Strange saga of Roman leader Germanicus

It is the birthday of Roman general Germanicus Julius Caesar (15 BC), who distinguished himself in military campaigns along the Rhine River and in Gaul. He was nephew and adoptive son of Emperor Tiberius, who ruled the Roman Empire at the time Jesus Christ was crucified. For many years while Augustus was emperor, he considered Germanicus, his great-nephew, to be his heir but Augustus’ wife prevailed upon him to choose Tiberius, her son from another marriage. (Got that?) In any case, Germanicus died young, probably from poisoning, and scholars think Tiberius had something to do with it. Germanicus’ offspring didn’t turn out so great, either. One of his sons became the infamous Emperor Caligula, whose reign was marked with cruelty, sexual perversity, sadism, and extravagance. And one of Germanicus’ grandsons became the Emperor Nero, who was known for burning Christians alive to provide light for his garden.

Happy birthday, Emperor Marcus Aurelius

It is the birthday of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (121 AD), who is remembered as the philosopher king. His personal writing he called To Myself became a celebrated 12-book philosophy series, Meditations, that recorded his ideas on Stoic philosophy, a school of thought that held that the truly wise were unaffected by emotion, thus avoiding the errors in judgement that might be caused by such external factors. Aurelius also addressed his ideas on duty and a government of service. His work has been highly regarded by such leaders as Frederick the Great and Bill Clinton. Scholars believe Aurelius wrote most of his work during ten years beginning in 170 AD while he was planning military campaigns.

Edward Gibbon wrote of Roman Empire

Edward Gibbon

It is the birthday of English historian Edward Gibbon (1737*), who devoted much of his life to writing (and revising) The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-1788), an exhaustive six-volume work (published over 12 years) in which Gibbon advances his theories about why the Roman Empire failed. Gibbon lay the cause of the fall to the weakness of Roman citizens (whom he said had become effeminate), their lack of a sense of civic duty, the outsourcing of the defense of the empire to barbarian mercenaries from the north, the rise of the Praetorian Guard (the emperors' bodyguards), and the rise of Christianity, which, in Gibbon's estimation, made Roman citizens indifferent to the present, holding hope for a better life after death. Numerous writers have taken Gibbon to task for his attack on Christianity, noting that nothing in history indicates that Christians were disinclined toward war to defend the empire. Most historians laud Gibbon for his use of primary sources for much of his work and his exhaustive pioneering of the use of footnotes, which later became standard in scholarly works. Even after publication, Gibbon continued change and revise his work. He noted in his autobiography that the book occupied much of his adult life. The publication of each volume he compared with the birth of a child. (*A note on Gibbon's birthday: He was born April 27, 1737 according to the Julian calendar but in 1752, England started using the Gregorian calendar, putting Gibbon's birthday on May 8. We're sticking to the Old Style calendar for this one.)