Quote:
Originally Posted by afc wimbledon
Its easy to overlook the absoloute chaos that the roman empire was in reality, the reason "The Decline and Fall' is such a great book is because it is an unremmiting tale of internicine violence and civil war, most of the emperors were lucky to survive a year or two before the pretorian guard offed them or they were dethroned by a co emperor, poisoned or the like.
which reminds me I must dust my Gibbon off and add him to the bathroom library
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with the exception of some very strong Emperors or outright ruthless or crazy, the leadership was always on a very loose setting.
Especially when the Empire split
The fascinating is based around the powers behind the throne. In terms of rule, for the most part a lot of these guys stayed on the gilded throne for decades
Some of my favorites
Tiberius - Absolutely ruthless and sadistic, he lasted for 22 years and was possibly poisoned by his grand nephew Caligula
Caligula only lasted 3 years but after a brief illness went insane and declared himself a god, turned his palace into a brothel to raise funds and named his horse as a high priest. Assasinated by his guard and the senate
Nero - lasted about 13 years, the theory is that he caused the great fire, his tax policies caused a great uprising and he fled and was declared as an enemy of the Senate and the people. He couldn't kill himself, and made his assistant murder him
Marcus Aurelius - 15 years died of natural causes, one of the more sane and uncorruptable Emperors who was dubbed the philosopher kings.
Commodus - Back to batsh%t insane he was the son of Marcus and lasted about 15 years, he was another god king who claimed that he was the son of the god Jupiter, One of the only Emperors to actually take part in the Gladiator games entering the arena himself. However most of the slaves would simply submit to him rather then fight him.