This was always an issue in Rome. People were afraid their heirs would turn out to secretly be wannabe dictators, and you couldn’t do anything about it since you were dead. How would you go about making sure your heir was as close to your vision as possible, both outwardly and in their desires should they be emperor?
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This was always an issue in Rome.
Most of the Roman emperors followed the tradition of getting murdered by their successor.
You write as if there any other ways to decide a successor.
Well, yes, I have heard about the who-wants-to-marry-my-daughter method. But I am not sure if it’s ever been done or maybe it’s just a fairy tale.
As in a marriage auction to see who had the largest “bid” or dowry? That would be wild if it were true.
I would hope you would pick someone you know well enough to feel comfortable with them taking over.
Of course, power corrupts even the most well intentioned, so there’s always a chance, but you can’t predict that no matter what games you play.
I forget which king it was (I’m sure someone here will tell me) but his solution was to divide his kingdom among his two heirs.
So the idea was that one heir would do the dividing and the other heir would then pick which kingdom they wanted.
This is a great solution to making sure people share a cookie / snack / etc fairly. The divider has an incentive to keep things as fair as possible.
I think this ended in civil war though, so your mileage may vary
Anything I could do to make sure my heir continued on with my vision would not be guarunteed, and it would only be temporary. As the saying goes, you’re putting all of your eggs in one basket, from one ruler to the next.
A more permanent solution would be to overhaul the current system and setup checks and balances so that no one person could have too much power.
You could divide up power between an Executive Branch, a Legislative Branch, and a Judicial Branch. Then you put in place like-minded groups of people in each of those branches and voilà.
Flawless!
Why would I care? I’ll be dead.
Worst emporer ever.
idc, I’m dead
Meritocracy is the only way of success. The only question is by what or who’s measuring stick. I would look amongst the judiciary for those with a good record, a history of wealth without exploitation and a long history of selfless idealist altruism put into practice for the benefit of the majority and in opposition to corrupting pressures.
With so much power, coalition building is less important. Selfless altruism is the best case scenario in my opinion.
Pay the Assassins Guild to keep an eye on them.
- form a religion based on me
- establish assassins within that religion
- make sure some of them are named Ezio
- sleep well knowing my plan will succeed
