1 Million! + Centennial Episode: Cato Part 1

A strange boy...

Cost of Glory recently hit 1,000,000 downloads, and we’ve just published our 100th episode. THANK YOU for listening, some of you for more than THREE YEARS!

Even despite typical low listener turnout Thanksgiving week, this has been our biggest month ever (a frequent occurrence lately).

Of course, we’re just getting started.

Big welcome to the many new subscribers and my generous patrons.

I recently had a great conversation on the ManTalks podcast w/ Connor Beaton. We talk heroes, why they are important, how to use them to your advantage, and dive into the story of Pyrrhus, Eumenes, and others.

Men’s Retreat - On the Art of Persuasion

If you want to go deeper and get the most out of the Cost of Glory, build some serious speaking skills, and meet other excellent Cost of Glory listeners, join us for our Men’s Retreat this January (23-26) in Austin, TX:

Besides our unique rhetoric-focused curriculum, the theme for discussion is the life and persuasion skills of Julius Caesar (magister maximus ipse).

Meanwhile:

Cato the Younger Part 1 is live:

Thanks to Reid Powers - who sponsors this episode in honor of his father, the late Bill Powers, past president of UT Austin.

In this episode:

• Cato's earliest years and the murder of his uncle

• His first encounter with Sulla as a precocious youth

• Cato establishes his reputation: in military service and as Quaestor

• A Principled stand against Julius Caesar

On this centennial episode, I'd like to thank all of my listeners and patrons. On to the next hundred!

P.S.—If you’re interested in sponsoring an episode, feel free to get in touch, any support is highly appreciated as it helps me create more high quality work.

You can listen to the episode here:

Stay Ancient,

Alex

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Takeaways:

For the full story, listen to the episode. But here’s a transcript of the final takeaways:

1. Be More Disagreeable

My first big takeaway is, be more disagreeable.  Elon musk has said, "It is a real weakness to want to be liked."  Well, Cato definitely didn't suffer from that weakness.  When he was running the treasury, his name became a byword - when someone would ask to do something sketchy, off the books... the other quaestors would say, "Sorry, Cato won't allow it."  His own moral courage, his willingness to be disliked, gave other people cover to do the right thing.

And this related to many aspects of his life: his mode of dress, the way he made Pompey kind of want to be rid of him, but also want to court him.  Cato's distinctive attitude made him stand out, and made people think of him constantly ("how are we going to do this while Cato is watching") - you'll leave an impression, and people will talk about you. It doesn't mean be quarrelsome, because you could get along with Cato if you were willing to do the right thing, the hard thing.

I talked in an earlier episode about how Seneca advises you to sort of imagine a little Cato on your shoulder saying "Hell no, Hell no," and Plutarch talks about how you can harness the energy of a man like that to fortify you against Cringe ... against "the kind of shame or concession making that is a vice".

In a healthy professional world, respect matters more than likeability.  If you're in a life track where likeability is more important than respect, then there's a good chance you're on a sinking ship, or at least one dead in the water, and you should probably look to get out of there if you can.

Your reward for this is that you have a chance to be an example others will either imitate, or at least admire.  Here's Plutarch on how Cato balanced out this disagreeability with an excellent work ethic (which is important)... This is from when Cato was a Military Tribune in Macedonia:

"Cato willingly shared the tasks which he imposed upon others, and in his dress, way of living, and conduct on the march, made himself more like a soldier than a commander, while in character, dignity of purpose, and eloquence, he surpassed all those who bore the titles of Imperator and General. In this way, without knowing it, he produced in his men at the same time the feeling of good will towards himself.  For a genuine desire to attain virtue arises only in consequence of perfect good will and respect for him who displays virtue; those, on the other hand, who praise good men without loving them may revere their reputation, but they do not admire their virtue or imitate it."

Cato actually got people to love him for his disagreeability, because he backed it up with consistency and zeal.

2. Be Impervious to Ridicule

A second lesson, is a kind of corollary of this: be impervious to ridicule. People would laugh at Cato behind his back, at nice parties, sure. Cato knew it, and he didn't mind, he could roll with it.  And the way to do this is to know his principles and stick to them.  When people make fun of you, and you change course, they'll just make fun of you more. Cato could shrug it off: "What a droll consul we have".

3. Principles Above Everything

A third lesson is, if you want to be truly distinctive, put principle above party politics.  For much of the earlier part of his career, even if you kind of knew where he stood politically, you couldn't easily predict where his logic would lead him. Cicero didn't expect him to prosecute Murena, Caesar probably didn't expect him to do a hit campaign against the Optimate Profiteers from Sulla's reign of terror... you want to keep even your own party kind of guessing, wondering what you're going to do.  It will win you respect from moderates on either side, and give you the potential to weather great political storms.  As long as you base your principles fundamentally on a sense of what is true and what is right. 

4. Pick Big Fights

Finally, if you want to be like Cato, pick big fights.  Think of Cato's time at the treasury, standing up to Catulus; think also of how he was disagreeable with Deiotarus of Galatia... think of him setting his purpose to challenge Metellus Nepos (and we'll see him being very disagreeable with Nepos and Pompey in the next episode).  Even Cato's attack on Murena, though it failed, got him a lot of attention.  I think also of the early career of Teddy Roosevelt, as a junior member of the New York State Assembly, taking on huge tycoons like Jay Gould. When Cato took on Caesar, he had been in the fight for a long time already, it wasn't just his words, it was his reputation of taking on big, righteous causes, it was his character that spoke even louder than his words.  Be someone to be reckoned with, it will sharpen you.  

And Cato was going to need all the sharpness he could muster for the coming fights.

More on that next time.

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