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Quote:Not a good one; you may like O. Hekster, Commodus: An Emperor at the Crossroads (2002; review). It contains a chapter in which he proves that the imperial propaganda (Commodus=Hercules) was accepted by a/o the army.
Thank you for the link... it's too bad we have to rely so much on testimony from people we've never met, but we do what we can.
Reminds me of a passage from a book I am reading:
"We are what others need us to be. That is why our reputations change so often and so drastically, reflecting no particular change in us, merely a change in the mood of those who observe us. When things go well, an emperor is loved; badly, hated.
I never need to look in a mirror. I see myself all too clearly in the eyes of those about me."
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Phillip the Arab...was it him who was murdered by his troops after seeling out to the Sassanid's?
Visne partem mei capere? Comminus agamus! * Me semper rogo, Quid faceret Iulius Caesar? * Confidence is a good thing! Overconfidence is too much of a good thing.
[b]Legio XIIII GMV. (Q. Magivs)RMRS Remember Atuatuca! Vengence will be ours!
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Quote:Phillip the Arab...was it him who was murdered by his troops after selling out to the Sassanid's?
The other way round: after Gordian III had been defeated and killed, Philip was made emperor. Shapur I even claimed that Philip owed the throne to him. Look at this relief in Bishapur:
![[Image: bishapur_relief_2_1.JPG]](http://www.livius.org/a/iran/bishapur/bishapur_relief_2_1.JPG)
On horseback, Shapur, holding Valerian (captured 260) in the hand; Gordian, dead, below the horse; Philip, kneeling; two Sasanian noblemen to the right. The same story, minus the dead Gordian, can be seen on the famous relief in Naqsh-e Rustam - to the right you can see Kartir, a Zoroastrian highpriest.
![[Image: sapor.JPG]](http://www.livius.org/a/1/iran/sapor.JPG)
And that was, in combination with the evening news, enough Iran for today.
Jona Lendering
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Although not the worst emperor of all, I've always disliked Tiberius. I always thought it was odd that he retired to capri in his last years and just basically abandoned the people of Rome, in image at least. Whether the stories of his depravity and his pool with his nymphs is true or not, he did go away and it kinda gives people a blank chaulk board to fill in whatever they want to imagine. But I always felt he had a hand in Germanicus' death, and I just tend to view him in a Nixon like shadow, but more darker. I've always read and heard he wasn't interested in being emperor and never wished that life, yet killed all of his competitors out of the need for survival, it just disturbs me and my modern morality to think that a man is killing people to keep his life and position that he never wanted in the first place. And I always wished that Germanicus had never died and became emperor, I think many people have thought and wondered what could of been. But oh well, you can't change whats been, but I can still dislike Tiberius.
Dennis Flynn
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Quote:o think that a man is killing people to keep his life and position that he never wanted in the first place
Hmm. Well, like all of us, there are things that are thrust upon us, and we just have to make the best play we can from the cards that are dealt us. Maybe he saw it like that.
M. Demetrius Abicio
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Saepe veritas est dura.
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Yes, I thought I was poosibly wrong on the details.
Oddly enough I had read that very information not long ago....just not getting time to absorb these details..... 
So....that still makes me think of one false emperor who was killed by his men as he led them on a retreat from the east?
Visne partem mei capere? Comminus agamus! * Me semper rogo, Quid faceret Iulius Caesar? * Confidence is a good thing! Overconfidence is too much of a good thing.
[b]Legio XIIII GMV. (Q. Magivs)RMRS Remember Atuatuca! Vengence will be ours!
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Quote:Yes, I thought I was poosibly wrong on the details.
Oddly enough I had read that very information not long ago....just not getting time to absorb these details.....
So....that still makes me think of one false emperor who was killed by his men as he led them on a retreat from the east?
Julian the Apostate?
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Quote:Gaius Julius Caesar:30hkhqby Wrote:Yes, I thought I was poosibly wrong on the details.
Oddly enough I had read that very information not long ago....just not getting time to absorb these details.....
So....that still makes me think of one false emperor who was killed by his men as he led them on a retreat from the east?
Julian the Apostate?
I think Julian is underrated. The portraits of Julian seem to vary from a total blooper to a saint-like hagiographies, even today! Anyway I think he is one of the most interesting of the roman emperors, warts and all. He is paradoxically a "modern" existential figure in some way even though he campaigned in vain against the tide of his times, christianity etc...
Virilis / Jyrki Halme
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Quote:Justin of the New Yorkii:1pdiiq5y Wrote:I think Julian ... is one of the most interesting of the roman emperors He's indeed not the worst emperor; but he certainly is Rome's worst poet. :wink:
Jona Lendering
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Quote:Virilis:2c0iioq5 Wrote:Justin of the New Yorkii:2c0iioq5 Wrote:I think Julian ... is one of the most interesting of the roman emperors He's indeed not the worst emperor; but he certainly is Rome's worst poet. :wink:
What, isn`t the "Misopogon" a masterpiece of the western literature :wink: !!!
Virilis / Jyrki Halme
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Quote:What, isn`t the "Misopogon" a masterpiece of the western literature :wink: !!!
Try his hymns. Or better: just believe me, and save yourself a big disappointment. Sometimes, interesting people can write utterly uninteresting things.
Jona Lendering
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Quote:interesting people can write utterly uninteresting things
Heck, yeah! I do it all the time. :lol:
M. Demetrius Abicio
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Quote:Quote:o think that a man is killing people to keep his life and position that he never wanted in the first place
Hmm. Well, like all of us, there are things that are thrust upon us, and we just have to make the best play we can from the cards that are dealt us. Maybe he saw it like that.
I agree there, with how life goes, but maybe he did see it as such, but who can say for sure what truly went on in his mind. We can only speculate. He could have been a decent man for all I know, but I just never liked how he comes off in the history books, I thought about it and realized the way I really see it is that to me he does not embody the personality, traits, strength and what not that a model Roman Emperor should have in my mind/opinion. I always kinda just felt like he was such a waste as an Emperor. On another note though, i like what people have been having to say so far
Dennis Flynn
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Quote:So....that still makes me think of one false emperor who was killed by his men as he led them on a retreat from the east?
Jovian, maybe? But he did not live long enough to get a proper opinion of jhim - he concluded a (bad) peace treaty that allowed him to get the troops out, but he did not live longer than a few months in office. He was chosen on June 27th 363 and died february 17th 364.
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No I am fuzzy on this one, I could be wrong, but he was definately poped off by his troops, he was the son of some eastern queen?
Hmmmm, this is like a blind man looking for a fly in a bowl of raisins....... :roll: :oops:
Visne partem mei capere? Comminus agamus! * Me semper rogo, Quid faceret Iulius Caesar? * Confidence is a good thing! Overconfidence is too much of a good thing.
[b]Legio XIIII GMV. (Q. Magivs)RMRS Remember Atuatuca! Vengence will be ours!
Titus Flavius Germanus
Batavian Coh I
Byron Angel
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