A conversation with American classicist, military historian, and conservative political commentator Victor Davis Hanson.

We discuss:

Why Epaminondas remains one of the most underrated commanders in Greek history, and how the loss of Plutarch's Life of Epaminondas has obscured his legacy
The pivotal liberation of Thebes in 378 BC: how a small band of conspirators overthrew the Spartan-backed oligarchy and sparked a democratic revolution
Epaminondas's strategic masterstroke at Leuctra — the deep oblique phalanx on the left — and how it shattered 200 years of Spartan military supremacy
How freeing the Messenian Helots and building Megalopolis, Mantinea, and Messene permanently encircled and emasculated Sparta as a great power
The fatal miscalculation of 335 BC: why Thebes revolted against Alexander on the basis of a false rumor, and how every potential ally abandoned them
The recurring pattern of doomed civilizations — from Thebes to Carthage to Constantinople — that share delusions about allies, enemies, and their own decline
What ancient history reveals about America's current strengths and vulnerabilities, from demographic pressures to the China threat

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117 - Alexander's Sack of Thebes, w/ Victor Davis Hanson