Roman Emperors

Note: the title 'Emperor' is largely a modern concept. Julius Caesar was Dictator of the Roman Republic for two years before his assassination, and Augustus is generally considered to have been the first Emperor (of Rome). Augustus himself wished to maintain the façade of Republican rule, and used the title Princeps Senatus (first man of the Senate). The English word Emperor derives from the Latin title Imperator, which was granted to successful generals, and (at least in the early days of the Empire) still had to be earned by the Princeps.

This page covers the first twenty Emperors, including Julius and Augustus. This takes us up to AD 192, after which it all gets a bit messy (OK – even messier than it already was). We then look at one more who came along a bit later.

First of all we have a couple of memorable years:

The Year of the Four Emperors		AD 69
The Year of the Five Emperors		AD 193

For more details on each of these years, see below.

49–44 BC	Formed the First Triumvirate, with Pompey and Crassus, 60 BC		Julius Caesar
	Conquered Gaul, 58–50 BC
	Invaded Britain in 55 and 54 BC
	Fought against Pompey 49–48 BC, defeating him at Pharsalus
	Returned to Rome (from Egypt) as dictator in 46 BC
	Reformed the Roman calendar in 46 BC (to take effect on 1 January 45 BC), creating a system that predominated throughout Europe and its settlements (in America, etc.) until the 16th century AD
	Assassinated in 44 BC

Following the assassination of the above, three of his strongest allies (his adopted son and heir Octavian, Mark Antony, and the relatively less influential Marcus Lepidus) formed what modern historians have called the Second Triumvirate to defeat the assassins. Following their victory at the Battle of Philippi (42 BC), they divided the Roman Republic among themselves and ruled as de facto dictators. The Triumvirate was eventually torn apart by the competing ambitions of its members; Lepidus was exiled in 36 BC, and Antony was defeated by Octavian at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. This left Octavian as the undisputed ruler of Rome. He returned there in 29 BC, and in 27 BC he was given the title Augustus ('venerable'). In theory Rome was still a free Republic, with governmental power vested in the Senate, the executive magistrates and the legislative assemblies, yet Augustus maintained autocratic authority by having the Senate grant him lifetime tenure as commander–in–chief, tribune and censor.

Adopted by Julius Caesar, his great–uncle, as his son and heir

Octavian

27 BC – AD 14	First Emperor of Rome (see Note above), and had the longest reign; in power at the time of Jesus's birth. Born Gaius Octavius in 63 BC, known as Octavian; grand–nephew of Julius Caesar, and named by him in his will as his adopted son and heir; effectively head of state from 43 BC, unopposed after the Battle of Actium in 31 BC; he gradually acquired further power, with the approval of the Senate, which in 27 BC granted him the title (meaning 'venerable') by which he is best known		Augustus
AD 14–37	Stepson and successor of the above – Emperor of Rome at the time of Jesus's crucifixion; never really wanted to be emperor – Pliny the Elder called him "the gloomiest of men"; retired to the island of Capri in AD 26, leaving administration largely in the hands of two unscrupulous praetorian prefects		Tiberius
	Uncle of Claudius and Germanicus (their father, Drusus, was his brother)
	Said to have freed Androcles and the lion
AD 37–41	Nickname of Gaius Caesar, the third Emperor of Rome: great–nephew of Tiberius (son of Germanicus – see above)		Caligula
	Name (given to him by his father's soldiers when he went on their campaigns as a child) means 'little boots'
	Made his horse Incitatus a consul
	Assassinated by members of the Praetorian Guard; succeeded by his uncle Claudius
AD 41–54	Julius Caesar invaded Britain twice, in 55 BC and 54 BC, but the Roman conquest of Britain really began (in AD 43) under		Claudius
	Nephew of Tiberius, and uncle of both his predecessor Caligula and his successor Nero
	Divorced his third wife Messalina, and had her executed for treason
	Believed by some historians so have been poisoned by his fourth wife, Agrippina (the Younger – mother of Nero) – possibly with mushrooms
AD 54–68	Succeeded his uncle Claudius (who was also his stepfather)		Nero
	Had his mother Agrippina killed
	Last of the Julio–Claudian dynasty
	Roman Emperor at Boadicea's time
	Reputed to have ordered the executions of St. Peter and St. Paul

AD 69 is known as the Year of the Four Emperors. The four emperors were:

