accessible deep dives of niche, academic subjects rather than silly video game horror stories: I am narrating one of the posts of aviation writer, Admiral Cloudberg. For those unfamiliar, Admiral Cloudberg (aka Kyra Dempsey) writes essays covering the technical, logistical, and systemic reasons for specific aviation disasters. Her writing, like Bret’s, is highly accessible despite tackling a very technical subject with useful images, photos, maps, and diagrams as visual aids to assist in understanding the material. She condenses large amounts of information into informative and engaging narratives to explain what went wrong in and what, if anything, could be learned from these incidents. For this post, I will be narrating her coverage of the crash of EgyptAir flight 804 and the strange journey the investigation into the crash took. This will be something of an abnormal example of Dempsey’s style, but, given the amount of research she undertook on a truly unique case and the work in making those findings accessible and comprehensible, I felt this the ideal place to start for those unfamiliar with her work. A note: Kyra cites frequently through this essay from her large bibliography of sources. As I usually do, I originally intended to include these citation references in my narration. On editing, however, I found them to make the narration difficult to follow and decided it would simply be easier for interested researchers to look at Kyra’s essay directly for citations. Since I assume no one is rewinding my audio to jot down reference notes when they could just look at the source! So if you are interested in deeper reading, see below. Anyone wishing to engage with Kyra, check out these links: Original post for this recording - https://admiralcloudberg.medium.com/masks-smoke-and-mirrors-the-untold-story-of-egyptair-flight-804-42c788fcac2d Kyra’s blog, Admiral Cloudberg - https://admiralcloudberg.medium.com/ Kyra’s Twitter - https://x.com/KyraCloudy Kyra’s Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/kyracloudy.bsky.social Kyra’s Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/Admiral_Cloudberg Narrations on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0QwqosVQjvXWKovUxdSGpQ   And if you wish to support me, please like, share, and subscribe!   0:00 – Masks, Smoke, and Mirrors 3:03 - Foreword 5:20 - Part 1: Flight 804 is Missing 30:07 - Part 2: Cold Case 43:10 - Part 3: Explosive Evidence 1:33:40 - Part 4: Inferno 2:25:49 - Part 5: I Ask Forgiveness from God 2:38:24 - Part 6: A Legacy to Be Written 2:52:53 - Credits

As something of a supplement to his examination of the dilectus, Bret takes a look at the supposed theory of “Marian Reforms,” the (erroneous) idea that Gaius Marius was directly and intentionally responsible for a package of sweeping changes to the Roman army in the 2nd century BC. Bret examines what changes have been attributed to Marius as “reforms” and then looks at the historical reality of when and how they came about.   Also, just to make sure no one feels they need to rush off to Wikipedia… the article on the “Marian Reforms” that Bret specifically cites for its erroneous information has since been edited. You can even find this article linked there, now!   Anyone wishing to engage with Bret, check out these links:   Original post for this recording - https://acoup.blog/2023/06/30/collections-the-marian-reforms-werent-a-thing/ Dr. Devereaux’s blog, A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry - https://acoup.blog Dr. Devereaux’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/BretDevereaux Dr. Devereaux’s Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/user?u=20122096 Narrations on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0QwqosVQjvXWKovUxdSGpQ   And if you wish to support me, please like, share, and subscribe!   0:00 – The Marian Reforms Weren’t a Thing 8:13 - The So-Called Marian Reforms 17:10 - Equipment Reforms 31:07 - Recruit and Organization 53:31 - Cohorts and Tactics 1:02:39 - The Reforms That Weren’t 1:08:24 - Credits

Here, Bret covers how the Roman Republic raised its army: the process called the “dilectus”. He discusses the three phases of the dilectus (census, arming, and mobilization) and how the Roman’s kept track of the logistics of the system, as well as how successful it was.   Anyone wishing to engage with Bret, check out these links:   Original post for this recording - https://acoup.blog/2023/06/16/collections-how-to-raise-a-roman-army-the-dilectus/ Dr. Devereaux’s blog, A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry - https://acoup.blog Dr. Devereaux’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/BretDevereaux Dr. Devereaux’s Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/user?u=20122096 Narrations on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0QwqosVQjvXWKovUxdSGpQ   And if you wish to support me, please like, share, and subscribe!   0:00 – The Dilectus 4:05 - Timing the Dilectus 12:50 - Phase I: Bueller? Bueller? Bueller? 31:32 - Phase II: Unit Divisions 43:30 - Phase III: Mobilization 47:28 - Observations on the System 57:30 - Credits

