Why would anyone even want to be a Byzantine emperor? More often

power, sex, and respect

>>2175060
If you solidified your rule, you would easily be the most powerful and rich man/woman alive.

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>In the prevailing account, Phaethon, challenged by his playmates, sought assurance from his mother that his father was the sun god Helios. She gave him the requested assurance and told him to turn to his father for confirmation. He asked his father for some proof that would demonstrate his relationship with the sun. When the god promised to grant him whatever he wanted, he insisted on being allowed to drive the sun chariot for a day.[6] Placed in charge of the chariot, he was unable to control the horses. The Earth was in danger of being burnt up and, to prevent this disaster, Zeus was forced to strike down the chariot with a thunderbolt and kill Phaethon in the process.[7]

I've always wondered this myself, but I say you should apply this to being a Roman Emperor in general.

I would like to ask all the usurpers and people who tried to take the throne by rebellion and intrigue, especially during the Crisis of the Third Century: why the fuck would you want to be the Emperor? Why aren't you content being either a bureaucrat with a comfy job and life, or a high-ranking member of the government with landed estates and prestige? Why fuck it up to have the hardest job in the world, where you can potentially meet a really gruesome end?

>>2175060
Byzantine emperors ended up living longer than Roman emperors on average actually, mostly because the Byzantines set up dynasties where the transition of power was more predetermined.

During the Roman Empire, it truly was a free-for all at certain points, even devolving to whoever had the most troops in the capital was Emperor, and even then your Praetorian guard could always murder you and take over.

Rome was a powerful state, but their internal politics was a shitfest, and a large contributor to why the Western Empire fell.

Just imagine being the Emperor. Imagine being referred to as Jesus Christ's Envoy on Earth more often than by your own name, being looked on with awe, leading processions of thousands, hanging on your every word. Imagine being so tremendously rich that a solid gold lion automaton could be considered austere. Many of them were deposed, but even those that only served for a few weeks occupied the ancient palace, and held dominion over countless lives. Imagine never meeting anyone who did not bow to you instantly. Petitioners were expected, at some points in time, to literally lie flat on the floor in almost worship before being allowed to speak.

You wake up in the bedroom of Conquerors and Saints, and walk down the same corridors as the sons of Constantine, even wearing the same adornments in some cases, eating at their dinner tables and praying where they prayed. Beyond even that, you could claim to be the direct inheritor of the greatest empire in history (Perhaps arguably), and held in your hand armies, civilians, and wealth beyond measure.

I think it was worth the risk.

>>2175093
Fuck off, Christfag LARPer.

>>2175106
Admittedly I may have been drawing from the period before the loss of the East, but I don't see anything that wrong with what I said, with that in mind. I know I'd do a great deal to be Byzantine Emperor.

>>2175093
tempting, also a surefire way to be ruled by narcissistic megalomaniacs