Roman Emperors Timeline

Augustus

Period: 27 BCE to 14

-He joined his Uncle Julius Caesar in battle, and Caesar was impressed with his ability. Caesar never had a son, so he made Augustus to be his heir. (Everitt)
-At the Battle of Actium, Augustus' army defeated Antony and Cleopatra's armies. They committed suicide after being defeated, so Augustus became the most powerful man in Rome.
-After Augustus became emperor, Rome had experienced many years of civil war. Augustus managed to bring peace, and began to rebuild the city and the empire.

My color choice for Augustus: Blue

Period: 27 BCE to 14

Justification:
Augustus was one of the most successful emperor, his contribution was huge, and he was the foundation of everything in Rome. After Caesar was killed, he stood up and was dedicated, He was selected to be the dictator, and he certainly did not let the them down, won the battle and forced them to suicide. The other thing that he was known for is bringing peace the Roman empire that lasted for 200 years, this contribution was meaningful and I respect that a lot.

Citations

1 BCE

"Roman Emperor Timeline." Roman Emperor Timeline - Ancient History Encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2017. "(lang=en)Illustrated History of the Roman Empire." The Roman Empire. (type=role)onlineProvider, n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2017. "The Most Trusted Place for Answering Life's Questions." Answers. Answers Corporation, n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2017. "Ancient Rome for Kids." Ducksters Educational Site. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2017.

My color choice for Tiberius: Red

Period: 14 to 37

Tiberius was very unsuccessful for the following reasons:
-When he first became the emperor , he tried very hard to force the senate to do their job and start governing, and they weren't happy with his attitude
-He wasn’t an elegant man, which leads to embarrassing incidents, like falling over in public for several times.
-Finally, Tiberius made the worst decision ever. He left Rome, which blew everyone away. He moved away because he couldn't handle all those hate.

Detailed judgement and information on Tiberius (Part 3)

Period: 14 to 37

Tiberius started to get more paranoid as his reign comes near to an end, he ordered the deaths of every member in Germanicus’ family, except Caligula, because he was named as his successor. But Caligula rose up and became another bad and disrespectful emperor just like Tiberius, which showed me how bad Tiberius’ decision makings are.

Detailed judgement and information on Tiberius (Part 4)

Period: 14 to 37

We don’t know what caused him to become a horrible emperor, it might have something to do with his belief, it’s weird and disappointing that he couldn’t be a great emperor with his ability to rule and command in the army. We also couldn’t find out what he did when he was absent from Rome, rumors said that he was homosexual, he might’ve raped young kids and abused them.

Detailed information and judgement on Tiberius (Part 5)

Period: 14 to 37

But anyway, it’s not all his fault that he ended up as a bad emperor, because he was forced to do so, he never liked to deal with political matters with governmental groups, maybe commanding the army was the job that suits him the best.

Tiberius

Period: 14 to 37

-Augustus ruled Rome until he died in 14 AD, so his step-son, Tiberius, became the second emperor of Rome
-When Tiberius grew up, Augustus sent him on missions to give him experience in government, he did lots of fighting in the army, and he won a bunch of battles. So he had a lot of military experiences.
-Some people liked his reign as an emperor, because he cut taxes and lowered luxury expenses. But he was actually disliked by most people because of his big failures. (Karen Carr)

Detailed judgement and information on Tiberius (Part 1)

Period: 14 to 37

Tiberius is the second roman emperor in history, his reign was not successful due to his horrible attitude, he was a dark awkward, and isolated man. Tiberius had all the talents to be a superb emperor, he was a respected military commander in his younger years, and was one of the greatest generals. He was actually fairly average at the beginning of his reign, his reign was stabilized and peaceful.

Detailed judgement and information on Tiberius (Part 2)

Period: 14 to 37

Tiberius put most his attention on the army, and was a decent politician, he often checked on the senate and tried to united the empire. But then he made the worst decision ever, he left Rome, because he couldn’t embrace the hate from his people. Before leaving, he gave his power to a man he trusted —Sejanus. Sejanus wanted to acquire absolute power in Rome, but he failed, killed at the age of 22 after his conspiracy was exposed …

Claudius

Period: 41 to 54

-Claudius brought peace to Rome by restoring the rule of law
-Conquered Britain in AD43, added Britian, Thrace, Lycia, Mauretania Caesariensis and Mauretania Tingitana to the Roman Empire (Robert Graves)
-Claudius had thirty-five senators and four hundred others executed or forced to commit suicide
-He disliked the Jews and expelled them from the city
-Increased the efficiency of the army by organizing ranks
-Allowed non-Roman citizens to join their army, so they can earn their citizenships.

