u/theblitz6794

I don't know them that well. Our relationships were extremely intense but the anxiety was always too much and we people pleaded each other. She ghosted me multiple times in the past, which honestly I get because I was giving off possessing energy. She recently unblocked me and we talked. She proposed we chat via video and then stopped responding. It made me realize I don't know what reels or "light" things I could even send to ping her. Everything is so heavy. I'm so heavy around her. Physically she's not even my type.

And yet I absolutely love talking to her. It's strange but it's like my full undivided attention comes out and my brain fully activates. I don't get it but we can talk for hours.

I miss her. She'll reach out sooner than I fear but I hate this part.

When we were younger, we sat across a table and stared into each other's eyes for 8 minutes. I think that did something big to me. I've always wondered what it did to her.

China immediately goes into mass unemployment due to no subsistence farms available.

Did that actually happen?

Historically heads of state that upset power brokers tended to get assassinated. This was often a big fear preventing further reform

Be cool if there was some mechanic. Instead of threatening revolution they just kill the leader which cancels the law passing

Augustus is obviously the greatest Roman to ever live but we need to ask the question if he's also the greatest statesman who ever lived. In history the brightest stars had a way of burning out the fastest. Alexander conquered the world and then died. Genghis Khan built the largest empire to ever exist and it died with his grandsons. Napoleon got further than any other European but went down swinging, twice. I could go on and on but because I'm a neurotic redditor instead of an AI I'd like to get it over with.

Beyond just the luck of his circumstances, Augustus is not Augustus on his own. He is a sickly, anxious kid with a mediocre military mind. He cannot win the battles of the Roman Civil Wars but he doesn't need to. Enter: Marcus Agrippa.

Agrippa fought all of Augustus's battles. Agrippa led his legions against Mark Antony and Agrippa built the fleet that trapped Antony in Greece. And having won the wars it was Agrippa who rebuilt the aqueducts and the marble grandeur and the baths. Agrippa built the Pantheon. If it involved moving earth or men, Agrippa was probably involved.

Napoleon was a great military man but for him, everything rested on his glory of winning battles. By the 1810s the feelings of revolution for spreading the Napoleonic code were replaced by total exhaustion with war. Napoleon time after time could not cut a peace deal with the coalition because he needed to keep winning. Even after Leipzig when he was stuck in only France and outnumbered 10-1 he still wouldn't cut a deal. Some of that was just Napoleon being Napoleon but he understood his position well. Augustus though wasn't just feared for executing all of his enemies: he was genuinely beloved by the populace.

Enter: Gaius Maecenas. Maecenas took care of all the outward facing part of politics in the empire. Both administration and propaganda he did that. He became a patron of the arts on Augustus's behalf because he understood the importance of aligning the intellectuals with the state. He made sure the glory of the new state being constructed reached the population and the elites. But what's fascinating is that it wasn't just talk. He was serious about effective governance. He brokered many treaties on Augustus's behalf in the civil wars and, partly through his patronage, reconciled different factions of the elites after the Civil Wars. Putting out fires was one thing but he diffused others. Even more remarkably though Augustus trusted him with his signet. When Augustus was off firefighting some problem, Maecenas had total power to rule in his stead.

But it would take more than muscle and good governance to build a lasting system. Rome was a place of intrigue, family loyalty, assassinations, etc. Augustus needed to put the right people in the right places . His wife Livia Drusilla took care of all that shit. He fell in love with her upon first meeting because of her mind. In an age of male guardianship to women who publicly were treated like children or property, Augustus completely integrated her into all the meetings and decision makings of running the empire. If Maecenas managed the public stuff, Livia pulled all the strings behind the scenes. She created and managed the networks of supporters within the Roman elite. She made sure the right people got promoted and the wrong ones got whacked. She controlled the rumor mills and spilled the tea on those who got too uppidity. She kept Augustus safe from within.

All 3 of these people are also remarkable in how they returned the favor. Their loyalty to Augustus was as absolute as his trust in them. Augustus was completely vulnerable to them and completely dependent upon them. Let's see how they returned the favor.

3 times the senate offered Marcus Agrippa a triumph and 3 times he turned it down. He knew that with a triumph he would start to cast a big shadow of his own politically and he did not want to create any perception of rivalry with Augustus. Any office he officially took was always much lesser. He always made sure to stay in Augustus's shadow and Augustus absolutely noted that by letting him put his name on the buildings he built and making him coemperor in all but name.

Maecenas, despite coming from an equestrian family (unlike low born Agrippa), likewise always turned down titles and offices. He never entered the senate and he always kept himself in a position of exerting power through the friendship and trust between himself and Augustus. He also told the truth to the emperor to his face. There's a famous incident where Augustus was about to execute a bunch of people unjustly, publicly, and Maecenas threw a note at him calling him an executioner. Augustus thought about it for a second, realized he was fucking up, and called the whole thing off.

Meanwhile Livia styled herself as a chaste and humble woman whose only interest was supporting her husband. Materially she lived relatively modestly and did not adore herself with ornaments and so on. And she backed it up behind the scenes. Augustus likewise was faithful to her, treated her like an equal, and they seemed to be genuinely in love until his death.

Augustus is remarkable to me for making himself so vulnerable and dependent on these 3 people. In many ways it was a team of 4 running the empire for awhile and his ego never had a problem with it. Almost all leaders eventually develop ego problems but even Augustus was very careful about his own shadow too. He took the title "Princeps" or First Citizen. He was operating in a world where his step father was assassinated for perceptions of being a king but credit to the guy for knowing his limits. In the end his glory comes not through the titles he accumulated but the legacy he left on the world. His friendships with Agrippa and Maecenas were real. They were also drinking buddies who met as teens before any had any glory. Maybe that's the secret.

But it's still remarkable that Augustus never had any problem with being threatened by his subordinates success. Their achievements were his achievements. He won his militarybattles by leveraging his best military mind and he won his political battles by leveraging his best political mind. A lesser man might've felt emasculated by letting his wife handle all of his social battles but Augustus is perhaps the greatest statesman who ever lived.

FYI Rome fell in 1453. Rome the polity continued unbroken in some fashion until then.