The Lexicon of Abuse: Drunkenness and political illegitimacy in the late Roman world
- Apr 19, 2010
- 1 min read
The Lexicon of Abuse: Drunkenness and political illegitimacy in the late Roman world
Mark Humphries
Humour, History and Politics in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages: Cambridge University Press, pp. 75-88. (2002)
Abstract
In the anonymous, mid-fourth century narrative known as the Origo Constantini Imperatoris(The Origin of the Emperor Constantine), several apparently remarkable statements are made about the moral fibre â or more precisely the lack of it â of the enemies of the emperor Constantine. Prominent among these villains are Galerius, Augustus of the eastern empire (305-311), and his short-lived associate as western emperor, Severus (Caesar 305-6; Augustus, 306-7).
The relationship between the two men, so our anonymous author has it, was based on their shared propensity to heavy drinking: Severus Caesar was ignoble both by character and by birth; he was a heavy drinker (ebriosus) and for this reason he was a friend of Galerius. Galerius own fondness for drink and its deleterious effects are soon described: Galerius was such a heavy drinker (ebriosus) that, when he was intoxicated, he gave orders such as should not be implemented.
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