Give and take there were around 70 Emperors of the Roman empire and here are just five Roman Emperors you should know about.

1-Caligula

Let’s start with the third Roman emperor- Caligula. You’ll have heard stories about him I’m sure. He’s definitely an emperor worth knowing.

becoming emperor Caligula

Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus was born on the 31st of August 12 CE (Common era often referred to as AD) but he’s better known by his nickname- Caligula.

Caligula became the third Roman Emperor after the second Roman emperor, Tiberius, passed away. There are suggestions that Tiberius was murdered- he was 77 years old so it is just as likely he passed away natural. Actually, pause- this is Ancient Rome. It’s more likely Tiberius was murdered.

Caligula was offered the role of the Emperor on the 18th of march 37 CE and, as most people probably would, accepted the position arriving in Rome on the 28th of March. The first seven months of Caligula’s reign were positively lovely.

He granted large bonus payments to the army, including his personal bodyguards- the Praetorian Guard (always good to keep them loyal) and even called back many people he felt were wrongly cast into exile by Tiberius.

The illness

Late in 37 CE, Caligula became seriously ill. It is suspected that he was poisoned. Although he recovered he returned a completely different character than the one who had fallen ill. So although he’d made a physical recovery- it may be that he suffered some sort of brain damage.

As good as things were in the first seven months of his reign they were about to get equally as bad- if not slightly worse.

All of a sudden he started ordering the death of an awful lot of people- even in his own family- who he saw as a threat to his power. His uncle Claudius (who would be the next Emperor- spoilers) was kept alive so Caligula could keep him as a jester and mock him at every opportunity.

THE fall

After the illness things went downhill for Caligula and Rome- and it went downhill fast!

He became outrageously cruel to people. He actually enjoyed seeing people suffer. He was a big fan of murdering and torturing people but also had laws written in incredibly small letters so nobody could read them- then would punish them for breaking the law.

He had spectators trapped in the arena on the hottest days so he could take pleasure in watching them sweat, overheat and no doubt die. It also wasn’t uncommon for him to summon senators to his room late at night just to watch him dance.

He even started to refer to himself as “Jupiter” – and not after the Planet (which wasn’t discovered yet)- but after the King of the Gods. Yep- Caligula made people call him Jupiter because he thought he was God of the Gods. Not the best way to win people over.

His favourite horse (doubling as his best friend) had a stable out of marble, a feeder made out of ivory (elephant tusk material), a collar decorated in expensive jewels, and the most expensive blankets of purple-dyed fabric (purple dyed fabric was considered the most expensive in Ancient Rome) – Say what you like about Caligula, at least he knew how to look after his pets.

There were rumours that he made his horse a member of the Senate but I’m sorry to say that he only planned to make his horse a member of the Senate- he was murdered before he could actually pass the order.

Assassination

Caligula was assassinated on the 24th of January 41 CE at the age of 28. The plan was put together by Senators and the Praetorian guard. The senate used Caligula’s death/murder as a chance to restore the old Roman republic (time before the emperors). They failed and Claudius became the fourth Roman Emperor.

It’s sometimes interesting to think “what if” – what if Caligula hadn’t become ill. Would he have been the greatest Emperor ever? His reign started off so well so there’s a good chance he might have been.

2-HADRIAN

You may have heard of a fairly big wall in the UK called Hadrian’s wall? Well, let’s meet the Emperor who ordered it to be built.

BECOMING EMPEROR HADRIAN

Hadrian was born on the 24th of January 76 CE in what is modern-day Seville in Spain. He was given the great name “Publius Aelius Hadriaius” (really rolls off the tongue doesn’t it?) and was Emperor of Rome from 117 to 138.

Hadrian’s father was a cousin of Trajan and before Trajan became Emperor, Hadrian married Trajan’s great-niece Vibia Sabina.

Hadrian became Emperor after Trajan’s advisor told the Senate that Trajan had told him that he wanted Hadrian to be the next Emperor just before he’d died. It was fairly common knowledge that the advisor was a big fan of Hadrian but I’m sure Trajan really did want Hadrian to succeed him…

Either way the Senate- and more importantly the army- approved Hadrian’s rise to Emperor. There was a case of a few Senators being put to death shortly after Hadrian became Emperor Hadrian and, quite understandably, the other senators were a tad ticked off about it.

HADRIAN’S REIGN

When you think of Romans you normally imagine the army taking over lands and absorbing them into their expansive Empire.

Unlike his predecessor, Trajan, Hadrian preferred to consolidate and develop stable and defendable borders- rather than trying to push the Empire further out. Hadrian’s wall (construction started in 122 CE) was his line the sand- well stone in the grass- his, “this is where we stop”. Naturally, a lot of the Senators were against this. More territory meant more money and more power-throughout history the majority of people have had real problems accepting not having an ever-increasing supply of power.

