#Constantin Nepo

[389]

Walpurgis Night, Constantin Nepo, 1864

[vizuart]

Constantin Nepo - Walpurgis Night (1864)

[jbk405]

In honor of the Ides of March, a poll....

Romulus Augustus is, as I noted, the answer you're often given in basic history courses. The uncontested last de facto emperor of the Western Roman Empire, he was the last emperor whose administration had even a semblance of authority in the western territories. I say his "administration" instead of himself because he was a child during his one year of rule and his father, Orestes, had actual control. But his father gave him the title, and for about a year the title had meaning (Not a lot, but some). After he was deposed by Odoacer in 476, nobody else within the western lands had any authority except Odoacer and the other new states that were springing up.

Julius Nepos was the last de jure emperor in the west. He actually ruled before Romulus Augustus, until Orestes deposed him and put his son on the throne. But despite being deposed he lived, and for several years after the overthrow of Romulus Augustus he was offered symbolic obeisance by the people who had actual power. Odoacer, who at this point was 'King of Italy', claimed that Julius Nepos still ruled as emperor, and even minted coins using his image. Zeno, who was emperor in the Eastern Roman Empire, likewise recognized Julius Nepos as the emperor in the west. It wasn't until his death in 480 that Zeno formally dissolved the position of emperor in the west and claimed sole rulership of the entire empire.

Constantine VI gets on this poll mainly as a point of technicality, but technicalities often have merit. He is the last person who was universally acknowledged as the Roman Emperor. Both in the Eastern Roman Empire (Generally called the Byzantine Empire at this point) which he ruled directly, and also the polities in western Europe that were independent in practice but acknowledged the authority of the Roman Empire. After he was deposed by his mother Irene in 797 she successfully seized the throne for herself in the east, but the western states refused to acknowledge her authority. They declared that the position of Roman Emperor was vacant, and Pope Leo III declared a new emperor (Charlemagne, from which the later Holy Roman Emperors claimed descending authority).

Constantine XI Palaiologos was the last ruler of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire), which had directly continued the institutions, law, and culture of the Roman Empire despite the collapse of its territories in the west. He died during the conquest of Constantinople itself in 1453, after which there was no remaining Roman Empire for anybody to claim authority over.

Francis II wasn't the last Roman Emperor, don't be a dick. We don't truck with the translatio imperii in this day and age.

Mehmed VI/Nicholas II/Wilhelm II/other weren't the last Roman Emperors, either. I SAID don't be a dick.

[lemuseum]

[venomspecs]

Constantin Nepo as Antinous you will always be famous

L'odissea (1968), Franco Rossi

[paingoes]

(in the earth college AU where Paris has a complete psychotic break during his sophomore year and drops out of school and his nepo FBI internship so he can instead backpack w lorelai across eurasia for her travel vlog)

[iphone 8 with busted screen rings 5 times before he picks up]

paris: what

paris: if this is about the phone bill i already told you i would pay it

paris: also can you quit sending your fucking minions to spy on me you motherfuckers glow in the dark

constantine: It’s incredible to me that you’ll take any pill a junkie hands you without even stopping to read the label, but you somehow can’t manage to get your hands on any anti-psychotics.

paris: fuck off

constantine: No. Just how inflated is your sense of self importance that you seriously think I would waste resources watching you?

paris: THEN HOW THE FUCK DO YOU KNOW IM IN LAOS

constantine: You were on the news.

paris: oh

paris: look did you need something

constantine: Do you remember Delta?

paris: yes i fucking remember delta what

paris: did he cure cancer

paris: did he solve cold fusion

paris: what is it what bullshit did he do that you  are going to lord over me this time im a fucking adult it doesnt work anymore

constantine: He is wanted for suspicion of terrorism.

paris:

paris: repeat that

constantine: Yes, he is wanted in connection to a left wing terror cell.

constantine: It’s not ambiguous either, off-record.

constantine: We’ve got him dead to rights.

paris: what the fuck

paris: you said wanted, though?

constantine: Yes. Whereabouts unknown.

constantine: I was wondering if he’d been in contact with you at all.

constantine: Or with the girl, more likely.

paris: “the girl” what like you dont know her fucking name  

paris: and what do you mean more likely

paris: kinda dont love what you’re implying 

constantine: What do you think I’m implying?

paris: no i havent heard from him since graduation and neither has lorry

constantine: He was over the house that summer.

paris: okay yeah i meant since then

paris: dude don’t fucking interrogate me over this shit, no, we’re not in touch

constantine: Did he ever say anything to you?

paris: my fucking god, what? no. i plead the fifth, what the fuck are you doing?

constantine: It was just a question. Why are you getting defensive?

paris: cause im not fucking stupid

paris: what did he even do

constantine: Cybercrime — and a lot less carefully than I would have expected from him. He left fingerprints all over the place.

paris: what the fuck

paris: …i mean thats kinda ballsy of him all things considered

constantine: Is it?

constantine: Is terrorism considered “ballsy” to you?

paris: haha i feel like i shouldnt answer that

paris: this call is definitely being recorded isnt it

constantine: All my calls are recorded.

paris: ok bye dad great hearing from you

constantine: And you owe me 3000 now, if you’re even keeping track.

