The story about two years, true for the most part so too are the stories of my new book the way I heard it if you'd like an autograph copy, I've set a few aside for fans of the podcast cast, which you can pick up at micro dot com, slash book, if you care about my autograph than gotta Micro, Dotcom, Slash book anyway to find the best rise. The book is available pretty much anywhere. Books are sold, Barnes and Noble Walmart target books. A million has in some of the place. Hudson has them Amazon, of course, but the prices change all the time. So click around at micro, dot com to

see who's got. What for how much the reviews were all pretty much five star, very flattering: New York Times cost of the bestseller. I think it would make a dandy Christmas present. People still say Dandi anymore, I don't know, but your copy awaits at micro com book. This is the way I heard it. When Caesar entered the forum on that fateful day, he didn't look like the rigour statesmen, captured in bronze statues, marble, busts and millions of silver coins. He looked like a refuge gee from Hell is uniform, was soaked with sweat and spattered, with mud. His eyes were wild and both urging his jaw was wrapped in a bloody rag and his breath came in great. We,

In gasps, in short, Caesar looked like a dead man, walking which of course he was it's odd, though how little is written about the asthma and the cancer plague. The famous general historians agree both maladies, left Caesar and constant misery until his brutal death, and yet nowhere on the statues bust Coins that bear his image. Is there a hint of deformity were mutilation not so much as a single blemish Obviously no one wants to be remembered for their infirmaries, but in Caesar's case nor them diminishes the magnitude of his greatest accomplishment. So, for just a moment put yourself in Caesar saddle and demand. In the seeing that change the course of western civilization, you're a general and the enemy is crossed. Your borders. War is up

You so you led your men into battle, but after the battle is under way. You receive word that, Your government is in chaos, weak willed politician, of bark that the resolution before them and you can only break the deadlock with votes that will be held in just two days. Your eighty miles from the forum you Your stand, the stakes you do, the math in good, whether you know, but a healthy ride or on a sturdy horse, can cover thirty miles a day, but You only have forty eight hours, and you are not a healthy writer. In fact, you're already exhausted from battle the weather is a nightmare. Temperatures north of a hundred degrees and your asthma is making every breath a torture, but your Caesar dammit, and you know that history doesn't care for excuses carpet DM you say because surely, if ever

It was a day to be seized. This is it. You grab a fresh horse and gallop south you ride. Phone, because every man in your regiment is needed on the field. It rough going, but three hours later the first ten miles or behind you, there the sun sets and the rain begins in sideways blowing across the muddy terrain and thick sheets. The wind howls, the thunder roles, the lightning flashes, with bolts thrown by Zeus himself, you ride through the night Don Breaks, the heat returns, your lungs ache, your horse, staggers. You pause to. Let him rest quid pro quo. You say arrest for you, arrest for me, but the rest is short lived because you, still fifty miles from the forum, and so you press on you do not eat. You do not say

and when your horse finally collapses beneath you, you find another There is no more quid pro quo because failure will render you a persona non grata? and you are Caesar dammit and you will not he remembered is the general who let the republic die. You dig your heels into the side of your new mount and lurch once more, into another hellish night. The wind is back along with the rain and the lightning and now you're asthmatic lungs, feel as though they must surely burst as your ruin jaw throbs and threatens to fall from your fevered face. But you ignore the pain and twelve hours later use stagger into the forum with minutes despair, you break the deadlock with a single word yea, and then you fall to the floor. And wonder how you might be remembered centuries. Hence.

Two thousand years ago, Julius Caesar Haste the demise of the Roman Republic, by insisting that his face appear on millions of coins and then declaring himself dictator, perpetual dictator for life. For his hubris. Caesar was assassinated by the senators with whom he served and the greatest republic the world has ever seen, died with him, but eighteen hundred years later, a different caesar in a different, uniform staggered in to a different forum and Green lit a different republic. Today you can see- this Caesar along with his horse on no less than eight hundred million pieces of his country's currency, along with the latter,

the phrase you might recall from social studies, not carpet dim, were quid pro quo or persona non Grata apply Airbus Unum from many one that Delaware quarter was introduced and nineteen ninety nine to commemorate the gruelling ride of an asthmatic cancer. General named Caesar Rodney his eighty miles crucible from Dover to Philadelphia, was a gauntlet of agony that very nearly killed him, but Happily didn't because Caesar Rodney against some very long odds arrived just in time to cast the ballot that finally put Delaware in the Yea column breaking the deadlock in his own delegation and giving the hotly contested resolution the unanimity its ratification ultimately required. Today, you can still

you'll see the results of his tie. Breaking vote in the house Aided letters atop the document that Caesar Rodney proudly signed along with fifty five others who knew that Benjamin Franklin was absolutely. Right when he told all those assembled gentlemen. If we don't off, hang together. We will most assuredly all hang separately. The original title of that document incidentally, is the unanimous declaration of the United States of America today for reasons neither wise, snore logical, we just call it the declaration of independence anyway, that's the way I heard.