Episode Details

Guests in Londinium, 92 AD: Gaius and Germanicus. The Ritual of Combat and Modern Delusions. Germanicusargues that for the Romans, war and ceremony were inextricably linked, using triumphs and gladiatorial spectacles to forge a shared identity between the people and the military. These rituals were "incarnations of the spirit of Rome" triumphing over "barbaric" enemies, providing a form of "ecstatic participatory" fulfillment. He notes a parallel in modern America, which uses "ecstatic vicarity" through high-tech war footage and video games to maintain a similar bond. However, he warns that the U.S. dangerously underestimates adversaries like Iran by viewing them as "barbarians" rather than a sophisticated, 2,500-year-old culture. He laments the loss of the "sobriety" that guided Cold War leadership—where the stakes of nuclear confrontation were understood—noting that current American policy reflects a "gods of war" complex born from the easy successes of the early 1990s. Gaius adds that this technological display creates a "fog of war" where the enemy's own capabilities and "vote" in the conflict are often ignored. (1)