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This week, I'm going to recommend another classic non-Roman history book, The March of

Folly by Barbara Tuckman, the classic study of how the responsible agents of state often

pursue policies that run absolutely counter to their own interests.

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Hello, and welcome to the history of Rome, episode 112, Captured Alive.

In the autumn of 253 AD, the troops supporting short-lived emperor Melius and Melionus abandoned

the man they had so recently elevated to the purple and affected en masse to Valarion.

I think we can forgive the Romans for at first not investing too much emotional energy in

this new, newly appointed emperor, because, after all, in the 18 years since the assassination

of Alexander Severus, the empire had seen 11 different men claim the title Augustus.

...