<\/p>
Drake notes that the \u201cone unwritten, but never to be violated, rule of the game of empire was this: although the Senate could be alienated with impunity so long as the loyalty of the troops was secure, it was impossible to alienate both Senate and military and still survive.\u201d <\/p>\n
It\u2019s a rule that Nero violated: \u201cAlienated from both Senate and army, Nero took his own life in June 68,\u201d and his death \u201ctriggered a constitutional crisis.\u201d No successor was available, and \u201csenatorial and military criteria clashed head-on. On this occasion it was the armies, ever lurking behind the facade [of imperial deference to the Senate], which prevailed. In the course of a single year, A.D. 69, four different men, each backed by a different army, held the title of emperor. Tacitus later said that the \u2018Year of the Four Emperors,\u2019 as it was thereafter known, revealed the \u2018secret of empire\u2019 . . . <\/p>\n
\u201cAs he defined it, the \u2018secret\u2019 was that \u2018emperors could be made elsewhere than at Rome.\u2019\u201d That is, Emperors could be made anywhere there was a strong and restless army: \u201cThe revolt of the frontier armies revealed just how few cards the Senate actually held.\u201d <\/p>\n
A historical and an eschatological comment: The historical is that this secret was most especially revealed in the third century, and its the secret behind the ascent of Constantine; the eschatological note is to mark the date, and to think of stars falling from heaven and moons turning to blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord . . . . <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Drake notes that the \u201cone unwritten, but never to be violated, rule of the game of empire was this: although the Senate could be alienated with impunity so long as the loyalty of the troops was secure, it was impossible to alienate both Senate and military and still survive.\u201d It\u2019s a rule that Nero violated: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-theology-eschatology"],"yoast_head":"\n