Tutti gli imperatori romani

All the Roman emperors

Roberto Zampieri

The Roman emperors were the rulers of the Roman Empire from the granting of the name and title of Augustus to Octavian by the Roman Senate in 27 BC onwards. Augustus maintained a façade of republican rule, rejecting monarchical titles but calling themselves princeps senatus (first man of the Senate) and princeps civitatis (first citizen of the state). The title of Augustus was bestowed upon his successors to the imperial office, and the emperors gradually became more monarchical and authoritarian.

The style of government established by Augustus is called Principate and continued until the late third or early fourth century. The modern word “emperor” comes from the title imperator, which was granted by an army to a successful general; during the early phase of the empire, the title was generally used only by the princeps.

For example, Augustus' official name was Imperator Caesar Divi Filius Augustus. The territory under the emperor's command had developed during the period of the Roman Republic when it invaded and occupied much of Europe and portions of North Africa and the Middle East. Under the republic, the Senate and People of Rome authorized provincial governors, who answered only to them, to govern the regions of the empire.

The principal magistrates of the republic were two consuls elected annually ; consuls continued to be elected into the imperial period, but their authority was subordinate to that of the emperor, who also controlled and determined their election. Often, the emperors themselves, or close relatives, were chosen as consuls.

After the crisis of the third century, Diocletian increased the emperor's authority and adopted the title “dominus noster” (our lord). The rise of powerful barbarian tribes along the empire's borders, the challenge they posed to the defense of remote borders, and an unstable imperial succession led Diocletian to divide the administration of the Empire geographically with a co-augustus in 286.

In 330 Constantine the Great, the emperor who accepted Christianity, established a second capital in Byzantium, which he renamed Constantinople. Historians consider the Dominare period of the empire to have begun with Diocletian or Constantine, depending on the author. For most of the period from 286 to 480, there was more than one recognized senior emperor, with the division usually based on geographic regions. This division was constantly in place after the death of Theodosius I in 395, which historians have dated as the split between the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire. However, formally the Empire remained a single political system, with separate co-emperors in separate courts.

The fall of the Western Roman Empire is dated either from the de facto date of 476, when Romulus Augustulus he was deposed by the Germanic Heruli led by Odoacer, or from the de jure date of 480, upon the death of Julius Nepos, when the Eastern emperor Zeno ended recognition of a separate Western court.

Historians typically refer to the empire in later centuries as the “Byzantine Empire,” oriented toward Hellenic culture and ruled by the Byzantine emperors. Given that “Byzantine” is a later historiographical designation and the inhabitants and emperors of the empire continually maintained Roman identity, this designation is not used universally and continues to be the subject of specialist debate. Under Justinian I, in the 6th century, much of the western empire was reconquered, including Italy, Africa, and parts of Spain.

Over the next few centuries, most of the imperial territories were lost, which eventually restricted the empire to Anatolia and the Balkans. The line of emperors continued until the death of Constantine XI Palaeologus at the fall of Constantinople in 1453, when the remaining territories were conquered by the Ottoman Turks led by Sultan Mehmed II. In the aftermath of the conquest, Mehmed II proclaimed himself kayser-i Rûm (“Caesar of the Romans”), thus claiming to be the new emperor, a claim maintained by subsequent sultans. Competing claims for succession to the Roman Empire were also made by various other states and empires, and by numerous later claimants.

Legitimacy of the emperors

While the imperial rule of the Roman Empire was rarely challenged during its five centuries in the west and fifteen centuries in the east , individual emperors often faced endless challenges in the form of usurpations and perpetual civil wars. From the accession of Augustus, the first Roman emperor, in 27 BC to the sack of Rome in 455 AD, there were more than one hundred usurpations or attempted usurpations (an average of one usurpation or attempt approximately every four years).

From the assassination of Commodus in 192 until the fifth century, there was hardly a single decade without succession conflicts and civil wars. Very few emperors died of natural causes, with regicide in practical terms having become the expected end of a Roman emperor from late antiquity.

The distinction between a usurper and a legitimate emperor is blurry, as a large number of emperors commonly considered legitimate began their rule as usurpers, rebelling against the previous legitimate emperor.

True legitimizing structures and theories were weak, or entirely absent, in the Roman Empire, and there were no real objective legal criteria for being acclaimed emperor beyond acceptance by the Roman army.

Dynastic succession was not legally formalized, but also not uncommon, with powerful rulers sometimes managing to transfer power to their children or other relatives. While dynastic ties could bring someone to the throne, they were no guarantee that their rule would not be challenged.

With the exception of Titus (r. 79–81; son of Vespasian), no son of an emperor who reigned after his father's death died a natural death until Constantine I in 337. Rome itself's control and approval of the Roman Senate had a certain importance as legitimizing factors, but were above all symbolic. Emperors who began their careers as usurpers had often been considered public enemies by the senate before they succeeded in taking the city.

Emperors did not need to be acclaimed or crowned in Rome itself , as demonstrated in the Year of the Four Emperors (69), when pretenders were crowned by armies in the Roman provinces, and the role of the senate in legitimizing emperors had all but vanished in the crisis of the third century was null and void (235-285). By the end of the 3rd century, Rome's importance was primarily ideological, with several emperors and usurpers even starting to locate their court in other cities of the empire, closer to the imperial frontier.

