Another excellent article, thank you. Sounds like Jovian would have made an excellent ruler.

The trouble with investing so much power in a single figure is that for every 10 monarchs you seem to get one great one, 7 mediocre ones, and 2 very seriously bad ones.

On the other hand, Republics tend to swap one band of thieves for another over and over and over. Sigh.

Do you remember Tiberius' story about the soldier and the flies? (I paraphrase from memory)

A representative from one of the Roman provinces visited Tiberius to beg him to replace their governor. "Please, emperor, our governor and his friends have pillaged our province and bled us dry. Will you not take mercy on us and send a a new governor?"

"Certainly," replied Tiberius. But let me tell you a story first:

A wounded soldier lay bleeding in a ditch, his wounds covered in flies. A medic came to him and began to wave away the flies, but the soldier said, "No! don't wave them away. For these are my flies and they are already fat with my blood. If you chase them off they will only be replaced with new, hungrier flies who will surely finish me off."

"Now," asked Tiberius, "Are you sure you want me to grant your request?"