Is it July 2017, OR... November 192?

I woke up this Independence Day morning to read the news that on Sunday, the American president Donald Trump had just done something "new and outrageous" on Twitter. At first I thought, "Ok, there isn't really anything new about this. Let me get along with my day." Then I found out that this new Tweet involved CNN and pro wrestling; now I'm no fan of either President Trump or CNN, but this was sounded like a train wreck I couldn't resist. So I checked out the tweet, which you can also do here: https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/881503147168071680

After seeing the tweet, I was immediately reminded of a drawing I had seen some time ago on the Internet. The drawing depicted a Roman emperor participating in a gladiatorial event, and the emperor was about to slay a human tower of folks who were tied together. Unfortunately, my efforts to find that drawing again were in vain. But my thoughts led me on the right track...

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Long Before Trump, There Was THAT GUY

Lucius Aelius Aurelius Commodus (161-192), better known as Commodus, ascended to being sole Roman Emperor from 180-192. He also shared power with his father Marcus Aurelius from 177 until Marcus's death. Commodus never seemed to be too enthused with the idea of governing an empire, though; after multiple conspiracies to assassinate him early in his reign, Commodus decided to spend a lot of his time on estates outside of the city of Rome, while the task of running the government from day to day was delegated to others for much of his reign. (The two longest-serving heads of government were Sextus Tigidus Perennis until 185, and Marcus Aurelius Cleander from 185-190. Both were executed on Commodus' orders.)

Emperor Commodus was most infamous for his vanity, narcissism, and megalomania. He was obsessed with being a gladiator and performing feats that would bring comparisons to the mythical legend Hercules. Statues were built proclaiming feats such as having personally killed 12,000 men, or slaughtering 100 animals in a single day. If other gladiators gained fame, Commodus would become jealous and order for them to be executed. In 191, part of Rome burned and as part of the rebuilding process, Commodus decided to rename the city after himself, calling it Colonia Commodiana. The pinnacle of all this came in November 192, when Commodus held Plebeian Games in which he would kill animals in the morning and fight in the afternoon, always emerging victorious. By year's end, Commodus would be strangled to death by his own wrestling partner.

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Oh, The Parallels

Instead of statues, we now have tweets where President Trump praises himself for things he may or may not have actually accomplished. No executions of government officials have happened yet but there have been firings. Emperor Commodus had disdain for many of his Roman Senators; I'm sure President Trump feels the same way now about many U.S. Senators. The President's self-obsession with image would leave me unsurprised if he tried to rename Washington DC to Washington DT (District of Trump). After that, all we'd need is a reality TV series called The Apprentice: White House and the President's transformation to a modern-day Commodus would be just about complete.

All that leaves one more question to be asked and a lot of possible answers: What would happen if Stone Cold Steve Austin (the downed "referee" shown in the tweet) ever accepted a job to work at the White House under the Trump administration? Here are some of the things he could do:

• He could hold beer bashes all day, and make sure that nothing productive ever actually gets done.
• He could train as President Trump's wrestling partner, and deliver so many Stone Cold Stunners as part of the training that eventually Trump has to be declared incapacitated.
• He could train with Vice President Mike Pence, with the ultimate goal of making Pence into President Trump's wrestling partner.
• He could make Austin Deconstruction into a real company and "win" some federal contracts to demolish stuff.

I'll let you readers come up with more ideas. Comment below with your thoughts on what Stone Cold Steve Austin might do, or any of the ancient Roman history and its modern-day parallels that I've brought up. Don't forget to follow, upvote and resteem if you enjoyed this article!

photos via Pixabay