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<p>[QUOTE="gsimonel, post: 2562890, member: 82549"]This is a copy of my most recent blog entry. My apologies if anyone is offended.</p><p><br /></p><p>Tomorrow is the U.S. presidential election, the day when we go to the polls and cast a vote for the person we want to be president. Or maybe just cast a vote against the person we don't want to be president. I suspect a lot of us are doing the latter, because clearly, that other candidate is terrible. If the opponent wins it will be disastrous for our country--for the entire world, even. My favored candidate may not be perfect, but the other candidate would just destroy our whole country. So let's all unite and save the world from that terrible person running on the other party's ticket. Edited : political ! The point is that if our side loses, we will end up with the worst leader in the history of western civilization. The thought of the other party winning this election is so frightening to me that I'm compelled to look for some kind of diversion just to keep my hands from shaking and my head from exploding.</p><p><br /></p><p>Think I'll look through my collection of ancient Roman coins; that always helps to calm me down.</p><p><br /></p><p>Oh, look: here's a coin of the emperor <a href="http://feltemp.com/Emperors/Caligula.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://feltemp.com/Emperors/Caligula.html" rel="nofollow">Caligula</a>:</p><p><br /></p><p>He reigned for four years, from 37-41 A.D. Shortly into his reign, he decided that he was a god and had the Roman Senate declare him so. He led his troops on an invasion of England, got as far as the English Channel, declared a victory and commanded his troops to collect seashells. He also appointed his favorite race horse to the Senate.</p><p><br /></p><p>Ah, a bronze of <a href="http://feltemp.com/Emperors/Nero.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://feltemp.com/Emperors/Nero.html" rel="nofollow">Nero</a>:</p><p><br /></p><p>He got to be emperor through the finagling of his mother, who probably bumped off his stepfather, the emperor Claudius I. Shortly thereafter he repaid her for her efforts by having her murdered. His extravagance and cruelty was so great that it led to a civil war, during which he was captured and executed.</p><p><br /></p><p>Jumping ahead in time a bit, we find <a href="http://feltemp.com/Emperors/Commodus.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://feltemp.com/Emperors/Commodus.html" rel="nofollow">Commodus</a>:</p><p><br /></p><p>Commodus became emperor in 177 A.D., after the death of his father, Marcus Aurelius. He became convinced that he was the living embodiment of Hercules and fought regularly in gladiatorial contests, which he always won. But eventually, some people got tired of always letting him win and bribed one of his wrestling partners to strangle him. Oh, and his death in 192 A.D. also led to a civil war.</p><p><br /></p><p>A few years later we find <a href="http://feltemp.com/Emperors/Caracalla.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://feltemp.com/Emperors/Caracalla.html" rel="nofollow">Caracalla</a>:</p><p><br /></p><p>Quite possibly the meanest ruler of the entire Roman Empire, (although admittedly this is not certain because the competition is so great), Caracalla fought constantly with his younger brother and co-emperor, <a href="http://feltemp.com/Emperors/Geta.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://feltemp.com/Emperors/Geta.html" rel="nofollow">Geta</a>. It got to the point that the two of them stopped communicating with each other, even through they were responsible for running the Empire together. Their mother, <a href="http://feltemp.com/Emperors/JuliaDomna.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://feltemp.com/Emperors/JuliaDomna.html" rel="nofollow">Julia Domna</a>, grew alarmed at their constant fighting and subsequent dysfunctional rule, so she asked both her boys to meet with her and attempt a reconciliation. Yielding to her wishes, the boys met at her palace, whereupon Caracalla promptly killed Geta in front of his mother and then forbade her to cry or morn for her slain son.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here's a denarius of <a href="http://feltemp.com/Emperors/Elagabalus.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://feltemp.com/Emperors/Elagabalus.html" rel="nofollow">Elagabalus</a>:</p><p><br /></p><p>He became emperor largely through the schemings of his grandmother, <a href="http://feltemp.com/Emperors/JuliaMaesa.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://feltemp.com/Emperors/JuliaMaesa.html" rel="nofollow">Julia Maesa</a>:</p><p><br /></p><p>Unfortunately, his erratic behavior, which included dressing as a woman and prostituting himself after hours in Roman dive bars, proved so disruptive to Julia Maesa's plans to run the Empire through her grandchildren that she had him killed and replaced by a different grandchild.