Hadrian had a fantastic military mind but unlike the vast majority of the powerhouses in Rome had no love for war. Instead, he had a series of forts built across the Empire. Despite his hesitation to wage war and his abandonment of a lot of battles for land Trajan had started, Hadrian kept the Roman army in top condition. They were well supplied and well trained.

On his travels, he was known to have personally inspected legions of the army and ate and slept amongst them like he was one of them and not an Emperor at all. If anyone had been crazy enough to start anything- the army would definitely have been ready to respond.

As emperor Hadrian visited almost every province of the Empire with a number of advisors to make sure the Empire was being run properly and successfully. He spent over half his reign outside of Italy.

Hadrian knew what it would take to keep the Roman Empire intact and put methods in place that would ensure it kept running. He was a great project manager really.

His legacy will also perhaps be one of architecture. Not only was he responsible for the rather large wall in the North of England- but he also built and repaired a lot of Rome. He ordered the building of public spaces and aqueducts for fresh water, bathhouses, amphitheatres and temples.

He had the Pantheon rebuilt after it had been destroyed by a fire in 80 CE. The Pantheon’s dome was known as an engineering marvel.

LATER LIFE AND DEATH

Hadrian’s later life was plagued with various chronic illnesses. He had two more Senators murdered who he suspected of planning to assassinate him which made him even less popular in the ranks of the senate. Because his marriage hadn’t produced any children he adopted Antonius Pius in 138 CE and announced him as his successor.

Hadrian died on the 10th of July 138 CE after a reign of 21 years and was one of the “Five Good Emperors” of Rome.

3-NERO

Number 3 of our emperors you should know about is Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus- better known as just Nero. He was tyrannical and extremely self-indulgent- so you can tell he’s going to be a popular emperor and have a long reign…

Becoming emperor Nero

Nero became the fifth emperor of Rome in 54 CE at the age of 16 when the fourth emperor Claudius was murdered by his wife Agrippina- who just happened to be Nero’s mum. She poisoned him to see her son come into power. Agrippina had no intention of letting Nero rule alone however, she intended to rule through him.

Agrippina had political rivals murdered and even managed to get herself onto a coin. It had Nero’s head on one side and Agrippina’s head on the other. But Nero got bored of his mother and had her exiled.

Like so many emperors in history Nero’s reign actually started off quite well. He gave slaves some new rights such as being able to complain about bad treatment to the local authorities. He didn’t free the slaves and abolish slavery which would have been the more humane thing to do.

As time moved forward Nero started to lose track of what was right and what was wrong and he went from Nero to Zero. (Disney reference- I hope you got it!)

He had his stepbrother, his wife and his mother all murdered (a slightly horrific way to save money on the Christmas shopping) and the number of people who said things he didn’t agree with started to disappear and were never seen or heard from again.

the great fire of Rome

The great fire of Rome began on the 18th of July 54 BC close to the Circus Maximus. Because Rome was so tightly packed and thanks to the fanning of wind the fire ripped through Rome like it was on a deadline.

Writers of the time write of mansions being destroyed, temples being ruined and everyone’s home becoming the undesired form of hot property.

A lot of Romans felt the fire was an accident- there was an even bigger part of the population who thought Nero had ordered the fire to be lit. The fire did destroy an area of buildings which then allowed Nero to build himself a Golden house in a huge new complex called the Domus Aurea.

Suspicious right?

Nero had apparently been in Antium when the fire started and returned to Rome as soon as he heard it was literally on fire. He helped organise a relief effort and used his personal wealth to pay to get the debris and dead bodies moved. He was even kind enough to open his own palace to the homeless and made sure they were all fed.

Of course- this could be Nero being a hero and stepping up when he was needed the most or, it could be Nero being a zero and doing all these things to make sure he wasn’t held accountable for the fire.

The long and short of it is that we will never know until we have a time machine. What do you think? Was Nero being a hero or was he trying to move blame away from himself? Let me know in the comments!

In the end, Nero blamed the Christians and had them rounded up and brutally executed- some were thrown to bears and lions in the arena and many were burnt alive.

London was victim to a similar great fire in 1666- though that was started in a bakery- not by a Roman Emperor (or was it?)

After the fire, the new houses built were spaced out and built of brick. Roads were widened to prevent any future fires from being able to destroy the whole city. And you want to know how they paid for Nero’s brand new palace complex and all the new houses? They increased tax. They increased taxes by a lot. (That would have made citizens happy).

death

By 68 CE the Senate had had enough of the Nero and declared him a public enemy. The Senate was apparently keen to save the empire from an evil emperor and restore the republic.