Color choice for Claudius: Light Blue

Period: 41 to 54

Claudius was a successful emperor, his biggest achievements was to give huge expansion to the size of Rome's land, administrating the rules, and reforming the army. Those achievements are incredible, but his personality wasn't great, Claudius had more than 400 people from the governmental group were executed or committed suicide. He was also discriminative towards Jews, which is a bad habit for a leader of the empire.

My color choice for Nero: Red

Period: 54 to 68

Nero was a mean and selfish emperor, what he did was
unacceptable, no matter how decent he was as a beginner. Rome did not want a tyrant to be their leader, especially the one who kills their own people like nothing happened. Rumors said that he was the one who started the fire, but we aren't sure if that's real, but even if that's not real, he was a fool for blaming the Christians without any reasons. After all that, he didn't focus on rebuilding the city, instead he built a palace for himself.

Nero

Period: 54 to 68

-Nero started out to be a decent emperor, he supported arts, built public works, and lowered taxes
-As his reign continues, he became a tyrant, he executed anyone that he didn't like, including political members and even some of his wives
-In 64AD, a deadly fire destroyed most of the cities in Rome, rumors said that Nero started the fire because he wanted more personal lands. Nero blamed the Christians for the fire, and he had all of them killed (Scarre and Christopher)

Vespasian

Period: 69 to 79

-Vespasian became the emperor of Rome after a period of civil war. He faced the task of restoring the city and the government, because most were destroyed during the war
-He was successful in inheriting the city, his taxation programs and the loot from Jerusalem, got the empire back on its financial feet. (John Donahue)
-Vespasian was named “the greatest genius of mankind” and “the leader and teacher of the peoples of the whole world”. (John Donahue)

My color choice for Vespasian: Blue

Period: 69 to 79

Vespasian made a huge impact during his short reign as an emperor, he had little problems but he was genuine on solving his problems. He was described by some writers as the man who save Rome, everyone thought that Rome would collapse after the war, but he managed to save the empire by bringing stability.

My color choice for Titus: Blank

Period: 79 to 81

I really don't know what to say about Titus, he was trying to help the people genuinely, but all the bad coincidences that occurred during his short reign stopped him from focusing on embarking the people. He was known for disasters, but his completion of the colosseum was successful, the colosseum was opened with a series of lavish games and spectacles. Even though Titus might've brought bad luck to Rome, but he also became one of the most famous emperor because of that.

Titus

Period: 79 to 81

-Titus was energetic in promoting his father’s candidacy for the imperial crown. （Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica）
-In AD69, his father Vespasian gave him the charge of Jewish war, and the Jerusalem fell to his troops
-He completed the construction of colosseum
-The suspects of Vespasian's death was revealed to him, and he had both of them killed in a crucial way
-During Titus's reign, 2 big disasters crushed Rome, one was a eruption at vesuvian,the other one was a life threatening plague.

Nerva

Period: 96 to 98

-The first few months of his reign didn't go well, statues of Domitian were destroyed
-Nerva had difficulties restoring the rules, when Rome was ruled by Domitian, people weren't allowed to do anything
-the praetorian guard imprisoned Nerva, they want him to hand over Petronius and Parthenius, which were already killed.
-His adoption of Trajan enabled him to live the remainder of his life in peace (Cassius Dio)
-Nerva has limited political experience, so he wasn't decisive and original

My color choice for Nerva: Pink (light red)

Period: 96 to 98

Nerva not considered as a great emperor, but people thought he was good because the last emperor was Domitian, which was way worse than him. Nerva was in his sixties when he came to power. His lack of political experience demonstrated poor decisiveness, which caused him many troubles. Nerva's reign lasted for only 16 months, and he wan't able to make a big impact. His biggest contribution is to have Trajan as his heir, Trajan was one of the greatest emperor of Rome

Trajan

Period: 98 to 117

-Trajan enjoyed battle and wanted to expand the empire, he expanded kingdoms and brought wealth to Rome by doing gold mines
-Trajan contributed on building public works throughout the empire, such as bridges, aqueducts, baths, roads, public buildings, and canals.
-He is the second emperor on "the five good emperors" list, the first one was Nerva.
-He helped poor people through a program called Alimenta

My color choice for Trajan: Blue

Period: 98 to 117

Trajan was considered the best emperor to ever exist, he made a huge impact by expanding Rome, and conquered Dacians for decades. He was also a great political leader, he treated his people and the government with full respect.

