I'm John Batcheter Geys. Germanicus is here. We're in Londetium. It's a late summer

afternoon. Everything is lovely. We're going to the theater later. They're Roman mimes.

We can hope for historical episodes. It's always funny. Mimes inject a lot of

humor and they don't say anything so they can't be arrested. Remember these are actors and that

is a very suspect class in Rome but they're out here in

Londinium we're very far away we don't worry about anything happening on the

Danube we don't worry what's happening on the Poe we don't even worry what's happening on the PO. We don't even worry what's happening in the Thames. We're watching

2024 and the success so far of Cleopatra's campaign. Her opponent doesn't have an easy version in our

century, a little Nero, little type barriers, and nothing really works. However, I want to come to observe that Cleopatra is doing very

well while not telling us anything about the future. She is presenting herself as an alternative and the

choice of the other party and that apparently is enough.

Semanticus, you measure that Cleopatra will continue.

The alluring idea of a completely different story in the White House is sufficient campaign.

These last several weeks we have focused on the problem of legitimacy in Imperial Succession.

And your wonderful metaphor, the year five emperors, is really a pro quo here because as in Rome at its imperial height,

imperial succession are still dependent on legitimacy and if a claimant or a

contender fumbled in the contest for succession, that contender was garotted quickly.

And Rome had a kind of succession by not so much valor, but according to competence, capability, and perceived success, they had to be equal to the job and

they had to show that they were equal to the job.

When they didn't, like a Nero, they didn't last long. if they were contenders in a the Roman equivalent of an American

general election which was called a civil war as in the year emperors, if they fumbled on the field or the soldiers didn't

sense that they were up to the job, they would defect and then you'd have another contender

...