How was Commodus able to steal the succession from Maximus?

How was Commodus able to steal the succession from Maximus?

Was there some deleted scene that explains why the Roman soldiers decided to slaughter their beloved and respected general and his family to help a spoiled brat pretender seize Rome?

When Marcus Aurelius told Maximus he was granting the succession to him, Maximus said something like "But won't your son want to be Emperor?" to which Marcus Aurelius said "He's not capable enough, and he won't be a problem because you have the loyalty of the soldiers."

What happened? Did I miss something? You don't get to just say "I'm the Emperor now because I say so" without the previous Emperor's blessing, without the blessing of the Senate, and certainly not without the loyalty of the army.

Because the emperor never told anyone Maximus was his choice of heir

Uncharacteristically negligent of Marcus Aurelius, but even so, he never told anyone Commodus was his choice of heir, either.

The Roman Empire was not a hereditary monarchy, so it wasn't taken for granted that the Empire passed down to the emperor's son.

>Was there some deleted scene that explains why the Roman soldiers decided to slaughter their beloved and respected general and his family to help a spoiled brat pretender seize Rome?
The soldiers who tried to execute Maximus were not his own troops, they were Praetorians who served the Emperor's family first.
Secondly Maximus had the loyalty of AN army, not the entire Roman army, and Commodus was already shown to have corrupt allies in the senate.

/thread

yes it was you goddamn illiterate

No it wasn't, not even close. Emperor's would designate an heir, but even that not even directly: They would appoint someone as their heir in their will, not necessarily a son, and probably give that person an important position in the Republican government such as "Tribune of the Plebs." Even that generally didn't stick if the other factions in power had other ideas and the means to see them through.

>yes it was
t. retard

But you are technically sort of right. After Marcus Aurelius the trend of selecting your own children became way more common

In fact, Marcus Aurelius choosing his direct son as an heir was at that point highly irregular and judging by the results, one of the dumbest things he did during his entire reign. Especially given just how much he went out of his way to give Commodus power even during his life.

who knows, if he'd picked someone else than his idiot of a son maybe we'd be talking about the 6 good emperors

The emperor usually adopted the person he wanted as heir.

You absolute fucking monkey. The Romans viewed adopted heirs on the same level as biological ones.

You realize this entire movie was basically lies, right?

>How as a spic a commander of a legion?
>How was a spic considered of a high position in roman society?

It's because Ridley is a hack and noone cares

Especially given that the very first god damn emperor was the ADOPTIVE son of Julius Caesar

Sure the heirs tended to be part of the extended family but said families could be pretty damn large so it was a fairly decent system as long as the previous emperor had the good sense to pick the best candidate, not his most favorite.

Also helped minimize the chance of civil war as only the official heir would have any claim.
Sure in practice it didn't always work but it was a better idea than true inheritance.

You do realize spain became part of the roman empire, right?

Not to mention that it was not uncommon for skilled provincials to climb the ranks of roman society

Max's troops had no fucking idea what happened. Marcus fucked up by not having a will, and trusting his crazy-ass son. And Commodus had the coup pulled off by his personal praetorian guard. Defacto rules put Commodus in charge and at odds with the dwindling senate.

It was actually hereditary before that. The Julio-Claudian was as hereditary as they could manage. The trouble was that the first like 3 Emperors had no sons. Other Emperors outlived their sons. They kept the imperial throne in the family.

Basically the nephews of all the daughters were adopted as heir. It still fits the definition of a hereditary monarchy.

The 5 good emperors all also had no living sons by the time of their deaths.

Again they went to the adoption system but again only from within their own family. This time it was the Nerva–Antonine dynasty.

Only after this families fall do things get crazy.

Commodus promised them high ranking positions if they helped him probably.

If you know Roman history, you'd know the romans were fucking morons and put up with centuries of shitty emperors when they had a perfectly good senatorial republic they could always go back to

Spain was part of Rome long before Rome was an empire.

Yes

Lel no

Augustus shat on that bed by making a reversion to that not only illegal, but irreligious to boot. By the time Caligula came into power, no one was alive that remembered Rome as a republic, or the system the principate had replaced.

Marcus was the first emperor who who actually had a biological son. Every previous emperor adopted a man to succeed him

Marcus knew Commodus was a shithead but he also knew if he didn't name his own son as his heir, when he died there would surely be a massive power struggle and probable civil war

If you knew Roman history you would know that by the end of the Republic that system was failing completely. You would also know that the senate still existed and had power. You would also know Augustus intentionally made it this way so that the Republicfags would not get too salty.

Oh jesus fuck off nerd

>thinks the senate post-caesar was anything other than a castrated moose-lodge of old men steaming their balls

Augustus let them think they had power, which is why he was so revered, but he ran the show

I forget his name, but the first Emperor from a Roman province was from spain, and actually ended a long chain of dog shit emperors because he actually knew the empire and what it needed to function well

t. Doesn't know that the senate were the most wealthy men in the Empire and that Emperors were often either bitches to their combined will, worked with them as much as possible or ended up dead.

Emperors usually tried to appease them or suppress them as much as possible. Emperors that tried to suppress them have the worst reputation historically, mistly because it turns out a few hundred educated men can write awful opinion pieces about you especially after you are dead and ruin your reputation for the next 1000 years.

honestly this movie kind of sucks, i want to like it so much more because joaquin is such a captivating villain and crowe is great as the lead but almost everything else is bad. the plot is flimsy and really only exists to move between the action sequences which really arent as tightly shot and choreographed as I remember, also its two and a half hours long but still feels rushed somehow. theres also the hamfisted completely forced love plot that is dreadful. kingdom of heaven directors cut is scott's superior historical drama film even with the charismatic vacuum that is orlando bloom.

>'historical' flick made for retarded amerifats...

what did you expect OP?

Trajan

Obsessed

so in Gladiator alternate history does Rome go back to being a Republic?

damn, just like USA and Trump

Nope. Praetorians murder that bitch and her brat and place Pertinax in charge for his very brief reign.

He should've just named Avidius Cassius. Would've fixed the problem pretty quickly.

This. Generals and politicians (same thing in Rome) that could afford it had their own personal armies.

The Praetorians were absolute cunts, senatorial bodyguards that became so corrupt with power they started to choose who they wanted to "guard" and killed anyone they didn't. Niggas started ruling the roost.

Praetorians were Imperial Bodyguards, never Senatorial ones. They tried changing them around with foreign bodyguards toward the end of the Empire, but they always ended up realising they could play kingmaker.

I need more films set in the ancient Roman Empire.

Because it's a shitty movie that butchers history made by a complete hack.

And if the praetorians weren't naming emperors, the legions were.

That's what happens when you let those Head Count plebs into the legions.

Exactly! What would happen if we elected leaders
by popular vote? Uhhh, hmmm.

The connection between the Marius reforms and your point is lost on me user.