Tiberius - Reigned 14-37 AD Tiberius wasn't really a very good ruler (we call them emperors now, but they didn't call themselves that). He alienated senators with his personal moodiness. He spent a lot of time swimming and having big parties. He left most of the work to his assistants. But still people thought that was better than civil war. He finally retired to his villa in Capri and placed the Roman government in the hands of his praetorian prefect, Sejanus. Tiberius left the empire with secure boundaries and a lot of money. Caligula - Reigned 37-41AD The great-nephew of Tiberius and his chosen successor, Gaius grew up on the German frontier where his father's soldiers nicknamed him Caligula ("Little Boot" in Latin) because of his tiny military boots. A great-grandson of both Augustus and Mark Antony, Caligula was a popular choice for Emperor. He abolished the sales tax and sponsored frequent public athletic games, but a severe mental illness transformed him into a vicious tyrant. Caligula murdered senators for their property and their wives, gave away Rome's provinces to his childhood friends playmates, tried to make his horse a senator, and tried to marry his sister. He demanded to be worshipped as Jupiter. Not surprisingly, one of his own guards murdered him on January 1, 41AD. Claudius - Reigned 41-54AD Claudius was Tiberius' nephew. When the Praetorian Guard murdered the mad emperor Caligula, they made Claudius emperor. He turned out to be an emperor who ruled wisely and improved the running of the empire. It was Claudius who ordered the invasion of Britain in 43AD. In the confusion following Caligula's assassination, some senators decided they might get rid of emperors and go back to being a republic. The soldiers, who had gained power under the Emperors, wanted a new emperor. The story goes that they found the only possible candidate, Caligula's Uncle Claudius, hiding fearfully in the palace and made him Emperor. Although Claudius came from a royal blood line, his family had a very low opinion of his abilities and often ignored him. Claudius had polio as a child which caused physical disabilities including partial paralysis, stammering, slobbering, and limping. He was the last person his family thought would ever become Emperor. He was an outcast in his own family and so Claudius studied history to occupy his time. He also enjoyed playing dice games. But he ruled well and his reign is marked with an expansion of the Roman Empire. He invaded and conquered Britain in 43AD. Claudius also took over
North Africa. He granted citizenship and let Gauls serve in the Senate, and was humane in his treatment of slaves. He married three times. His first wife, Boudicca, started a revolt, and his second wife was executed. His third wife Agrippina - who was his niece and Nero s mother - fed him a dinner of poisonous mushrooms to kill him so her son Nero would inherit the throne. (Claudius had adopted Nero.) Nero - Reigned 54-68 AD The 15-year-old Nero began his reign amid predictions of a new Golden Age for Rome but he murdered both his mother and his wife. Nero may be best known for how he handled the Great Fire of Rome in 64AD. People were blaming him for the fire, and so he rounded up a lot of Christians and had them burned alive as if the fire was their fault. Nero was also in charge for the executions of St. Peter and St. Paul. It is said that he was practicing his violin, which he was not good at playing, while the city burned. There are many stories and legends about Emperor Nero. Most are not very pleasant. Nero was not the first insane emperor in office. But he was certainly one of the most famous. Nero did not go insane all at once. Rather, he went insane slowly. As time went on, his behavior became more and more odd, and then more and more murderous. When you hear about some of the things Nero did, you might find yourself laughing. Nero had a childish need for applause, and he gave vocal concerts at Greek festivals. The spectacle of a singing emperor disgusted the Romans. For example, Nero would compete in the races in the Circus Maximus. Nero was not very good at chariot racing. Each chariot was supposed to be pulled by 4 horses. To make sure he won, Nero would hitch as many as 10 horses to his chariot. Just the same, Nero would have lost every race, only no one dared to beat him. Anyone who tried would have a fatal "accident" soon after. Since horses weren't working very well for him, Nero tried hitching camels to his chariot. That was even worse. Camels can move very rapidly when they choose, but it takes considerable skill to race camels well. Nero started holding races at night when no one could see what was going on. After every race, he declared himself the winner, even when he wasn't racing! When you think about it, Nero's behavior in the Circus Maximus was not really all that funny. On a race day, as many 250,000 people might gather to watch the races. People would cheer loudly for their favorite team. If their favorite team wore red, their fans in the stands might wave something red to show their support. But, when Nero raced, things were rather dull. Nero expected everyone
