The basic rule with conservatives is that they want to control others. Their reputation is about power, not about fairness. Every law and every move has to be considered from that point of view: If they get silenced, it is bad, but if they silence others, that shows power and is good.
lennivelkant
joined 1 year ago
Assuming the first person is working through it in chronological order and hasn't reached that realisation yet, they've probably just encountered the first such instance. Given that Tiberius was alleged by some to have been smothered by the head of the Pretorian Guard, I assume that's who they're talking about.
To expand on "a lot":
Tiberius was the second Emperor, succeeded by Calilgula who was also killed by Pretorians four years later. The third (Claudius) died of other causes, the fourth (Nero) was merely abandoned by the guard, but the fifth (Galba) was once again murdered by Pretorian soldiers. Within the first hundred years of the Imperial period, three out of seven were actively killed by the guard and one was deserted, so I'll score this as 3.5/7.
Vespasian and Titus died non-violently, but Domitian was once again murdered, with at least one Pretorian officer apparently aware of the plot, which I'll mark as "deserted"; 4/10.
Six more died naturally (Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antonius Pius, Marcus Aurelius, Lucius Verus), but with the seventeenth, they bucked again: Commodus and Pertinax were killed by the guard, Didius Julianus got ghosted again. Tally: 7.5/20 so far, 6 of them direct murder.
Geta died by fratricide. His brother and murderer, Caracalla, was stabbed by a soldier, instigated by the Pretorian Prefect then finished off by Pretorian Tribunes. That same prefect and next emperor, Macrinus, actually had the loyalty of his man, so Elagabalus had to usurp the hard way. In turn, he was again killed by the guard. We're at 9.5/24, 8 direct murders.
Severus Alexander, Maximinus I, Gordian I and II died in the "normal" infighting of the Crisis of the Third Century, Pupienus and Balbinus were each murdered by the guard again. Score is 11.5/30, 10 direct, holding the average of a third of all emperors being killed by the Guard.
I gotta go now, but so far we're 265 years into the Imperial era, 30 Emperors deep and a solid third of them died by the hand of the Guard.
A buffet of dildos?
My part-timer gives me his schedule on Monday.
It's project work, the "schedule" is really just "when do we do our regular check-in?" and I don't give a rat's ass when he does his work, as long as I can reach him whenever he said I could. My boss doesn't give a shit either, as long as our work gets done.
Why do you tell us that?
Ooooh okay, so that's the point where I stop clenching up and shit my pants instead? Thanks, good to know.
More seriously, thank you for sharing that knowledge. I'll still be terribly afraid of accidentally inhaling or ingesting them, or having them get in my pants without consent (again), but it should ease my fear of them intentionally attacking me.
vertically oriented
You mean if it's flying up and down, rather than left-right as they usually do?
Why would you call them a liar for relaying what some data scientists supposedly thought, then conceding that we won't know whether they're right because the people who could have had it investigated didn't do so?
If true, that's an intent I can get behind. But even if it isn't, given my own inclination towards contrived shenanigans to scratch some weird itch in my brain, I've come to accept such things as harmless quirks and treat them with the same patience I'd want others to treat my own with.
And every now and ðen, I try someþhing myself and realise what fun it can be ;-)
Wasps are my archetypal frenemy. I hate them, but I love them and what they do, but they can please do it far away from me, but they should also do it in my backyard, but not when I'm there, and I don't mind sharing food with them, but I can't stand having them near my food, and I don't want to hate them but whenever they're near I seize up and can barely breathe or move.
I don't like them half as much as they deserve.
Something about the density of innocent and helpless prey really appeals to people who like to prey on the helpless and innocent.
Titus Flavius Vespasian also went on to have the Flavian Amphitheatre built, which we now know as the Colosseum. I guess he learned from Nero's mistakes and tried a different form of entertainment.