Favorite emperors /his?

>Since the 19th century certain fedora tipping scholars have been determined to portray Constantine as an effete religious fanatic, but in reality the guy was a big dumb jock who loved to fight
can you not be both?

>heheh fuck christianity and fuck persians amirite guys
>oh shit even my oracle tells me not to attack
>fuck that imma do it guys
>oh shit im dead
Julian was retarded. If he hadn't been so glory hungry and obsessed with replicating Alexander and Trajan's wars, he could've possibly reestablished Greco-Roman pantheons and put up a stronger bulwark against the growth of Christendom in the Roman Empire.

Aurelius because of his writings
Augustus because of his work
Valentinian I because of how he died
Diocletian because of his grandeur
Vespasian because of how down to earth he was
Hadrian because of how he ran the place
Justinian I. because hope

Let's be serious for a sec lads. Octavian was pretty much the top tier alpha emperor. Being the first only signifies this, he basically seized all power, made himself into a god, yet remained only the first amongst the many. He molded Rome into what it was for hundreds of years. He was a pure badass and the best ruler Rome ever had.

Good post.

He was a top tier ruler, but not a top tier Roman emperor. To be an emperor you had to be personally ferocious and a military leader first and foremost. Octavian took credit for all the victories of his underlings like Agrippa and had to be taken home on a sickbed from his Cantabrian campaign because he was getting rekt.

>Valentinian I because of how he died
>Died after getting an aneurysm from angrily yelling at retarded Quadian emissaries
Holy fuck that's great

>no Tiberius
>no Majorian

"How did the audience with the most powerful man in the world go?"
"There's good news and bad news."

Octavian never took credit from Agrippa. Octavian freely admitted he wouldn't have gotten where he was or the path of power he set himself to follow Caesar if it wasn't for Agrippa being his ablest commander and general. But that doesn't take away from the fact Octavian was a master politician, incredible administrator, and genius bureaucrat and diplomat.

Perfect.

He was a patriot who believed in the Roman state, the Roman people, and lead armies in person defend it, including at its darkest hour after the Teutoberg Forest disaster. He was a strong supporter of the patrician class and never stooped to cater to the plebs. He wasn't a rabble rouser like the Julii (or even some of his own clan's ancestors). His downfall was that the senate was no longer worthy of his respect. He wanted them to take the government back over and rule Rome again. Instead, they cowardly waited for him to initiate all policy himself, and plotted behind his back. Finally, this ingratitude all drove him crazy and he took it out by fucking the sons and daughters of the nobility in his pleasure palace. Caligula's war against the nobility is likely because he was in on this and inherited this disgust of the patrician class. But they all had it coming.

Napoléon is the true Emperor ! All Hail Napoléon

The patrician class had been a meme since like the second Punic war

>Makes Commodus emperor
He's not even in the top 10

Aurelian, i think hes very underated

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Probably the best person who was emperor, but not himself a terribly good one.

Julian > Marcus > Augustus

christcucks btfo

>Also his points here are just common sense as long as you're not Gibbon
what do you mean by this?

have you ever even read Gibbon?

though I have read that there was actually a surprising lack of enthusiasm for building the third temple among the jewish community, since judaism itself had evolved so drastically since 70AD.

There was also the complication that the bible explicitly states the tools used to build the temple must not be made out of any metal that is used for weapons, so silver tools were being constructed at great expense.

I do have to wonder what would have happened had the temple been built. Would the jews have abandoned rabbinic judaism and restored the priestly class and animal sacrifice? Would it have then been destroyed by the christian mobs that destroyed thousands of temples during the time of Theodosius?

i love the idea of the tetrarchy, shame it really was never viable as a long term solution.

Julian was a meme emperor even in his time.

Alexios was pretty based

Just wants to say thanks. I've been trying to come up with a theme for my classics dissertation and your comment popped into my head while walking about town. Going to go with "The politics and propaganda of prophecy in late antiquity."

Wasn't the best emperor but he was easily one of the most interesting men to hold the position.

>Brought the beard back into style upon his return from Britain
>One of the few exclusively gay figures of ancient history
>Possibly the most eclectic emperor with interests in politics, architecture, history, philosophy, literature, etc.
>Rebuilt the Pantheon and even restored Agrippa's name on it like a bro
>Total greco-boo, attempted to rehellanize the ME and kicked the shit out of the pesky jews stiring up shit
>Had the sense to adopt his heir, on the condition he adopt Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, and Antoninus turned out to be a solid pick
>Turned into a bitter, paranoid old man and attempted suicide twice

This, by a long shot.

In 5 years he accomplished more than the majority of Emperors did their entire lives.

>Antoninus
>solid pick

I agree with the rest of your post but he was a lazy overrated faggot. He's the least worthy of all the "Five Good Emperors". He had a golden opportunity, a reign of total peace on the borders where Rome was finally able to direct its power anywhere the Emperor willed, and he did nothing his entire reign. He could have conquered Africa down to the Atlas Mountains - finally subjugated the Berber tribes. He could have expanded Dacia so its borders were more defensible - conquer the gap in between Dacia and the Danube. He could have sent expeditions down the Nile or into Arabia.
The best thing he did was advance the British frontier north a few miles, half-heartedly build another wall, which was hastily abandoned after his death.

