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Great Show
posté par write2topcatSTAFFMOD le 11 avril 2019 à 21h03
I love history, and Roman history is replete with the most interesting characters and stories. This series begins with the story of Julius Caesar. Also covered are Commodus and most recently Caligula. I hope this series continues for several more seasons. I am sure the story of Nero will make for a good season.
Commodus was a real nut case. At one point he renamed the months of the year after himself, all of them. "What month were you born?" The answer would have to be "Commodus". How could that idiot not realize everyone would think he was an out of control egomaniac and want him gone after this? He also renamed the city of Rome after himself.
Réponse de write2topcat
le 12 avril 2019 à 03h16
I guess I missed that statement. Yeah, I'm not sure by what reasoning they would say that either. Well, maybe they said that because Commodus failed to maintain the Roman border with Germania, electing to just quit the fighting and return to Rome, despite protestations from the generals. If you don't control your borders, you don't have a country after a while.
I never studied the history of Rome in school, I mean, just a cursory summary. I don't know what subsequent emperors did after Commodus. But I believe that the empire reached its largest geographical size during the reign of Trajan, who came before Commodus. The size of the empire declined some after Trajan, though I don't recall which areas were ceded to others.
But if they expanded the empire, as you say, then it doesn't support the theory that Commodus's failure to follow through on his promise to his dying father, and failure to heed the advice of his generals constituted "the beginning of the end" for the western Roman empire.
I am more interested now in ancient history than ever before. Having never covered it in school I only know certain stories. One thing I have noticed about this period of Roman emperors is the inordinately large number of emperors who were apparently overcome by the power, i.e. having total power brought out the worst in them. I don't believe I would have wanted to be emperor. You would be surrounded by people who were jealous of your power. Too many of them were assassinated, often by poisoning.
Of course, that would serve as an incentive to be a good and fair leader. The worst emperors seemed to catch most of the assassinations. Still, to be surrounded by so much intrigue, by so many people lusting to succeed you in office, I would not relish that one bit.