In this post, Bret provides a brief overview of Rome’s road system, through the lens of the question, “Was the Roman road system unique and, if so, how?” He examines this by first looking at what sort of road systems preceded Rome’s, and then examines the construction, expanse, and purpose of Rome’s specific system.   Anyone wishing to engage with Bret, check out these links:   Original post for this recording - https://acoup.blog/2023/06/02/collections-roman-roads/ Dr. Devereaux’s blog, A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry - https://acoup.blog Dr. Devereaux’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/BretDevereaux Dr. Devereaux’s Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/user?u=20122096 Narrations on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0QwqosVQjvXWKovUxdSGpQ   And if you wish to support me, please like, share, and subscribe!   0:00 – Roman Roads 4:07 - Imperial Roadways 14:59 - Roman Roads 23:59 - The Roman Road System 41:29 - Impact 52:59 - Credits

In this post, Bret examines Cleopatra. Both who she was and what sort of ruler she was. He starts by discussing how pop culture (and historical sources) often treat Cleopatra and what they tend to view as important about her. Then he turns to what we can see from our sources of Cleopatra’s life and legacy.   Anyone wishing to engage with Bret, check out these links:   Original post for this recording - https://acoup.blog/2023/05/26/collections-on-the-reign-of-cleopatra/ Dr. Devereaux’s blog, A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry - https://acoup.blog Dr. Devereaux’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/BretDevereaux Dr. Devereaux’s Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/user?u=20122096 Narrations on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0QwqosVQjvXWKovUxdSGpQ   And if you wish to support me, please like, share, and subscribe!   0:00 - On the Reign of Cleopatra 10:53 - Racing Cleopatra 33:35 - Towards Assessing Cleopatra 47:30 - Cleopatra and Egypt 1:08:35 - Cleopatra’s Rule in Egypt 1:17:42 - The Ambitions of Cleopatra 1:39:39 - A Verdict on Cleopatra 1:48:43 - Credits

Continuing the run of Bret’s Roman one-offs, this article provides a very quick and dirty analysis of Roman Egypt. More specifically, it examines in what ways Egypt was different from other Roman provinces. It also examines why Egypt was important both to Rome as a polity and to the study of Roman history.   Anyone wishing to engage with Bret, check out these links:   Original post for this recording - https://acoup.blog/2022/12/02/collections-why-roman-egypt-was-such-a-strange-province/ Dr. Devereaux’s blog, A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry - https://acoup.blog Dr. Devereaux’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/BretDevereaux Dr. Devereaux’s Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/user?u=20122096 Narrations on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0QwqosVQjvXWKovUxdSGpQ   And if you wish to support me, please like, share, and subscribe!   0:00 – Why Roman Egypt Was Such a Strange Province 4:34 - What Makes Roman Egypt So Valuable To Historians? 17:48 - The Romans Made Egypt Unusual 30:36 - But Egypt Was Already Unusual 45:00 - Conclusion 47:02 - Credits

Because I have been out of practice for so long, I decided to do something completely silly and low-stakes to help me warm back up: a reading of a personal favorite, absolutely absurd creepypasta. Blood Whistle. For those who aren’t familiar: “creepypasta” is a horror genre consisting of internet-shared stories of purported legends or tall tales. Essentially, they are the internet version of campfire stories. Not meant to be serious and, often, bad in ways that are delightfully entertaining. A well-known subgenre of creepypastas is the “haunted game cartridge” story, where the narrator tells of an encounter with a cursed, haunted, or otherwise nefarious video game cartridge, always with the game in question corrupted to be a malefic version of itself. Blood Whistle is a completely standard example of the subgenre. By that I mean: its writing is overwrought and melodramatic, it assumes emotional investment from the reader that it does not earn, and it is poorly constructed in ways that are extremely funny. It is enormously entertaining to me, so I decided to do a reading of it as a return to narrations. Also to get back my vocal practice by reading something that begs for overly dramatized performance. Content warning: as a haunted-game creepypasta, Blood Whistle has a lot of purple prose gore and viscera. Like many of its kind, it childishly delights in excessive blood, suicidal ideation, and overly traumatic imagery and sentiment. If you are squeamish, sit this one out. Check out the Rome posts instead, and don’t worry. I will be back with more ACOUP before 2026... if I can just get this bootleg copy of Majora’s Mask that I found at a yard sale to work.... Source of the text for the reading: https://lostepisodecreepypasta.fandom.com/wiki/Blood_Whistle_(Super_Mario_Bros_3_Creepypasta)   Video for the background is from World of Longplays, played by Spazbo4, available here: https://longplays.org/infusions/longplays/longplays.php?cat_id=15&longplay_id=767  

