Republic>territories like Gaul, Hispania, Cartago, Graecia/Magna Graecia, Asia Minor and Palestina I guess, were conquered>extremely ambicious and cunning leaders basically meddling and trying to influence other regions into the Roman beltIn the meawhile, I see the Roman Empire as a much more lethargic state in comparison.Take it with a grain of salt, I am just someone who likes history in an amateurish way
the roman republic was actually an empire btw
>>18771560Of course it was, it was even more imperialistic than the empire I guess.But when I say Empire, I mean the institutions. The Empire had a Princeps, the Republic did not
idk but my favourite period in Roman history is the late empire (300-600)
>>18771553It was when Rome reached its territorial peak and arguably when it became a proper De Jure state rather than a De Facto one based on a bunch of autonomous city states tied together with a club of rich assholes
>>18771553People who don't understand history think that empire = stronger. It probably comes from hollywood or those stupid entertainment documentaries.
>>18771581>idk but my favourite period in Roman history is the late empire (300-600)the problem with the late empire is that talking about it b8s screaming atheists and LARPagans
Democracy is gay and woman coded. Authoritarian Empire is much better.
>>18771657I think that men who long to be dominated by some political alpha male are much more akin to women than men who wish to curb petty ambitions of (usually psychopathic) individuals.
>>18771553The empire had some good and even excellent rulers but ultimately was doomed due to the absence of a normal inheritance system. That's a recipe for constant civil wars. Normies like the empire because of the map paint. It also seems that associating a state with one figure is somewhat more... I dunno, comfortable? And Christianity, of course. Christians praising Constantine never seize to amaze me.
>>18771709>Implying I wouldn’t be in chargeSlave
>>18771711That's what they all thought before getting poisoned by their wifes or stabbed by their brothers :^)
>>18771716I’m built different, I am that guy
>>18771721Built different? Are you literally just admitting to being a golem?
>>18771721Me and the boys are here to make sure that people like you don't get to ruin it for the rest of us.
>>18771721You have to be 18 to use this website
>>18771722>>18771724>>18771798Dilate
>>18771710also because the borders were indefensible
>>18771711in charge of bouncing on some geriatric senator's cock as his favorite deliciae maybe
>>18771581Good choice. Lots of interesting characters. Mine is the Third Century
>>18771599Everything posted here is trollbait anyway so who cares. Make a Majorian thread and some of us will post there
>>18771722>>18771724>>18771798
>>18771711Based. I'll be your Praetorian PrefectAve Anon! Now gib donative
>>18771854Too chaotic, don't like how the MC kept changing
>>18771870True a lot of usurpers and pretenders. But all in all you're dealing with just a few distinct leaderships. Caracalla, Elagabalus, Severus, Maximinius, the Gordians, Philip and his brother, Decius, Valerian and Gallienus (very important), Claudius Gothicus, Aurelian, Probus (Tacitus barely worth mentioning), Carus-Carinus-Numerian, and finally Diocletian.
>>18771854You might enjoy a favorite passage of mine from Gibbon during a discussion on the repeated failed mutinies during the reign of Gallienus, the so called "30 tyrants of Rome">The reign of Gallienus, distracted as it was, produced [not thirty, but 'merely'] nineteen pretenders to the throne. ... To illustrate the obscure monuments of the life and death of each individual would prove a laborious task, alike barren of instruction and of amusement. We may content ourselves with investigating some general characters that most strongly mark the condition of the times and the manners of the men, their pretensions, their motives, their fate, and the destructive consequences of their usurpation...>The rapid and perpetual transitions from the cottage to the throne and from the throne to the grave, might have amused an indifferent philosopher; were it possible for a philosopher to remain indifferent amidst the general calamities of human kind. The election of these precarious emperors, their power and their death, were equally destructive to their subjects and adherents. The price of their fatal elevation was instantly discharged to the troops, by an immense donative, drawn from the bowels of the exhausted people. However virtuous was their character, however pure their intentions, they found themselves reduced to the hard necessity of supporting their usurpation by frequent acts of rapine and cruelty. When they fell, they involved armies and provinces in their fall. There is still extant a most savage mandate from Gallienus to one of his ministers, after the suppression of Ingenuus, who had assumed the purple in IIlyricum.(cont)
>>18771889>"It is not enough," says that soft but inhuman prince, "that you exterminate such as have appeared in arms: the chance of battle might have served me as effectually. The male sex of every age must be extirpated; provided that, in the execution of the children and old men, you can contrive means to save our reputation. Let every one die who has dropped an expression, who has entertained a thought against me, against ME, the son of Valerian the father and brother of so many princes. Remember that Ingenuus was made emperor: tear, kill, hew in pieces. I write to you with my own hand, and would inspire you with my own feelings.">Whilst the public forces of the state were dissipated in private quarrels, the defenceless provinces lay exposed to every invader. The bravest usurpers were compelled, by the perplexity of their situation, to conclude ignominious treaties with the common enemy, to purchase with oppressive tributes the neutrality or services of the barbarians, and to introduce hostile and independent nations into the heart of the Roman monarchy....>Such were the barbarians, and such the tyrants, who, under the reigns of Valerian and Gallienus, dismembered the provinces, and reduced the empire to the lowest pitch of disgrace and ruin, from whence it seemed impossible that it should ever emerge.
>>18771553the word "empire" has more grandeur than republic
>>18771890Thank you. Haven't read Gibbon in a while, this brought back fond memories. Gallienus is criminal,y underrated though. Yeah he was a tyrant but he was dealt a very bad hand amd he played it very well until the senators conspired to assassinate him and blame his most trusted generals. Neither Gothicus nor Aurelian were involved, it was all a senatorial plot with praetorian complicity.
