Transcript Roman Emperors - Return to About Me

AUGUSTUS
•
Rome achieved great glory under Octavian/Augustus. He restored peace after 100 years of
civil war; maintained an honest government and a sound currency system; extended the
highway system connecting Rome with its far-flung empire; developed an efficient postal
service; fostered free trade among the provinces; and built many bridges, aqueducts and
buildings adorned with beautiful works of art created in the classical style. Literature
flourished with writers including Virgil, Horace, Ovid, and Livy all living under the emperor's
patronage.The empire expanded under Augustus with his generals subduing Spain, Gaul
(now France), Panonia and Dalmatia (now parts of Hungary and Croatia). He annexed
Egypt and most of southwestern Europe up to the Danube River. After his death, the people
the Roman Empire worshipped Augustus as a god. Rome achieved great glory under
Octavian/Augustus. He restored peace after 100 years of civil war; maintained an honest
government and a sound currency system; extended the highway system connecting Rome
with its far-flung empire; developed an efficient postal service; fostered free trade among the
provinces; and built many bridges, aqueducts and buildings adorned with beautiful works of
art created in the classical style. Literature flourished with writers including Virgil, Horace,
Ovid, and Livy all living under the emperor's patronage.The empire expanded under
Augustus with his generals subduing Spain, Gaul (now France), Panonia and Dalmatia (now
parts of Hungary and Croatia). He annexed Egypt and most of southwestern Europe up to
the Danube River. After his death, the people the Roman Empire worshipped Augustus as a
god.
TIBERIUS
•
The reign of Tiberius (b. 42 B.C., d. A.D. 37, emperor A.D. 14-37) is a
particularly important one for the Principate, since it was the first occasion when
the powers designed for Augustus alone were exercised by somebody else. In
contrast to the approachable and tactful Augustus, Tiberius emerges from the
sources as an enigmatic and darkly complex figure, intelligent and cunning, but
given to bouts of severe depression and dark moods that had a great impact on
his political career as well as his personal relationships. His reign abounds in
contradictions. Despite his keen intelligence, he allowed himself to come under
the influence of unscrupulous men who, as much as any actions of his own,
ensured that Tiberius's posthumous reputation would be unfavorable; despite his
vast military experience, he oversaw the conquest of no new region for the
empire; and despite his administrative abilities he showed such reluctance in
running the state as to retire entirely from Rome and live out his last years in
isolation on the island of Capri. His reign represents, as it were, the adolescence
of the Principate as an institution. Like any adolescence, it proved a difficult
time.
CALIGULA
•
Whatever damage Tiberiusﾕs later years had done to the carefully crafted
political edifice created by Augustus, Caligula multiplied it a hundred-fold. When
he came to power in 37 AD, Caligula had no administrative experience beyond
his honorary quaestorship, and had spent an unhappy early life far from the
public eye. He appears, once in power, to have realized the boundless scope of
his authority and acted accordingly. For the elite, this situation proved intolerable
and ensured the blackening of Caligula's name in the historical record they
would dictate. The sensational and hostile nature of that record, however, should
in no way trivialize Caligula's importance. His reign highlighted an inherent
weakness in Augustusﾕs Principate, now openly revealed for what it was -- a
raw monarchy in which only the self-discipline of the incumbent acted as a
restraint on his behavior rather than the "first among equals" Augustus had
intended. That the only means of retiring the wayward Princeps was murder
marked another important revelation: Roman emperors could not relinquish their
powers without simultaneously relinquishing their lives. Caligula would be the
first of many emperors to be brutally executed in the years to come.
CLAUDIUS
•
Claudius Nero Germanicus (b. 10 BC, d. 54 A.D.; emperor, 41-54 A.D.) was the
third emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. His reign represents a turning point
in the history of the Principate for a number of reasons, not the least for the
manner of his accession and the implications it carried for the nature of the
office. During his reign he promoted administrators who did not belong to the
senatorial or equestrian classes, and was later vilified by authors who did. He
followed Caesar in carrying Roman arms across the English Channel into Britain
but, unlike his predecessor, he initiated the full-scale annexation of Britain as a
province, which remains today the most closely studied corner of the Roman
Empire. His relationships with his wives and children provide detailed insights
into the perennial difficulties of the succession problem faced by all Roman
Emperors. His final settlement in this regard was not lucky: he adopted his fourth
wife's son, L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, who was to reign catastrophically as
Nero and bring the dynasty to an end. Claudius's reign, therefore, was a mixture
of successes and failures that leads into the last phase of the Julio-Claudian
line.
