Thanks. I've read some different takes on that. I can see it either way: the empire was pragmatic, but the emperor was liable to be deranged and narcissistic. Not all emperors were equally crazy, of course, and the fame, bloodlust, and power went to their heads in different ways.

Anyway, I suspect that any drastic social change has multiple causes. There are competing factors that self-organize, as it were, producing an emergent order.