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From: William Hyde <wthyde1953@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: (ReacTor) Counting the Days: Five SFF Approaches to Calendars
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2025 16:38:26 -0400
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The Horny Goat wrote:
> On Sat, 19 Jul 2025 08:57:16 -0700, Paul S Person
> <psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:
> 
>> This is very confusing, as we appear to be mixing up "the Vorkosigan
>> Saga" and the Roman Empire. And I don't care which was founded on
>> what.
> 
> 
> While I've read all or nearly all the Miles books I was pretty sure on
> the Roman emperors (surer than on Miles as a matter of fact but hadn't
> taken time to look them up again - and all of the following names are
> familiar - just couldn't remember whether they were in the same year
> or over 12 months over two years. (And read both Tom Holland's
> Dominion and his book on Rome since April)
> 
>> Nero was followed by four emperors in the next year (12 months):
>> Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian.
>>
>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_of_the_Four_Emperors>
>>
>> So, if this is a contest, the Roman Empire wins by 1 Emperor.
>>
>>> I suppose the counts might have gotten lucky in having #1 and or #2
>>> keel over before they had to fork it out...
>>
>>> Of course there were plenty of Emperors "elected" by no one other than
>>> whichever Legion was based in Rome.
>>
>> They didn't have to be based in Rome. A fair number of Emperors (and
>> would-be Emperors) were proclaimed to be Emperor by their Legion(s)
>> and then marched on Rome to expell the current one.
> 
> True though when there were rival emperors backed by different legions
> with neither in Rome at that point the usual outcome was that each
> marched on Rome and fought it out somewhere nearby.
> 
>> Those were not good times for the Roman Empire. The periods where son
>> succeeded father for several generations were much better, at least as
>> far as civil war went.
> 
> Even Nero's reign (which was one of those you cited) was relatively
> 'good times' for the Empire

It's surprising how few people acknowledge that.



  though I remind you that aging Emperors
> routinely adopted their successors. (Which was one of the better ways
> of avoiding succession crises)

Hadrian went one better, adopting Antonius Pius, and insisting as a 
condition that he adopt Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus.  Pity he 
couldn't have picked out a couple of newborns for them to adopt.

William Hyde