Who was the greatest roman emperor and why?

Aurelian.

He came to the throne at the least enviable time in almost all Roman history: the empire was totally collapsing, had split into three, with a ruined economy, a mutinous army that loved to assassinate its Emperors, and barbarians constantly pouring over the borders.
Yet in five years he beat back numerous major Germanic invasions, unified the empire by conquering Palmyra and Gaul, and (almost uniquely among all Rome's rulers) had the foresight to try and resolve the massive hyperinflation in the empire by increasing the silver content of the denarius.

By the time of his death he was marching east preparing for a major campaign against Persia when a massive fucking faggot called Eros tricked his officers into murdering him by forging a list of men the emperor was going to execute. After he died there was no immediate successor or usurper, which was unbelievable by the standards of the third century - and hints at the increasing stability of Rome's politics - and his wife may even have ruled for six months afterwards as sole empress.

Also he worked to make based Sol Invictus the supreme deity of the Roman pantheon, and was basically in the process of doing what Constantine would later do.

Best: Augustus for whole career, Aurelian for greatest peak

Worst: Commodus or Caracalla.

Augustus loses points for not thinking ahead and actually building a solid succession system.

Valentinian had the best death 2bh

>RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH GERMANS GET OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT

>AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

>AGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

>GERMAAAAAAAAAAAANS

>AHHHHH- *has brain aneurysm*

Honorious was pretty bad too

He had to play up the republican aspects of the system, and it's not like the Empire ever developed a clear succession system. He went to pretty insane lengths to find at least a successor

>people saying Commodus or Caracalla when this faggot exists

it's one thing to dress up like Hercules and name the months after yourself or massacre a city because someone called you a jerk, Honorius basically set in motion the destruction of the western empire

>Valentinian I was a great Emperor
>Valentinian II was an okay Emperor
>Valentinian III was a terrible Emperor
What did they mean by this?

Marcus Aurelius was pretty decent.
His son was a little shit. Wouldn't say the worst but he defenitly was down there.

>you will never be that angry that you for from it.

Sequels suck

*die from it

Aurelian was fucking based

>Who was the greatest roman emperor and why?
Barbarossa, for obvious reason
>Who was the worst?
Francis II
Faggot lost at Austerlitz caysing the end of the Empire

>
>
>

He gets bad press. He was actually pretty decent.

Domitian was one of the best?

He did the best he could, how many fucking heirs-in-training predeceased him? Ha was forced to keep working that on the fly his whole reign.

Aurelius was over-rated as fuck, all based n an irrelevant and not actually all that great collection of "Philosophical Calendar Thought of the Day" shit he wrote down.

Eh I give him brownie points for dying on the front with the men that he lead. Cant hate on a guy for helping to create a form of philosophical thinking though.

the patrician's choice
worked his way up from being a farmboy to legionnaire to emperor

Spotted the contrarian
Aurelius was the realest nigga that ever lived

Don't bully chicken-boy, he's a special guy

Seeing that was the only way of keeping the empire a float it seems like a fair assesment.

>the realest nigga that ever lived
Surely wouldn't that be Septimius Severus, the actual African?

Augustus
Tiberius

>Who was the greatest roman emperor and why?

L V C I V S · D O M I T I V S · A V R E L I A N V S

BECAUSE HE WAS THE NOBLEST PERSON TO BE A ROMAN EMPEROR; WISE HEROIC REFORMER, ENDOWED WITH VISION, WORD, AND VOLITION.

>Who was the worst?

"CALIGULA".

unironically caligula, the only one to defeat a god

actual african and real nigga do not necessarily mean the same thing

>Greatest
Domitian

>Worst
Caracalla

Yes, Domitian as written off as an incompetent Tyrant immediately after his death because he disenfranchised the Senate by the autistic Tacitus but in reality he rejuvenated Roman pantheism, launched several successful Imperial ventures, increased the purity of Roman currency and created a strongly balanced economy unseen since JC

Anyone else get turned on by Caligula's exploits when they first red about them

This

When it was found out what Eros did, the officers who had killed Aurelian, many of whom had been his friends, captured him and pretty much tortured him to death, so he at least got what he deserved.

>Also [L · D · A] worked to make based [SIC] Sol Invictus the supreme deity of the Roman pantheon...

YES.

>... and was basically in the process of doing what Constantine would later do.

?

SO, WHICH IS IT? DID HE WORK TOWARD ESTABLISHING THE CULT OF SOL INVICTVS, OR DID HE WORK TOWARD ESTABLISHING JUDEOCHRISTIANITY?

SOL INVICTVS IS A REPRESENTATION OF GOD'S PRESENCE ON EARTH VIA THE SUN, SO, CHRISTIANITY, AND THE CULT OF SOL INVICTVS, ARE MUTUALLY HOMOLOGOUS, BUT JUDEOCHRISTIANITY IS NOT EQUIVALENT WITH CHRISTIANITY; JUDEOCHRISTIANITY IS THE PRODUCT OF JEWISH CORRUPTION OF JESUS' DOCTRINE, AND IT IS ANTITHETICAL TO CHRISTIANITY, AND TO THE CULT OF SOL INVICTVS; L · D · A WORKED TOWARD ESTABLISHING THE CULT OF SOL INVICTVS; F · V · A · C WORKED TOWARD ESTABLISHING JUDEOCHRISTIANITY.

