Question: Who was the first emperor of the Roman Empire?

List of Roman emperors


The Roman emperors were rulers of the Roman Empire, wielding power over its citizens and military, dating from the granting of the title of Augustus to Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus by the Roman Senate in 27 BC. Augustus maintained a façade of republican rule, rejecting monarchical titles but calling himself princeps senatus (first man of the senate)[1] and princeps civitatis (first citizen of the state). The title of Augustus was conferred on his successors to the imperial position. The style of government instituted by Augustus is called the Principate and continued until reforms by Diocletian. The modern word 'emperor' derives from the title imperator, which was granted by an army to a successful general; during the initial phase of the empire, it still had to be earned by the princeps.
The territory under command of the emperor had developed under the period of the Roman Republic as it invaded and occupied most of Europe and portions of northern Africa and western Asia. Under the republic, regions of the empire were ruled by provincial governors answerable to and authorised by the Senate and People of Rome. During the republic, the chief magistrates of Rome were two consuls elected each year; consuls continued to be elected in the imperial period, but their authority was subservient to that of the emperor, and the election was controlled by the emperor.
In the late 3rd century, after the Crisis of the Third Century, Diocletian formalised and embellished the recent manner of imperial rule, establishing the so-called Dominate period of the Roman Empire. This was characterised by the explicit increase of authority in the person of the Emperor, and the use of the style Dominus Noster ("Our Lord"). The rise of powerful Barbarian tribes along the borders of the empire and the challenge they posed to defense of far-flung borders and unstable imperial succession led Diocletian to divide the administration geographically of the Empire in 286 with a co-Augustus. In 330, Constantine the Great established a second capital in Byzantium, which he renamed Constantinople. For most of the period from 286 to 480, there was more than one recognised senior emperor, with the division usually based in geographic terms. This division was consistently in place after the death of Theodosius I in 395, which historians have dated as the division between the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire.[2] However, formally the Empire remained a single polity, with separate co-emperors in the separate courts. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, and so the end of a separate list of emperors below, is dated either from the de facto date of 476 when Romulus Augustulus was deposed by Odoacer who became King of Italy, or the de jure date of 480, on the death of Julius Nepos, when Eastern Emperor Zeno ended recognition of a separate Western court. In the period that followed, the Empire is usually treated by historians as the Byzantine Empire governed by the Byzantine Emperors, although this designation is not used universally, and continues to be a subject of specialist debate today.[3]
The line of emperors continued until the death of Constantine XI Palaiologos during the fall of Constantinople in 1453, when the remaining territories were captured by the Ottoman Empire.[4]
Legitimacy

The emperors listed in this article are those generally agreed to have been 'legitimate' emperors, and who appear in published regnal lists.[5][6][7] The word 'legitimate' is used by most authors, but usually without clear definition, perhaps not surprisingly, since the emperorship was itself rather vaguely defined legally. In Augustus' original formulation, the princeps was selected by either the Senate or "the people" of Rome, but quite quickly the legions became an acknowledged stand-in for "the people." A person could be proclaimed as emperor by their troops or by "the mob" in the street, but in theory needed to be confirmed by the Senate. The coercion that frequently resulted was implied in this formulation. Furthermore, a sitting emperor was empowered to name a successor and take him on as apprentice in government and in that case the Senate had no role to play, although it sometimes did when a successor lacked the power to inhibit bids by rival claimants. By the medieval (or Byzantine) period, the very definition of the Senate became vague as well, adding to the complication.[8]
Lists of legitimate emperors are therefore partly influenced by the subjective views of those compiling them, and also partly by historical convention. Many of the 'legitimate' emperors listed here acceded to the position by usurpation, and many 'illegitimate' claimants had a legitimate claim to the position. Historically, the following criteria have been used to derive emperor lists:
Any individual who undisputedly ruled the whole Empire, at some point, is a 'legitimate emperor'(1).
Any individual who was nominated as heir or co-emperor by a legitimate emperor (1), and who succeeded to rule in his own right, is a legitimate emperor (2).
Where there were multiple claimants, and none were legitimate heirs, the claimant accepted by the Roman Senate as emperor is the legitimate emperor (3), at least during the Principate.
So for instance, Aurelian, though acceding to the throne by usurpation, was the sole and undisputed monarch between 270 and 275, and thus was a legitimate emperor. Gallienus, though not in control of the whole Empire, and plagued by other claimants, was the legitimate heir of (the legitimate emperor) Valerian. Claudius Gothicus, though acceding illegally, and not in control of the whole Empire, was the only claimant accepted by the Senate, and thus, for his reign, was the legitimate emperor. Equally, during the Year of the Four Emperors, all claimants, though not undisputed, were at some point accepted by the Senate and are thus included; conversely, during the Year of the Five Emperors neither Pescennius Niger nor Clodius Albinus were accepted by the Senate, and are thus not included. There are a few examples where individuals were made co-emperor, but never wielded power in their own right (typically the child of an emperor); these emperors are legitimate, but are not included in regnal lists, and in this article are listed together with the senior emperor.
Emperors after 395
After 395, the list of emperors in the East is based on the same general criteria, with the exception that the emperor only had to be in undisputed control of the Eastern part of the empire, or be the legitimate heir of the Eastern emperor.
The situation in the West is more complex. Throughout the final years of the Western Empire (395–480) the Eastern emperor was considered the senior emperor, and a Western emperor was only legitimate if recognized as such by the Eastern emperor. Furthermore, after 455 the Western emperor ceased to be a relevant figure and there was sometimes no claimant at all. For the sake of historical completeness, all Western Emperors after 455 are included in this list, even if they were not recognized by the Eastern Empire;[9] some of these technically illegitimate emperors are included in regnal lists, while others are not. For instance, Romulus Augustulus was technically a usurper who ruled only the Italian peninsula and was never legally recognized. However, he was traditionally considered the "last Roman Emperor" by 18th and 19th century western scholars and his overthrow by Odoacer used as the marking point between historical epochs, and as such he is usually included in regnal lists. However, modern scholarship has confirmed that Romulus Augustulus' predecessor, Julius Nepos continued to rule as emperor in the other Western holdings and as a figurehead for Odoacer's rule in Italy until Nepos' death in 480. Since the question of what constitutes an emperor can be ambiguous, and dating the "fall of the Western Empire" arbitrary, this list includes details of both figures.
The Principate

