ABSTRACT
We can now let biographical accounts of individual Emperors recede into the background, partly because they are relatively unimportant in terms of the historical process, and partly because such accounts are readily available. In every respect the period we are looking at was a poor and insignificant one, but particularly so with regard to the Emperors. Only an exceptionally small number of important men can be recorded in the era from Vespasian to Diocletian, with the possible exception of Hadrian834 and Aurelian, although we know very little about the latter.835 Otherwise all the Emperors were ineffectual and dreadfully mediocre, exerting the barest modicum of personal influence on the course of history. If we were to exchange the infamies of a man such as Commodus with those of Caracalla, we would still conclude that the historical process would have been exactly the same. It is most regrettable that in both ancient and modern times many historians have seen it as their scholarly duty to perch like bluebottles on such unwholesome matter. At best, the sole exceptions to this assessment would be Trajan836 and Pius,837 of whom the former was very courageous and the latter very good. Since, however, they were no more than very courageous [MH.II, 331] and very good, they too failed to make any lasting mark on the course of events.
