Domitian: Autocrat and Lord and God
Domitian spent the reign of his brother Titus in frustrated obscurity. When Titus died unexpectedly, Domitian assumed power and quickly showed he intended a different style of rule. He insisted on the title dominus et deus in court ceremonial and in official correspondence, a demand deeply offensive to senatorial culture, which had always maintained the fiction that the emperor was merely the 'first citizen'. He conducted the census rigorously, updated the Praetorian Guard's pay, and demanded efficiency from provincial governors. On the frontiers he campaigned personally in Germany, constructing the limes along the Rhine-Danube corridor, and fought the Dacians under Decebalus to a strategic draw. In September 96 CE a conspiracy involving his wife Domitia, freedmen, and praetorian officers had Domitian stabbed in his bedroom. The Senate condemned his memory (damnatio memoriae), ordering his statues destroyed and his name erased from inscriptions.
- Year: 81 CE
- Category: Political
