Although then why were Diocletian and Constantine so bad at arranging their succession?
They and Basil II (he's one of the medieval Byzantine Emperors, since I'm continuing with the Byzantium podcast), which just about completes a triad of Emperors who were competent at governing and absolutely lousy at succession arranging. In Basil's case, he refused to marry, didn't adopt anyone, had a brother but said brother had only two surviving daughters and Basil after one early attempt with one of them which failed nixed all other potential marriages, and so when Basil died, he did so in the knowledge he'd killed his dynasty - his brother who was over 60 at that point wasn't likely to remarry and father anyone else, and both his nieces were older than 40, i.e. while they still could marry, they weren't likely to reproduce, either. Plus his brother had been deliberately kept away from any office, either military or political. This all but spelled out civil war and a series of 14 (!) Emperors, and Basil - who reigned longer than any other Emperor, either Roman or Byzantine - had to know this would happen. Now, in Basil's case, the explanation might have been justified paranoia (he grew up in the shadow of two coups). Diocletian evidently thought he'd arranged it just fine and Galerius would be the new him (i.e. the one among the four who was the ultimate big cheese keeping everyyone going), and as to why he misread everyone so completely, including Galerius, maybe we're unable to judge this due to having the benefit of hindsight.
...now why Constantine of all the people did not realize that three sons plus two Caesar-appointed nephews spelled a new round ouf internal wars, having spend years of his own life fighting same, I have no idea, but you have to ask as in the case of Marcus Aurelius: what would have been the alternative? Speaking from an amoral cold pov, you could have done what Constantius II did and organized a massacre, thereby reducing the claimants. But that's risky because if you want your new dynasty to continue beyond, well, you, in a violent age with a high mortality rate, you can't just have one heir, who could die at any moment, you do need some spares. Making it clear which of the bunch should be the next Auguustus doesn't mean the rest won't try, but it would at least give one of them a head start. Otoh, the Empire is still too big to be ruled alone, and while Constantine had done just that once he'd killed off the competition, he now was in a personal position to know Diocletian had been onto something with this multiple Emperors solution, and couldn't think of anything better, hence his making all three surviving sons and two of his nephews into Caesars. And lastly, don't underestimate the psychological effect. I mean, however he'd justified it to himself, he had killed the mother of his surviving sons. I wouldn't be surprised if that was yet another reason why he couldn't bring himself to choose one of them and thus by default endanger the others.
I am sad that no one seems to know what happened to Domitian's heirs
One of the unsolved mysteries. I suppose it might simply mean they never held office (which makes sense) nor committed any great crimes and thus weren't deemed noteworthy by future historians, plus if Nerva and/or his partisans had had them killed, surely it would have made some sensational entries in the chronicles. (We certainly know about all the murders of previous claimants that other emperors did, starting with Augustus ordering the death of Caesarion.)
It seems rather to me that if you were going to try to pass this off as a forgery, you... would maybe not sign it with your own name?
True enough, and Plotina after a life time with Trajan could have faked his handwriting or some approximation instead of signing herself. BTW, googling the Hadrian opera has told me Plotina is one of the main characters - as a ghost - and the reviewers are inevitably reminded of Livia (inevitably because due to I, Claudius, Livia is probably the best known Emress in the English speaking world.
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Re: Imperial Succesions: I
Date: 2023-01-13 04:41 pm (UTC)They and Basil II (he's one of the medieval Byzantine Emperors, since I'm continuing with the Byzantium podcast), which just about completes a triad of Emperors who were competent at governing and absolutely lousy at succession arranging. In Basil's case, he refused to marry, didn't adopt anyone, had a brother but said brother had only two surviving daughters and Basil after one early attempt with one of them which failed nixed all other potential marriages, and so when Basil died, he did so in the knowledge he'd killed his dynasty - his brother who was over 60 at that point wasn't likely to remarry and father anyone else, and both his nieces were older than 40, i.e. while they still could marry, they weren't likely to reproduce, either. Plus his brother had been deliberately kept away from any office, either military or political. This all but spelled out civil war and a series of 14 (!) Emperors, and Basil - who reigned longer than any other Emperor, either Roman or Byzantine - had to know this would happen. Now, in Basil's case, the explanation might have been justified paranoia (he grew up in the shadow of two coups). Diocletian evidently thought he'd arranged it just fine and Galerius would be the new him (i.e. the one among the four who was the ultimate big cheese keeping everyyone going), and as to why he misread everyone so completely, including Galerius, maybe we're unable to judge this due to having the benefit of hindsight.
...now why Constantine of all the people did not realize that three sons plus two Caesar-appointed nephews spelled a new round ouf internal wars, having spend years of his own life fighting same, I have no idea, but you have to ask as in the case of Marcus Aurelius: what would have been the alternative? Speaking from an amoral cold pov, you could have done what Constantius II did and organized a massacre, thereby reducing the claimants. But that's risky because if you want your new dynasty to continue beyond, well, you, in a violent age with a high mortality rate, you can't just have one heir, who could die at any moment, you do need some spares. Making it clear which of the bunch should be the next Auguustus doesn't mean the rest won't try, but it would at least give one of them a head start. Otoh, the Empire is still too big to be ruled alone, and while Constantine had done just that once he'd killed off the competition, he now was in a personal position to know Diocletian had been onto something with this multiple Emperors solution, and couldn't think of anything better, hence his making all three surviving sons and two of his nephews into Caesars. And lastly, don't underestimate the psychological effect. I mean, however he'd justified it to himself, he had killed the mother of his surviving sons. I wouldn't be surprised if that was yet another reason why he couldn't bring himself to choose one of them and thus by default endanger the others.
I am sad that no one seems to know what happened to Domitian's heirs
One of the unsolved mysteries. I suppose it might simply mean they never held office (which makes sense) nor committed any great crimes and thus weren't deemed noteworthy by future historians, plus if Nerva and/or his partisans had had them killed, surely it would have made some sensational entries in the chronicles. (We certainly know about all the murders of previous claimants that other emperors did, starting with Augustus ordering the death of Caesarion.)
It seems rather to me that if you were going to try to pass this off as a forgery, you... would maybe not sign it with your own name?
True enough, and Plotina after a life time with Trajan could have faked his handwriting or some approximation instead of signing herself. BTW, googling the Hadrian opera has told me Plotina is one of the main characters - as a ghost - and the reviewers are inevitably reminded of Livia (inevitably because due to I, Claudius, Livia is probably the best known Emress in the English speaking world.