Have you ever read Marcus Arulius' Memoirs?

@SW-User Yep!

@SW-User *cough*Septimusseverus*cough*

@firefall He was alright, but he was no Diocletian or Marcus Aurelius. He has a fun name to say though XD

@SW-User Really? I'd rate him far above Aurelius, tbh, because, (1) Commodus, and (2) he had a pretty sturdy & wellmaintained empire handed to him, and cruised on it. Severus had to really struggle, and I thought did considerably better over all.

Oh, plus Stoic philosophy utterly sucks, so there's that.

@firefall Fucking Commodus, man. You are right that the empire was fairly strong at that point, but Marcus Aurelius was strong enough to maintain that strength where a weaker man (Commodus) could easily have weakened that stability. Yes, Severus did have quite a struggle, but unfortunately his efforts just weren't enough. To be honest, I'd actually rate them about the same, as I believe that Aurelius and Severus would probably have been able to do what the other did if they were to be swapped. Both were capable emperors, with circumstances beyond their control (political situations, stability, etc) being ultimately what dictated which was deemed great and which was overlooked.

I agree about Stoicism.

@SW-User yeah, thats probably fair.