"And the entirety of my kingdom goes to the one I love most dearly... the Roman Republic!"

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• PugJesus@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Explanation: Nicomedes IV of Bithynia (located in modern-day Turkiye) willed his kingdom to the Roman Republic. His son, presumably, was not pleased!

  This was actually not unusual in the Eastern Mediterranean at the time - as wills could be written and re-written as needed, willing one’s kingdom to Rome - and letting everyone know you had done so - was a common method of preventing any ‘unexpected accidents’ from originating from your heirs, a constant issue in the patricidal royal families of the area. As long as the inheritance is up in-the-air - and the alternative is an actor which very much has the power to enforce their claim indefinitely - papa monarch remains beloved and no one in the family even thinks of harming him! 😊

  Thus, the monarch has plenty of time to decide who he wants his heir to be, and can fill out the details when he’s closer to death.

  For that matter, even when the king died with his kingdom willed to Rome, Rome would not always take over the kingdom. Instead, having the legal claim was, itself, used as a source of power - either explicitly, in naming a new king (usually a pro-Roman member of the royal family), or implicitly, simply holding that casus belli over the head of any neighbor who decided to pursue an ‘independent’ foreign policy…

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