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cahnI'm trying to use my other account at least occasionally so I posted about my Yuletide gifts there, including the salon-relevant 12k fic that features Fritz, Heinrich, Voltaire, Fredersdorf, Saint Germain, Caroline Daum (Fredersdorf's wife), and Groundhog Day tropes! (Don't need to know canon.)
Imperial Succesions :II
Date: 2023-01-09 11:48 am (UTC)However, it's worth pointing out that a) none of his predecessors among the hallowed Five had a biological son to choose, and b), as Mike Duncan argues, what would have been the alternative? Because if, say, Marcus Aurelius had adopted someone else and made that guy Caesar instead, then once he died certainly any malcontent or enemy of the other chosen guy would have rallied behind Commodus, and there would have been civil war, the one thing any Roman Emperor should avoid setting up. Unless Marcus Aurelius would have had his son killed, and while of course in retrospect that would have been better for the Empire, he wasn't Constantine. He could not kill his own son.
So Commodus succeeds as planned, and promptly becomes one of the Worst Five Emperors Ever. Seriously. Even Nero and Caligula have their defenders who argue that their names got blackened by their successors, but Commodus was awful in every aspect, and that's why not just Gibbon sees the Decline and Fall of the (Western) Empire start with his reign. In stark contrast to, say, Domitian, who might have been an awful paranoid person but was a competent dictator working hard, Commodus leaves the actual governing to a series of favourites whom he kills off when he's sick of them and goes for non-stop games instead. Soon, corruption runs so rampant that in the year of Commodus' death, the office of consul - in the days of the Republic the highest office a man could hold, the climax of the cursus honorum, whom the years were counted after - is held by no less than 25 men, sold to everyone of them, there are also non-stop treason trials, and when Commodus (who of course doesn't bother arranging the succession, he's busy renaming Rome into Commodum instead) is finally put out of his and everyone else's misery, the most infamous scenes of all concerning the succesion in the Roman Empire happen. Yes, it's the year of the Five Emperors now (inflation is a thing).
Prelude, directly after Commodus is killed: Pertinax (son of a freedman, Urban Prefect of Rome at the time) becomes Emperor. Pertinax actually wants to reform the rampant corruption and wants to start with the Praetorian Guard. The Praetorian Guard says "are you kidding?" and kills Pertinax. Then the Praetorian Guard literally auctions off the office of Emperor. (Pertinax having reigned a little more than 80 days at this point.) The last two bidders are Sulpicianus and Julianus. After hours of bidding, Sulpicianus promised 20,000 sesterces to every soldier; Marcus Didius Julianus, fearing that Sulpicianus would gain the throne, then offered 25,000 and for that sum buys the Roman Empire. For a mere 66 days, it turns out, because by then news have spread to the provinces, several generals, among them the eventual winner, Septimius Severus (first African Emperor of Rome), say ARE YOU KIDDING ME? and set their troops marching. Didius dies, murdered, with the line "“But what evil have I done? Whom have I killed?" He has a point. Anyway, from this point onwards, succession to the imperial throne is pretty much a matter of who has the strongest troops and/or murders his rivals first.
Re: Imperial Succesions :II
Date: 2023-01-09 01:18 pm (UTC)And that is precisely why I know so little about the period between Augustus and the Five Good Emperors, because Mommsen goes up to Augustus and Gibbon starts with Commodus! And when I followed up those two works with modern scholarship, I did "more of same" and not "fill in gap."
Then the Praetorian Guard literally auctions off the office of Emperor.
Speaking of which, I forget what the evidence is, but this is one of the things I had to unlearn after following up Gibbon with modern scholarship. From what I remember, we have ancient sources saying this, Gibbon says this, and so a lot of modern works will repeat this claim, but apparently modern critical scholarship either says it didn't happen or the evidence is so weak we can't say it did happen, I forget. I also seem to recall that Gibbon's theory that the Praetorian Guard played such a decisive role in the history of the Roman Empire turned out to be a Gibbon thing and not an everybody thing.
