All in the family: the appointment of emperors designate in the second century AD
Gibbon famously described the period of the so-called adoptive emperors as the happiest for the human race. He ascribed this bliss to a number of just rulers, whom he assumed had cometo power through a conscious system of adoption, with childless emperors being free tochoose anyone they deemed worthy as their successors.
Causes of death among the Caesars (27 BC-AD 476)
This article investigates the causes of the deaths of the emperors who ruled the Empire from Rome over a period of 503 years.