NERO
•
Nero, last of the Julio-Claudians, had been placed in the difficult
position of absolute authority at a young age coupled with the oftencontradictory efforts of those in a position to manipulate him. Augustus,
however, had not been much older when he began his bid for power,
and so a great deal of the responsibility for Nero's conduct must also
rest with the man himself. Nero's reign was not without military
operations (e.g., the campaigns of Corbulo against the Parthians, the
suppression of the revolt of Boudicca in Britain), but his neglect of the
armies was a critical error. He left Rome not to review his troops but to
compete in Greek games, and as a further slight had left a freedman,
Helius, in his place at Rome to govern in his absence. The suspicion
which surrounded him after the treason trials and the conspiracy set the
stage for a series of civil upheavals, "the Year of the Four Emperors,"
which included the rise to power of men, such as Otho in Lusitania and
Vespasian in Judaea, whom Nero himself had sent to the frontiers,
unaware that they were to become his successors.
VESPASIAN
• Titus Flavius Vespasianus (b. A.D. 9, d. A.D. 79,
emperor A.D. 69-79) restored peace and stability to
an empire in disarray following the death of Nero in
A.D. 68. In the process he established the Flavian
dynasty as the legitimate successor to the Imperial
throne. Although we lack many details about the
events and chronology of his reign, Vespasian
provided practical leadership and a return to stable
government - accomplishments which, when
combined with his other achievements, make his
emperorship particularly notable within the history of
the Principate.
TITUS
• Titus was the beneficiary of considerable intelligence and talent,
endowments that were carefully cultivated at every step of his
career, from his early education to his role under his father's
principate. Cassius Dio suggested that Titus' reputation was
enhanced by his early death. It is true that the ancient sources
tend to heroicize Titus, yet based upon the evidence, his reign
must be considered a positive one. He capably continued the
work of his father in establishing the Flavian dynasty and he
maintained a high degree of economic and administrative
competence in Italy and beyond. In so doing, he solidified the
role of the emperor as paternalistic autocrat, a model that would
serve Trajan and his successors well.
DOMITIAN
•
On 18 September, A.D. 96, Domitian was assassinated and was
succeeded on the very same day by M. Cocceius Nerva, a senator
and one of his amici. The sources are unanimous in stressing that this
was a palace plot, yet it is difficult to determine the level of culpability
among the various potential conspirators. In many ways, Domitian is
still a mystery - a lazy and licentious ruler by some accounts, an
ambitious administrator and keeper of traditional Roman religion by
others. As many of his economic, provincial, and military policies
reveal, he was efficient and practical in much that he undertook, yet he
also did nothing to hide the harsher despotic realities of his rule. This
fact, combined with his solitary personality and frequent absences from
Rome, guaranteed a harsh portrayal of his rule. The ultimate truths of
his reign remain difficult to know.
NERVA
• Nerva's reign was more concerned with the continuation of an
existing political system than with the birth of a new age. Indeed,
his economic policies, his relationship with the senate, and the
men whom he chose to govern and to offer him advice all show
signs of Flavian influence. In many respects, Nerva was the
right man at the right time. His immediate accession following
Domitian's murder prevented anarchy and civil war, while his
age, poor health and moderate views were perfect attributes for
a government that offered a bridge between Domitian's stormy
reign and the emperorships of the stable rulers to follow.
TRAJAN
•
Early in his principate, he had unofficially been honored with the title optimus,
"the best," which long described him even before it became, in 114, part of his
official titulature. His correspondence with Pliny enables posterity to gain an
intimate sense of the emperor in action. His concern for justice and the wellbeing of his subjects is underscored by his comment to Pliny, when faced with
the question of the Christians, that they were not to be sought out, "nor is it
appropriate to our age." At the onset of his principate, Tacitus called Trajan's
accession the beginning of a beatissimum saeculum, and so it remained in the
public mind. Admired by the people, respected by the senatorial aristocracy, he
faced no internal difficulties, with no rival nor opposition. His powers were as
extensive as Domitian's had been, but his use and display of these powers
were very different from those of his predecessor, who had claimed to be deus
et dominus. Not claiming to be a god, he was recognized in the official
iconography of sculpture as Jupiter's viceregent on earth, so depicted on the
attic reliefs of the Beneventan arch. The passage of time increased Trajan's aura
rather than diminished it. In the late fourth century, when the Roman Empire had
dramatically changed in character from what it had been in Trajan's time, each
new emperor was hailed with the prayer, felicior Augusto, melior Traiano, "may
he be luckier than Augustus and better than Trajan." That reputation has
essentially survived into the present day.