I would love to go look into this matter more, but I can only have one research focus at a time, and the 18th century is still calling me. Peter wants not to be forgotten, and Fredersdorf wants his name cleared.
Hold this thought! We will do Classics salon one day, just not today!
Re: Imperial Succesions :II
Date: 2023-01-13 04:46 pm (UTC)BTW, Mike Duncan did say the auction didn't literally take place in the Senate but that some Praetorians essentially ran between candidates (who sensibly had barricaded themselves in their houses), telling them about the latest offer from the competition.
BTW, I don't remember, did we ever post my write-up of Fritz' editon of Montesquieu's Roman history at Rheinsberg?
Re: Imperial Succesions :II
Date: 2023-01-13 10:01 pm (UTC)Montesquieu: I don't think we did. We also didn't do your more recent Manteuffel Fidamire write-up, or my findings on Trenck, Leopold, and Fredersdorf and the Trachenbergs.
Re: Imperial Succesions :II
Date: 2023-01-14 06:09 am (UTC)Okay, this is EVEN BETTER. OMG. (And that is very sensible!)
Re: Imperial Succesions :II
Date: 2023-01-14 06:08 am (UTC)Okay, but I feel like you have yourself to blame here, having tempted Selena into writing hilarious AU and therefore me into asking questions about it!
Re: Imperial Succesions :II
Date: 2023-01-14 07:03 pm (UTC)Re: Imperial Succesions :II
Date: 2023-01-14 06:07 am (UTC)(and he did make it clear in Commodus' teenage years that his son was to succeed him, by naming him Caesar and jointly ruling with him during his last years of life)
I'd ask if it was at all obvious to Marcus Aurelius what his son was like at this point, although I'm sure the answer is "we don't really have the evidence." ALthough I guess if Commodus is a teenager then... well... I know quite a few teenagers who would have made terrible Emperors but eventually came out as reasonable adults :)
Unless Marcus Aurelius would have had his son killed, and while of course in retrospect that would have been better for the Empire, he wasn't Constantine. He could not kill his own son.
WELL that seems like it should be better! But, hmm.
who of course doesn't bother arranging the succession, he's busy renaming Rome into Commodum instead
WHAT
So after he died was everyone like "...let's just forget that happened"?
(inflation is a thing)
lol!
Didius dies, murdered, with the line "“But what evil have I done? Whom have I killed?" He has a point.
Aw!
Re: Imperial Succesions :II
Date: 2023-01-14 04:43 pm (UTC)LOL, yes. Mind you, even ancient historians wrecked their heads about this one. Commodus was actually the very first Emperor "born to the purple", i.e. during his father's reign. (When Titus and Domitian were born, Vespasian was anything but Emperor, remember, and everyone else got to the throne via adoption until this point.) But there are no "evil kid" anecdotes about his childhood; Marcus Aurelius gave him a plethora of teachers so the lad would have a first class education, and also wasn't an absent dad, taking the boy on campaigns and culture trips like the one to Athens were they were both initiated to the mysteries of Eleusis. Now the movies, both the old Fall of the Roman Empire (Marcus Aurelius: Alec Guinness; Commodus: Christopher Plummer) and the more recent Gladiator (Marcus Aurelius: Richard Harris; Commodus: Joacquin Phoenix), who kill off Marcus Aurelius early on and place a fictional general in the focus of their story with whom Marcus Aurelius' daughter Lucilla falls in love, have Marcus Aurelius see through Commodus and intending to adopt the fictional general instead, though dying before he can do that. (Gladiator even has Commodus off his Dad.) But that never happened. Late ancient historians (i.e. writing about a century and a half later), and this is something Fall of the Roman Empire also does, even provide a story where Commodus isn't really Marcus Aurelius' son but that of a gladiator his mother supposedl had an affair with. All so to explain how on earth the son of everyone's favourite philosopher on the throne (sorry, Fritz, but the author of Meditations wins over the author of The Anti Machiavel) became such a rotten cad, and why his father didn't see it and/or prevent it.
