Plato spent time around some bad people.  But he had a way of trying to stay at the top of his virtue game despite the many bad influences he was around. 

You can use it too.

Links to Lysias' Against Eratosthenes (Lysias 12), mentioned in the episode:

A PDF (It's public domain):
https://ryanfb.github.io/loebolus-data/L244.pdf

Perseus (Annoying interface, but convenient):
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0154%3Aspeech%3D12

How enemies can be more useful than Reason itself.  Anecdotes from Chilon of Sparta, Scipio Nasica. From Plutarch's treatise How to Profit from your Enemies.  

His treatise was addressed to Cornelius Pulcher, of Epidaurus, custodian of the cult of Asclepius.

In the Parallel Lives, the philosopher Plutarch pairs individual Greeks and Romans with each other, comparing their lives. In the last few episodes of The Cost of Glory we’ve shared Plutarch’s stories about the lives of Eumenes of Kardia and Sertorius of Rome, pulling out key lessons for modern leaders. 

In this comparison episode, we’re joined by guest narrator Stephen Blackwell, President of Ralston College, Savannah, Georgia.
(www.ralston.ac)

Plutarch offers his own thoughts on the lives of Eumenes and Sertorius.

We offer ours on their respective legacies. 

Both Eumenes and Sertorius lived similar lives, with similar fortunes, and competed using similar qualities. They both possessed great innate talent, and a tremendous dedication to hard work and perfecting their skills. They were also motivated by powerful ambition, but were both ultimately betrayed by people on their own team.

Lessons?

#1:  If you’re a leader, you need to do everything you can to read the character and disposition of your immediate reports. Are they following you willingly? Or are they likely to jump ship when something better comes along? Take measures to learn the character of your subordinates. 

#2:  For your legacy: Leave behind living people who admire and respect you. People for whom you gave everything you had, to help and defend their rights, to promote their flourishing in the world, even at the highest cost. They’re the ones who will ensure your good work lives on. 

On today’s podcast:

• Plutarch’s comparison of Sertorius and Eumenes
• Julius Caesar and the legacy of Sertorius
• The importance of having favorable storytellers:  Hieronymus and Sallust
• Is loyalty a virtue?
• The importance of being faithful
• Channel your ambition into a cause and principle

Links:

• www.ancientlifecoach.com
• Plutarch’s essay
• Ralston College

What happened to Alexander's kingdom after the death of Eumenes?

In this episode: 
-The end of the Eumenes Story
-The age of warring successors begins. 
-What is special about Eumenes?

In this final part of his Life, Eumenes’ loyalty to the legacy of Alexander is put to the ultimate test.  He faces off against Antigonus, on behalf of Queen Olympias, over rulership of the kingdom and the regency of the kings.

A notable historian, A.B. Bosworth, remarks that the struggle between Eumenes and Antigonus “Did more than anything to determine the shape the Hellenistic world.”

Our guest narrator is Dawn LaValle Norman, a classicist and scholar of Plutarch and his era.

Eumenes has the choice at multiple points to retire in peace.  But he fights on.  Why? And what can we learn from his example? 

Eumenes knew the secrets of how to secure the loyalty and admiration of followers, and the compliance of reluctant subordinates. 

He took his men on grand campaigns from the steppes of central Turkey to the marshes of Babylonia, the death valley of Susa, and the Iranian highlands.

As Plutarch remarks: “Success… makes even men of smaller character look impressive to us, as they stare down upon us from the heights, but it is when misfortune strikes, that the truly great and steadfast man becomes unmistakeable.”

On today’s podcast:

• How to secure loyalty from reluctant followers 
• How to wait out a siege
• The brittle peace after Antipater’s death, and the wrench that smashed it
• How Eumenes made it into the Babylonian Chronicle
• Why the debtor rules the creditor
• The way Eumenes fought when the odds were against him

Links:

• https://ancientlifecoach.com/

What would you do if your closest friend died unexpectedly, leaving an incredible legacy, and an infant son. How far would you go to defend his rights? Would you give your life? 

In this episode Eumenes emerges onto the world stage as one of antiquity’s brilliant generals.

What is it like to believe in a divine kingship?  Or, at least, to act as though you do believe?

Eumenes fought rebel Persian satraps, upstaged Macedonian warrior nobles, arranged dynastic marriages, fought in hand to hand combat with great commanders.  He was visited in his dreams by the gods.  He strove mightily against fate.

Like the figures he worked for and fought with, he seems larger than life sometimes.  What can we take away from his biography? 

