This is the History of the World Podcast with me Chris Hasler

And you're listening to volume three, the classical world.

Episode 47

Crisis and Coll collapse of the Principut. Oh, Last time on the history of the world podcast we watched how the emperors of the Roman

Empire seemed to diminish in quality and how the army were gaining more power

and influence at the expense of the power of the Senate and

the Praetorian God who were the Imperial Military Council within the city of Rome itself. The stability that allowed an emperor such as Hadrian,

the ability to go on an extended tour vacation of the Roman Empire was no longer there a hundred years later.

It now seemed that emperors were being hand-picked by the most influential statesmen and stateswomen of the Roman Empire and

normally because they wanted the power for themselves and had to do it in the name of

another which was great until someone wanted to muscle in and kill the emperor.

The consequences of regicide often depended on the political repercussions.

So if you killed the Emperor, you would only get executed if it's suited the current political

landscape of the Empire. So much for common law. There was a degree of

stability when Septimia Severeus was emperor, but when he died his his son Caracala assumed responsibility and was somewhat irresponsible in terms of his bloodthirsty massacres,

which would have created a lot of bad feeling in and around the Roman Empire

quite likely for one or two generations to come. When Karakala was

assassinated it was the army who were the most disappointed.

Karakala's successor Macriness was pushed out as Princeps, and a young man called

Elagabalus was ushered in as a puppet ruler so that his

grandmother Yulian Mayessa could regain control of the imperial throne for

the Severean family.

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