ABSTRACT
A formal history of the succession of power from Nerva to Commodus, who died in AD 192, should record that, apart from Commodus himself (who inherited power in AD 180 as the natural son of Marcus Aurelius), the accession of each emperor in the span of ninety-seven years was legitimized by his adoption as son and heir by his predecessor. The impression of peaceful stability and rational choice produced by this fact is slightly illusory, as will be seen. But it was true enough that there ceased to be an expectation of assassination or civil war at periodic intervals, and life, at least for emperors, fell into a less stressful pattern.1