Eumenes stayed true to his principles, kept his word in an increasingly faithless age, and though all adversity, by gradually taking on larger and larger challenges and responsibilities, he transformed himself, and became an equal of the great lords who were deciding the fate of the throne of Alexander.

On today’s podcast:

• Why you should be careful who you marry
• How to remain loyal to yourself and the cause you believe in
• How the The first great War of the Successors began
• How to get the gods to fight on your side
• Eumenes’ transformation from a man of letters to a man of war

Links:

• https://ancientlifecoach.com/

As the Royal Secretary to Alexander the Great, Eumenes of Kardia had a front row seat to Alexander bringing his impossible dream crashing into the real world. 

As a young man, Eumenes couldn’t possibly have known that the Mediterranean world he lived in was on the cusp of the most dramatic political and cultural shift in its recorded history, up to that point. And that he would be at the very center of the administrative and military machine that brought that change about. 

But just when Eumenes was on top of this new world order he had helped forge, Alexander died. And things suddenly looked like they were starting to unravel. When this happened, Eumenes was determined to keep it all together, because he was one of the only people who could.

Not many people can expertly pivot their position so smoothly, but in the aftermath of Alexander’s unexpected death, Eumenes adroitly converted his position and influence into political power. 

In this first part of The Life of Eumenes of Kardia, we learn why King Philip of Macedonia initially hired Eumenes as his secretary, how Eumenes grew close to Alexander, why Eumenes got on Olympias’ good side, and on Antipater’s wrong side, the expeditions Eumenes accompanied Alexander on, why the expedition into the Punjab region transformed Eumenes from administrator to taking charge of an elite division of cavalry, Eumenes’ role in settling the succession of Alexander at the Partition of Babylon, and finally why Perdiccas sent Eumenes to Cappadocia.

From the outset, Eumenes displayed the traits of a great leader - his ability to be an effective follower of the right cause, and a loyal servant to the decision makers in the situation he found himself in. He was able to slow his mind down and comprehend the situation as a whole, and find where the real potential for action was, the real leverage points. But more importantly, Eumenes performed all his roles, no matter how minor, with excellence, because he saw in them the clear potential for much greater roles.

So, if like Eumenes, you’re looking for a way to sharpen your present self, download and listen to this latest episode. 

On today’s podcast:

• How to excel in the service of charismatic leaders
• That some accountants can wrestle
• Philip II of Macedon’s conquest of Greece, and subsequent Murder
• The importance of being trustworthy
• Alexander’s conquest of Asia and beyond
• How to build up creds and respect as an outsider
• Eumenes’ role in the Partition of Babylon - The post- Alexander settlement

Links:

• https://ancientlifecoach.com/

Plutarch in On Tranquillity of Mind discusses a way to use the famous phrase Know Thyself.

Some Figures mentioned:

Sertorius
Eumenes, 
Philip II of Macedon
Alexander the Great
Dionysius I, Tyrant of Syracuse
Philoxenus the Poet
Pindar
Empedocles
Plato
Democritus
Ismenias, wealthy citizen of Thebes
Epaminondas, Theban general
Euripides

Quotes:
"Know Thyself"
"Rule the Sparta you got"

How do you keep a positive frame of mind in challenging circumstances?  Troubles with loved ones, at work, with poverty, business?  Try this tool, drawn from a passage of Plutarch's moral writings (Moralia).

Treatise mentioned: On Tranquility of Mind (from the Moralia)
People Mentioned:
Paccius - a Roman senator, not known outside of Plutarch's works.  Possibly a friend or acquaintance of Pliny the Younger, Tacitus.
Epaminondas - Famous Theban general and statesman.  Major character in the Life of Pelopidas, brief mention in the Life of Eumenes.
Fabricius - Famous Roman general and statesman.  Major character in the Life of Pyrrhus (also coming soon)

Tool discussed: reframing the conception of external circumstances, in order to alter one's inner state.

This episode provides a brief summary of the life of Sertorius (spoiler alert), recounts events at Rome after his death, and offers a few practical takeaways.

Go deeper! Sign up for Ancient Life Emails at ancientlifecoach.com. 

Life of Sertorius Cheat Sheet - ancientlifecoach.com/quintussertorius

(To skip the summary, go to 6:00) 

There is some closure to the story - the wicked are punished, at least some of them.  But in the wake of the civil war, Sertorius' legacy was, for now, in jeopardy.  The narrative was controlled by his enemies.  But this situation did not last forever.

Some Takeaways: 
How to work your hardest
Which game to play
How to survive when death and failure threaten
How to bring people in to your dream