Talk:Joshua A. Norton

So what exactly did Norton do during his reign? Caesar Augustus 00:45, September 30, 2009 (UTC)

Emperor Norton spent a great deal of time contemplating the mistakes of Caesar Augustus, and ultimately decided not to proclaim himself deified by his subjects (whom he ruled, and could therefore have deify him at any point in time) on the basis that deification would inevitably lower the quality of his reign by greatly amplifying the "gravitas" of his reign, because he would become more powerful and more knowledgeable in roughly equal measure so as to have the two qualities cancel each other out. Ultimately he maintained Caesar Augustus's deification because, while he was fairly sure he could do better - and he did - he was fairly sure he could not do better as god, but rather as emperor. Of course, he probably would have preferred dictator, prime minister, general, magistrate, police chief, teacher, father, brother, goose pate or beggar, but emperors must be choosers~ --68.45.25.18 23:19, March 17, 2013 (UTC)