The Roman Imperial Succession Hardcover – June 24, 2020

With 19 detailed chapters, THE ROMAN IMPERIAL SUCCESSION covers the ascension of the first Roman Emperor - Augustus - and the First Imperial Family to the end of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD when Odoacer of possible Hunnish decent deposed Romulus Augustulus the last of the Roman Emperors. Imperial Rome lasted 500 years in the West while its Eastern counterpart - known as the Byzantine Empire (a modern appellation) continued for nearly 1000 more.Before continuing with a discussion of this particular book, I should like to present an overview of Roman ImperialSuccession which will indicate the difficulties of such a procedure even with the best of intentions. In the United States the peaceful and orderly transfer of power until now has been both an exception and exceptional compared to other civilizations and nations in world history when it comes to that process.Starting with Julius Caesar, prior to his assassination he adopted his grand-nephew Octavian as his heir and indicated so in his will. Marc Antony disputed Octavian's claim leading to a civil war which culminated in the death of Antony and his lover-queen Cleopatra of Egypt. Octavian later on became Augustus the first Roman Emperor. His successor, Tiberius, was a last choice others having preceded Tiberius in death. Tiberius chose Caligula as his successor not only as a spiteful act on the people of Rome, but other more qualified candidates had died prematurely. Caligula was assassinated in his early 20s and replaced by his aged uncle Claudius thanks to the praetorian guard. Claudius's wife Agrippina the Younger probably poisoned him so that her son from a previous marriage - Nero - could become Emperor. The suicide of Nero to avoid assassination ended the Julio-Claudian Dynasty and led to a year of civil war with no less than 4 contenders battling to see who could become the next Emperor. Vespasian prevailed and created a brief dynasty. His second son, Domitian, who was Emperor at the time was also assassinated thereby ending what was called the Flavian Dynasty. For the next 84 years, a period known as "the reign of the five good emperors" which Gibbon considered to be a Golden Age, the Emperor to be was chosen by his predecessor based upon his positive qualifications (the question of events surrounding Hadrian's becoming Emperor following the reign of Trajan is still disputed in some circles). It was Marcus Aurelius who broke the cycle by allowing his son Commodus to become Emperor thereby leading to an array of bad rulership and civil war. The Severan Dynasty which was established upon the death of Commodus (killed by a gladiator) lasted for some 42 years (ca. 235 AD) and ended in a bloodbath. From that time on, the Imperial Succession went through almost continuous turmoil and rare stability until it came to a complete end with the termination of the Western half of the Roman Empire.The book under review by John D. Grainger is extremely detailed; and while it is highly informative and fascinating makes for dense reading at times. This is partly due to the amount of material and the fact that the font is in a small size. As it is, the book is over 300 pages long and might be twice that length with normal font size. Also, despite several dynastic charts, many excellent photographs, a 5-page list of Emperors, 9 pages of notes geared to each chapter, and 4 pages of alphabetical Bibliography, there is NO Index - a major omission. Even so, for the specialist and interested layman I still highly recommend this book. It is not designed to be read in a single sitting and requires patience. However, given the turmoil of our own times, when one looks back upon Ancient Rome which we still greatly admire we can appreciate even more what the United States has been able to accomplish and sustain over a period of almost 250 years, 3 times more than what Rome could achieve in the best of times; and I am confident that it can continue even with our own inherent weaknesses, trials, and tribulations.

This is an excellent addition to one’s history Library…specifically Ancient Roman…