Common methods used by emperors were pursued to assert claims of legitimacy, such as proclamation by the army, blood ties (sometimes fictitious) to past emperors, wear imperial insignia, distribute their own coins or statues, and claim pre-eminent virtues through propaganda as well by many usurpers as they were legitimate emperors. There were no constitutional or legal distinctions that differentiated legitimate emperors and usurpers. In ancient Roman texts, the difference between emperors and “tyrants” (the term typically used for usurpers) is often moral (with tyrants attributed with evil behavior) rather than legal. Typically, the real distinction was whether the claimant was victorious or not. In the Historia Augusta, an ancient Roman collection of imperial biographies, the usurper Pescennius Niger (193–194) is expressly referred to as a tyrant only because he was defeated by Septimius Severus (r. 193–211).

This is also followed in modern historiography, where, in the absence of constitutional criteria separating them, the main factor distinguishing usurpers from legitimate Roman emperors is their degree of success.

What makes a figure who started out as a usurper a legitimate emperor is typically that they managed to gain recognition from an older, legitimate emperor, or that they managed to defeat an older, legitimate emperor and seize power by their own strength .

List of emperors of the Western Roman Empire

Here is the list of emperors of the Western Roman Empire with their dates of birth, death and periods of reign (indicated as “Reign Date”):

  • Augustus (63 BC – 14 AD) – Reign date: 27 BC – 14 AD
  • Tiberius (42 BC – 37) – Reign date: 14 – 37
  • Caligula (12 – 41) – Reign date: 37 – 41
  • Claudius (10 BC – 54) – Reign date: 41 – 54
  • Nero (37 – 68) – Reign date: 54 – 68
  • Galba (3 BC – 69) – Reign date: 68 – 69
  • Otho (32 – 69) – Reign date: 69
  • Vitellius (15 – 69) – Reign date: 69
  • Vespasian (9 – 79) – Reign date: 69 – 79
  • Titus (39 – 81) – Reign date: 79 – 81
  • Domitian (51 – 96) – Reign date: 81 – 96
  • Nerva (30 – 98) – Reign date: 96 – 98
  • Trajan (53 – 117) – Reign date: 98 – 117
  • Hadrian (76 – 138) – Reign date: 117 – 138
  • Antoninus Pius (86 – 161) – Reign date: 138 – 161
  • Marcus Aurelius (121 – 180) – Reign date: 161 – 180
  • Commodus (161 – 192) – Reign date: 180 – 192
  • Pertinax (126 – 193) – Reign date: 193
  • Didius Julianus (133 – 193) – Reign date: 193
  • Septimius Severus (145 – 211) – Reign date: 193 – 211
  • Caracalla (188 – 217) – Reign date: 211 – 217
  • Macrinus (164 – 218) – Reign date: 217 – 218
  • Elagabalus (203 – 222) – Reign date: 218 – 222
  • Alexander Severus (208 – 235) – Reign date: 222 – 235
  • Maximinus Thrax (173 – 238) – Reign date: 235 – 238
  • Gordian I (159 – 238) – Reign date: 238
  • Gordian II (192 – 238) – Reign date: 238
  • Pupienus (178 – 238) – Reign date: 238
  • Balbinus (178 – 238) – Reign date: 238
  • Gordian III (225 – 244) – Reign date: 238 – 244
  • Philip the Arab (204 – 249) – Reign date: 244 – 249
  • Decius (201 – 251) – Reign date: 249 – 251
  • Trebonianus Gallus (206 – 253) – Reign date: 251 – 253
  • Aemilian (231 – 253) – Reign date: 253
  • Valerian (193 – 260) – Reign date: 253 – 260
  • Gallienus (218 – 268) – Reign date: 253 – 268
  • Claudius II the Gothic (214 – 270) – Reign date: 268 – 270
  • Aurelian (214 – 275) – Reign date: 270 – 275
  • Tacitus (200 – 276) – Reign date: 275 – 276
  • Florian (c. 225 – 276) – Reign date: 276
  • Probus (232 – 282) – Reign date: 276 – 282
  • Caro (230 – 283) – Reign date: 282 – 283
  • Carinus (c. 250 – 285) – Reign date: 283 – 285
  • Numerian (253 – 284) – Reign date: 283 – 284
  • Diocletian (245 – 311) – Reign date: 284 – 305
  • Maximian (c. 250 – 310) – Reign date: 286 – 305
  • Galerius (250 – 311) – Reign date: 305 – 311
  • Constantine I (c. 272 ​​– 337) – Reign date: 307 – 337
  • Constantine II (316 – 340) – Reign date: 337 – 340
  • Constant I (320 – 350) – Reign date: 337 – 350
  • Constantius II (317 – 361) – Reign date: 337 – 361
  • Julian (331 – 363) – Reign date: 361 – 363
  • Jovian (331 – 364) – Reign date: 363 – 364
  • Valentinian I (321 – 375) – Reign date: 364 – 375
  • Gratian (359 – 383) – Reign date: 375 – 383
  • Valentinian II (371 – 392) – Reign date: 375 – 392
  • Theodosius I (347 – 395) – Reign date: 379 – 395
  • Honorius (384 – 423) – Reign date: 395 – 423
  • Valentinian III (419 – 455) – Reign date: 425 – 455
  • Petronius Maximus (396 – 455) – Reign date: 455
  • Avitus (395 – 457) – Reign date: 455 – 456
  • Majorian (457 – 461) – Reign date: 457 – 461
  • Libius Severus (c. 420 – 465) – Reign date: 461 – 465
  • Anthemius (420 – 472) – Reign date: 467 – 472
  • Olibrius (c. 420 – 472) – Reign date: 472
  • Glycerius (c. 420 – 480) – Reign date: 473 – 474
  • Julius Nepos (430 – 480) – Reign date: 474 – 475
  • Romulus Augustulus (460 – ?) – Reign date: 31 October 475 – September 476
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