to cheer loudly for him. You knew he was going to win. What fun is that? Still, people found themselves laughing at some of the crazy things Nero did. People did not laugh for long. Things got worse and worse as Nero became more and more insane. Nero murdered his mother and his wife. He threw thousands of Christians to the lions. According to some sources, his persecution of Christians resulted in the deaths of two of Christianity's most influential apostles, Saint Peter and Saint Paul. The Senate leaders of Rome wanted to do something about it, but they were afraid. It was not until Nero ordered some of the members of the Senate to kill themselves that they finally took action. The Senate ordered Nero's immediate execution. When Nero heard about it, he killed himself instead. ***************END OF THE JULIO-CLAUDIAN DYNASTY******************* The Year of the Four Emperors Galba 68-69, Otho 69, Vitellius 69, Vespasian 69-79 Civil war returned to Rome as one person after another claimed the title of Emperor. In AD 69, known as the Year of the Four Emperors, a brutal contest for power exploded. The emperor's authority came solely from his control of the army. THE FLAVIAN DYNASTY Vespasian - Reigned 69-79AD The savage civil war of the Year of the Four Emperors concluded with the triumph of Vespasia, a soldier from the Italian middle class whose style was very different from the Julio-Claudians. He turned out to be a pretty good emperor, though he was always more interested in the army. He was popular because he lived simply, and didn't throw big parties or spend a lot of money like the Julio- Claudian emperors. The empire had a lot of money in the treasury when he died. He was emperor for ten years. When he died, he is supposed to have said "Oh my God, I think I'm becoming a god!" As commander of the Roman armies in the East, Vespasian crushed the Jewish rebellion in Palestine. He then returned to Rome and left his son to destroy the city of Jerusalem. He ordered construction of the Colosseum, calling it the Flavian Amphitheater. Titus - Reigned 79-81AD When Vespasian died, his older son Titus took over. Everyone seemed to have been happy to avoid another civil war. Ancient sources provide very different pictures of Vespasian's sons. The brief reign of Titus was extremely popular. Titus had crushed a Jewish revolt in Israel and destroyed the big Jewish temple in Jerusalem, which he reminded Romans about with a big triumphal arch called Titus Arch. The city of Pompeii was destroyed during his reign and a fire
destroyed part of Rome, but The Colosseum opened during his reign, which he celebrated with 100 days of gladiatorial games. THE ANTONINE DYNASTY/ADOPTED EMPERORS/GOOD EMPERORS Nerva - Reigned 96-98AD In AD 96 the Senate chose Nerva as Emperor. He was an old man with no sons who might want to inherit the throne. Nerva didn't have time to do much as emperor, because he died after just two years in power, but he did start a new system for choosing the next emperor which worked better: he chose somebody who seemed like he would do a good job, and he adopted that person as his son. He adopted Trajan, the governor of Germany, as his successor and began a new imperial line known as the Antonines. During this time, Emperors did not rely on family members/heredity to decide who would rule next, but instead adopted successors. These adopted emperors were usually better rulers. Trajan - Reigned 98-117AD The man Nerva adopted was Trajan. Trajan came from Spain and was the first non-roman to be emperor. He was a great general who became one of Rome's most beloved rulers, and increased the territory of the Roman. He commemorated these victories on Trajan's Column, in Rome. Trajan and the Roman army conquered Dacia (modern-day Romania). Dacia had a lot of gold mines, and so Rome became rich from all the gold. Trajan took the army to West Asia and conquered a lot of land - all the way to Babylon, where Alexander had died! Trajan also had no sons so he adopted his nephew as his son. His nephew's name was Hadrian. Trajan also began an impressive building program throughout the empire. Both public monuments and private documents show Trajan's concern for social welfare programs, like the distribution of food to poor children. Trajan treated senators as equals and earned the title of Optimus Princeps (Best of Emperors). Hadrian - Reigned 117-138AD Hadrian was another Spaniard and was Trajan's adopted son. He spent most of his reign touring the Roman Empire, which made him realize that the Empire was too big and spread out to run or defend properly. Hadrian was not as popular as Trajan, because as soon as Trajan died Hadrian decided that the Roman Empire couldn't really keep all the land that Trajan had conquered in West Asia, and he gave most of it back to the Parthians. He thought it would be too expensive to try to keep it, because it was so far away from Rome. He created borders to the Empire. The most famous of these borders is Hadrian's wall in northern Britain.
