Gun Control & RKBA
In reply to the discussion: Xpost: Austrailian gun control... [View all]jimmy the one
(2,717 posts)nuc uni: Anti-democratic leaders of an imperialist state, incompetent, corrupt, incestuous, murderous, adulterous, self-indulgent, persecuting of minorities.
Take out incestuous, adulterous & self indulgent and you'd get hundreds of roman dictators & consuls & governors to fit the bill emboldened above. Adulterous & self indulgent would apply to a portion as well. Incestuous might be Gaius C alone, dunno.
Gaius and Nero are nowhere near these:
http://list25.com/25-of-historys-deadliest-dictators/
http://popten.net/2010/05/top-ten-most-evil-dictators-of-all-time-in-order-of-kill-count/
http://www.thedailybeast.com/galleries/2011/10/21/the-20th-century-s-deadliest-dictators-photos.html#viewAll
The concept of dictatorship as well as the use of force and systemic persecution of political opponents to stay in power dates back to the ancient Roman civilization, however, it was the modern history dictators who made it virtually a synonym for gross human rights violations and brutality.
http://historylists.org/people/list-of-top-10-most-brutal-dictators-in-modern-history.html
Actually, if you were simply to revise what you wrote I could not argue, I'd agree. Revise to: Caligula and Nero were two of the worst ROMAN tyrants in history.
Commodus, the spoiled son of Aurelius and his wife, Faustina.. emperor Commodus spent the early years of his reign "in a seraglio of 300 beautiful women and as many boys, of every rank and of every province. "Later, adding bloodshed to his round of pleasures, he launched a career in murder,.. Commodus began to dress like the god Hercules, wearing lion skins and carrying a club. Commodus' complete identification with Hercules can be seen as an attempt to solidify his claim as new founder of Rome, which he now called the Colonia Lucia Annia Commodiana. This was legitimized by his direct link to Hercules, son of Father Jupiter. He probably took the title of Hercules officially some time before 192. But so too was he prone to cruelty and excessive behaviour.
"Domitian was also notorious for his cruelty. He is supposed to have invented a new method of torture: burning the sexual organs of his victims. Domitian was capable of inviting an erring official to supper.. the next day he was executed.. Like Vespasian, Domitian persecuted Stoic philosophers and Jews. He had all Jews.. tracked down and killed... he encouraged courtiers & subjects to venerate him by addressing him as "Lord & God". His executions of those who failed to pay him honor earned him an early reputation for cruelty.
"Caligula', more properly Gaius (Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus), third Roman emperor.. He has gone down in history, perhaps unfairly, as Rome's most tyrannical emperor; but since we lack Tacitus' account of his short reign, it is impossible to know the truth behind the wilder stories."
For the bulk of the information we are compelled to fall back on Suetonius and Dio Cassius, and we do not possess (as we do for the three other Julio-Claudian Emperors) any of the books which Tacitus wrote on the reign. The lack must be emphasized, for it is very important: ..we can usually rely on Tacitus to control the errors and generalisations of Suetonius and Dio, and so can assess them at their true worth. In spite of this many writers, in dealing with the four years of Gaius, behave as though by some kindly compensation of Nature, once Tacitus is missing Suetonius and Dio automatically become better authorities and their statements more worthy of credence. Such a frame of mind is uncritically optimistic, for it goes clean contrary to all experience of these authors elsewhere. . . J. Balsdon, author of a study of Caligula, is of the opinion that the incest stigma is a complete fabrication in the first place'mud which in antiquity was thrown at any man who was unusually fond of his sister.' René Lugand argues that, if not actually a gross fabricator, Suetonius was at least guilty of partiality and elaboration. He examines two cases of allegedly outrageous conduct: the propitiation of Caligula by human sacrifices, and secondly his intention to award his horse Incitatus a Consulship. His conclusion is that, even if Suetonius is not exaggerating, as is frequently the case elsewhere, such conduct was not so very monstrous for those times. Suetonius was more of a propagandist than an historian:"
http://www.omnibusol.com/emperors.html