In another ACOUP Senate post, Bret looks at the question of, if it was such a successful economy, Rome did not produce an industrial revolution. To answer this, he explores both the nature of Rome’s economy and the circumstances that led to the industrial revolution.   Anyone wishing to engage with Bret, check out these links:   Original post for this recording - https://acoup.blog/2022/08/26/collections-why-no-roman-industrial-revolution/ Dr. Devereaux’s blog, A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry - https://acoup.blog Dr. Devereaux’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/BretDevereaux Dr. Devereaux’s Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/user?u=20122096 Narrations on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0QwqosVQjvXWKovUxdSGpQ   And if you wish to support me, please like, share, and subscribe!   0:00 - Why No Roman Industrial Revolution? 1:29 - The Question 10:23 - The Industrial Revolution 33:33 - Why Not in Rome? 36:42 - The Nature of the Roman Economy 50:51 - Credits

In this ACOUP Senate post, Bret provides an overview of the Roman dictator. How did the position of dictator work and what did that word even mean to the Romans using it? Particularly, Bret examines how what “dictator” meant changed from its older, much more stable use in the early republic, to its much more destructive, lawless use at the end of the republic.   Anyone wishing to engage with Bret, check out these links:   Original post for this recording - https://acoup.blog/2022/03/18/collections-the-roman-dictatorship-how-did-it-work-did-it-work/ Dr. Devereaux’s blog, A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry - https://acoup.blog Dr. Devereaux’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/BretDevereaux Dr. Devereaux’s Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/user?u=20122096 Narrations on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0QwqosVQjvXWKovUxdSGpQ   And if you wish to support me, please like, share, and subscribe!   0:00 - The Roman Dictatorship 1:50 - Two Institutions 9:47 - How Did the Customary Dictatorship Work? 26:13 - Did the Customary Dictatorship Work? 31:04 - How Did the Irregular Dictatorship Work? 42:32 - Did the Irregular Dictatorship Work? 54:44 - Credits

To close out his analysis of the transition from the Roman imperial era to the Middle Ages, Bret takes a closer look at “things”: the trends and evidences of economy and demography and what they tell us about how real people were impacted. Not just elites but the normal, workaday people who made up the majority of the humans who lived in this period.   Anyone wishing to engage with Bret, check out these links:   Original post for this recording - https://acoup.blog/2022/02/11/collections-rome-decline-and-fall-part-iii-things/ Dr. Devereaux’s blog, A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry - https://acoup.blog Dr. Devereaux’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/BretDevereaux Dr. Devereaux’s Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/user?u=20122096 Narrations on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0QwqosVQjvXWKovUxdSGpQ   And if you wish to support me, please like, share, and subscribe!   0:00 - Things 4:00 - The Revenge of the Archaeologists 14:52 - Demographics 21:21 - Graph 25:00 - End of Graph 29:13 - Living Standards 41:50 - From High Equilibrium to Low Equilibrium 1:03:17 - What Happened? 1:16:02 - Conclusions 1:29:40 - Credits

After assessing the impact on “words” during the period of Roman decline and transition to the Middle Ages, Bret turns his attention to institutions. How did institutions (state capacity, organized religion, cities, political administration) change during the transition?   Anyone wishing to engage with Bret, check out these links:   Original post for this recording - https://acoup.blog/2022/01/28/collections-rome-decline-and-fall-part-ii-institutions/ Dr. Devereaux’s blog, A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry - https://acoup.blog Dr. Devereaux’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/BretDevereaux Dr. Devereaux’s Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/user?u=20122096 Narrations on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0QwqosVQjvXWKovUxdSGpQ   And if you wish to support me, please like, share, and subscribe!   0:00 - Institutions 3:37 - Political Institutions 23:47 - Cities 35:33 - Religious Institutions 45:19 - The East 58:55 - Credits

