Posted on 06/28/2021 12:13:16 PM PDT by LuciusDomitiusAutelian
Aurelian was Roman emperor from 270 to 275 CE. He was one of the so-called Barracks Emperors, chosen by the Roman army during the turbulent period known as the Crisis of the Third Century (235-284 CE). Besides victories against various invading tribes, he successfully restored the Roman Empire by bringing the breakaway territories of the Gallic Empire and Palmyra back under Roman control, which earned him the title restitutor orbis ('Restorer of the World'). In order to defend Rome, he ordered the construction of the Aurelian Walls around the city, many parts of which are remarkably well-preserved thanks to their continued use as defensive structure well into the 19th century CE.
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Restitutor Orbis
Quite fascinating to visit and walk on those walls.
It is surely amazing. My favorite sites to visit in Rome are the rebuilt Pantheon and the old Senate House (have to go on the first Saturday of the month) and the ruins of the Forum. Italy is a fabulous place to visit. If you are interested in medieval history Florence is also awesome. I intend to go see Pompeii and Herculaeum next if I can get there with out taking an experimental gene therapy that is not approved by the FDA.
The other series I watched was "Barbarians," a German show about the "Battle of the Teutoburg Forest" in 9 AD.
Seen all of those and enjoyed them all. Very entertaining and accurate but kind of glosses over some of the more grittier details. If you enjoyed those you might want to check out the older HBO series which is really a pretty good representation of Caesar with two characters that were real people but it is a little bit fictional.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0384766/
“glosses over some of the more grittier details”
There were some incredible battle scenes and the gladiator combat was intense.
Agreed. But they miss out on the fact that Commodus usually fought injured men with bad swords. He thought he was literally the reincarnation of Hercules. Every time he entered Vespasian’s great arena he came in dressed as Hercules and would fight injured gladiators with weak swords. Just a cruel show and every fight was rigged. Gladiators were below prostitutes in Roman society. A truly embarrassing spectacle for Rome to endure. Kind of like Biden but exponentially worse.
Commodus was the first Emperor that was actually the genetic son of a Roman emperor, and the son of one of the greatest thinkers and emperors, the philosopher emperor, Marcus Aurelius.
Paradoxical that the son of such a great man as Marcus Aurelius was such a loser. But he is a sympathetic character because he lived in pit of vipers which in my assessment drove him mad. But he didn’t have far to drive. A lazy, Hunter Biden type in reality. He’s not really portrayed that way in the series mentioned.
But it is certainly entertaining like the movie Gladiator which is just all over the place or Vikings which compresses about 300 years into 30. It’s entertainment but not very deep into the reality as we understand it from contemporaries to these events.
The show did reveal that Commodus was cheating by having the swords of his opponents dulled and made weak so they would break. It was covered in a lot of detail.
It characterized Commodus as a blood thirsty, crazed lunatic.
It showed him to be a lazy, no-account, shiftless, lay-about from an early age. Marcus Aurelius tried to turn him into a man in the wars in Germanic, but by then it was too late.
I may be confusing it with another series. My apologies.
I went back and watched Episode 6 of Season 1. I stand corrected. They did indeed show that he had rigged his battles. But they didn’t show the extent of how bad it was and that he fought cripples and amputees. Much worse and sickening based on contemporary accounts.
He did have great hunting skills based on the same accounts.
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