Why Did the Ancient Romans Have So Many Emperors?

Imagine a school where every day, someone new becomes the principal, sometimes even in the middle of class. That’s what happened with roman emperors. If an emperor did something wrong or was weak, others would kill him and take over. Sometimes, people killed the emperor just to get their friend in power. This meant that emperor succession wasn’t smooth, it was more like a game of chess where everyone wanted to win.

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Examples

  1. A soldier killed his emperor just to get promoted.
  2. An emperor was assassinated because he didn’t like his brother-in-law.
  3. The new emperor took over by killing the old one in his sleep.

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