</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://feltemp.com/Emperors/Carausius.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://feltemp.com/Emperors/Carausius.html" rel="nofollow">Carausius</a> was a trusted general of the emperor <a href="http://feltemp.com/Emperors/MaximianHerculius.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://feltemp.com/Emperors/MaximianHerculius.html" rel="nofollow">Maximian Herculius</a>. When piracy on the English Channel became a serious problem during Maximian's reign, the emperor relied on Carausius to clear the channel of pirates. Carausius did not let him down. At first. After ridding the channel of all the pirates, Carausius himself took up piracy, raiding ships and keeping all the loot for himself. When he got word that Maximian was sending another general to kill him, Carausius fled to Britain and founded his own breakaway Empire. He was murdered after a few years by <a href="http://feltemp.com/Emperors/Allectus.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://feltemp.com/Emperors/Allectus.html" rel="nofollow">Allectus</a>, one of his trusted generals.</p><p><br /></p><p>For brevity's sake, we'll skip much of the 3rd century simply because just about every emperor during that time was murdered by one of their own generals, who then had himself declared emperor and was subsequently murdered by one of his generals. One exception, however, was <a href="http://feltemp.com/Emperors/Carinus.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://feltemp.com/Emperors/Carinus.html" rel="nofollow">Carinus</a>. He was most likely murdered by one of his soldiers of lesser rank after seducing the soldier's wife.</p><p><br /></p><p>I could go on and on, but I think I'll wrap this up after considering one last emperor: <a href="http://feltemp.com/Emperors/ConstantineI.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://feltemp.com/Emperors/ConstantineI.html" rel="nofollow">Constantine the Great</a>.</p><p><br /></p><p>After fighting off several competitors to the throne, Constantine emerged as co-emperor with his brother-in-law,<a href="http://feltemp.com/Emperors/LiciniusI.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://feltemp.com/Emperors/LiciniusI.html" rel="nofollow">Licinius</a>. But Constantine wasn't satisfied with being co-emperor, and he was soon at war with Licinius over control of the Empire. Constantine's troops defeated those of Licinius, but Constantine spared Licinius' life due to the entreaties of his own wife, <a href="http://feltemp.com/Emperors/Fausta.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://feltemp.com/Emperors/Fausta.html" rel="nofollow">Fausta</a>, who was also Licinius' sister. That is, until he changed his mind and had him killed anyway, along with his 11-year-old son, Constantine's nephew, <a href="http://feltemp.com/Emperors/LiciniusII.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://feltemp.com/Emperors/LiciniusII.html" rel="nofollow">Licinius II</a>. Two years later, Constantine had his own son, <a href="http://feltemp.com/Emperors/Crispus.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://feltemp.com/Emperors/Crispus.html" rel="nofollow">Crispus</a>executed--to this day no one is sure why--and shortly after, had Fausta murdered in her bath. (And you thought Caracalla was cold-hearted.)</p><p><br /></p><p>And now, after thumbing through my ancient coin collection, I no longer feel so bad about the choices that I'll face at the polls tomorrow. It never fails.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="gsimonel, post: 2562890, member: 82549"]This is a copy of my most recent blog entry. My apologies if anyone is offended. Tomorrow is the U.S. presidential election, the day when we go to the polls and cast a vote for the person we want to be president. Or maybe just cast a vote against the person we don't want to be president. I suspect a lot of us are doing the latter, because clearly, that other candidate is terrible. If the opponent wins it will be disastrous for our country--for the entire world, even. My favored candidate may not be perfect, but the other candidate would just destroy our whole country. So let's all unite and save the world from that terrible person running on the other party's ticket. Edited : political ! The point is that if our side loses, we will end up with the worst leader in the history of western civilization. The thought of the other party winning this election is so frightening to me that I'm compelled to look for some kind of diversion just to keep my hands from shaking and my head from exploding. Think I'll look through my collection of ancient Roman coins; that always helps to calm me down. Oh, look: here's a coin of the emperor [URL='http://feltemp.com/Emperors/Caligula.html']Caligula[/URL]: He reigned for four years, from 37-41 A.D. Shortly into his reign, he decided that he was a god and had the Roman Senate declare him so. He led his troops on an invasion of England, got as far as the English Channel, declared a victory