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A comment on A Japanese inn owned by the same family for 1,300 years [video]. Parent comment

Re:A Japanese inn owned by the same family for 1,300 years [... by fiatjaf on Thursday December 18, 2014 @06:33PM (#8770322)
The Roman emperors used to adopt the next chosen emperor and pass him the family name "Caesar", as did Julius Caesar, probably without trying to create a tradition, with Octavius.
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Re:A Japanese inn owned by the same family for 1,300 years [... by mmanfrin on Thursday December 18, 2014 @09:47PM (#8770894)
No -- this was done by the 'Five Good Emperors' (Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Pious, Aurelius) and done more out of the lack of suitable male Heirs than of a notion to go outside the blood line. The Five Good Emperors ends to Aurelius, who -- coincidentally enough -- was the first to name his son as Heir. His son was Commodus, and was (by the account of contemporaneous, biased sources) a bad emperor -- although there is thought that many of his evils were embellished by detractor historians.

Otherwise, the title of Imperator/Augustus went to male blood heirs or usurping Generals (in one case, to a wealthy man who bought off the Praetorian Guard).

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Re:A Japanese inn owned by the same family for 1,300 years [... by fiatjaf on Friday December 19, 2014 @06:20AM (#8771815)
Thank you for clarifying.
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Re:A Japanese inn owned by the same family for 1,300 years [... by badloginagain on Thursday December 18, 2014 @07:09PM (#8770436)
Only if there was no son to inherit the throne.
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