Lately, I’ve seen a number of editorial comments comparing Trump to the Roman emperor Nero. This is an outrage. Nero was marginally competent as an emperor.
If you want a Roman comparison, try Commodus, who renamed Rome Commodiana to honor his divine self.
Like Trump, he was born filthy rich, the son of the otherwise commendable Marcus Aurelius, who elevated him to the rank of co-emperor at the age of 15. Then Marcus had the gall to up and die three years later, leaving his son sole emperor of Rome at the age of 18.
It is extremely unfair to say that Commodus was unfit to be emperor because he had the mind of an 18-year old. He had never really gotten past the 12-year old stage. That was when he had been named consul of Rome, effectively ending any developmental progress. Here he is, apparently wearing his birthday cake on his head:
By Lgtrapp – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18496675
Note the uncanny resemblance to Trump’s alleged hair.
One Roman historian, Dio Cassius, tells us that Commodus ruined Rome, turning it from a kingdom of gold to one of “iron and rust.” He did this by completely ignoring his imperial duties and spending his time glorifying himself, including changing the names of the months to reflect the twelve names he had acquired while emperor. Fortunately, none of it stuck.
Although ‘Commodiana’ has a certain, er, ring to it. For future reference, in case America continues it’s death spiral.
In the end, Commodus was strangled in his bath by his favorite wrestling partner. Now we know why Trump fired Bannon.
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