Of course the army didn't like giving up all this land they had fought for. And Hadrian didn't try to conquer any new places either. So the army got bored. Still, Hadrian did keep peace in the Roman Empire. Like Nerva and Trajan, Hadrian had no children, and he adopted a grown man instead. Antoninus Pius - Reigned 138-161AD When Hadrian died in 138AD, his adopted son Antoninus became emperor. Antoninus is often called Antoninus Pius because he was so interested in religion and in doing everything right. Like Hadrian, he didn't fight any wars. But the Roman Empire stayed peaceful and everyone was doing pretty well. Again Antoninus Pius adopted a grown man to follow him, and that was Marcus Aurelius. The inactivity of the Roman army during this time caused trouble for Marcus Aurelius because they weren t prepared for fighting anymore. Marcus Aurelius - Reigned 161-180AD One of the first things Marcus Aurelius did as emperor was to insist on sharing power with his younger adopted brother, Lucius Verus. Lucius Verus wasn t really interested in ruling, but it was dangerous to have people around who wanted power and didn't have it, because they might try to get it by killing you. So Marcus Aurelius gave his brother enough power to keep him quiet. He was a humane and energetic leader, but war dominated his reign. Unlike the reigns of the emperors before him, Marcus Aurelius' reign was not peaceful. As soon as Antoninus Pius died, the Parthians attacked the Eastern part of the Roman Empire. They were hoping the Romans would be disorganized by the death of the emperor. Marcus Aurelius sent Lucius Verus and the army to fight the Parthians, and eventually the Roman army won. After the war, the Romans found that they had caught a serious disease from the Parthians. No one is sure what this plague was, but many people think it was smallpox. The Roman soldiers spread it all over the Empire as they came home, and many people died. Germanic people living north of Italy (in modern-day Germany, Austria and Switzerland) noticed that some of the Roman troops were gone, and there was a plague, and now THEY thought this would be a good time to attack. Marcus Aurelius spent most of the rest of his life fighting them or trying to make treaties with them. But just as he was finally winning, he died. The Empire was much poorer than before because of the plague and from having to pay so many soldiers. He relied on family ties for the next Emperor and chose his son Commodus as heir to the throne.
Marcus Aurelius was a philosopher who followed the teachings of Stoicism, which taught that goodness came from serving the state. While Marcus Aurelius led Roman forces on the northern frontier, he wrote a famous book, Meditations. *********************END OF THE ANTONINE DYNASTY******************** Commodus - Reigned 180-192AD Commodus was the son of Marcus Aurelius, and was a vicious ruler, a huge change for the Romans after the good emperors. A historian wrote that Commodus once dressed as a gladiator in the arena and killed an ostrich. He then held up the ostrich s head to the senators watching "to show that he had the same fate in store for us - meaning the Senators better do what Commodus wanted or else they would die. Commodus liked to show off his strength and found games more interesting than running an empire. He survived many attempts on his life, but eventually his wrestling partner strangled him. Soon after his death, the praetorian guard auctioned off the imperial throne to the highest bidder, and the Roman army began the first civil war in more than a century. Diocletian - Reigned 284-305AD Diocletian was the commander of Numerian's Praetorian guard, and came to power after assassinating Numerian. Because of the Roman roads, the legionnaires, and the leadership of Rome's better emperors, the Roman Empire grew to enormous proportions. It covered most of Europe, most of North Africa, and some of Asia. It was getting difficult to manage the empire effectively. The size of the empire was putting a great financial strain on Rome. Diocletian realized he couldn't rule such a big empire on his own, so he divided it in two, giving the western half (Europe/North Africa and the city of Rome) to his friend Maximian and he ruled the Eastern half (Arab countries and the city of Byzantium). People were taught to believe the Emperor was a God - those that disagreed were persecuted. Diocletian also persecuted Christians and destroyed many churches. In 305AD, Diocletian stepped down and retired as Emperor, forcing Maximian to do the same thing. Diocletian was the only emperor ever to leave the throne voluntarily. Constantine The Great - Reigned 306-337AD Constantine s troops declared him emperor in Britain in 306AD. In the long civil war that followed, he defeated all his major rivals. He believed that his success was due to the god of the Christians, and so he made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. Constantine was the first Christian Roman emperor. He chose to live in the Eastern Roman Empire, and chose his capital to be Byzantium, which he renamed Constantinople. The western side of the
empire, which included the city of Rome, became less and less important to the Eastern Roman Empire. Byzantium was located in a perfect position to trade with the east and the west. Rather than send traded goods onto to Rome, Constantine kept most of the goods in his own half of the empire. He used money from Rome to support and build Constantinople. When he died, he divided the empire between his three sons.