The City That Opened Its Gates to Caesar's Killers - Patara

In 42 BC, Brutus burned Xanthos. Its people died by their own hands; he saved barely a hundred and fifty. Then his army turned downriver to Patara, the harbour city a few hours away. Patara did not burn. It opened its gates without a fight. Three ancient writers tell us why — and all three tell us something different. Dio says freed slaves and indebted citizens blocked the deal, until Brutus raised an auction block beneath the walls and sold Xanthian prisoners one by one. Plutarch says he released captive Patarean women without ransom, and they persuaded the city. Appian mentions neither, only a threat and one day's grace. None of them was there. All three wrote at least a century and a half later. What the sources do agree on is what came next: every scrap of gold and silver in the city, public and private, handed over. Death for anyone who hid it. A tenth to any informer, and freedom to any slave who spoke. This is the story of what that open gate actually cost. ― CHAPTERS ― 0:00 Two Cities, One River 1:26 Kin Before the Walls 2:10 Three Keys to One Gate 3:44 Morning at the Gate 4:15 The Price Comes Due 4:51 The Slave Who Spoke 5:29 What the Gate Cost ― ANCIENT SOURCES ― Appian, Civil Wars 4.76–82 https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/... Cassius Dio, Roman History 47.34 https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/... Plutarch, Life of Brutus 30–32 https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/... Where the sources contradict each other, this film says so rather than choosing for you. Claims made by only one author are identified as such. ― ABOUT ― Ruin & Reason examines ancient cities through the evidence that survives them — inscriptions, contracts, coins and the accounts of writers who were rarely there. Every ruin keeps an argument. Visuals in this video are AI-generated. The research, script and historical argument are not. #Patara #Lycia #AncientRome #Brutus #AncientHistory