A Guardian journalist seems saddened that the departure of the previous editor could signal that ‘The Spectator’s similarities with the last days of the Roman empire are apparently over’. It is even more saddening to report that they never came close.
Elagabalus, Roman emperor ad 218–222, showed what could be done if you put your mind to it. Of Syrian extraction, he became emperor at 15 and took the name Elagabalus (the ‘unconquered sun god’ of Syria), planning to make that deity supreme across the Roman world. That did not go down well with the authorities back in Rome, nor did his choice of officials: he put an actor in charge of the Praetorian Guard and a hairdresser in charge of the food supplies, assigning other posts to men in relation to the size of their genitals (his sexual appetites knew no bounds).
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