Yeah, the man’s own mother thought he was pathetic, tried to badmouth him to his grandfather (Augustus), and hired a mule driver to beat the neurodivergence out of him; had his writing suppressed for being too ‘political’, an insane and all-powerful nephew who constantly mocked him and made him fear for his life (though having such an early example of the ‘put the slippers on his hands while he sleeps’ bit IS a little funny, ngl) a string of failed marriages, and the only family member who was consistently kind to him, his brother, Germanicus, was assassinated at a relatively young age.

Yet he ended up with a long and successful reign after some 50 years of suffering and relative obscurity. Many of the legal precedents he established would last the entire Principate period, the conquest of Britannia was done under his reign (and honestly pretty bloodlessly), had time to write several books (all which are lost, goddammit), and ended up well-liked by the common people and deified into the Imperial Cult after death.

Shame about his last wife assassinating him. Man had no luck, or taste, with women.