#i’m also a real big hadrian girly and i’m known to delve into some caligula or marcus aurelius if i’m feeling crazy

[the-casbah-way]

Do you have a favorite emperor other than Caesar

my friend. caesar was not an emperor but this is still a good question. my favourite emperor is domitian i have spent two years of uni essentially being that man’s defence lawyer in my essays. by defending him i don’t mean actually defending him bc he was a fucking roman emperor you’ll never catch me doing that but i mean destroying people who perpetuate and fall for the literary construct of good and bad emperors and take ancient accounts as gospel bc they have no critical thinking skills. i will absolutely fucking die on the hill that domitian was just augustus but in a more autistic font. im a flavian girly for life. was domitian a ‘better’ emperor than augustus? no because if he was he’d understand why it was so important to maintain the illusion of senatorial supremacy. was he right for thinking it was nonsense yes but he was wrong for outwardly acting that way. but i still think the rep he gets in historical tradition is almost completely unwarranted and i do not often see many scathing criticisms of him that aren’t completely flawed and lacking almost entirely in nuance. his economic policy fucked HARD and his building programme was sexy as hell. fuck the senatorial elite and their stinky little history books (i’m kidding i love you tacitus i’m kissing you with tongue)