Emperors of Rome

Emperor Constantine X

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 12:58:43 -0500

Constantine X (circa 1006-1067), surnamed Ducas, was Roman emperor of the East from 1059 to 1067. He was a typical representative of the civilian aristocracy. By deliberate neglect of the armed forces he reduced the Byzantine Empire to impotence when it was in mortal danger from Normans, Magyars, Uzes, and, most of all, Seljuk Turks.

His policy made the disaster of Manzikert (1071), where the Seljuks overwhelmingly defeated the Roman army, inevitable. He died in May 1067.

Emperor Petronius Maximus

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 01:26:15 -0500

Flavius Anicius Petronius Maximus became Roman Emperor in 455.

At the age of 19 he was admitted to the council of Honorius, and in 420 held the office of city prefect, becoming consul in 433, and again in 443. After the murder of Valentinian III in 455, Maximus was chosen to succeed him, and married the widowed empress Eudoxia.

She was in league with Genseric the Vandal, who sacked Rome. Maximus was killed.

Emperor Constantius III

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 16:08:20 -0500

Constantius III, a member of a noble Roman family, he became master of the soldiers under the emperor of the West, Honorius.

Constantius distinguished himself in 411 and the years following by overcoming various usurpers in Gaul and forcing the Visigoths to evacuate that region and move on to Spain. The Visigoths also surrendered Galla Placidia, Honorius’ sister, whom they had carried off from the sack of Rome in 410.

Constantius married Placidia in 417. Constantius was virtual ruler of the West and was finally appointed co-emperor by Honorius in February 421, but he died at Ravenna in September of the same year.

Emperor Philip the Arab

Sun, 13 Nov 2011 18:21:37 -0500

Philip the Arab born in Bostra, Arabia in 204 AD. 33rd Emperor of the Roman Empire, reigned from 244-249.

As praetorian prefect during the Persian campaign of Emperor Gordian III, he assisted the assassins of his sovereign and was saluted emperor by the Roman soldiers in 244. He then concluded a disgraceful peace with King Shapur I and returned to Rome, Italy.

After he had defeated the barbarous Carpians in 247, Philip made his 10-year-old son co-ruler as Philip II. In 248, military revolts in the Balkans and in the Orient caused Philip to appoint Gaius Messius Quintus Decius to crush the Balkan rebellion. When Decius, however, had been acclaimed emperor by his troops and then invaded Italy, the Philips took the field against their rival and were slain in battle.

The great domestic event of the reign occurred in 248, when the 1,000 anniversary of Rome’s foundation was celebrated magnificently.

Philip died in Verona, Italy, 249 AD.

Emperor Constantine VIII

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 04:03:30 -0500

Constantine VIII, (960-1028), was Roman emperor of the East from 1025 to 1028. Born in Constantinople, he was the younger brother of Basil II (reigned 976-1025), with whom he nominally served as co-emperor. But during these years he had no influence on policy. He was an old man when he came to be sole ruler, and he proved to be a weak, capricious, and cruel despot. He died at Constantinople on November 12, 1028.

Emperor Marcus Claudius Tacitus

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 18:04:54 -0500

After the death of Emperor Aurelian, the Roman armies asked the Senate to select the next emperor, and Marcus Claudius Tacitus, an elderly and respected senator, was finally chosen.

His reign was brief (from September 275 to about March 276) but he did win a victory over the Goths in Asia Minor before he was apparently murdered by his own troops at Tyana in Cappadocia. He attempted but failed to reestablish senatorial control over the army.

Emperor Constantius II

Sat, 05 Nov 2011 17:26:31 -0400

Constantius II (317-361 A.D.), Roman emperor.

Flavius Julius Constantius was the second son of Constantine the Great by his wife, Fausta, was born at Sirmium in Illyricum in 317. After the death of Constantine in 337, the Roman Empire was divided among Constantius and his brothers Constantine II and Constans.

Constantius drew the East as his share and for many years was occupied in an inconclusive struggle with the Persians. In the meantime, Constantine II was killed in 340 in a war with Constans, and by 350 the latter had been overthrown by Magnentius, one of his generals. After three years of warfare in Italy and Gaul Magnentius was defeated by Constantius, who then became sole emperor (353).

