Wednesday 23 March 2022

Special Guest Blogger: Emperor Domitian

You can call me Emperor, Domitian or even Dom but the name i most answer to is 'Master, Lord and God' because i was the Emperor and could call myself whatever the hell i wanted.
My ascension to the throne came when my brother Titus suddenly and unfortunately died of natural causes while we were both travelling. It was definitely perfectly natural causes and i didn't poison him or anything. Nope, completely natural causes.
Emperors didn't last very long in Rome, if you went to bed without someone had having tried to murder you then it had been a good day and i had many good days in my 15 years in charge, strengthening the Roman economy and as much of Rome needed rebuilding, mostly due to fire, decay, and the previous emperors being too busy at orgies, i undertook a massive building programme which included finishing the Colosseum.
Most of my not being gruesomely murdered was due to me giving the army a massive pay rise as soon as i took over although i wasn't so kind to my Senators, often going out of my way to embarrass them.
I once held a dinner party for them all and the place-mats were tombstones with their names on them which i insisted them took home with them but the Roman people liked me, i built huge monuments but buildings are expensive so i raised the money by setting up prominent, wealthy men, executing them and claiming their estates.
On building the Stadium of Domitian, i dedicated it to the people of Rome and that's where we held the Capitoline Games and we had chariot races, women and dwarf gladiator contests and one time i flooded the basement of the Colosseum and held a naval battle.
As my reign progressed, and the more i hated on the Senators, plots against me started to spring up so i began executing Senators and Officers including my niece's husband which made family meals a bit awkward but it wasn't the Senators who got me in the end though, it was my valet and my wife, did i mention i was going to execute her for having an affair?
Anyway, faking an arm injury, he wore a protective wrapping in which he concealed a dagger and while discussing a list of possible conspirators, he leapt up and pulled out the dagger and stabbed me straight in the groin and then hacked me to death.
The Senate immediately denounced me and removed my rule from public record, pulled down my statues and chiselled my name out from inscriptions, eradicated my face from paintings and coins but left the massive 57 meter high building i erected because as much as they hated me, who doesn't like a dwarf gladiator fight.

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