Greatest: Diocletian, followed closely by Augustus. Their leadership didn't just keep a nation great, they led the country out of civil war and determined the entire concept of emperor hundreds of years afterwards.

Worst: Probably Commodus, as others have said, but I'm going to throw out an honorable mention here for Valentinian III, who did almost nothing his entire reign except murder the one guy who was holding the empire together.

god bless

WE

The Roman succession system was "survival of the strongest faction"

best: caesar or augustus
worst: constantine or theodosius

honorius was also a 15 year old kid that was emperor in name only, he had no real power and stilicho was pulling all the strings until people got scared of his influence and pressured honorius into having him executed.

in a way, because honorius basically let stilicho have free reign he could be considered a low-tier emperor because stilicho almost saved the west, but not the worst emperor ever because basically everything was out of his hands and also not a good emperor because he kills stilicho anyways

He also attempted to reform the civil service into a more merit based system, rather than class and had that shit down.

Shame trying to alleviate class conflicts in Rome almoat always leads to the reformer being assassinated.

But Domitian and the Flavians were the real deal. Shame their dynasty had to end, but I guess no five good emperors period woulda happened.

The Definitive Great Roman Emperors List:
Augustus (Imperator Caesar Divi Filius Augustus)
Tiberius (Tiberius Julius Caesar Divi Augusti Filius Augustus)
Claudius (Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus)
Domitian (Titus Flavius Caesar Domitianus Augustus)
Trajan (Imperator Caesar Nerva Traianus Divi Nerva fili Augustus)
Hadrian (Caesar Traianus Hadrianus Augustus)
Antoninus Pius (Caesar Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Augustus Pius)
Marcus Aurelius (Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus)
Aurelian (Lucius Domitius Aurelianus Augustus - Restitutor Orbis)
Diocletian (Caesar Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus Augustus)
Constantine I the Great (Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus Augustus)
Theodosius I the Great (Flavius Theodosius Augustus)
Majorian (Flavius Julius Valerius Maiorianus Augustus)
Leo I the Thracian (Flavius Valerius Leo Augustus)
Zeno the Isaurian (Flavius Zeno Augustus)
Anastasius I Dicorus (Flavius Anastasius Dicorus Augustus)
Justin I (Flavius Iustinus Augustus)
Justinian I the Great (Flavius Petrus Sabbatius Iustinianus Augustus)
Maurice (Flavius Mauricius Tiberius Augustus)
Heraclius (Flavius Heraclius Augustus)
Leo III the Isaurian (Leon III ho Isaurus)
Constantine V (Konstantinos V)
Basil I the Macedonian (Basileios o Makedon)
Leo VI the Wise (Leon VI ho Sophos)
Constantine VII the Purple Born (Konstantinos VII Porphyrogennetos)
Romanos II
Nikephoros II Phokas
John I Tzimiskes (Ioannes I Tzimiskes)
Basil II the Bulgar-Slayer (Vasileios II Bulgaroktonos) - Manuel Erotikos Komnenos
Isaac I Komnenos (Isaakios I Komnenos)
Alexius I Komnenos (Alexios I Komnenos)
John II Komnenos the Good (Ioannes II Komnenos Kaloioannes)
Manuel I Komnenos (Manuel I Komnenos ho Megas)

Greatest: Julius Caesar
Worst: Mark Antony

Had Commodus just pressed on fighting the Germanic tribes the way his father wanted him to do before succession, the Roman Empire would have extended its borders all the way to the northern tip of Denmark and into Poland.
Marcus Aurelius had the right plan, but like Bismarck, left no one capable enough to finish the job.

>No Michael VIII Palaiologos
Fuck your shit.

Wait what

Explain

the big man himself

Best, Marcus Aurelius
Worst, Elagabalus
Honourable mention: Alexander Severus. Had he lived in less troubled time he would probably have made a good emperor

I think Hadrian just beats out Marcus Aurelius as the best, because he actually secured an worthy heir. Besides that he realized that continous expansion was not sustainable in the long term and built many defenses for the empire as well as dank public baths.

The so called
>holy
>roman
>empire
had it coming.

Napoleon did nothing morally wrong.

>Trajan
>best

>By the time of his death he was marching east preparing for a major campaign against Persia
Shapur would've blown him out and you know it.

...

This!!!

Cool, you did it on purpose and have thought it out.

How did Valentinian die? I don't know much about that period

...

>SO, WHICH IS IT? DID HE WORK TOWARD ESTABLISHING THE CULT OF SOL INVICTVS, OR DID HE WORK TOWARD ESTABLISHING JUDEOCHRISTIANITY?

It is OK to use lower case letters.

