G-Manicus

Indeed!

This one was inspired by my guy P Clodius:

I've added some non-Roman ones to the Gallery. :-)

And before I forget ... let me throw my boy, MPC, a bone by bringing back a personal fave: Green Hornet and Cato

Ooooo ... Roman Superheroes! Now we're talkin'!

Or maybe it was his reward for winning the game of "hide n seek" he was playing. Okay, let me rephrase things ... assume for a moment that imperial succession worked the way it did with a stereotypical monarchy where the closest male relative becomes the new ruler ... who would it have been?

The Praetorian Guards seemed to think so when they found Claudius cleaning the inside of the drapes.

Psssst ... note which forum this was posted in.

GO's thread got me thinking (I know, a rare feat in and of itself) ... I know that when Caligula died, the Praetorian Guard hailed Claudius as Emperor as he was the last remaining male from Julio-Claudians. He was then succeeded by his adopted son Nero, whose death resulted in a series of individuals vying for control of the empire ... Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and finally Vespasian. My question is this ... when Caligula, Claudius and finally Nero died, there were NO other male relatives alive of any of these gentlemen? None whatsoever? ? I've examined the family tree and I see where the likes of Gaius and Lucius and Britannicus, etal had all passed away (for lack of a better term). Set aside whether they would have been proclaimed Emperor or not, but there was no 2nd cousin twice removed or any distant relative of that sort left alive?

I think it's hard for folks in our day and age to relate to the family relationships and customs of Ancient Rome, where you had situations like wealthy families agreeing to turn over sons for adoption by other wealthy families, to the inordinate emphasis placed on one's ancestry, to the use of daughter's as political capital, etc. All things that are somewhat alien to us now. It seems as if one's own family was merely a bargaining chip in a Paterfamilias effort to increase his (and his descendants?) station in life. As many decisions regarding family seem to have been made from an almost purely detached political standpoint, I for one do not find it surprising that Brutus would ally himself with his father's killer if he thought that was the prudent political thing to do.

Christopher Hitchens has a wicked sense of humor.

Marcus Junius Brutus the Elder

The children of these unions would not be considered Roman citizens, correct?

This site is aptly named. "Wow" indeed. Signed up last night and got my first downloads. Good find, MPC!

Cool! I'm a huge Firefox fan. I can count on my right hand how many times it's ever crashed on me (and I only have 4 fingers on my right hand!) whereas I would need the fingers and toes of every man, woman, and child in my town to count how often Internet Explorer went down. PS - Tabbed browsing and customized toolbars TOTALLY rock!

GPM ... I don't doubt it. Ursus' has been singing that same song for awhile on this. Can't wait for it to arrive.

MPC: Have you read any of these? Any recommendations? G

Chris ... even though I'm in the Caesar camp, I have to agree. The Caesar can do no wrong angle was a bit tiresome. That having been said, as I'm not nearly as knowledgeable about the Republic as most of the folks here are, I found the overall series quite fascinating and informative as McCullough seemed to me to be fairly accurate from an historical perspective (or so the fine folks at Wikipedia tell me!) I'm not sure whether the newest novel will be "pro-Antony" or not ... I don't think she painted a very flattering portrait of him in the other books (a drunken, bullying lout for the most part). Octavian only slightly more so in my opinion. You know who they each reminded me of in her books? Antony comes across as being Sonny Corleone and Octavian as Michael. Cold, ruthless Godfather II Michael though, not kind, conflicted Godfather I Michael. Given the way things unfolded in "The October Horse" I'm actually expecting this one to be predominantly "pro-Agrippa" I think.

This is the final book of the Masters of Rome series. Was released in December 2007. Anybody read it yet? I just finished The October Horse and was thinking about picking it up.

Ursus ... I finally heeded your recommendation and ordered this on Amazon this morning. (had to dig back to page 9 to find this! LOL!)

DDickey ... what's your status? We're at the end of the 1st quarter already!

Maybe with liberators assassins, it's like in the legions ... for every soldier there were X number of non-combat personnel, slaves, etc. :-)

I agree for the most part. I've been reading this series over the last 6 months or so. I'm currently reading "The October Horse" and am almost up to MPC's favorite part (hint: his birthday is his SECOND favorite thing that happened that day!). I've thoroughly enjoyed the series, especially the Marius vs Sulla stuff. Truly fascinating. The Caesar worship is a bit much at times. I do think that Cato comes across as an admirable yet tragic figure in the books though.