Catherine II, most popularly and historically known as Catherine the Great, was the great Empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. She came to power following the overthrow of her husband, Peter III.
Eugen Weber makes remarks about Catherine that she had the heart of Nero and the face of Mae West. That is revealing.
Nero was a Roman Emperor during the first century who did not want to be told what to do. As the historian Tacitus said, “Nothing in human affairs is more unstable and precarious than power unsupported by its own strength”.
At a young age, Nero accused his aged teacher, Seneca, of treason and ordered his execution. He ordered him to commit suicide.
Seneca was a powerful Rome’s leading intellectual figure, a respected Stoic philosopher.
An internationally renowned criminal psychologist Thomas Müller and a team of scientists and historians has made great studies about the life of Nero. They published their findings as Secrets of the Dead: The Nero Files.
Nero Killed his step brother also, and proceeded to kill his own biological mother.
Nero organized a lot of sex parties that were mingled with wine and dance. The sex parties and group sex were increasingly popularized by him, and the whole empire was awash with them.
Anyway sex orgies has always been part of Roman leaders. Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony shared Cleopatra. Coming after Julius Caesar was Augustus Caesar. His favorite hobby was to have group sex with virgins. And the virgins were sourced by his wife Livia.
The other time during the reign of the young Nero, the city of Rome was set on fire. Historians writes that the fire was lit under Nero’s orders, and as the city was burning he was having a sex party and seemed like celebrating what was happening. Anyway by and by the Roman Senate finally got tired of their leader and Nero was a wanted man; dead or alive by the Senate. Nero then fled, and on June 9, 68 AD, at the age of 30, he committed suicide.
That is how Catherine’s reign was like according to Eugen Weber. Catherine was ruthless and ambitious woman who sissified and psychologically destroyed her own husband. From there Catherine had a lot of lovers; troops of boyfriends coming in and out of her house right in front of her husband.
Now let us look at the other comparison Eugen Weber makes. As we have already stated, Weber further compares Catherine with Mae West.
In the 1920s, Mae West made the word “Sex” a household word, by using it as the title for her first full-length play. Mae West opened up the era that was to be known as the 1920s Roaring Years.
The 1920’s was a period of open sex, open marriages, open love, and free spirited women and girls who lived for sex and enjoyed sex without any morals imposed.
There were parties thrown around every weekend where men and women come together for whisky and wild sex, women dancing naked on top of tables and men lining them up on couches, tables, floor and up against the walls.
Take the famous actress Louise Brooks who remarked calmly: I just wanna smoke and fuck.
