## Aurelion [00:00] hi everyone welcome back to the history in 20 podcast where today we are going through part two of the top 10 roman emperors hope you enjoy it see you on the other side at number five we have emperor aurelian born 9th of september died october 275. his reign was from may 270 to october 275. aurelian came to the throne just before the third century crisis truly erupted and yet his reign was far from crisis he reunited the empire and earned his self-adopted title a restitutor orbis or restorer of the world after serving the in the roman army for decades upon his ascension aurelian quickly set about restoring roman authority in europe he turned back the vandals from pannonia and after a series of battles expelled the alemany then the jethungi from northern italy to right across the danube he ordered the construction of a new city wall around rome much of which is still stuck much of which still stands today the wall is actually named after him known as the aurelium wall in 271 he sought to recover the eastern provinces which had obeyed the rule of palmyra he besieged palmyra and shortly afterwards the capital surrendered when palmyra revolted a second time in 273 aurelian recaptured and raised the city in 274 he returned west to confront tetricus the rival emperor in gaul who had sway over both gaul and spain and also britain after the after defeat at the battle of shalom aurelian made the momentous decision to withdraw roman troops from dersia modern day romania and resettle soldiers and settlers south of the danube in uh macedonia the balkans region yeah in the modern day he understood that defensible boundaries were essential for the long-term survival of the empire and therefore used the natural borders of the of rivers like the danube and the rhine to form his from the empire's defenses early in 275 while marching to open air campaign against persia or aurelium was murdered by a group of officers who had led would allegedly be misled by his secretary into believing themselves marked for execution the empire remained divided and chaotic until diocletian's ascension in 284 who later sort of give the empire a good kicking and got it back in the water aurelion deserves a place in this list just simply for the fact that upon his death the crisis erupted he defeated so many enemies of rome and so many enemies within that he had basically rebound the emperor from what's empire from what seemed like an almost forgotten conclusion of its death and kept on life support for like centuries to come it's um it's insane to think of the alternate histories we could have if aurelia hadn't been murdered by his officers because he he was seen to be as competent if not more so than trajan he was just a fantastic emperor but obviously didn't have the the time to uh to give us it his name survives to modern day uh named with uh french cities named after him like uh obviously orleans olil was named after him and uh yeah that's why i deserved a place in this list ## Constantine [03:30] fantastic emperor so at number four we have constantine the first but he's better known as constantine the great and he was born on the 27th february circa 272 a day and died on the 22nd of may 337 and he was aged about 65 and he ran from the 25th of july 306 up to the 22nd of may 337 which is 30 years and 10 months so obviously that's a lot of stuff to cover so we're only going over him very briefly but i highly recommend looking into constantine because he is one of the all-time great emperors which is exactly why he's got a place on this list so start off basically he had he was an incredibly good military general um when he was on campaign against the barbarians and the persians and then the britons this was all before he became emperor and you might recognize as you'll see on your screen now the cairo which are christ's initials and they were painted on constantine's army's shields now why did he do this well this is just before he becomes emperor so at the battle of the milvian bridge which is part of a series of civil wars in rome this was on the 28th of october 312. constantine had a vision of god the night before the battle and he was told in this sign conquer and so he had his army painted on the shields and then they subsequently went and won the war and constantine became emperor but why is this significant why are we all of a sudden talking about god when all these other romans have had pagan gods before the roman gods well constantine was the first christian emperor which we'll see is a massive thing that survives for centuries to come with other subsequent christian emperors but he was the first one and he obviously had such an impact that it survived this long so where was he acclaimed emperor well a local one for where we're from close enough anyway he was a place called iboricum which you might know better today as york and he actually has a statue there outside york minster today which you can still see and visit and it's i highly recommend it i'll put a picture up on your screen so you can see it there so why was he so good well he restructured the government because he said and by doing so he separated the civil and military authorities which was a huge thing and it's something that still happened way further on in the empire as well obviously he was a good military man as i mentioned earlier and he completed successful campaigns on the roman frontiers against the franks the alemany the goths the samaritans and even resettled territories by his predecessors during the third century well that were lost during the third century crisis economically he was successful as well so he combated inflation by introducing a new gold coin called the solidus which became standard for the byzantine and european currencies for over a thousand years he was the like i mentioned earlier the first roman emperor to convert to christianity and he was supremely influential in the edict of milan in 313 a.d which declared tolerance for christianity