Pea-Brained Emperor

The Bigger They Are

By: Charles Giuliano - Dec 05, 2016

Pea-Brained Emperor

Utterly absurd
Ridiculous in fact
Heroic bronze statue
Roman Emperor
Trebonianus Gallus
With son Gaius Vibius Volusianus
Co-ruled AD 251 to 253
Both slaughtered
Frenzied mutiny
Brutally mutilated
Once most powerful
Men on earth
Difficult times
Surging barbarians
Fragile frontiers
Constant wars
Plots intrigues
Callow cabals
Reigned long enough
To commission
Buck-naked portrait
Who was he kidding
Hail Caesar
Laughing stock
Emperor unclothed
Citizens snickered
Ersatz stud
Vainglorious pose
Mens sana in corpore sano
De facto insana caputa
Tiny head teetering on
Barrel-chested torso
Like puffed up Rome
Bloated with greed
Ripe for slaughter
Delusions of glory
Lewdly ludicrous
That silly donkey
Who would be
King

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Reader Comments

"A 7 year old boy was asked why the roman empire fell. he said, "carelessness.""

Posted By: Arthur Yanoff on 12-06-2016, 11:45 am
"the arbitrary event can alter course of history"

Posted By: Erica H. Adams on 12-06-2016, 08:22 am
"That silly don-key who would be king… nicely wrought Charles….. I like calling the horse’s ass “IL DUNCE” as well…. the nightmare has just begun…"

Posted By: Stuart Denenberg on 12-06-2016, 08:15 am
"Wow Charlie! I had noted the parallels in I Claudius. The hard part is trying to reconcile oneself to the reality of these parallels are real without having strategies to cope with how it plays out. Bad enough for us to contemplate, worse for our kids, appalling for our grandchildren. My elder daughter & her wife and their two sons (3 & 6 years old) frequent Comet Pizza, the place in DC that was invaded on Sunday by the vigilante."

Posted By: Steven P. Cohen on 12-06-2016, 08:12 am
"Jane FYI. Mens sana in corpore sano De facto insana caputa. The first line from Juvenal is "A sound mind in a sound body." It was, by the way, the motto of Boston Latin School. The De facto line is a gonzo Latin riff."

Posted By: Charles on 12-06-2016, 08:08 am
"My days at Girls Latin school have retreated into dim memory. So, stop showing off and translate!"

Posted By: Jane Hudson on 12-06-2016, 06:57 am
"Buried here, one suspects, there's comparison with our present day situation, but if that is the point, the work is top heavy, loaded with info, and needs to be crafted. If I am wrong, and it is as it plays, what's the point? It seems like gratuitous info, showing off. I don't get it."

Posted By: Stephen Rifkin on 12-05-2016, 09:04 pm
"Fun, Charles. As is Juvenal, but also verges on craziness. Hard to know whether (at times) the persona may not also be an object of satiric attack — the satirist satirized. I taught Juvenal for years in my Satire course: Pogo is Horace, Lenny Bruce is Juvenal . . . ."

Posted By: Chris Rawson on 12-05-2016, 08:57 pm