My color choice for Hadrian: Blank

Period: 117 to 138

Hadrian was a brilliant administrator that stabilized empire and provided 20 years of peace, but he also shown flashes of former horrible emperors such as Nero or Domitian. It was very hard to define if his contribution was more or less than the destruction he brought, so I will just give him no color

Hadrian

Period: 117 to 138

-Hadrian spent most of his reign traveling around the empire to visit provinces, administration teams, and armies.
-Hadrian established cities throughout the Balkan Peninsula, Egypt, Asia Minor, and Greece. (Joshua J. Mark)
-Hadrian was a cultured man, he focused on religions, art, and civilization. But he's got that dark side inside him too, senators, all ex-consuls were dead because of him, and he didn't take any responsibility.

Antoninus Pius

Period: 138 to 161

-Even though Antonius's reign as an emperor lasted for 23 years, but

it wasn't eventful, maybe he wasn't interested in events that aren't in Rome
-He freed many people that former emperors imprisoned, because he thought the laws should be impartial ( Donald L. Wasson )
-Antonius tried ruling everything the way Hadrian did, but he was not as precise and loyal as him.

My color choice for Antonius: Blank

Period: 138 to 161

Antonius Pius' reign was a period of peace and calm, Rome had not been developing during his 23 years of reign. His reign could be ignored because it didn't left any important records in history. All I know is that he was a decent administrator, he was impartial and patient, but he disliked religions such as Christian.

Marcus Aurelius

Period: 161 to 180

-His reign was surrounded with war and diseases. Parthians wanted to attack Rome and kill their emperor, but they were defeated eventually
-Germanic people attacked Rome when the empire was weakened from the plague, Marcus Aurelius spent his entire life fighting them and making treaties with them
-He was named "the philosophy king". His wrote the book "Meditations" inspired leaders for many centuries because of its wisdom about human behavior. (Richard Feloni)

My color choice for Marcus Aurelius: Blue

Period: 161 to 180

Marcus Aurelius was a thoughtful empire with lots of competitiveness. Unlucky things happened during his reign, but non of them was his fault, he battle through those wars and diseases with perseverance and smart decision-makings. His philosophy was his greatest legacy, it affected people who lived in a entirely new generation, even us. His philosophies became the basic principles that people from nowadays should all know.

Commodus

Period: 180 to 192

-Commodus did not care about political matters, and he was a lazy and arrogant tyrant. He inherited none of his father's work ethic
-He chose to pit himself in fights against his own injured soldiers, or just kill people that he didn't like
-Commodus literally had no positive contribution to Rome, unlike the previous bad emperors, he was the worst of all.
-He often went to the arena and dress up as the ancient hero "hercules“ (Donald L. Wasson)
-Commodus was the reigning empeor in《Gladiator》

My color choice for Commodus: Red

Period: 180 to 192

Commodus was arrogant, selfish, lazy, stupid, irresponsible.... He was the worst Roman emperor. He was not focused on the empire, instead he constantly entered the colosseum and battled injured soldiers from his own army. Commodus did not seem like a emperor of Rome, he was more like their biggest enemy, the empire got damaged multiple times during his reign, and their own people were killed by him.

My color choice for Diocletian: Blank

Period: 284 to 305

It all seemed like Diocletian's idea of dividing up the empire worked well, but this caused the empire to fell apart. He had great contributions such as fairing prices, but he did not succeed without causing a lot of problems and confusions in the beginning. He was also destroying the churches and killing the christians because he thought he was the god.

Diocletian

Period: 284 to 305

-Diocletian thought that the empire was too big for one person to rule, so he named Maximian as the co-emperor to rule together
-Diocletian and Maximian battled their invaders within the areas they are responsible of, they won and brought peace to the empire
-He doubled the number of provinces so that each of them can be more organized and safe
-He changed the taxation and max prices to a fair amount, so it would be fair for all people
-He considered himself as a living god (Donald L. Wasson)

Constantine

Period: 306 to 337

-Constantine first ruled the west portion of the empire, he strengthened the empire by building roadways and new cities, also publics buildings for defense, then he conquered nearby areas.
-He marched all the men who wanted to take over the emperor, and his army defeated them even with lack of soldiers.
-Constantine built a city as the new capital of Rome, he named that city "Constantinople" (Simpson, Judith, Paul Roberts, and Paul Bachem)

My color choice for Constantine: Blue

Period: 306 to 337

Constantine did a perfect job ruling the west of the empire, he did not came up with new ideas that could be risky. He strengthened and expanded the area, defeated the bad guys, and supported religions. His buildings are still popular today, such as the arch of constantine.