- cross-posted to:
- roughromanmemes@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- roughromanmemes@lemmy.world
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Explanation: In the aptly named Year of the Five Emperors, the Emperor Pertinax, a GOOD AND HONEST AND NOBLE EMPEROR, was brutally murdered by the Praetorian Guard, the supposed bodyguard of the Emperor, for [checks notes] not bribing them enough. The Praetorian Guard then sold the position of Emperor to the highest bidder - one Didius Julianus, who paid 25,000 sesterces (roughly 20 years’ pay for a common soldier) per Praetorian in exchange for the Imperial position. And there were around 8000 Praetorians.
Didius Julianus was overthrown a few months later by Septimius Severus (who also defeated his other two rivals for the Imperial position). Predictably, the Praetorian Guard sold Didius Julianus out at the first opportunity. Severus, wary of the backstabbing fucks, had the Praetorians surrounded by his troops, stripped of their positions, and then replaced with veterans from his loyal legions.
For some bonus trivia, Pertinax was the son of a freed slave, and rose through the ranks of the military (starting as an officer, not an enlisted man), entered politics, had a reputation for high moral standards and conduct, and almost talked the Praetorians out of killing him just by appealing to their sense of duty and morality.
SIT TIBI TERRA LEVIS, IMPERATOR! You deserved better!
had a reputation for high moral standards and conduct
No wonder they murdered him
I love your random tiny bits of history!
Always happy to share! 🙏
He paid 8000 soldiers twenty years pay? Goddamn that’s a lot of money
Do we actually have any ‘Mary Chestnut’ diaries from ancient times? Regular folks who recorded their thoughts?
Sadly, no. The two big issues are that writing material wasn’t cheap, and that most of what has survived only survived because it was seen as important enough to be copied and reproduced. Many of our sources for antiquity have survived with only a handful of reproductions - such as a collection of Cicero’s letters, which survived to the 14th century AD in only a single copy, found by chance in a Church library.
That being said, we do have some records of everyday thoughts, but nothing so substantial as a diary. There’s a lot of archeological material in the form of writing on pottery shards, curse tablets, and the like. The buried city of Pompeii, which was covered in volcanic ash during the 1st century AD, has some amazing tidbits in the form of graffiti, which was scribbled all over the town by common folk - everything from jokes, to ads, to insults, to conversations, to caricatures, to simple, everyday celebrations!
I always forget to post this on Bread Day
Thank you.
