The Lexicon of Abuse: Drunkenness and political illegitimacy in the late Roman world
Mark Humphries
Humour, History and Politics in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages: Cambridge University Press, pp. 75-88. (2002)
Abstract
In the anonymous, mid-fourth century narrative known as the Origo Constantini Imperatoris(The Origin of the Emperor Constantine), several apparently remarkable statements are made about the moral fibre â or more precisely the lack of it â of the enemies of the emperor Constantine. Prominent among these villains are Galerius, Augustus of the eastern empire (305-311), and his short-lived associate as western emperor, Severus (Caesar 305-6; Augustus, 306-7).
The relationship between the two men, so our anonymous author has it, was based on their shared propensity to heavy drinking: Severus Caesar was ignoble both by character and by birth; he was a heavy drinker (ebriosus) and for this reason he was a friend of Galerius. Galerius own fondness for drink and its deleterious effects are soon described: Galerius was such a heavy drinker (ebriosus) that, when he was intoxicated, he gave orders such as should not be implemented.
Mark Humphries
Humour, History and Politics in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages: Cambridge University Press, pp. 75-88. (2002)
Abstract
In the anonymous, mid-fourth century narrative known as the Origo Constantini Imperatoris (The Origin of the Emperor Constantine), several apparently remarkable statements are made about the moral fibre â or more precisely the lack of it â of the enemies of the emperor Constantine. Prominent among these villains are Galerius, Augustus of the eastern empire (305-311), and his short-lived associate as western emperor, Severus (Caesar 305-6; Augustus, 306-7).
The relationship between the two men, so our anonymous author has it, was based on their shared propensity to heavy drinking: Severus Caesar was ignoble both by character and by birth; he was a heavy drinker (ebriosus) and for this reason he was a friend of Galerius. Galerius own fondness for drink and its deleterious effects are soon described: Galerius was such a heavy drinker (ebriosus) that, when he was intoxicated, he gave orders such as should not be implemented.
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