In his efforts to gain the West, Constantius had appointed his cousin Gallus as caesar (junior emperor) in the East. But Gallus proved unsatisfactory and was executed by Constantius in 354. The latter then returned to the East, leaving his other cousin, Julian (the Apostate), as caesar in the West.

The outbreak of a new Persian war in 359 led Constantius to demand troops in Gaul from Julian. The Gallic soldiers, however, mutinied and proclaimed Julian emperor (360). Before Constantius could confront Julian in battle, he developed a fever at Tarsus, in Cilicia.

Emperor Constantius II died at nearby Mopsucrenae on November 3, 361.

Emperor Constantine VII

Sat, 05 Nov 2011 01:27:06 -0400

Constantine VII (905-956) called Porphyrogenitus, was Roman emperor of the East from 913 to 959. He was born in Constantinople in September 905. The son of Leo VI by his mistress, later fourth wife, Zoe Carbonopsina, Constantine was legitimized by imperial baptism (January 6, 906).

His early life was clouded by sickness and misfortune. From 912 to 944, he was successively under the domination of his uncle, Emperor Alexander, of his mother Zoe, and of the usurper Romanus I Lecapenus, whose daughter Helena he married (May 4, 919). Only in January 945 did Constantine succeed in gaining possession of the throne that was rightfully his. He died in Constantinople, universally regretted, on November 9, 959.

Constantine’s high reputation was won in the realms of literature and the writing of history, and his patronage of all the arts was catholic and beneficent. He became, moreover, in his years of power, an accomplished diplomat. There exist luminating accounts of embassies to or from Italy, Germany, Spain, Russia, and Hungary. He also tried by law to protect the property rights of small landowners and soldiers.

Among the writings with which Constantine was personally concerned is the De thematibus (On the Provinces), a historical and topographical account of the Roman provinces as constituted in his day. More valuable is his account, in the so-called De administrando imperio (compiled 948-952), of the history of the occupants of countries outside the imperial borders; based on information from natives of these countries, this account is surprisingly accurate. His third great work, the so-called De cerimoniis aulae byzantinae, is a minute description of imperial ceremonial, one of the most important documents surviving from the Middle Ages. Constantine also wrote a charming and informative life of his grandfather, Basil I.

His enforced seclusion during the reign of his father-in-law, though bitterly resented by Constantine, gave him leisure for those pursuits that have put mankind forever in his debt.

Emperor Maximinus Thrax

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 19:38:41 -0400

Gaius Julius Verus Maximinus, surnamed Thrax (AD 173-238), Roman Emperor, 235-38.

Originally a Thracian shepherd, he was of gigantic size and enormous physical strength.

Alexander Severus gave him the command of a new legion raised in Pannonia, at the head of which he followed the emperor in his campaign against the Germans on the Rhine. There he induced some of his companions to murder Alexander and his mother, Julia Mamaea.

He was proclaimed emperor; but his cruelty and rapacity, which were the accompaniment of undeniable ability, aroused enemies against him in various parts of the empire.

He was killed by his own soldiers while besieging Aquileia.

Emperor Constantine IX

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 19:03:42 -0400

Constantine IX, (circa 1000-1055), surnamed Monomachus, was Roman emperor of the East from 1042 to 1055. He was the third husband of the empress Zoe, the daughter of Constantine VIII. He was personally spendthrift and dissolute, and accelerated the decline of Roman power that set in after the death of Basil II in 1025.

His throne was shaken by revolt and invasion in 1043 and 1047. And he weakly allowed his patriarch Michael Cerularius to complete the schism with the Catholic Church in 1054. He did, however, encourage education and the arts. But he made no preparation against the imminent perils of the Normans and the Seljuk Turks.

Constantine died in Constantinople on January 11, 1055.

Emperor Decius

Sun, 30 Oct 2011 17:49:53 -0400

Gaius Messius Traianus Decius (200-251 A.D.), Roman emperor. He was born in the town of Budalia (near modern Belgrade). His early career is obscure, but he rose to become prefect of the city of Rome. Decius advised the emperor Philip not to abdicate in 248, when Philip was faced with invasions of Goths and other Germans in the provinces along the lower Danube and with the rise of pretenders to the throne; this advice earned him Philip’s trust. Shortly thereafter Decius was sent to command along the lower Danube frontier. In a manner characteristic of the troubled age in which he lived, he was acclaimed emperor against his will by his troops in 249. He was compelled to march on Italy, where Philip fell in battle against him near Verona.

