Unpopular opinion: We should bring back the gladiatorial games (minus all the animal killing of course. Maybe replace that stuff with fighting robots).
Fun Fact! For most of Roman History, the gladiatorial games were mostly non-lethal, with contestants battling until injury or disarmament, as well as a venue for public execution. Gladiators were expensive and were considered celebrities, so killing them every match would have been a terrible investment.
So, yeah, bring them back the same except public execution. i’m game. and the robots, that’d be badass.
Maybe with public execution. There was a class of gladiators who were convicted of terrible crimes, they had to fight until they died. And that's pretty okay in my book.
Talking about lavish events: he is said to have ordered several boats to be aligned, creating a floating bridge he could ride his horse on at night, dressed as Neptune, and demanded the construction of a bridge between his palace on the Palatin (which included a temple as entrance) and the Capitol so that he could chat freely with Jupiter. Seemed to have a thing for making senators crossdress in public, which is less lavish but classy.
So, yeah, bring them back the same except public execution. i’m game. and the robots, that’d be badass.