Roman Emperors – An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Rulers and Their Families

Valerian Gallienus P. Licinius Valerianus, or Valerian, was unusual for his time period in that he was an emperor who came from an old Roman senatorial family. He was likely born shortly before 200 A.D., but little is known of his early life. Valerian married Egnatia Mariniana and had two sons, Gallienus and Valerian Junior. […]

Maxentius Valerius Romulus Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maxentius, more commonly known as Maxentius, was the child of the Emperor Maximianus Herculius and the Syrian Eutropia; he was born ca. 278 A.D. After Galerius’ appointment to the rank of Caesar on 1 March 293, Maxentius married Galerius’ daughter Valeria Maximilla, who bore him a son named Romulus and another son whose name is unknown. Due to his haughty nature […]

Maximianus Herculius’ Early Career Perhaps born ca. 249/250 A.D. in Sirmium in the area of the Balkans, Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maximianus, more commonly known as Maximianus Herculius, had been a soldier before he put on the purple. A fellow soldier with theEmperor Diocletian, he had served in the military during the reigns of Aurelian and Probus. He may have served […]

Sources Sources for the study of Lucius Verus are disappointing. There is neither a corpus of correspondence nor the chronicle of a major historian. The biography of Verus in Historia Augusta is our chief literary source, supplemented by the HA biographies of Marcus and Antoninus. The Historia Augusta collection of imperial biographies has been the subject of heated scholarly controversy since […]

Introduction The evidence for the principate of Galba is unsatisfactory. The sources either concentrate on the personality of the man, thereby failing to offer a balanced account of his policies and a firm chronological base for his actions; or, they focus on the final two weeks of his life at the expense of the earlier […]

Honorius’ Early Life Flavius Honorius was born in the east in 384, the younger son of the emperor Theodosius I (379-395) and Aelia Flavia Flaccilla. In his youth he was named Most Noble Child (nobilissimus puer), and in 386 he held the consulate. He was summoned by his father to Rome when he was five, but in 391 he […]

The Pannonian Emperors[[1]] The death of Julian on June 26, 363 brought an end to the domination of the imperial throne by the family of Constantine . Unfortunately, there was little opportunity for careful selection of a successor. Julian was trying to extract the massive army which he had marched deep into Persia twhen he was killed during a skirmish. Military […]

Introduction and Early Life The ineffectual life and reign of Flavius Arcadius are of considerably less importance than the quite significant developments that occurred during his reign. Born either in 377 or 378 to then general Theodosius and Aelia Flavia Flacilla, he and his younger brother, Honorius, ruled the eastern and western halves of the Roman Empire respectively […]

Valentinian II (full name Flavius Valentinianus) was born in 371. He was the son of the emperor Valentinian I. His mother was Valentinian I’s second wife Justina, who had formerly been married to the usurper Magnentius. In addition to Valentinian II, the elder Valentinian and Justina had three daughters: Justa, Galla, and Grata.[[1]] When Valentinian I died at Bregetio on November 17, […]

Introduction. The reign of Justinian was a turning-point in Late Antiquity. It is the period when paganism finally lost its long struggle to survive, and when the schism in Christianity between the Monophysite east and the Chalcedonian west became insurmountable. From a military viewpoint, it marked the last time that the Roman Empire could go […]