Nero fled as everyone turned against him and chose to end his own life at the age of 30. After his death, the year of the four emperors and the first civil war of the Roman Empire began.

4-TRAJAN

Trajan was emperor before Hadrian and is known as possibly the best Roman Emperor. There’s quite a lot to talk about so expect a full blog post dedicated to Trajan in the future. I’ll just give some highlights here.

becoming emperor

Trajan served in the Roman army rising quickly through the ranks. Trajan was a hugely popular person in the army and had the loyalty of the forces. The Emperor before Trajan- Nerva was not quite so popular.

When Nerva got the top job aged 66 he knew he needed the loyalty of the army (otherwise his two-year reign would have been even shorter) so he named Trajan as his heir and adopted him as a son. It is literally one of the best decisions any Roman Emperor ever made- we’ll just ignore the suggestions Nerva was forced to do it and give him some credit.

When Nerva passed away in November 98 CE Trajan became emperor.

Reign

His reign was only 19 years long but my goodness did he make one heck of an impact. Like Hadrian, he is known as one of the five good emperors.

When he first arrived in Rome he got the lower classes on his side by giving them gifts of money. He even gave the Senate a false sense of power by asking them to help him rule the empire but only gave them small boring jobs to do- probably the ones he didn’t want to do himself.

He then set about expanding the Roman Empire and growing the Roman territories to a huge size.

Buildings

He oversaw one of the greatest achievements of engineering the Roman empire ever saw when they built an arched bridge over the river Danube. The bridge was built east of the Iron Gates (not literal gates- it was a gorge on the river Danube) in modern-day Romania and stretched a huge 1,135 metres into modern-day Serbia. This meant the Roman army had easy access to go fight more people! Yey!

He had Rome’s largest forum built- the Forum Traiani which he financed from his victory in Dacia (the place he built the bridge) And then was the Trajan’s Column (again to celebrate victory in Dacia), Triumphal arch (An huge arch entranceway) and then a mega load of roads which shortened journeys for marching armies. Invading more people! Yey!

He was a big investor in public entertainment so ordered the reconstruction of the circus Maximus so it could hold more chariot racing.

Death

Trajan died on the 11th of August 117 CE and at the time of his death, the Roman empire was as big as it was ever going to be. He was the most successful emperor in terms of territory gained- no wonder he was popular. The Romans were bloodthirsty.

5- AUGUSTUS

And so to close out this blog post we end with where it all started. The first Roman Emperor “Augustus”. There is a lot to his story- certainly more than I can talk about in a couple of hundred words so instead of doing him any sort of injustice I’ll dedicate an entire future blog post to Augustus and give the quick highlights here.

becoming emperor

August became emperor on the 16th of January 27 BCE though he wasn’t called emperor original and had to gain his power over smaller incremental gains. After he put an end to the civil war (started initially by Julius Caesar) with victory at the Battle of Actium where he defeated Cleopatra and Marc Antony (Cleo and Antony killed themselves) Augustus was given the title “Principate” but slowly built his power to eventually become the first emperor of Rome.

Expansion of Roman lands

Augustus was nothing if not successful at expanding the Roman lands- or empire I suppose we should call it now- during his reign, Egypt, Dalmatia, Pannonia, Noricum and Raetia entered the fold. I’ll list them again but this time with their modern names so you aren’t scratching your head trying to figure out where they were.

Egypt, Albania, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo and Serbia (Dalmatia), Hungry, Austria and Slovenia (Pannonia and Noricum), and Southern Germany (Raetia) – All the regions overlapped but I thought I’d save some reading by not writing North, East, South, West- it’s the land on the below map labelled Illyricum to the North East of Italy. (The boot shape in the middle of the map)

He expanded the empire in Africa and took over the remainder of modern-day Spain.

Germania (North of Italy) proved his ultimate disappointment and failure as he couldn’t conquer the forest land. In his span as emperor, he doubled the size of the Roman Empire.

As well as gaining more territory Augustus reformed taxes created a professional army of full-time soldiers and made the Praetorian guard (bodyguards for himself). And that wasn’t enough he created actually police and fire-fighting services for Rome. He was definitely busy.

He reined over the empire until the 19th of August 14 CE when he died at the age of 75 after a 40-year reign. He was succeeded by his stepson Tiberius.

And that as they say is all she wrote. Well- all I wrote.

If this has whetted your appetite for Romans then you can check out the Roman blogs here or if you wanted to learn more about the story of Pompeii you can do so here

Who was your favourite Roman Emperor? Let me know in the comments below. Thanks for reading!