What an uninspired shitty ruler. It's no coincidence Rome met such intense challenges so soon after his reign. People say that the decline of the empire began with Commodus, whereas in reality it began with Antoninus Pius.

My top 5:
>Octavian
>Trajan
>Constantine
>Hadrian
>Diocletian
Frankly, I think Diocletian is a bit overrated: his reforms and system of succession was genius on paper, but would pretty much only work with him in charge.
His other reforms were good though.

I don't disagree but he was specifically selected to act as a placeholder. His job was to make sure nothing happened until Marcus and Lucius were ready to rule.

His flaw was that he lived for far longer than he was supposed to. He was supposed to last a couple of years then bite the big one just in time for his successors to inherit in their primes.

>his reforms and system of succession was genius on paper, but would pretty much only work with him in charge.

The reason he was great was that he tried.

...

>Memestinian the "Great"
>Memed his way into power
>Married a literal meme whore
>Nearly got MEME'D in the Nika Riots
>Cuck
>Meme Gothic War
>Cucked Belisarius
>Lost against Persians
>Lost against Plague
>Lost against Lombards
>Lost against Avars
>Hated by everyone
>Ruled too long
>His meme empire collapsed instantly upon his death

Fuck off back to /pol/

Are you ok

this

>Redditor reads a wiki article on Procopius: the post

>I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble.

is this supposed to seem authoritative because its written in an unsourced image?

>exclusively gay
he was married

>no kids
>never took his wife anywhere
Hmmm

And it was a notoriously shit marriage that he hated and never consumated.

Meanwhile he deified his gay lover.

I've always likes Vespasian. Seems like a good dude, gave Rome stability and prosperity. Tank u based peepee merchant.

>Trajan
No.

Can we do Byzantine and "H" "R" "E"?
If we can, I have two:
Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus
>Wrote an encyclopedia on the Slavic tribes, a political theory book, and a customs book all in one: De Administrando Imperio. This book was utilized until the fall of the empire
>Restored the Imperial dynastic order after the B*lgarians

Otto II
>Went to Poland in plain clothes to weep at St. Adalberts grave
>Initiated Poland into the polity of Western Europe, making it relevant and a regional power.

I made a picture out of that

Heraclius is both one of the most based and tragic, and Im shocked no one has bothered to make a movie about him
>took charge in the middle of the Byzantine Sassanid war with Persians wrecking the empires shit
>BTFO hard, recover all lost turf and even the piece of the true cross they stole from Jerusalem
>Looked like he had finally vanquished the Persian menace and would be remember among the pantheon of great Emperors
>lost most of the empire to Arab Zealots almost immediately after

>Trajan
>Hadrian

Hadrian literally undid everything Trajan did and corrected his fuck ups. I don't see how you can have both on the same list as they were polar opposites.

>Favorite emperors /his?
Mehmed the Conqueror.

Obviously Valerian was the best Emperor. He was the only one who was mummified and displayed for the public.

Didn't he murder three of his brothers? As well as two of his nephews, before his sons who succeeded him turned to murdering one another in vain power struggles?

Also, didn't he only convert to Christianity on his deathbed?

>the meme emperor
There's a reason he was the LAST of the five good emperors.

Tiberius is probably the only emperor who had a legitimate excuse for his sexual depravity.

On the other hand, he inspired Caligula to new heights of wickedness.

Octavian was a coward and an effete. He once staged a phony charge across a bridge to cut up some peaceful barbarians just to boost his political credibility as a general. Problem was some actually warlike barbarians heard about the fight, and came to the bridge to fuck him up, leading him to trip over his robes running away from them.

What a coincidence that every time there was a battle, Octavian was sick in his tent again.

>Roman

Well, that's because Hannibal killed any of them worth half a damn at Cannae.

Well, considering that Hadrian murdered all the jews in Judea, that's hardly surprising.

Emperor=/=General
An emperor was more a pilot of the state, they should make strategic decisions not tactical ones when it comes to the military. For example Augustus supported a robust economy which was the backbone upon which their highly developed army held dominance. Even in complete decline, Romans had armies which would be unmatched globally in size of career soldiers.

But he didn't, he just let the successful parts of the empire go free instead of fixing the underlying problem. The economy in the west had fractured, Gaul/Iberia was a political blackhole and a source of constant and infuriating rebellion, Italy and rome were terrible places to live etc.

Not only that, but the absolute madman resigned from office after instigating the shitshow and farmed cabbages while one of the empires was doomed to collapse unless Julius Caesar/Octavian managed to get reincarnated.

He also murdered one of his sons as a result of the machinations of one of his later wives, before murdering her too when the conspiracy came to light. He ahh... he didn't have much guile.

>Octavian was a master politician, incredible administrator, and genius bureaucrat and diplomat.
>who was Maecenas

If it were not for Gaius' violation of all Roman law, subsequent assassination, posthumous adoption of Octavian, and therefore ultimately the war of the second triumvirate (which of course Agrippa won because, guess, what Octavian was "sick" again), there would have been no Augustus. He was a nothing. He held power not due to any skill of his own, nor even circumstances of birth, but pure serendipity.

In fact, given Caesar's reputation as the Queen of Bithynia, I am given to suspect that Octavian was actually Gaius' butt buddy. Remember that although Caesar may have conquered Gaul, Nicomedes conquered Caesar.

KAROLUS·IMP·AUG

Neck yourself