Decius’ reign was marked by a general program to restore the discipline of the armies and by the construction or repair of military works on the frontiers. The ancient office of the censorship was revived and entrusted to the future emperor Valerian. Decius also wished to restore the ancient religion of Rome, and partly to this end he inaugurated the first systematic, empire-wide persecution of the Christians.

In 250, barbarians were successfully repulsed along the Rhine, but in 251 two Gothic armies invaded the Balkans across the Danube. Decius gained an initial success, but in midsummer a great battle was fought in the Dobrudja, near Adamklissi. The treachery of the Roman Trebonianus Gallus cost Decius his life. Gallus was promptly acclaimed emperor by the soldiery.

Emperor Constantine VI

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 06:11:00 -0400

Constantine VI (770-797) was Roman emperor from 780 to 797. He was born in Constantinople on January 14, 770, the son of Leo IV and his empress Irene. He came to the throne at the age of 10, but for the next 10 years his ambitious mother ruled in his name. With the assistance of the patriarch Tarasius, she was able to summon the Seventh Ecumenical Council, held at Nicaea in 787, and to restore the use of religious icons, which had been banned since 726.

A military revolt in her son’s favor in 790 caused Irene’s removal from the administration, but two years later Constantine weakly allowed her to return. She encouraged him to repudiate his wife and take another (795), in order to embroil him with the Church, and her restless intrigues finally succeeded in making him generally odious, even to many of his own followers.

He tried to escape to the provinces but was seized and, on the order of his mother, blinded (August 15, 797).

He died in Constantinople shortly afterward.

Emperor Constantine V

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 06:33:30 -0400

Constantine V, (718-775), was a Roman emperor whose reign was remarkable, internally, for the progress of Iconoclasm and, externally, for his victorious campaigns against the Bulgarians. He was the son of Leo III, and came to the throne in 741 at the age of 22.

Constantine, not content with an imperial edict banning icons, summoned an Iconoclast council (754) to condemn the pictures by means of theological argument. Fortified by the council’s findings, he began a wholesale persecution of the image worshipers, and especially of the monastic orders, which he wished to extirpate. It has been said that his motives here were economic rather than religious; but modern scholarship rightly diagnoses him as a religious fanatic.

Constantine’s Iconoclastic preoccupations prevented him from intervening in Italy, where Ravenna fell to the Lombards in 751, ending Byzantine rule in northern Italy; or in Syria, where the Abbasid dynasty succeeded the Ummayad dynasty in 750. But his repeated campaigns against the Bulgars (763-775) covered him with glory. Constantine died on campaign on September 14, 775.

Emperor Didius Julianus

Sun, 23 Oct 2011 22:18:33 -0400

Marcus Didius Julianus (133 to 193 A.D.), Roman emperor, was probably born in 133 at Milan. Although he had held various high offices in the Roman state before becoming emperor, his principal distinction was his wealth. Accordingly, when he learned that the Praetorian Guards, who had murdered Emperor Pertinax, were auctioning the empire to the highest bidder, Didius hastened to their camp and won the bidding by offering a huge sum to each guardsman. He became emperor on March 28, 193.

News of his accession provoked the ambition of three commanders of major provincial armies, including Septimius Severus, who was then in Pannonia (roughly, part of modern Hungary). Hated by the populace of Rome and by the Senate, Didius would appear in public only if surrounded by a huge bodyguard of the Praetorians, who also despised him. Attempts to prepare a defense of Rome or to negotiate with the approaching Severus failed. Severus persuaded the Praetorians to betray Didius, and the Senate proclaimed Didius deposed and Severus emperor. Deserted in his palace, Didius was killed on June 1, 193.

Emperor Carus

Sun, 23 Oct 2011 07:03:22 -0400

Marcus Aurelius Carus was Roman emperor in 282-283.

