Domitian: Power-Hungry Madman? Or Victim of Ancient Propaganda?

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[Talisguy]

"He bestowed no honour on his brother, save for deification-"

The idea that "only" declaring your brother a *god* would be considered an insult is just...wild.

[brilliantcomment]

How hell was the fact that Domitian was the only Emperor to deal effectively with inflation not mentioned.

[michaelsinger]

Domitian is very underrated:

The only Emperor to balance the budget I believe. And strengthened the economy overall.

His building programs and reforms.

Cracked down on corruption.

Did not rely on nepotism like his father and brother had.

Was very active and energetic as a ruler.

Etc.

His big undoing was that he ticked off the Senators who wrote a lot of the histories after his death. So they smeared him.

[ignitionfrn]

1:40 - Chapter 1 - Early years
4:00 - Chapter 2 - The reformer
7:40 - Mid roll ads
9:05 - Chapter 3 - The builder
11:45 - Chapter 4 - The soldier
16:30 - Chapter 5 - The madman

[joshuawestfall]

Absolutely thrilled you're back to doing biographies of the Roman emperors in order. I've been waiting for this for months.

[classiclife]

All I know is that under Domitian's rule, the denarius was 96% pure silver - the highest in the history of the Empire. Of course that shouldn't be the only metric used to measure the goodness of his rule, but it IS one. Rather like the similarly-named Diocletian who came later, Domitian was a superb administrator who wasn't a very good general. I'd put him in "A Tier".

[charlespeter]

It's important to recognize that Suetonius was the ancient TMZ. Not everything he said was considered close to accurate

[dohboi]

Simon a month ago "Ugh, I'm getting sick of videos about ancient Rome"
Simon today " So Domitian...." 👍😃

[dlugi]

In Roman history you can see a pattern. If a emperor was benevolent and submissive towards senate (Nerva, Trojan) he was painted by historians like best emperor ever. If he wanted to limit senate power and preferred common people, was painted as monster and madman (Domitian, Caligula, Nero or even Gallienus)

[elistavinger]

Arguably the most underrated Princeps in Roman history. Really looking forward to watching this.

[vasilerogojan]

I think that Domitian could be better described in the middle between "power-hungry madman" and "victim of ancient propaganda".

[John_Fugazzi]

Domitian did have a sense of dark humor. In 90 A.D. when his bloody reputation was at its peak, he invited a group of senators and their wives to what became known as "The Black Banquet". Already afraid by just being invited to the palace, they were led to a banquet room painted black and draped in black fabric. Each person was shown to their seat where they found a gravestone with their name upon it along with black napkins. Food was brought in by naked servants painted black and the food itself had been dyed black and served on onyx plates. When Domitian entered he gave a speech about death. Afterward he provided litters to take them home, though by now they were sure they would be taken somewhere and murdered. But no, they were in fact brought to their homes. Later Domitian's servants came by with gifts for everyone that included silver replicas of their grave stones. Funny guy, Domitian.

[kevintheskullanderson]

Domitian was NOT power hungry, nor was he a victim of ancient propaganda; he was a great leader who accomplished impossible tasks and made them possible. But even the greatest leaders have their fatal flaw, and his was a oversized God Complex that he just couldn't find out how to control. Many of the scholars whom he criticized knew this and refused to acknowledge it for what it was (mere misguidance due to several of his family members having taken the throne before he did and making a joke of it), and it was on this that he is best known for, the smearing done to him in death by the scholars whom he questioned because of his own oversized ego.

The man, as mentioned by someone else in the comments, accomplished very massive successful feats, including killing his own assassin. He was a real man's man but his ego was just too big for his own good.

[MaxwellAerialPhotography]

I think that the poor relationship between Titus and Domitian like many other parts of Domitian’s reign is exaggerated in the historical sources. The brothers were not close, but that was mostly on account of the fact that there was a 12 year age gap between them, and while Titus was raised by Vespasian, Domitian was mostly raised by his Uncle Sabinus, Vespasian’s brother.
It would have been interesting to see, had Titus lived longer, if they might have struck a balance and split some of the duties of empire, Titus focusing on military affairs, with Domitian focusing more on civil affairs, not entirely unlike Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus a century later.

[Cloudy_Jones]

I get so excited when i get a notification for these vids!

[orionrazilov]

A video about Theodosius I, the last emperor to rule the Roman Empire before it was divided would be great

[michaeljacquart]

I would love to see you guys do the emperor Gallienus. No emperor has seemed to try so hard to make things work while the empire crumbled around him. He's fascinating

[silkok]

I would recommend all history lovers to read and learn more about Domitian, in my opinion he is one of Rome's greatest emperors and he should be in the list of 5 good emperors and not Nerva

[MadameWesker]

What I remember about Domition was he was very paranoid and understood how duplicitous politics could be. He was hesitant to delegate or share power because he understood ambition could turn deadly.

[flogistonify]

Hope you made video about Constantine, Diocletian or Aurelian soon