27 BC–68 AD: Julio-Claudian dynasty


68–96: Year of the Four Emperors and Flavian dynasty


96–192: Nerva–Antonine dynasty
Note: all dates AD hereafter.


193–235: Year of the Five Emperors and Severan dynasty


235–285: Gordian dynasty and Crisis of the Third Century


The Dominate

284–364: Tetrarchy and Constantinian dynasty

Note: To maintain control and improve administration, various schemes to divide the work of the Roman Emperor by sharing it between individuals were tried after 285. The "Tetrarchy" proclaimed by Diocletian in 293 split the empire into two halves each to be ruled separately by two emperors, a senior "Augustus", and a junior "Caesar".

364–392: Valentinian dynasty



Western Emperors

392–455: Theodosian dynasty
Note: Theodosius I was the last person to rule both halves of the Roman Empire, dividing the administration between his sons Arcadius and Honorius on his death.

455–476: Last emperors of the Western Empire

Note: The classical Roman Empire is usually said to have ended with the deposition of Romulus Augustulus, with its continuation in the East referred to by modern scholars as the Byzantine Empire.
Eastern Emperors

379–457: Theodosian dynasty
Note: Theodosius I was the last person to rule both halves of the Roman Empire, dividing the administration between his sons Arcadius and Honorius on his death.

457–518: Leonid dynasty


518–602: Justinian dynasty



610–695: Heraclian dynasty


695–717: Twenty Years' Anarchy


717–802: Isaurian dynasty


802–813: Nikephorian dynasty



820–867: Amorian dynasty


867–1056: Macedonian dynasty




1059–1081: Doukid dynasty


1081–1185: Komnenid dynasty


1185–1204: Angelid dynasty


1204–1261: Laskarid dynasty
Note: Between 1204 and 1261 there was an interregnum when Constantinople was occupied by the crusaders of the Fourth Crusade and the Empire was divided into the Empire of Nicaea, the Empire of Trebizond and the Despotate of Epirus, which were all contenders for rule of the Empire. The Laskarid dynasty of the Empire of Nicaea is considered the legitimate continuation of the Roman Empire because they had the support of the (Orthodox) Patriarch of Constantinople and managed to re-take Constantinople.

1261–1453: Palaiologan dynasty


See also

List of condemned Roman emperors
List of Roman consuls
List of Roman dictators
List of Roman usurpers
Roman Emperors family tree
On Weights and Measures –- contains chronology of Roman emperors
Notes


Citations

Sources
Ancient sources
Tacitus, The Annals of Imperial Rome, Penguin Classics, Michael Grant Publications Ltd, 1971, Reprinted 1985, ISBN0-14-044060-7
Modern sources
David J. Breeze, Brian Dobson Hadrian's Wall 4th Edition, Penguin, 2000, ISBN0-14-027182-1
Clive Carpenter, The Guinness Book of Kings Rulers and Statesmen, Guinness Superlatives Ltd, 1978, ISBN0-900424-46-X
Adrian Goldsworthy, The Fall of the West, Phoenix, 2010, ISBN978-0-7538-2692-8
Min Lee (editor), Larousse Pockect Guide Kings and Queens, Larousse, 1995 ISBN0-7523-0032-6
Martha Ross, Rulers and Governments of the World, Vol.1 Earliest Times to 1491, Bowker, 1978, ISBN0-85935-021-5
Chris Scarre, Brandon Shaw, Chronicle of the Roman Emperors, Thames & Hudson, 1995, Reprinted 2001, ISBN0-500-05077-5
R. F. Tapsell, Monarchs Rulers Dynasties and Kingdoms of The World, Thames & Hudson, 1981, Reprinted 1987, ISBN0-500-27337-5


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 by Yves Lassard and Alexandr Koptev.