within the roman empire he also convoked the first council of nasir in 325 which produced the statement of christian belief called the nicene creed and the church of the holy sepulchre in jerusalem was built under his instructions at the alleged site of jesus christ's tomb and this is where you can still visit it today and hundreds of thousands of people visit it every year and this was commissioned by constantine and he also built a new imperial residence at byzantium called constantinople after himself which subsequently became the capital of the eastern empire for more than a thousand years and he also replaced emperor diocletian's tetrarchy with the de facto principle of dynastic succession and i don't think there needs to be any explanation as to why he deserves a place in this list one of the all-time great emperors i mean economically and even religiously he converted the empire which would last not just for a hundred years not for 200 years not 300 but for over a thousand years and his legacy still survives today at ## Claudius [07:27] number three we have the emperor claudius now we're going back a bit further in time here because he was born on the 1st of august 10 bc and he died on the 13th of october 54 a.d aged 63 and he rained from the 24th of january 41 to the 13th of october 54 so about 13 years so why is claudius on this list well he was the first roman emperor fully full emperor to be born outside of italy he was born at lugdenham sorry for the pronunciation in roman gaul which is in modern day leon in france he was notable for a number of reasons and partly because his was a rule of somewhat stability between two of the most unstable emperors caligula who we mentioned last week and nero so another feature of claudius's which emphasized how good he was was that despite all of his achievements he was deaf and afflicted with a limp or semi-death anywhere partly death which led him to be ostracized by his family from a young age but he still made it as an emperor now after emperor gaius's murder on the 24th of january 41 the praetorian guards which were the imperial household troops made claudius emperor so despite a rocky start to his reign including attempts on his life from various members of the senate claudius was ruthless in his dealings with them and it didn't take long for people to respect him or face the consequences excuse me so from the very beginning he emphasized his friendship with the army and he paid cash for his proclamation as emperor in 43 a.d claudius invaded britain becoming the first emperor to successfully do so as well as cross the river thames and capture the city of camaldanum which is modern-day colchester which eventually became the roman capital of britain now claudius was also concerned with expanding the roman frontiers in gaul because he was concerned with the anti-roman druid priesthood but elsewhere in the empire ionix mauritania between 41 and 42 in north africa that's sort of modern day morocco today lycia in asia minor in 43 and thrace in 46 which is now covers an area of modern day greece bulgaria and turkey he then annexed northeastern palestine to the province of syria in 49 a.d however he was conscious not to involve the empire in major wars with the germans and the parthians he'd seen the impact this had before so at home claudius's policies were enlightened for his time so he improved the judicial system and he approved a moderate extension of roman citizenship by individual and collective grants in norikum which is south of the danube in what is now sort of austria and bavaria five communities there became roman principalities and he also encouraged urbanization and developed several colonies most notably at colchester and colonia which is modern day cologne in 51 a.d now again in a manner that differs to many emperors he wasn't a complete anti-semite on one occasion successfully protecting the jews of alexandria without provoking egyptian nationalism and in his later life after his marriage with messalina ended in 48 a.d after she conspired against him he married his niece agrippina and which was an act contrary to roman law which he swiftly changed so he could do so but the main consequence of this was he had to adopt her son and her son was the infamous emperor nero claudius died on the 13th of october 54 a.d in relatively suspicious circumstances which has mostly been attributed to poisoning by agrippina via mushrooms now claudius deserves a place on this list because of the amount of his successful conquests he wasn't just successful in the west in britain but also in the south in africa the north germany and the east syria and he's one of the few emperors who was successful on all fronts or ultimately wherever he went and he also acts as a pillar of sensibility between two completely insane emperors which obviously helps his cause too at number two we have emperor augustus born the 23rd of september 63 ## Augustus [11:30] bc died 19th of august 14 ad age 75. his reign was from the 16th of january 27 bc to the 19th of augustus 19th of august 14 a.d you'll see why i made that a little mistake there in a couple of minutes his reign was a solid 41 years seven months augustus nearly doubled the size of the empire which he sort of inherited as the dregs of the republic from his adopted father julius caesar um and then subsequently uh took off his uh his mates he added territories in europe and asia minor secured borders uh against the barbarians in uh germany and uh north of the danube um and that he secured alliances and client states that gave him nominal rule from britain to india the roman em he was the first roman emperor and arguably the greatest he he also named a month after himself much like his uh great uncle predecessor and adoptive father julius caesar augustus was born octavius and upon his adoption in 44 bc became octavian and in 26 bc the roman senate conferred him the name augustus for simplicity's sake the rest of video will refer to him as augustus augustus