08 Jun 68 15 Jan 69	Seized power after Nero's suicide, with the support of the Spanish legions; murdered by the Praetorian Guard, and succeeded by the leader of the coup		Galba
15 Jan 69 16 Apr 69	Appointed by the Praetorian Guard, after the assassination of his predecessor; committed suicide, by stabbing himself with a dagger, after losing the Battle of Bedriacum to his rival, who then succeeded him		Otho
17 Apr 69 20 Dec 69	Seized power with the support of the German legions, in opposition to his two predecessors; murdered by the troops of his rival, who then succeeded him		Vitellius
21 Dec 69 24 Jun 79	Seized power with the support of the eastern legions; died of natural causes		Vespasian

The last of the Four Emperors was succeeded by his elder son, who was succeeded by his younger brother. These three comprise the Flavian dynasty (because their family name was Flavius).

AD 79–81	Elder son of Vespasian: succeeded him as emperor on his death; died suddenly of a fever and was succeeded by his younger brother Domitian, whom some suspect of poisoning him		Titus
	The arch in Rome, which stands to this day, commemorates his victory at Jerusalem in AD 70, which followed a four–year siege
AD 81–96	Vespasian's younger son: succeeded his elder brother as emperor on his death; assassinated by court officials, whose motive may have been the recent execution of his secretary Epaphroditus		Domitian

Vespasian's younger son was succeeded by one of his advisors, who was the first of what Niccolo Machiavelli (in 1503) referred to as the Five Good Emperors. Part of Machiavelli's argument was that each of these five (or at least the first four) were succeeded not by their biological sons, but by men that they had adopted to be their heirs:

AD 96–98	Appointed by the Senate following the assassination of Domitian		Nerva
AD 98–117	Remembered as a successful soldier–emperor, who presided over the greatest military expansion in Roman history; at the time of his death, the Empire had attained its maximum territorial extent		Trajan
AD 117–138	Built the wall that marked the northern limit of Roman Britain; also rebuilt the Pantheon and constructed the Temple of Venus and Roma		Hadrian
AD 138–161	Longest reign since Augustus (a couple of months longer than Tiberius)		Antoninus Pius
	Built a wall across the central belt of Scotland (between the Firths of Clyde and Forth), and gave his name to it
AD 161–169	Ruled jointly with his adoptive brother, following the death of their adoptive father, until his death from plague in 169		Lucius Verus
AD 161–180	Ruled jointly with his adoptive brother, until the latter's death in 169; succeeded by his biological son		Marcus Aurelius
	His collected writings are known as the Meditations – written in Greek while on campaign in the last ten years of his life, and still revered as a monument to a philosophy of service and duty

Of these six, the fifth (AD 161–169) is the one that's not considered to be one of the Five Good Emperors.

The last of the Five Good Emperors was the first Emperor since Vespasian to be succeeded by his biological son:

AD 180–192

Ruled jointly with his father, for the last three years of the latter's reign, and succeeded him on his death; assassinated on New Year's Eve 192 by a conspiracy of his advisors

Commodus

There were plenty of candidates to succeed Commodus. AD 193 was a tumultuous year in the Roman Empire; it's known as the Year of the Five Emperors, because that's how many of them were proclaimed at some point in that year, and in some part or other of the Empire. I don't think I've ever heard any of them mentioned in a quiz, so I'm not going to list them here. (I'll just say that the first was called Pertinax; he lasted until 28 March before he was assassinated by the Praetorian Guard.)

The next Emperor of Rome (and the last) that I think we need to concern ourselves with is:

AD 306–337	First Christian emperor of Rome; inspired before a decisive battle by a vision of the Cross, with the words "in this sign you shall conquer" (abbreviated to IHS)		Constantine I (the Great)
	Son of St. Helena, who is traditionally credited with converting him to Christianity
	Born around AD 272 in Dacia (modern Serbia); came to Britain in 305 to serve in the Roman army with his father, the emperor Constantius I; proclaimed emperor by his troops at York in 306, following the death of his father; following the so–called Civil Wars of the Tetrarchy, became the sole ruler of the Roman Empire by 324
	Commemorated by a statue outside York Minster, unveiled in 1998
	Summoned and presided over the Council of Nicaea in 325
	Moved his capital to Byzantium in 330

There were subsequently ten more Roman emperors of the same name as the above. Constantine XI was the last Roman (Byzantine) emperor, reigning from 1449 until his death in battle at the Fall of Constantinople in 1453.

© Haydn Thompson 2018–24