Who were the great short-termers who might have been a Sulla or Nero?
Ah, got you.
As regards the Republic and off the top of my
head:
From
legend (
history is going to be difficult here), Coriolanus, who decided
his talents were not recognized enough, so he went over to the enemy and attacked
Rome. Would probably have taken it, too,
had not
his own mother scolded him and made him retreat. A similar person might have been Manlius
Capitolinus, the
man who saved the Capitol from the Gauls by being the first to raise the alarm after being woken by the sacred Geese; he was finally thrown from the Tarpeian Rock - also on the Capitol - for seeking kingship. The charge may have been trumped up, though. All of this holds for all the victims who were said to have attempted Regium.
Ap.
Claudius Caecus, a chief member of the Decemviri who held sway over the state while composing the
XII Tables, the basis of
Roman written law. The Decemviri were loathe to let go of their power and caused no little problems. Ap. Cladius was probably the worst of the lot, if the stories are to be believed (that's a big "if", considering the remote time). The story of Verginia, where he attempted to get a girl he lusted for declared a runaway slave by one of
his clients, so he could have her, is a case in point; her daddy returned hotfoot from the camp to kill the
poor girl, in order to save her being handed over to
Claudius by corrupt judges. The Claudian family,
men and women, was ever famous for their arrogance, right down to
Nero, even though he was only adopted!
L.
Cornelius Scipio Africanus began leading armies at an almost unheard of young age, defeated
Carthage by first invading
Spain whilst Hannibal was
still in
Italy, then by taking on
Africa itself, and learned from and then surpassed Hannibal. Back
home, he was later renowned for talking to
Jupiter Capitolinus, being rather arrogant towards regular citizen, and ultimately ending up dying in mysterious circumstances in a villa after having exiled himself from
Rome. The megalomania and
his undoubted competence should qualify him.
Cn.
Pompeius Magnus, not
dictator but at various points holder of imperium maius (topping everyone else in the provinces) along the entire Mediterranean and the hinterland, which basically meant the entire territory of
republican Rome and sole
consul.
Cicero himself acknowledged that the battle was not between
Caesar and the Republic, but between
Caesar and Pompey, and that either one would do what
Caesar eventually did. Pompey's "imperialness" can also be seen in
his attempt to hold
his triumph in a
quadriga of elephants rather than horses (though he only got as far as the
city gates, which were too small for Pompey's ambition),
his curly-Alexander-the-Great-hair, and
his building the first permanent
stone theatre in
Rome.
As regards the Early Empire
Q. Egnatius Rufus, executed by
Augustus for posing a direct challenge to him by creating Rome's first public firebrigade when he was an aedile, a deed that permitted him to jump straight to
praetor. Or would have,
had Augustus not intervened. And stolen
his idea, soon afterwards, and created the Vigiles.
Julia Caesaris. Being the daughter of
Augustus should give you a
head start, but her own behaviour and a rumour mill stirred by the Claudian faction in the imperial household got her exiled, despite being the mother of Augustus' adored and adopted sons
Caius and
Lucius, who themselves did not really demonstrate any flamboyant imperialness and died young.
L.
Aelius Sejanus. Brutal, but competent, rising from a virtual nobody to the
head of state whilst
Tiberius was off brooding on Capri. He was virtually the emperor for those years, carefully eliminating any rivals and paving
his way to marry into the imperial household, which was denied him.
Tiberius had to resort to a careful ploy to get rid of him: invite him to the Senate House supposedly to be promoted even further, then withdraw the loyal (to
Sejanus) Praetorian Guard outside to replace them by the Urban Cohorts (who hated the Praetorians), while praising
Sejanus in a letter which suddenly turned into an accusation.
Sejanus was dead before the day was over; but the threat the commander of the Praetorian Guard posed was clearly great.
By all accounts, Germanicus would have made a wonderful emperor. The way he conducted himself on the German campaigns, his inspiring speeches to troops, his suicidal loyalty to the emperor even when being offered the throne, his return to the Teutoberg battle site to bury the dead, his family-man persona ..all in all he seemed like a decent guy with excellent leadership qualities. The systematic destruction of his large family by Tiberius is one of the great tragic episodes of the early empire, Caligula of course being the last one left. I'm sure had he survived to raise Caligula in a decent manner, he would have turned out far better.
Unfortunately, "all accounts" are basically
Tacitus, who uses
Germanicus as a counter and as a mirror to
Tiberius, whom he detests. Reading deeper and comparing with other sources, there are some serious problems with
Germanicus. He got on well with the soldiers, no doubt, and solved the mutiny with great aplomb. But
his German Campaign was a disaster,
his discovery of the Teutoburg Forest battlefield both against direct orders and highly demoralising to
his troops,
his behaviour in
Syria offensive against the official governor, L.
Piso, and threatening the
peace, and
his visit to
Egypt was outright illegal for any Senator.
Tiberius, who was a rather stern and no-nonsense
man, with some possibly
republican ambitions, stood against a
man who played the favor of the people against him (willingly or not) and tended to
act on impulse. The old family-strife between the Julian and the Claudian factions made life rather difficult anyway:
Agrippina the Elder was no innocent victim, but as active a plotter for the Julian
side as
Livia Augusta was for the Claudian; most of the family was eradicated by
Sejanus with little contribution (or even knowledge, in some cases) from
Tiberius. Remember also that
Caligula had three sisters who survived
Tiberius, and one of them,
Agrippina the Younger, would marry
Claudius - and possibly do him in - to bring Germanicus' grandson,
Nero, on the throne -
Nero was certainly just as popular with the people as
his grandfather (
Germanicus) and, initially,
his uncle (
Caligula)
had been.
