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It happened.

I could never take anyone named Norton serious, let alone follow as an emporer.As first act, he should have changed his name.

Oh FFS, it says in the very first part of the article he was a madman. Are we supposed to listen to every single person in every mental ward across the country who claims to be JFK, Abe Lincoln or Napoleon?

seems like someone missed the humor part of this story, point is that he was beloved, people found amusement in his claims and they protected him like he should have been a royalty.
Its a nice little story

ok, if you say so

Is this real or a 'frisco'?

http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/royalty/america/emperor-norton/ngrave.jpg

there has only been one great empire, and it was called the british empire. quarter of the globe counts for something!

Do you mean the Roman empire? They conquered quite a bit of the world.

I'm disappointed.

I half expected this to be another Bush thread

Originally posted by liam k
there has only been one great empire, and it was called the british empire. quarter of the globe counts for something!


Originally posted by Draco69
Do you mean the Roman empire? They conquered quite a bit of the world.

Not to mention Alexander's Macedonian empire that was much larger than that of Rome or the British empire.

I can see the humor but I don't see the need to make that nutcase a celebrety.

That was kinda my point earlier...

I love SF

I read about this in school a few years ago.

Because he was a good person, a visionary and people honestly liked him.
More than you can say for most real politicians.

I think Emperor Norton ****ing ROCKS!

But only in San Francisco could a guy declare himself Emperor and actually convince local business to accept his currency.

Originally posted by KharmaDog
Not to mention Alexander's Macedonian empire that was much larger than that of Rome or the British empire.

Huh?

Originally posted by Draco69
Do you mean the Roman empire? They conquered quite a bit of the world.

no...no he doesn't...in land terms the British empire is the largest in history


http://abagond.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/map_of_the_british_empire_in_the_1920s.png

British ^

http://www.thejournal.org/studylibrary/maps/roman-empire.gif

Roman ^



i dont believe the macedonian empire was as big as either...it only "sounded" big because it is referenced in terms of the known world at the time....which was not all that much

if you want figures the British was 36 million square kilometres...the Roman was 5.7 million...the Macedon empire was 5.4 million

the only one that comes close to the British was the Mongol empire under Gengis Kahn at 33 million

but it's unfair to compare empires from different times...if you do then the Macedon empire comes 18...if you compare it to other ancient empires then it comes 4th after the persian (under Darius), the Han (China) and the Roman (under Emporar Trajan)