(The movies in terms of explanation offer Commodus having Daddy issues due to Dad preferring Fictional Good General and being disappointed Commodus isn't like him. But as I said, there was no such person in reality, and Marcus Aurelius gave no sign of wanting to adopt any of the various generals who rose through the ranks during his reign and whom he liked in varying degrees - who btw included Septimius Severus.)
I do find Duncan's argument that the alternative to signalling Commodus as the Chosen One would have been killing Commodus or risk civil war - pretty convincing, I must admit. Marcus did his best to shape his son into a good future Emperor during his life time, and if there were signs, he probably hoped it was just phase that would pass.
To show just how nuts Commodus did become, though, let me quote Wiki: In opposition to the Senate, in his pronouncements and iconography, Commodus had always stressed his unique status as a source of god-like power, liberality, and physical prowess. Innumerable statues around the empire were set up portraying him in the guise of Hercules, reinforcing the image of him as a demigod, a physical giant, a protector, and a warrior who fought against men and beasts. Moreover, as Hercules, he could claim to be the son of Jupiter, the supreme god of the Roman pantheon. These tendencies now increased to megalomaniacal proportions. Far from celebrating his descent from Marcus Aurelius, the actual source of his power, he stressed his own personal uniqueness as the bringer of a new order, seeking to re-cast the empire in his own image.
During 191, the city of Rome was extensively damaged by a fire that raged for several days, during which many public buildings including the Temple of Pax, the Temple of Vesta, and parts of the imperial palace were destroyed.
Perhaps seeing this as an opportunity, early in 192 Commodus, declaring himself the new Romulus, ritually re-founded Rome, renaming the city Colonia Lucia Annia Commodiana. All the months of the year were renamed to correspond exactly with his (now twelve) names: Lucius, Aelius, Aurelius, Commodus, Augustus, Herculeus, Romanus, Exsuperatorius, Amazonius, Invictus, Felix, and Pius. The legions were renamed Commodianae, the fleet which imported grain from Africa was termed Alexandria Commodiana Togata, the Senate was entitled the Commodian Fortunate Senate, his palace and the Roman people themselves were all given the name Commodianus, and the day on which these reforms were decreed was to be called Dies Commodianus.
Thus, he presented himself as the fountainhead of the Empire, Roman life, and religion. He also had the head of the Colossus of Nero adjacent to the Colosseum replaced with his own portrait, gave it a club, placed a bronze lion at its feet to make it look like Hercules Romanus, and added an inscription boasting of being "the only left-handed fighter to conquer twelve times one thousand men".
And yes, after he killed the Senate declared him a Public Enemy and passed the damnatio memoriae over him. (While there were five successive Emperors duking it out until Septimius Severus had won for good.)
How he died: Supposedly his favourite mistress, Marcia, discovered she was about to become his dead ex mistress along with some other about to be discarded favourites (he'd done that kind of thing before), and conspired with them against him. She poisoned him; he vomited it up. She then called his favourite wrestling partner, Narcissus, who strangled Commodus in his bath.
Re: Imperial Succesions :II
Date: 2023-01-16 05:53 am (UTC)AHAHAHAHA
...yeah.
(I haven't read it, see also even more terribly underread in this area than in others, but I'd heard of one of these before salon and not the other.)
I do find Duncan's argument that the alternative to signalling Commodus as the Chosen One would have been killing Commodus or risk civil war - pretty convincing, I must admit. Marcus did his best to shape his son into a good future Emperor during his life time, and if there were signs, he probably hoped it was just phase that would pass.
That makes sense, along with absolute power at a young age maybe being a bad idea for lots of people...
How he died: Supposedly his favourite mistress, Marcia, discovered she was about to become his dead ex mistress along with some other about to be discarded favourites (he'd done that kind of thing before), and conspired with them against him. She poisoned him; he vomited it up. She then called his favourite wrestling partner, Narcissus, who strangled Commodus in his bath.
This is reminding me of the relevant subplot in the Josephus third book. Though I suppose maybe all it says is that once you discard enough people by killing them, you can't be surprised when a few of them decide that maybe they ought to band together and act first.