| abstract
| - At first glance, Draco seemed an odd choice to be emperor. As a senator, he was both ambitious and young while possessing a terrifically short temper. He was known to have no tolerance for mistakes from his servants, often firing his assistants for even the slightest transgressions. No one doubted his behaviour would be magnified should he receive the power of a Caesar. Yet there were good reasons for his election by his peers. Draco had an almost legendary competence as proconsul of Achaia and had been a consistent voice of reason in the Senate. Before he became governor, Achaia's bureaucracy was a cesspit of corruption, bribery, and extortion through all ranks of its government. During his tenure, every corrupt magistratus and apparitor faced judgement in one of the public courts of Rome, purifying the bureaucracy of corrupt officials. Within a year, Achaia had become a model for the rest of the Imperium. With his new reputation, Draco became one of the youngest senators to achieve the high office of Consul Italiarum, receiving it from the emperor before his year. With this position, he reorganized trade routes between Italy and its breadbasket provinces, reducing the total distance traveled by the grain fleets. When he received the diadem, Draco made it clear the Senate what sort of government he wanted. His opening speech talked of "purging the sickness from Rome", mentioning several notorious senators to warn them to change their ways before he began to rout corruption. Expecting a threat of this sort, these were unsurprisingly the senators who had most strongly opposed Draco's election to princeps civitatis and princeps senatus (in a word, to Emperor of Rome). However, Draco also distanced himself from his supporters, clearly stating that, as honest citizens, those who voted him into his new position did not do so to gain favor but to elect a competent leader. For this gift, he owed them nothing and, if anything, he warned that those senators "have placed the burden of Atlas on [his] shoulders. Who in their sanity would be grateful for this?"
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