This is a Friends of History Debating Society. I'm John Batchel. Gaius, and Germanicus is here,

Machovalos. And conveniently, the emperor has all staged a gathering in a basilica for us these last days

to pay last respects to a previous emperor, Jimmy Carter of Georgia, and gathering in one

place in an easy camera shot was a mix of Republicans and Democrats of the last, well, Mr. Carter

reaches back to the 1970s, but sitting in respect to Mr. Carter was Mr. Clinton, Mr. Bush, Mr. Obama, Mr. Biden,

and Mr. Trump, President-elect, all in one place.

Germanicus, it was a treat to witness these emperors together because the magic of the throne

has left them exempt from many ordinary considerations. They float above the Roman remains, the remains of the empire.

And they each have opinions of where we are here

in the 21st century.

But I want to speak to the general picture of them altogether.

What did you make of it?

Is the empire successful to have these veterans sitting together?

It must be said, given our own experience in our own time,

that it is something of a success, certainly for the purposes of achieving long-term stability, that rival emperors

can meet each other, not just rival emperors, but former emperors.

And the fact that emperors don't have to kill each other in order for there to be an authoritative succession is something of an achievement.

And I think that is perhaps the great achievement of the American Empire because you had all the emperors there pretending to be you know, be amicable and civil.

But in fact, for all of their hatred of each other, they all adhere to this covenant,

this kind of framework of civility, that in effect forms a kind of conceptual

framework for Americans. And it is a framework that Americans absolutely rely upon. America was very much adrift after 2020 because

the authority of the succession and the civility that you saw in the Washington Cathedral was abrogated for a short period of time.

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