HADRIAN
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• 117-138 CE
• Placed in the list of "good" emperors, a worthy successor to the
optimus princeps Trajan. Hadrian played a significant role both
in developing the foreign policies of the empire and in its
continuing centralization in administration. Few would disagree
that he was one of the most remarkable men Rome ever
produced, and that the empire was fortunate to have him as its
head.
Antoninus Pius
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• 138-161CE
• Antoninus Pius is regarded as one of the "Five Good Emperors"
in Roman history. Antoninus believed the Empire needed no
further conquests. Antonius believed that he should remain in
Rome for the duration of his reign so as to receive news and
messages from the provinces quickly and easily.. He was
respected by his neighbors and generally kept the peace with
news and messages from
the provinces quickly and easily.
the border territories.
MARCUS AURELIUS
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• 161-180 CE
•
Gibbon called Marcus "that philosophic monarch,” a combination of adjective
and noun which sets Marcus apart from all other Roman emperors. His renown
has, in subsequent centuries, suffered little, although he was by no means a
"perfect" person. He was perhaps too tolerant of other people's failings, he
himself used opium. The abundance of children whom his wife bore him
included, alas, a male who was to prove one of Rome's worst rulers. How much
better it would have been if Marcus had had no son and had chosen a
successor by adoption, so that the line of the five good emperors, Nerva,
Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus, Marcus, could have been extended. It was not to
be, and for that Marcus must accept some responsibility.Yet he was a man of
ability and a sense of duty who sacrificed his own delights and interests to the
well-being of the state. He was capax imperii, he did his best, and history has
been kind to him. As Hamlet said to Horatio, when awaiting the appearance of
the ghost of his father,"He was a man! Take him for all in all, I shall not look upon
his like again." (I 2, 187-88)His memory remains vivid and tactile because of the
famous column, the equestrian statue, and his slender volume of thoughts,
written in Greek, the Meditations.
THE FIVE GOOD
EMPERORS: 96-180
•
Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius, known as the Five
Good Emperors, were a series of excellent emperors who ruled in Rome from 96-180
AD. following the Flavian Dynasty. They were so called because they succeeded in
winning the support and cooperation of the senate, which is something their
predecessors had failed to accomplish.The first of these great emperors was Marcus
Cocceius Nerva, ruling from 96-98 AD, who was chosen to take the throne by the
assassins of the previous emperor, Domitian. He was a conservative man who
promised to deal with the senate fairly and never put one of its members to death.
The main things that characterize the reign of Nerva are his excellent relations with
the senate, his completion of Dominitan's projects, his vast amount of spending on
securing public good will, his attempt to increase civilian dislike for Dominitan, and the
fact that he initiated a system of adopting heirs to ensure the succession of the best
candidates. He adopted Trajan to be his heir, and thus inheriting the throne after
him.The second emperor, Trajan, was in power from 98-117 and began his reign with
pomp, killing all the leaders of the group who had shamed Nerva. He was named
Optimus Maximus, meaning the best because of his respect for the senate and a
series of foreign wars in which he attempted to extend the empire. He is well known
for his contributions to public services, including an increase in the free distribution of
food, the repair of roads, and the construction of the Forum, Market, and baths of
Trajan. He adopted Hadrian, who became his successor.
THE FIVE GOOD
EMPERORS: 96-180
• Publius Aelius Hadrianus (Hadrian), the third of the great emperors to rule
Rome, was in power from 117-138. His first accomplishment was the
termination of Trajan's attempts at expansion. He also abandoned military
conquests because they were too expensive, and paid more attention to the
provinces, traveling and listening to them. Regarding government and law,
he developed the Frumentarii, or Secret Service, and established the
Equestrian Order which took the major burden of civil service and amassed
secretariat positions. Intellectually, he was an author surrounded with fine
minds who encouraged art, literature, and culture.Hadrian's successor was
Antonius Pius, ruling from 138-161. His name arose from his refusing to
executing the list that was waiting when he came to power. He had no
desire to conquer so his reign was very prosperous and he restored the
status of the senate. Some other of his accomplishments include improving
bureaucratic machinery, watching the development of foreign crises, and
founding the dynasty of Antoninus, and being a great builder.The last of the
famous emperors was Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, who ruled from 161-180,
in an era of intense hardship. There was incessant warfare and financial
suffering during his reign as well as an outbreak of plague from the East. He
was part of the Marcomannic Wars of Marcomanni, Langobardi and others
and broke into the Danube provinces, routed an army and besieged Aquileia
as a prelude to Italy's invasion. The end of the reign of the Five Good
Emperors was characterized by Aurelius's death on the frontier in 180 AD.