After a thousand years of sleep, I’m finally back with new narrations. I decided to start with Bret’s trilogy of posts discussing the concept of Rome “declining and falling,” examining how the actual historical record matches up with the pop-culture idea of Rome collapsing into a period of ignorance and decay called “The Dark Ages.” To start that discussion, Bret first overviews the general scholastic trends of thinking about this period of history, when the Roman empire transitioned into medieval Europe, and then he takes a detailed look at the development of culture, language, literature, and art over that period.   Anyone wishing to engage with Bret, check out these links:   Original post for this recording - https://acoup.blog/2022/01/14/collections-rome-decline-and-fall-part-i-words/ Dr. Devereaux’s blog, A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry - https://acoup.blog Dr. Devereaux’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/BretDevereaux Dr. Devereaux’s Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/user?u=20122096 Narrations on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0QwqosVQjvXWKovUxdSGpQ   And if you wish to support me, please like, share, and subscribe!   0:00 - Words 3:52 - Two Knights, An Old Man, and a Nitwit 17:50 - A Short History of the (Long) Fifth Century 34:12 - Living Together 56:32 - Literature 1:10:52 - Credits

To close out his look at the limits and factors of pre-modern generalship, Bret examines two of the most important factors on the behavior of the army itself: morale and cohesion. These factors, often reduced to simple binary values in video games or film, are much more complex in real life, leading to far more human, organic situations for armies where every individual soldier is constantly juggling a dynamic set of emotions, risk assessments, and motivations. How does this reality impact the options a general has in leading armies of other human beings?   Anyone wishing to engage with Bret, check out these links:   Original post for this recording - https://acoup.blog/2022/07/01/collections-total-generalship-commanding-pre-modern-armies-part-iiic-morale-and-cohesion/ Dr. Devereaux’s blog, A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry - https://acoup.blog Dr. Devereaux’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/BretDevereaux Dr. Devereaux’s Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/user?u=20122096 Narrations on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0QwqosVQjvXWKovUxdSGpQ Episode on Youtube - https://youtu.be/sq8dP7Mms-8?feature=shared   And if you wish to support me, please like, share, and subscribe!

Bret takes a look at how officers and command flexibility affect the abilities of armies to execute complex battle plans. First examining what officers are and how they integrate into army structure, Bret takes a look then at both the factors that impact officers’ abilities to command as well as the factors that influence how useful officers may be to a particular army structure.   Anyone wishing to engage with Bret, check out these links:   Original post for this recording - https://acoup.blog/2022/06/24/collections-total-generalship-commanding-pre-modern-armies-part-iiib-officers/ Dr. Devereaux’s blog, A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry - https://acoup.blog Dr. Devereaux’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/BretDevereaux Dr. Devereaux’s Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/user?u=20122096 Narrations on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0QwqosVQjvXWKovUxdSGpQ Episode on Podbean - https://youtu.be/pUbMBDB-1Dg?feature=shared   And if you wish to support me, please like, share, and subscribe!

For his third part in this three-part series, Bret takes a three-part look at the role that three distinct factors play in how the army itself can carry out the orders of the general. The first of these factors he examines is discipline. What did “discipline” mean, how was it trained for, and what options did it allow for the army (and what associated costs did it have).   Anyone wishing to engage with Bret, check out these links:   Original post for this recording - https://acoup.blog/2022/06/17/collections-total-generalship-commanding-pre-modern-armies-part-iiia-discipline/ Dr. Devereaux’s blog, A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry - https://acoup.blog Dr. Devereaux’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/BretDevereaux Dr. Devereaux’s Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/user?u=20122096 Narrations on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0QwqosVQjvXWKovUxdSGpQ Episode on Youtube - https://youtu.be/8B417pKJXbU?feature=shared   And if you wish to support me, please like, share, and subscribe!