and commanded his troops to collect seashells. He also appointed his favorite race horse to the Senate. Ah, a bronze of [URL='http://feltemp.com/Emperors/Nero.html']Nero[/URL]: He got to be emperor through the finagling of his mother, who probably bumped off his stepfather, the emperor Claudius I. Shortly thereafter he repaid her for her efforts by having her murdered. His extravagance and cruelty was so great that it led to a civil war, during which he was captured and executed. Jumping ahead in time a bit, we find [URL='http://feltemp.com/Emperors/Commodus.html']Commodus[/URL]: Commodus became emperor in 177 A.D., after the death of his father, Marcus Aurelius. He became convinced that he was the living embodiment of Hercules and fought regularly in gladiatorial contests, which he always won. But eventually, some people got tired of always letting him win and bribed one of his wrestling partners to strangle him. Oh, and his death in 192 A.D. also led to a civil war. A few years later we find [URL='http://feltemp.com/Emperors/Caracalla.html']Caracalla[/URL]: Quite possibly the meanest ruler of the entire Roman Empire, (although admittedly this is not certain because the competition is so great), Caracalla fought constantly with his younger brother and co-emperor, [URL='http://feltemp.com/Emperors/Geta.html']Geta[/URL]. It got to the point that the two of them stopped communicating with each other, even through they were responsible for running the Empire together. Their mother, [URL='http://feltemp.com/Emperors/JuliaDomna.html']Julia Domna[/URL], grew alarmed at their constant fighting and subsequent dysfunctional rule, so she asked both her boys to meet with her and attempt a reconciliation. Yielding to her wishes, the boys met at her palace, whereupon Caracalla promptly killed Geta in front of his mother and then forbade her to cry or morn for her slain son. Here's a denarius of [URL='http://feltemp.com/Emperors/Elagabalus.html']Elagabalus[/URL]: He became emperor largely through the schemings of his grandmother, [URL='http://feltemp.com/Emperors/JuliaMaesa.html']Julia Maesa[/URL]: Unfortunately, his erratic behavior, which included dressing as a woman and prostituting himself after hours in Roman dive bars, proved so disruptive to Julia Maesa's plans to run the Empire through her grandchildren that she had him killed and replaced by a different grandchild. [URL='http://feltemp.com/Emperors/Carausius.html']Carausius[/URL] was a trusted general of the emperor [URL='http://feltemp.com/Emperors/MaximianHerculius.html']Maximian Herculius[/URL]. When piracy on the English Channel became a serious problem during Maximian's reign, the emperor relied on Carausius to clear the channel of pirates. Carausius did not let him down. At first. After ridding the channel of all the pirates, Carausius himself took up piracy, raiding ships and keeping all the loot for himself. When he got word that Maximian was sending another general to kill him, Carausius fled to Britain and founded his own breakaway Empire. He was murdered after a few years by [URL='http://feltemp.com/Emperors/Allectus.html']Allectus[/URL], one of his trusted generals. For brevity's sake, we'll skip much of the 3rd century simply because just about every emperor during that time was murdered by one of their own generals, who then had himself declared emperor and was subsequently murdered by one of his generals. One exception, however, was [URL='http://feltemp.com/Emperors/Carinus.html']Carinus[/URL]. He was most likely murdered by one of his soldiers of lesser rank after seducing the soldier's wife. I could go on and on, but I think I'll wrap this up after considering one last emperor: [URL='http://feltemp.com/Emperors/ConstantineI.html']Constantine the Great[/URL]. After fighting off several competitors to the throne, Constantine emerged as co-emperor with his brother-in-law,[URL='http://feltemp.com/Emperors/LiciniusI.html']Licinius[/URL]. But Constantine wasn't satisfied with being co-emperor, and he was soon at war with Licinius over control of the Empire. Constantine's troops defeated those of Licinius, but Constantine spared Licinius' life due to the entreaties of his own wife, [URL='http://feltemp.com/Emperors/Fausta.html']Fausta[/URL], who was also Licinius' sister. That is, until he changed his mind and had him killed anyway, along with his 11-year-old son, Constantine's nephew, [URL='http://feltemp.com/Emperors/LiciniusII.html']Licinius II[/URL]. Two years later, Constantine had his own son, [URL='http://feltemp.com/Emperors/Crispus.html']Crispus[/URL]executed--to this day no one is sure why--and shortly after, had Fausta murdered in her bath. (And you thought Caracalla was cold-hearted.) And now, after thumbing through my ancient coin collection, I no longer feel so bad about the choices that I'll face at the polls tomorrow. It never fails.[/QUOTE]
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OT, Sorta: The Presidential Election. Shudder
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