military involvement came from an early age when he was just 16 he went he tried to go to hispania to meet up with his uncle caesar on his way there he was shipwrecked and crossed enemy territory to reach his greater uncle an act that impressed caesar enough to name augustus as his heir and successor posthumously caesar died a year later age and age just 17 august had the support of the majority of the senate who rallied around him against a powerful enemy mark antony but after as augustus's troops defeated anthony's army in northern italy he refused an all-out pursuit of him and instead preferred an awkward alliance with his rival in 43 bc augustus anthony and a man named marcus lepidus established the second triumvirate a power sharing agreement which divided up rome's territories into areas of their nominal control anthony was given land in the roman east lepidus africa and august has kept the west end wrong anthony began a romantic and political alliance with cleopatra queen of egypt and he still continued it despite a senatorial decree which forced his marriage to augustus's sister octavia minor anthony's affair continued and in 32 bc divorced octavia in retaliation augustus declared war upon cleopatra and at the naval battle of actium a year later under the command of his admiral uh also his personal general as well a man named uh marcus agrippa augustus had cornered and defeated anthony's ships cleopatra's navy raced anthony's ships but they both barely escaped they returned to egypt and committed a joint suicide and left augustus as rome's undisputed ruler seizing cleopatra's treasure allowed him to pay soldiers securing their loyalty much like his great uncle's practice of paying the army and to modify the senate he passed laws harkening back to the roman republic and to win over the citizens of roman itself he worked to improve the city itself he spent the majority of his reign outside of rome consolidating his power in the empire's furthest reaches implementing a system of taxation and sentences while doing so he expanded the roman network of roads founded the praetorian guard and the roman postal service he also left rome with both grand and practical gestures including a new forum a police force or police a policing force and a fire department august has died on the 19th of august just 14 a.d and his last words are disputed but both are just as epic as each other perhaps lending to some ad with some artistic license over his final years he either said i found wrong of claire and i leave it to you of marble or he said have i played the part well then applaud me as i exit and this adds greatly to the initial myth or history of the roman emperors no explanation is needed as to why augustus deserves a place in this list the senate even declared him to be a god he combined the military might institutional reforms and law-making traditions of rome of the roman republic sorry and turned it into the roman empire laying the foundations for the pax pax romana roman peace and an empire that lasted in one form or another for almost 1500 years after his death before we get to number one here are some honorable mentions marcus aurelius the philosopher emperor ## Marcus Aurelius [16:40] born 26th of april one two one a d died march 17th 180 at the age 58. he his reign was from the 8th of march 161 80 to the 17th of march 180 a day 19 years in all upon max or releases ascension to the thrawn in 1618d his immediate call for action was over in the east specifically with the parthians where he battled the parthians for control over the eastern uh syrian realm of rome his brother versus oversaw the parthian while while marcus stayed in rome consolidating power by the time the parthian war had ended another war had broken out after german tribes had crossed the danube river in late 160s and had attacked a roman city versus died in 169 a.d so marcus fought on a lawn and drove the germans back beyond the danube in 175 he faced another challenge to his authority the very threat of a pretender to his seat avidius cassius clearing the title of emperor after hearing a false rumor that marcus was deathly ill this forced marcus east to regain control but by the time he'd got there cassius had been murdered by his own soldiers instead marcus toured the eastern provide provinces with his wife faustina reestablished his authority but she but his wife faustina unfortunately died during this trip while once again battling german tribes he made his son commodus his core ruler in 177 a day together they fought right across the northern borders of the empire and marcus even wanted to extend the roman limits the borders unfortunately he never lived long enough to do so he died on march 17th 180. marcus our release is not remembered for his military efforts although they're certainly commendable but for his contemplative nature thus called the philosopher emperor in modern days and it you can actually buy and read some of his works now uh the meditations are published based upon his and extensions of greek stoic philosophy the meditations were a sort of masterwork of his he completed through his 19 years of his reign and the majority of them concerned personal thoughts and ideas to himself and his ideas on stoic philosophy it's just a like a basic greek philosophy on personal ethics logic and like how the world works the 12 books of the meditations are still best sellers and widely available in the world today he's one of the few empress whose reign is defined not by his military conquest but by his reasonable methods of ruling and philosophies which have stood the test of time and some of which is still relevant 2000 years later ## Diocletian [19:28] another honorable mention i thought we'd include is the emperor diocletian who ran from 284 to 286 a.d so diocletian is on this list because he stabilized the empire and marked the end of the third century crisis he reigned in the eastern empire while his core ruler maximian ruled in the west he