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

Introduction and Sources The five Julio-Claudian emperors are very different one from the other. Augustus dominates in prestige and achievement from the enormous impact he had upon the Roman state and his long service to Rome, during which he attained unrivaled auctoritas. Tiberius was clearly the only possible successor when Augustus died in AD 14, but, upon his death twenty-three years later, […]

Summary and Introduction The Emperor Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus (A.D. 284-305) put an end to the disastrous phase of Roman history known as the “Military Anarchy” or the “Imperial Crisis” (235-284). He established an obvious military despotism and was responsible for laying the groundwork for the second phase of the Roman Empire, which is known […]

Governor of Britain at the death of the emperor Pertinax, Decimus Clodius Albinus attempted to seize the throne but ended up as Caesar in alliance with another imperial contender, Septimius Severus. After Severus defeated two other rivals, the now expendable Albinus was forced into another attempt at usurpation, an attempt that came to an end at the bloody battle […]

Julia Agrippina (Agrippina the Younger) played a notable role in the Julio-Claudian family drama. Her influence had as its origin the only resource available to women of her time, proximity to male power.  She, like Livia before her, was the wife of one emperor and the mother of another.  She was also the sister of a third […]

The child empress Agnes of France was the spouse of two emperors of Byzantium, the boy emperor Alexius II Comnenus, and subsequently Andronicus I Comnenus, the latter’s first cousin once removed.  Agnes was born to King Louis VII of France’s third wife, Adèle (or Alix) of Blois-Champagne, the daughter of Count Theobald II of Blois, in 1172. […]

From A.D. 253 to 260, Valerian ruled the Roman Empire together with his son Gallienus. At the end of the fifties, Valerian launched an attack against the Persians, but was captured in A.D. 260. Persians invaded the eastern Roman provinces, producing chaos. In turn, provincials tried to help themselves by choosing their own emperors –effectively rebelling– not only in the […]

The anonymous late 4th-century Epitome de Caesaribus sets the birthplace of Aemilianus (PIR2 A330) “on the island Meninx, which is now called Girba,” modern Gerba, off the coast of western Tunisia and calls him a Moor (31.1-2, ed. Pichlmayer, p. 159), while John Zonaras styles him a Libyan (12.21, ed. Büttner-Wobst, p. 590). On the basis of another […]

In 285 or 286, insurgent peasants, whom history has called the Bagaudae, revolted against Roman rule in Gaul and in Spain. Amandus, also known as C.C. Amandus, one of the Bagaudae leaders, was raised to the purple; his right hand man was a certain Aelianus. It is unclear whether or not he was denoted a […]

Much like the later empress Theodora, Eudoxia has been the subject of a largely negative press. Zosimus (Historia nova 5.18.8), writing almost a century after her death, records that it was widely claimed that her fourth child, the only son and heir, Theodosius II, had been fathered by one of her husband’s courtiers, John; and himself goes on […]

Aelia Eudocia, whose first name was Athenaïs, was born into a pagan family probably around the start of the fifth century. Her father, Leontius, was a prominent philosopher, who ensured that his daughter received a thorough and traditional education. He may have been Athenian – hence the name of his daughter – or a native […]