Short Rounds
"The Emperor is Dead, Long Live the Emperor!"
From the time Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus was granted the
title Augustus, on Jan. 16, 27 B.C., until the deposition of Romulus Augustulus
on September 4, A.D. 476, 81 men are more or less regarded as having served as
Roman Emperor through to the end of the empire in the west. Less than a third of these men died of
natural causes.
Classicist
Philip Matyszak recently examined the various ways in which those who attained
what he called "the most dangerous job in the ancient world" passed
from the scene.
Natural Causes |
| Old Age | | 10 | | percent (including heart attacks, etc.) |
| Disease | | 11 | | |
| Accident | | 4 | | (includes a fall from a horse and a lightning strike) |
Unnatural Causes |
| Killed by mutinous troops | | 24 | | |
| Assassinated by family or friends | | 8 | | |
| Killed in action | | 8 | | (mostly against usurpers) |
| Executed | | 8 | | (by their successors) |
| Suicide | | 7 | | (mostly to avoid execution by a usurper) |
| Drowned while evading capture | | 1 | | |
Resigned or Deposed | | 12 | | (deaths included above) |
Now
although attaining the Imperium was not likely to enhance one's chances of dying
in bed of old age surrounded by one's children and grandchildren, the job never
seems to have lacked for "applicants." In addition to the canonical 81, at least 80
other men laid claim to the imperial dignity, virtually all of whom met a
violent end.
BookNotes: Matyszak's The Classical Compendium: A Miscellany of Scandalous Gossip, Bawdy Jokes, Peculiar Facts, and Bad Behavior from the Ancient Greeks and Romans
includes
a case-by-case review of the modes by which the individual emperors left this
life, as well as much more amusing material, and is well worth a read, as is
also his Legionary: The Roman Soldier's (Unofficial) Manual (Unofficial Manuals)
"The Few"
During the Battle of Britain (officially July 10-October 31,
1940), the relatively outnumbered RAF Fighter Command managed to beat off the Luftwaffe's best efforts to secure air
supremacy in anticipation of a German invasion of Britain. Known as "The Few," after Winston
Churchill's famous line, "Never in
the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few," the
fighter pilots of the RAF became instant heroes across the Free World.
These airmen, although mostly Britons or from the
Commonwealth or colonies, included some men from countries that had been
overrun by the Germans, plus a few from one country not yet in the war, and some
from one that was never in the war.
Australia | 33 |
Belgium | 29 |
Britain | 2,334 |
Canada | 98 |
Czechoslovakia | 88 |
France | 13 |
Ireland | 10 |
Jamaica | 1 |
New Zealand | 126 |
Newfoundland | 1 |
Poland | 14 |
Rhodesia | 3 |
South Africa | 25 |
United States | 11 |
So the 2,917 fighter pilots certified as having taken part
in the Battle of Britain came from Britain plus 13 other countries. Five of the other countries (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Newfoundland, and South Africa)
were members of the British Commonwealth, two
were British colonies (Jamaica
and Rhodesia). Of the other nations, four had been overrun
by the Nazi hordes (Belgium,
Czechoslovakia,
France,
and Poland)
, and two were neutral, the United
States and Ireland. The U.S., of course, would enter the
war a little more than a year after the conclusion of the Battle of Britain,
but Ireland
never did. Nevertheless, although the
Irish government officially insisted on absolute neutrality -- President Éamon
de Valera even expressed official sympathies upon the announcement of Hitler's
death -- tens of thousands of men from the Irish Republic
voluntarily enlisted in the British armed forces to fight the Germans.
By the way, although traditionally the RAF's No 71
"Eagle" Squadron, composed largely of American volunteers, has
received a lot of press, in fact it was only formed in September of 1940, near
the end of the Battle of Britain, and did not complete training until early
1941.
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