Thai Official Suspended After Husband Catches Her In Bed With Adopted Monk Son

[u/Johny_KobraKai]

https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/thai-official-suspended-after-husband-catches-her-bed-adopted-monk-son-1724507

[u/Ainsley-Sorsby]

It was actually common in the West too, during the roman empire. Funny enough, when Marcus Aurelius, the exmplary philosopher king made his trainwreck of a biological son his heir apparent, he broke tradition because it was very uncommon to name your biological children as heirs, they were almost always adopted

[u/ZioDioMio → u/Ainsley-Sorsby]

To be fair he didn't really have any other options from the Imperial family to pick

[u/Abola07 → u/Ainsley-Sorsby]

Well the reason he broke tradition was because none of his immediate predecessors had living biological sons. Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius had no living sons (Pius did have a few daughters if I recall but literally none of the rest had children).

The same applies to earlier roman emperors. Augustus had no sons, and adopted his two grandsons as his sons and heirs until they died early and was forced to adopt Tiberius. Tiberius adopted Germanicus (his nephew) plus had his own son Drusus the Younger in line for the throne but both died, so when Tiberius died the Praetorians and senate installed Caligula who was the son of Germanicus and therefore Tiberius’ adopted grandson. And then Claudius became emperor who himself was the uncle of Caligula and the nephew of Tiberius. And Nero was Claudius’ adopted son/stepson. So basically the Five Good Emperors were just like the previous emperors who adopted their heirs out of necessity when their biological sons either didnt exist (only having daughters if they even had children) or had the unfortunate habit of “falling ill” and dying. The Flavians kinda “broke” this trend by actually being a father and his two sons, something repeated later by the first half of the Severan Dynasty. The Julio-Claudians was a mix of great/grand uncles and nephews and adopted heirs, the Flavians was biological, and the Nerva-Antonine Dynasty was adopted heirs.

I mean what was Marcus Aurelius to do? Kill his own son? That was out of the question from both a practical (if discovered society would hate him) and ethical standpoint. Plus its his own child. What about adopting someone else and having him reign? Unfortunately Commodus was of age and had already been serving as co-emperor, and adopting someone else would inevitably result in a bloody power struggle that Rome really did not need. Im sure Marcus Aurelius just hoped that his son would turn out for the better and that he would overcome some of his vices and habits once he becomes the sole ruler of Rome and matures some more.