Hermes Historia: AUT-- Wait, What Did He Say?! Modern Reception of Julius Caesar

Season 8 // Episode 701

This episode originally aired on May 13, 2025. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Get ad-free episodes and so, so much more, by subscribing to the Oracle Edition at patreon.com/mythsbaby

In today's Hermes Historia special episode Michaela Pangowish breaks down the phrase 'AUT CAESAR AUT NIHIL' and the way we understand Julius Caesar today. Caesars, dictators, billionaire oligarchies are bad, actually. Submit your question for the next Q&A via email or a voice note.

CW/TW: far too many Greek myths involve assault. Given it's fiction, and typically involves gods and/or monsters, I'm not as deferential as I would be were I referencing the real thing.

Sources: Billows, Richard A. Julius Caesar: The colossus of Rome; Bradford, Sarah. Cesare Borgia: His life and times. Dimitrova, Miryana. Julius Caesar’s Self-Created Image and it’s Dramatic Afterlife. Irsha, Zara. “Bluesky CEO trolls Mark Zuckerberg with Tshirt diss.” Mortimer, Nigel. Medieval and Early Modern Portrayals of Julius Caesar: The transmission of an idea. Reuters. “‘Aut Zuck aut nihil’: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s custom T-shirt slogan goes viral. Do you know what it means?” Riggsby, Andrew M. Caesar in Gaul and Rome: war in words. Wyke, Maria. “A Twenty-First-Century Caesar.” In Julius Caesar in western culture.

Attributions and licensing information for music used in the podcast can be found here: mythsbaby.com/sources-attributions.

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A Long & Storied (Mythical) Tale of Tyranny, Revisiting Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound

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Conversations: How the Historical Sausage Gets Made, Roman Colonization of North Africa w/ Matthew McCarty