[call ends]

[666candies]

La Nuit de Walpurgis, (Detail) (1864). By Constantin Nepo. Oil on canvas

[roobusmcscroobus]

More Muppet High AU Headcanons (or I guess just regular canon in my version of this)

- Aside from being the class president, Sam Eagle is also the hall monitor.

- Pepé is a foreign exchange student from Spain! Unlike his fellow foreign exchange student (Swedish Chef), he's almost fluent in English. He lives with Seymour for the time being, but his family is in the process of moving to America.

- Lew Zealand and Fozzie have an intense rivalry when it comes to the title of class clown.....if only Lew knew about said rivalry.

- Uncle Deadly, Pops, and Dr. Strangepork are all teachers (Theatre, uhhhh social studies probably???, and science respectively)

- Piggy is Uncle Deadly's favorite student. Maybe it's because of the gossip they share, maybe it's because Piggy's family is the reason that the theatre department hasn't lost all funding, or maybe it's Maybelline.

- Constantine is around, but he finds it very odd how everyone says he's from the USSR, considering it's been dissolved for decades.

- Beaker and Janice are both trans. Janice has been on estrogen since she was about 14, and is on the road to getting bottom surgery when she's 18. Meanwhile, Beaker is on Bunsen's "HRT" (It's definitely not legal) which has done everything but make his voice deeper.

- For the above point, I don't care that this place is vaguely in the 1950s, let them be trans damnit

- Whenever the main gang are up to some nonsense, there's a Little Shop of Horrors style Greek chorus narrating what's about to happen. It consists of the cheer team, and if one of the members of the cheer team is involved, their spot is replaced with Yolanda.

- Gonzo's affinity for poultry started at a very early age, and at this point he's got a huge crush on Camilla. If this was a cartoon, this would definitely be the plot of one of the episodes, especially since he's not yet the confident weirdo we know today.

- Dr. Teeth is still called Dr. Teeth in high school even though he's not a real doctor yet.

- Link Hogthrob is only passing any classes because he's a nepo baby and his family has ties with Dr. Strangepork.

- Scooter's uncle is the principal.

- Skeeter is the only girl on the football team, and one of 3 members that isn't a monster (Rowlf and Link are the other 2)

[musingsofametamorphosis]

Walpurgis Night, Constantin Nepo, 186

There is something about this I just love it. You know how I feel about horses. I love that all the women’s hair matches the manes. And they are so wild and free, the horses & the women…wind in their hair riding off into the sky. It feels like some women at peace. So free.

[lostscape]

La nuit de Walpurgis, Constantin Nepo (1964)

[thatlonelycactus]

Rip Trajan you would’ve loved Jenga

Rip Marcus Aurelius you would’ve loved Quora

Rip Agrippina the Younger you would’ve have loved Femininominon

Rip Hadrian you would’ve loved EPIC: the musical

Rip Commodus you would’ve loved the Gladiator series and WWE

Rip Tiberius you wouldve loved being a nepo baby

Rip Constantine you would’ve loved televangelists

Rip Augustus you would’ve loved the Soms and making extensive family trees for your sims (and would have been a master at excel)

Rip Clodia you wouldve loved Melania Trump

Rip Julius Caesar you would’ve loved not being stabbed 23 times in the senate.

[royal-confessions]

“following the greek royal family is my "royal watching" guilty pleasure. now that king constantine has passed, i'm curious to see how this next chapter unfolds. pavlos and marie chantal's children seem content to pursue typical rich kid nepo careers, but i hope they pop up at royal events.” - Submitted by Anonymous

[poetry-lair]

I leave behind

my chains

and my fears.

Turning

to the pale moon,

I float

in the night sky

to rejoin

with my companions

and kindred spirits.

“Walpurgis Night (From Goethe’s Faust)” (C): Albert Zimmermann

“Walpurgis Night ” (C): Constantine Nepo

“Nymphs Dancing to Pan’s Flute” (C): Joseph Tomanek

“Walpurgis Night (The Departure of the Witches)” (C): Luis Ricardo Falero

Poem (C): Me

All the rights of the images, effects and GIF belong to their respective owners.

[lemuseum]

[elizade-vil]

We just saw elizaveta augusta liddell entering the rabbit hole. I heard through the grapevine that their loyalties lie with [ the Jabberwocks ] and that they also go by the devil*. Be careful, they work for them as a failed nepo baby / professional liability / glorified trainer and can sometimes be reckless, impulsive, or even volatile  but I’ve also heard some people say that they were loyal, exuberant and quite personable.