established the tetrarchy which was junior co-emperors who were named augustus and caesar after augustus and caesar which meant that each emperor would rule over a quarter division of the empire he also secured the empire's borders and purged all threats to its power defeating the samaritans carpe alimani usurpers in egypt and sassanid persians sacking their capital cestifun in 299. he enlarged the empire's military and civil services reorganized the empire's divisors and establish the most bureaucratic government in the history of the empire but on the 1st of may 305 he abdicated which i said his rule was actually 284-86 he abdicated which was sort of the fashion of the older emperors to look after believe it or not his cabbage patches over in modern day split in croatia now i um ## Nero [20:38] dinard about this final honourable mention what thought we've included one so we'll include the other the one being caligula so we'll include nero he ran from a.d 54 to 68 why is he in because he was a complete nut curse he killed his own mother his stepbrother and two of his wives arguably rome's worst emperor brought rome to the brink of collapse in less than 14 years he was called the antichrist because he persecuted christians so badly and allegedly i.e he didn't play the fiddle while rome burned but it makes a nice story this was during the great fire of rome on the night of the 18th and 19th of july 64 a.d and his reign ended when he committed suicide aged 30. and our final ## Julius Caesar [21:23] emperor which if you haven't guessed already i'm sure you will know now number one is julius caesar he was born on the 12th of july 100 bc died on the 15th of march known as the ides of march 44 bc age 55 and he ran from 49 to 44 bc so number one was always going to be julius caesar wasn't it he's the quintessential roman emperor and the first person who comes to mind not just when someone mentions emperors but when someone mentions ancient rome or even rome but is this factually correct well technically julius was never actually an emperor because he didn't rule over an empire he oversaw a republic and he's technically a dictator but no one's gonna like this if we don't include caesar and obviously deserves a place so he's in caesar's life was non-stop from start to finish so as a young man he left rome for military service in asia and afterwards traveled to rhodes for philosophical studies but on his way to rhodes he was captured by pirates but he convinced his captors to raise his ransom he then organized a naval force captured the pirates and put them to death under pompey he held a number of governmental positions and he was elected consul in 60 bc sermour caesar along with krasus and pompey two roman generals formed the first triumvirate a political alliance which dominated roman politics for several years so a year later in 59 bc he became governor of gaul and spain and during his tenure as governor he took part in the garlic wars 58-51 bc which greatly extended roman territory thanks to his victories it was also during the 50s that he both invaded britain and built a bridge across the rhine river which is still considered engineering masterpieces today after krasus's death at the battle of carha in parthia in 53 bc pompey realigned himself with the senate sensing that caesar's support from the plebians and his veteran army would threaten pompey's position with the conclusion of the garlic wars the senate ordered caesar to step down from his military command and return to rome however by leaving his commanding gaul caesar knew that he'd be vulnerable to criminal prosecution by his enemies and instead he openly defied the senate's authority and crossed the rubicon and marched towards rome as the head of an army this triggered the beginning of caesar's civil war which he won and ultimately left him in a position almost until of almost unchallenged power and influence caesar also traveled to egypt just put this in his little anecdote and involved himself in upholding the rule of cleopatra with whom he had a son caesarean which is the caesarean section is named after today after assuming control of government caesar began a program of social and governmental reforms including the creation of the julian calendar and naming the month of july after himself in the process he also awarded citizenship to many members of the far-reaching stretches of the roman republic while also initiating land reform and support for military veterans he was eventually proclaimed dictator for life in 45 bc but his populist and largely authoritarian reforms angered the elites who began to conspire against him on the ides of march the 15th march which is actually my dad's birthday caesar was assassinated by a group of rebels within the senate led by brutus and cassius who stabbed him to death and some reports say that he was stabbed up to 23 times now caesar's death saw the onset of a series of civil wars and the constitutional government of the roman republic was never restored fully caesar's great nephew and adopted a octavian augustus who mentioned just before rose to soul power and saw over the transformation of the roman republic to the roman empire now caesar was a no-brainer for this list military successes land reforms governmental reforms societal reforms economic transformations he had it all over two 2000 years after his death he's still regarded as one of the greatest statesmen and military commanders in history and his name caesar has become synonymous with emperor the title caesar was used throughout the roman empires are mentioned under diocletian before and it's also given rise to modern adaptations including saar which is a slavic or russian interpretation of caesar and kaiser a germanic interpretation of it so thank you very much for listening we hope you both enjoyed it thanks to tom for coming on topman done a great job and remember to like comment share and subscribe for more content like this thanks very much and i'll see you in the next one