Why is it so rare for great men to pick great heirs?

Why is it so rare for great men to create solid institutions in a way such that their new empire won't implode the moment they get a less brilliant leader?

The history of monarchy is an endless series of attempts at getting lightning to strike twice in the same spot.

>>1552558
this pretty much

the achaemenids are the only ones i can think of that had 4 pretty goos kings in relative succession (even if Cambyses was something of a cunt) and after that it's all a bit mediocre

>>1552572
Roman empire. Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius

>>1552648
I thought it was the five good emperors not the four

>>1552665
Nerva is the 5th (1st) but his only contribution from his short reign was preventing a civil war by naming Trajan as his heir/co-ruler

>>1552665
Nerva wasn't very good and reigned for only two years.

Finish this sentance:
without Byzantine Empire, we wouldn't have...

>>1552648
It's a shame Marcus Aurelius cocked it up so hard by naming Commodus as his successor.

>>1552690
Orthodox Christianity

>>1552690
Christianity

>>1552690
Istanbul as the capital of Turkey.

>>1552558
Hey now, at least with the Romans it took a lot of terrible leaders to run it down. One person like Nero barely left a mark even considering the civil war after he died. I would say Augustus did leave the institutions with pretty solid ground. No one just ever laid out any kind of official succession rules.

>>1552690
A non-Muslim eastern and Central Europe

>>1552572
Ottomans during their rise.

>>1552690
a great byword for being a useless pos

File: szkitia_001 CA CAVALRY ARCHER TECH.jpg (2MB, 1920x1080px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 1920x1080px

>>1552690
europe.cavalry archers from the east

Probably because inheritence of power is a shitty way of running a country. Also, someone's always butt hurt about not being chosen for the throne which tends to cause problems later on down the line.

File: Islam_in_Europe-2010.svg.png (143KB, 841x731px) Image search: [Google]

143KB, 841x731px

>>1552707

>>1552717
damn you're right.

pretty much everyone from osman to suleyman with the exception of bayezid I was at least a solid 6/10 king.

>>1552727
I understand what youre trying to say but this is a really shitty map.

No legend, no source this could be a map of anything by any scale.

File: download (5).jpg (14KB, 200x252px) Image search: [Google]

14KB, 200x252px

>>1552690
Scientific progress. If you think Christianity held back science, tell us of all the great Muslim inventions post 1400a

File: Islam_in_Europe-2010.svg.png (152KB, 930x731px) Image search: [Google]

152KB, 930x731px

>>1552762

File: 1465180413321.jpg (32KB, 469x311px) Image search: [Google]

32KB, 469x311px

>>1552693
He did nothing wrong. How was he supposed to know he would die youngish or what a monster his son would grow into?

>>1552796
uh fuck colour gradients brah

>>1552796
Closer.
What is the percentage of? Population, people claiming a religion? Where did the data come from?

File: Islam_in_Europe-2010.svg.png (173KB, 1160x731px) Image search: [Google]

173KB, 1160x731px

>>1552815
>filename

>>1552795
please tell me more about all those scientific discoveries of byzantine empire

>>1552820
Islam in Europe is not a source, its a title.

>>1552723
>Anatolia
>steppes

>>1552795
You can find a lot of mathematical, scientific, and philosophical contributions by Muslims. The problem is almost none of them are Arabs.

>>1552820
Also having the country names by the percentage does not clarify it any more. It could mean the 30% of the land in Albania was pissed on by a Muslim

>>1552913
Indeed it could, good thing it isn't being posted without any context or filename that indicates what the percentages are of.

>>1552849
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatolia#Ecoregions

>>1552803
The first part he is truly blameless for. The second part is something I say there should have been some warning signs. But regardless of whether it was a cock-up of his own fault or a cock-up of chance, it was a still cock-up.

>>1552539
In old age they finally realize it's all spooks.

>>1552558
Because Great mens empires/nations/whatever are all ruled through the ability of that great man.
And because great men only appear when there is instability and and great change.
A great man will never appear for example in a stable western democracy.

>>1552795
>Islam is cancer too
>therefore Christianity isn't cancer

Strong logic.

I'll tell you of great classical inventions pre 300 AD

>>1552970
Not a steppe area.

>>1552922
Relying on assumptions is lazy and not informative. It gives no backing to the vague information presented. The map was not made with this thread in mind and does not properly represent any sort of practical information.

-Cartographer

>>1552690
codified law systems

>>1552539
Because inherited autocracy is fundamentally flawed on that basis.

Trajan picked Hadrian
Genghis picked Ogedei
Julius picked Augustus

>>1552856
A lot of that is based on the the works from the Greeks and Romans.

>>1552795
>1400
>1 and a half century after the sack of baghdad

although, persia and andalusia were doing pretty great. the Safavids are my favorite islamic persian dynasty

>>1555030
pic related, best example of Safavid architecture

File: shah_mosque.jpg (2MB, 1224x816px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 1224x816px

>>1555035
fugg

File: alhambra.jpg (164KB, 1500x844px) Image search: [Google]

164KB, 1500x844px

>>1555041
andalusia was super comfy

>>1552700
>No one just ever laid out any kind of official succession rules.
That might actually be the reason why it did better than regular monarchies.

>>1555041
Muslim architecture> desu

>>1552690
The first cruzade