Post originally by Wood at 2004-08-09 10:07:52
Converted from Phorums BB System

Elagabalus was the best of the mad emperors. The whole biog, which is in the Historia Augusta (in Penguin/Viking Classics as "Lives of the Later Caesars" - the whole book is a good read), is full of ideas.

That third century period wher it all goes to hell (26 legitimate emperors in 50 years! and that's not including the pretenders!) is to my mind a great period for roleplaying in several genres.

There's also Maximinus the Thracian, about twenty or so years after Elagabalus. He was eight feet tall, apparently. That can't be right. And why *did* Aurelian suddenly make everyone worship the Unconquered Sun in 274 or thereabouts? And what about the sorceress Zenobia, queen of Palmyra?

I love Roman history.