Carus was a native of Narbo Martius (Narbonne) in Gaul. He served as praetorian prefect under Emperor Probus, but his troops insisted upon hailing him as emperor while Probus was still alive. Probus, who was a strict disciplinarian, was murdered by his troops.

When Carus became emperor, he led a successful campaign against the Persians and captured the city of Ctesiphon. In 283, in the midst of stunning military successes, he died unexpectedly, probably as a result of treachery on the part of his praetorian prefect. After his death his sons Carinus and Numerian were declared coemperors.

Emperor Constantius I

Sat, 22 Oct 2011 07:44:55 -0400

Constantius I (250-306 A.D.), Roman emperor, nicknamed Chlorus (the Pale). He was the father of Constantine the Great. Constantius (Flavius Valerius Constantius) was of Illyrian stock. In 293 he was appointed caesar (junior emperor) in the tetrarchy established by Diocletian and assigned to Gaul under the augustus (senior emperor) of die West, Maximian. At the same time Constantius put aside Helena, the mother of Constantine, in order to marry Theodora, the daughter of Maximian. After restoring peace to Gaul and turning back an invasion by the Alamanni, Constantius undertook the reconquest of Britain, which had been independent for about a decade.

Constantius was appointed augustus in the West when Diocletian and Maximian abdicated in 305. In July of 306, however, Constantius died at York in Britain. In later times, Constantine the Great attempted to legitimize his dynasty by the claim that his father was related to, or even descended from, Emperor Claudius II Gothicus (reigned 268-270).

Emperor Constantine IV

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 14:01:20 -0400

Constantine IV was Roman emperor from 668 to 685. He was the eldest son of Constans II. His reign is memorable for the repulse of the Muslim attack on Constantinople (674-678). The Roman victory was assisted by the timely invention of an incendiary weapon known as Greek fire; but the courage and tenacity of Constantine deserve all credit. This, the first major check to Muslim encroachment, was received with profound relief by the empire and Western Europe.

Constantino’s statesmanship was shown in his convocation of the Sixth Ecumenical Council at Constantinople (680-681), in which the orthodox doctrine of the two wills and the two energies of the Savior was upheld and the Monothelite heresy condemned. The one disaster of the reign was a Roman defeat at the hands of the Bulgars (680), which resulted in the establishment of a Bulgar state on Roman soil.

Constantine died in Constantinople on July 10, 685, at the age of 33.

Emperor Constantine III

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 07:34:32 -0400

Constantine III was Roman emperor in 641. He was born in Constantinople on May 3, 612, the son of Emperor Heraclius by his first wife Eudocia. He reigned for three months, with his half brother Heraclonas as co-emperor, and died in Constantinople on May 25, 641.

Emperor Maximinus II

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 07:03:20 -0400

Galerius Valerius Maximinus was Roman Emperor from 308 to 314 AD.

Originally an Illyrian shepherd, his real name was Daza or Daia. Becoming a soldier, he was raised by his uncle Galerius to the rank of Caesar, and made governor of Syria and Egypt in 305. In 308 he assumed the title of Augustus, and on the death of Galerius (311) succeeded to the provinces of Asia, and entered into a secret alliance with Maxentius.

Having invaded Thrace in the absence of Licinus, he suffered a crushing defeat near Heraclea, and fled. He died at Tarsus.

Emperor Constantine II

Sun, 16 Oct 2011 17:00:00 -0400

Constantine II, (317-340 A.D.), Roman emperor. The eldest son of Constantine the Great and his wife Fausta, Constantine II (Flavius Claudius Constantinus) was a pawn in the game of imperial politics. He was born at Arelate (Aries) in February 317. When only a few weeks old, he was proclaimed caesar (junior emperor) by his father, and he was awarded the consulship at the age of four. Even before he had attained his majority, Constantine II was dispatched to command, at least nominally, troops in the West and was assigned Gaul, Spain, and Britain as his provinces.

When Constantine the Great died in 337, Constantine II became augustus (senior emperor) along with his brothers Constans and Constantius II. This threefold division of the empire proved unworkable. Constantine II soon became involved in a dispute with Constans. He invaded Italy, the domain of Constans, and was killed near Aquileia by his brother in 340.