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Goes to show that privatizing the military is a bad idea. You really don't want your generals having their armies loyal to them above the state. There were cohorts assigned just to the Emperor and Rome, they could also be sent to crush rebellious legions. Other legions were not allowed into Rome. All of that was a pretty solid counterbalance except for the fact that people take bribes. Once people figured out that you could bribe the Emperor’s own guard to kill him, stability goes out the window. I do sometimes think that a good novelist could make a fantastic book out of a coup in the United States where a general bribes the Secret Service to kill the President.

Rome fell because (in the end) it could not field armies to fight off the encroaching barbarians. It has been theorized that this was due to a combination of demographic decline and Roman’s not having the will to defend themselves anymore.

Sound familiar?

>>Goes to show that privatizing the military is a bad idea. You really don't want your generals having their armies loyal to them above the state.

Through the US Civil War, officers were appointed by politicians and elected by the enlisted men in their discrete units. Promotions were done locally at the unit level through the First World War. It is only since the Second World War that promotions and appointments have been done through the top officers of a service or through Congress. The Navy's system is the envy of the others, with officer promotion selection boards ruled only through official personnel records reviewed by disinterested officers who do not know the people up for promotion. The Air Force, on the other hand, has had the most trouble with outside influence marring promotion results.