Recall, though, that Constantius I was a devotee of Sol Invictus, and Constantine I came to believe in a Greatest God through Sol Invictus before coming to identify the Greatest God as the Christian God.

Whether that is theologically sound is not the issue -- Constantine was less interested in deep theology than he was in identifying and staying connected to the God who brought him victory.

They were all shit Rome was better as a republic

>best: caesar or augustus

This raises a question -- how do we define "Emperor" of Rome. Ancient historians tended to list Caesar the Dictator as the first, later historians start with Augustus. I tend to think of the Juio-Claudians as being transitional, with there clearly being no such thing as an Emperor when JC started the family ball rolling and there clearly being an Emperor when Nero "suicided" and the position was grabbed by Galba,but not drawing a sharp line for hen the boundary was crossed.

As a list of "great" emperors, that seems over-long. Greatness would seem a meaningless term if you apply it so freely.

What are your criteria for greatness here?

>Best, Marcus Aurelius

Why? What did he do that you think qualifies him as great?

>I think Hadrian just beats out Marcus Aurelius as the best, because he actually secured an worthy heir.

Two generations worth, when you think about it.

>Justinian
Your opinion is shit, into the trash it goes

But toward the end, the Republic was demonstrably no longer able to function as a system of government. The Principate as designed by Augustus went a long way towards establishing a more stable system. Not a perfect one, but one that worked fairly well for a long time, and very well at times.

he wasn't a beta fag like his predecessors and decided to prefer hereditary way of succession to secure throne for his chad son instead of being cuck who adopts adults

Thank you for clarifying that for me.

"Without waiting for the spring he decided to continue campaigning and moved from Savaria to Brigetio. Once he arrived on 17 November, he received a deputation from the Quadi. In return for supplying fresh recruits to the Roman army, the Quadi were to be allowed to leave in peace. However, before the envoys left they were granted an audience with Valentinian. The envoys insisted that the conflict was caused by the building of Roman forts in their lands; furthermore individual bands of Quadi were not necessarily bound to the rule of the chiefs who had made treaties with the Romans – and thus might attack the Romans at any time. The attitude of the envoys so enraged Valentinian that he suffered a burst blood vessel in the skull while angrily yelling at them, provoking his death on November 14, 375."

>Literally REEEEEing to death
Glorious.

Fuck off retard. Justinian was the last true Roman Emperor.

Best: Suleiman the Magnificent
Worst: Alexios Komenous

Fuck off T*rk.

What, while rotting in his tomb? He died three years before Aurelian did you mong. He would have been fighting Bahram II if he made it to Persia, and Bahram was a useless faggot who got his capital sacked by Carinus.

Carus* sorry.
And whatever Carus can do, Aurelian could probably do better. The guy was legit one of Rome's best ever military commanders.

Best: Augustus
Worst: Before Commodus and the following centuries of turmoil, Nero. If you pick an asshole post-Marcus Aurelius, you're cheating.
The case can be made for Marcus, who was so up his ass with dour stoicism that he forgot to train his dipshit son to be a good emperor.

Best: Augustus
Worst: Honorius

>Without waiting for the spring he decided to continue campaigning and moved from Savaria to Brigetio. Once he arrived on 17 November, he received a deputation from the Quadi. In return for supplying fresh recruits to the Roman army, the Quadi were to be allowed to leave in peace. However, before the envoys left they were granted an audience with Valentinian.
>The envoys insisted that the conflict was caused by the building of Roman forts in their lands; furthermore individual bands of Quadi were not necessarily bound to the rule of the chiefs who had made treaties with the Romans – and thus might attack the Romans at any time.
>The attitude of the envoys so enraged Valentinian that he suffered a burst blood vessel in the skull while angrily yelling at them, provoking his death on November 14, 375.

>Carus
>sacking Ctesiphon
Never attested and most historians don't even trust his claims. Also funny how he died very shortly after his war for a supposedly successful Emperor.

Commodus received, as the one and only son of any Emperor thus far to be 'born into the purple' received as best of an imperial education as one could hope for, including administrative and military positions.
He was just an out and out insane psychopath.

which one was the tranny?

shes obviously the best one

this.

Patrician answer

Elagabolus liked to call himself the wife in the marriage and referred to himself as the 'queen'

he could have written somewhere "if the immediate successor is dangerously underage, an autistic neckbeard or just literally as fucking bonkers as possible, The power will be distributed between the Consuls and the Emperors' best and most loyal for a term of five years"

Commodus was literally the Chad Emperor
>very attractive and physically strong
>always portrayed himself as Hercules
>personally got into the Colosseum and massacred hundreds of enormous beasts while nearly nude
>openly mocked and bullied the Senate
>killed anyone that made him angry
>had hundreds of concubines
>died in his prime while grabbing his dick

Which would have created a rift between the Senate and the living heir, creating civil war.

The only real solution to this issue was killing Commodus sooner rather than later and adopting an adequate heir.

marcus aurelius because dank philosophy

>empire lasts from 27BC to 1453AD
>hurr this list is too long

You have Justinian but not Julian?

Your list is bad and you should feel bad.

no dude