( tw violence , assault )

stats

full name:  elizaveta augusta liddell

nickname(s)/alias(es):  eliza, el, the devil

age:  26

date of birth:  june 26

star sign:  cancer

place of birth:  devon, england

current location:  london

gender:  woman but as a threat

pronouns:  she/they

sexual orientation:  lesbian menace

religion:  agnostic / apathetic  

occupation: trainer of recruits / failed nepo baby / professional liability

family:  constantine liddell ( father – deceased ), tbd ( mother ) , viktor liddell ( older brother ) , alexei liddell ( older brother ) , zoya liddell ( older sister ) , one more older sibling

education level:  kicked out of several prestigious boarding schools  

living arrangements:  flat paid for with daddy’s money in kensington  

financial status:  wealthy

spoken languages:  english, mandarin, french, russian

details

Eliza found it hard to sleep.

Her flat – paid for with dead daddy’s money, of course – conveniently close to her siblings and the others tasked to keep an eye on her, was perfectly fucking fine. Too fine, too convenient, and way too fucking close for the hurricane in human skin that was Elizaveta Liddell.

Really - she was bored; achingly, mind-numbingly, maddeningly bored.  Her skin screamed out for violence, her various scars protesting the banality of training those god forsaken idiotic recruits. Until now, she’d never fully appreciated the pain inherent in the phrase ‘itching for a fight’, nails digging into her arms in an attempt to resist every cell in her body crying out for release. 

As a child, Eliza had taken to violence the way other children took to reading, or maths, or perhaps a musical instrument. Does not play well with others - was how her teachers phrased it all through primary school. And for a while, they didn’t want to believe it. She came in such a pretty package, big blue eyes and a darling face, her ponytail slightly askew and accented with an overly large bow. And what a good family, they all said, the Liddell’s ran Devon, even to this day.

But there were…incidents. Some could be dismissed as childish spats in the school yard, willful ignorance playing a huge role in this. Still, the school could not overlook the time a classmate ended up with a pair of scissors jabbed into their thigh; and although no one could firmly tie Eliza to the deed, she’d watched the blood drip down the leg of the student next to her with what was described as a chilling interest. Various boarding schools did little to tame this violent streak, though it was difficult to tie such violence to a Liddell. The once friend who ended up at the bottom of a staircase with several broken bones whilst Eliza cried her very best crocodile tears, such a lovely friend to wait by the injured girl’s side. The school tossed her out for theft – the one thing they could actually prove. At the next school there was a rash of sudden illnesses – all girls who’d dared defy little Eliza Liddell’s will when she arrived. Unable to tie the poisonings to the blonde, the school accused her of cheating ( guilty ) and had her thrown out.

A cadre of well meaning but ultimately ineffective teachers and other school administrators offered a variety of explanations - the trauma of the youngest child, attention seeking, perhaps she simply wasn’t challenged enough at school? Eliza wanted to shrug, brush away their concerns with the simple fact she’d come to accept about herself - she liked how it felt. But instead the blonde got better at hiding, leaning into that pretty face and charm she could summon if she tried hard enough.  She learned to fight dirty, literally tooth and nail, learned to lean into her smaller stature and the presumed weakness. 

By her teens, Eliza was quite sure she could be lethal if she wanted. Her early twenties only proved this point.  

She knew her father controlled the Jabberwocks, as the youngest Liddell she’d learned to listen at doors and hide in corners as soon as she could walk. His death was a shock – Eliza overseas in one of the various schools. Constantine had never been a loving father, nor was he particularly present in her life – but he was still her father. Maybe it was the sudden lack of fear, the slight chaos that persisted before her eldest brother took over – but Eliza’s teen years were her most violent and volatile.

Of course, that was when she thought she still contributed. When Eliza hoped her anger and violence was honed into a weapon poised to do her family’s bidding. Sometimes, late at night in that too silent flat, her rage turned against her. Eliza would pace, the anger mixing with bitterness and resentment, a toxic blend resulting in uncharacteristic self-doubt. Did they think she was weak? Some stupid, vapid socialite like her sister or Max? Or was Viktor so self-obsessed that he could not see the benefit her brand of jagged cruelty might offer?

But no, Eliza was on a very short leash and in an even shorter temper. Training nobody recruits in basic self-defense was almost more offensive than if her brother had called her a slur. But Viktor controlled the money, and Eliza needed that – so she did her best not to kill the idiots.

This bar was supposed to be safe, yet it took every ounce of self-control Eliza could summon to keep from smashing her glass into the face of one of the aforementioned idiotic recruits who dared speak to her outside of training. Instead, the blonde shot him a glare that threatened to take a year off his life and made it approximately twenty more minutes before fucking losing it. 

In her defense, Eliza fucking hated to be touched except under very specific circumstances of her choosing. And really, they all should have foreseen something like this happening – her leash and temper were both notoriously short. The man was blind drunk, embarrassingly so, such that she’d expected someone else to step in. Here Eliza will admit to one single mistake, she underestimated the will of drunk and vulgar man who’d spent his afternoon being bossed around by her.

So when he grabbed her ass and slurred something about not taking directions from girls - really, who could blame her for how quickly she slammed his head into the table?

[southofzero]

La nuit de Walpurgis (Walpurgis Night) - Constantin Nepo