Roman Emperors Flashcards
Contantine the Great
Contantine I,
Legalized Christianity and built Constantinople. He played an influential role in the proclamation of the Edict of Milan in 313, which declared religious tolerance for Christianity in the Roman empire. He called the First Council of Nicaea in 325, which produced the Nicene Creed. Built the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Julius Caesar
Celebrated Roman general and statesman, the conqueror of Gaul (58–50 BCE), victor in the civil war of 49–45 BCE, and dictator (46–44 BCE), who was launching a series of political and social reforms when he was assassinated by a group of nobles in the Senate House on the Ides of March.
Octavian
The first Roman emperor (ruled 27BC-AD14), was born Octavius before being adopted later by his great-uncle Julius Caesar. Ruling as Octavius Caesar in a Triumvirate with Mark Anthony and Lepidus after Caesar’s assassination in 44BC, he eventually became supremely powerful. He lived to the age of 76, and was probably the only early emperor to die peacefully.
Nero
He ruled 54-68AD. He was not only the great-nephew and stepson of Claudius but also his son-in-law (through marriage to Claudius’ daughter Octavia). Many blamed him for the great fire at Rome in AD64 (the legendary “fiddling while Rome burned”). Four years later he was overthrown by a revolt and committed suicide to avoid capture.
Caligula
He ruled 37-41AD. His name was actually a diminutive nickname (meaning “bootykins”) given to the next successive emperor by the Roman army because of his boyhood habit of wearing small soldier’s boots. His contemporaries called him by his real name of Gaius Caesar, and he was a great-nephew of Tiberius. After a promising first eight months, he then became a licentious madman until being murdered (along with his wife and daughter) by officers of the praetorian guard.
Romulus Augustulus
Last Emperor of Rome
Diocletian
General that came to power and decided to sever the empire into two smaller empire that soon fell apart.
Roman Empire split 293 AD
Tetrarchy: 2 Augusti (senior emperors) and 2 Caesars (the junior emperors)
Commodus
The natural son of Marcus Aurelius.
Ended 84 years of stability in the empire
Wanted peace with Germany
Tiberius
He ruled AD14-37, the son of Augustus’ wife Livia, was also married to Augustus’ daughter Julia, and was thus twice related to his predecessor. In AD26 he left Rome and never returned, taking up residence in Capri from AD27 until his death there ten years later - a death caused or accelerated by his successor.
Vespasian
Roman emperor (ad 69-79) who, though of humble birth, became the founder of the Flavian dynasty after the civil wars that followed Nero’s death in 68. His fiscal reforms and consolidation of the empire generated political stability and a vast Roman building program.
Titus
Roman emperor (79-81), and the conqueror of Jerusalem in 70. Success was won largely by lavish expenditure, some public bounty, like the assistance to Campania after Vesuvius erupted in 79 and the rebuilding of Rome after the fire in 80. He completed construction of the Flavian Amphitheatre, better known as the Colosseum, and opened it with ceremonies lasting more than 100 days.
Hadrian
Roman emperor (117-138 ce), the emperor Trajan’s cousin and successor, who was a cultivated admirer of Greek civilization and who unified and consolidated Rome’s vast empire.
Five good Emperors
The ancient Roman imperial succession of Nerva (reigned ad 96-98), Trajan (98-117), Hadrian (117-138), Antoninus Pius (138-161), and Marcus Aurelius (161-180), who presided over the most majestic days of the Roman Empire.
