A conversation between Gaius (John Batchelor) and Germanicus (Michael Vlahos) of Londinium, 90 A.D—originally recorded 8/4/24.
The last time we had this conversation, we spoke of Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt, who was a principal in two dramas that came to create Augustus. The first drama was with Caesar when he conquered Egypt and took her as a wife. The second drama was when Cleopatra teamed with Mark Antony, who wanted to inherit Caesar's mantle.
But he was opposed by Octavian, who was no warrior, but a very clever politician. Octavian, Marcus Agrippa, and the Roman army go on to Egypt, conquer Mark Antony, and Cleopatra commits suicide rather than submit herself to Octavian and be paraded in a triumph in Rome. She goes out a queen, and 2000 years later, we know that America and Europe still honor Cleopatra.
The American canvas now includes a very powerful woman, the vice president of the United States, Kamala Harris from California. Very secure in her base politics, she comes from San Francisco and is highly approved in Sacramento. Harris has loyally served Joe Biden, who stepped aside —we've talked of him as Tiberius.
All that is behind us. Right now is the campaign that Cleopatra, Kamala Harris, is running against a man who at times can remind us of Caesar.
He can also remind us of any one of Caesar's rivals on his way up, as well as a barbarian when he wants to. He's quite unpredictable. So, setting aside the Roman model, how do you see the American canvas right now between Harris, representing the elite coastals, and Trump, surprisingly representing the flyover country in the American working class?
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A conversation between Gaius (John Batchelor) and Germanicus (Michael Vlahos) of Londinium, 90 A.D—originally recorded 7/28/24.
We discussed last week the Year of Five Emperors—that would be the candidate Trump, the candidate Vance, the candidate Harris, the unknown VP candidate with Harris, and President Biden. That’s the Year of Five Emperors, and a week later, nothing's been sorted out.
So we're going to plow ahead. We're going to say our Tiberius, having stepped aside, remains on Capri available for transparency. And he's been replaced momentarily—not fixed yet, but it's a suggestion—by a strong member of his administration, the vice president, Kamala Harris of California.
And here in the 1st century A.D., we have a model in the role of Cleopatra, the Queen of the Nile, the breadbasket of the Mediterranean basin. The key to the success of the Roman Empire was to be able to feed it, and Egypt contributed. But we both know that Cleopatra and civil war problems, brothers and family and people after her throne.
We also know that Caesar took advantage of her queenliness, and then Mark Antony took advantage of her queenliness. It came to a bad end, but while she was on top, she was extremely successful. The Democratic Party is promoting Harris as a Cleopatra, and I accept that. That's the best case scenario. We remember Cleopatra as powerful.
Is that model adequate for the moment that we see in the 21st century?
LINKS:
CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor on YouTube
The John Batchelor Show on Apple Podcasts:
The Election Continues | Londinium Double Feature