Rome History

Augustus Pt.2

31 BCE

He also constructed and repaired a lot of public building as well as temples. (The Columbia Encyclopedia) This also provided many benefits to the citizens and people who have religion. He also reorganized the army to make it more union and stronger while he also formed the Roman Navy to gain power on the seas and to scare their enemies to keep Rome under peace. (Britannica)

Augustus

31 BCE

Augustus Caesar is the first emperor of Rome. 31 B.C.E. to 14 C.E. is known as the Age of Augustus. He restored the Republic after he defeated Antony and Cleopatra and becomes the Emperor. I think he is a good emperor because he did many things that impacted the future development of Rome. For example he settled boundaries for the country and planned defense which allows the citizens to feel more safer.

Tiberius

14

Tiberius ruled Rome during 14 C.E. to 37 C.E. In my perspective, he is a neutral emperor because he has done some great things too for the future development of Rome too but he is bad as an person. First of all, his laws that he set were all generally far-seeing which means that he took consider for the future of the kingdom. He also strengthen the Roman Navy while he secured Rome’s power. The most important part is that he stopped the luxury expenses and saved a lot of money.

Tiberius Pt.2

14

This action provided the next emperor enough money to gain more power for Rome and put it in a more valuable use. (The Columbia Encyclopedia) Even though after he announced this law, there were a lot of rich people in Rome that hated him, it still cannot hide the truth that he have a broad perspective and helped Rome to develop better.

Tiberius Pt.3

14

The reasons for being neutral is also that his is not really willed to rule the country, this made him a tyrant that tortures other people and being offensive. These problems of himself made him a neutral emperor instead of a good emperor. (Britannica)

Claudius

41

Claudius ruled during 41 C.E. to 54 C.E. He is also considered as one of the good emperors even his marriages are all not successful. He conquered Britain during the time he rules Rome and made it into one of Rome’s province. (Britannica) He also started to built the Appian Way which pushes the develop of Rome way further because highways have great benefits such as transporting goods and techniques faster, troops can get to other places easier, etc.

Claudius Pt.2

41

These benefits allows Rome to be more successful and later on and gain more benefits during development and battles with other places. (The McGraw-Hill Companies)

Nero

54

Nero was the ruler for Rome during 54 C.E. to 68 C.E. He is a bad emperor in my opinion. One of his life-statement is that he will simply kill anyone who stops him or obeys him. This even included his own mother and wife. He also took control of the senate by having absolute control of the troops. Without military force, the senate have no choice but to follow his commands.

Nero Pt.2

54

At first he attempted to gain popularity with lowering the taxes for working people. But then after the Great Fire happened, people pointed out that he might be the one who caused it so he can built his giant statue. Then people started the revolt and refusing to pay tax to let him build his statue. Eventually he get killed by his legions that won’t trust him anymore. (Theodore)

Vespasian

69

I believe that Vespasian is good emperor. He is also sometimes considered as “the man who saved Rome”. (Murray) This is because that Rome’s money and treasury has been very poor when we took over the country from Nero (due to wars and Nero’s corrupt). During his ruling period (69 - 79), Vespasian must charge tax for a lot of things to gain the money back for Rome so they can develop further and build more public buildings.

Vespasian Pt. 2

69

His wise actions helped Rome to heal itself and wiping the damages that Nero caused which Rome eventually becomes stable after the long period of corruption. (Britannica)

Titus Pt.2

79

But since he didn’t cause any known damages and contributed to Rome, I’ll consider him as a good emperor of Rome. (Murray)

Titus

79

Titus was the ruler of Rome during 79 - 81 C.E. He is also considered as a good emperor because he proved himself in several ways. First of all during the war with Jerusalem, he demonstrated his strength and loyalty to the Roman citizens and laws. Since Vespasian built a great path for him, he is more successful on continuing to settle and stable Rome. But the other parts are hard to judge since he didn’t rule for a long period of time.

Nerva

96

Nerva is the main emperor I am focusing on. He ruled Rome during 96 - 98 C.E. I will consider him as a good emperor too. He is definitely a good empire. One of his outstanding and significant contribution is that he started the peace era of Rome (Pax Romana).

Nerva Pt.2

96

He’s also the first emperor that has been selected by the Senate to rule. He reversed a lot of bad things that Domitian has done such as returning people’s properties that has been token by Domitian back to them and bring justice back for the citizens and lowing the stress of paying too many tax to the government. (Encyclopedia)

Nerva Pt.4

96

One of the other laws he made is that uncles cannot marry their niece; as commonly know, if close blood relationships helps a child then the child will have a high degree of change to get a problem when they were born. And with the medications skills back then, it is hard to cure most of the problems. So by banning uncle marring their niece, it saved a lot of un-born children’s life in the future (also the mother will not be sad because they don’t have the child).

Nerva Pt.5

96

During his ruling period, he also tried to decrease the usage of slave and protect the right of them. He settles laws to protect them which owning a slave is prohibited. This action may not keep some rich people satisfied because they will need to hire people with higher prices to work for them. But this law helped a lot of people getting rid of the current poor situation (bad living condition, bad food, bad treatment) and generally saved their lives.

Nerva Pt.6

96

On the other hand, Nerva also gained trust from the senate because he swore to not kill any senates while he respected the senate a lot and gave them actual powers to make decisions. (Gill) This smart action made the senate to believe him and give him a lot of support because they feel being respected by Nerva.

Nerva Pt.7

96

Another special thing about Nerva is that he is one of the first emperors that adopted the heir (the next chosen emperor) with any relationships (blood). From these aspects above, I can present the idea that Nerva is a good emperor of Rome even if he only ruled for a short period of time.

Nerva Pt.3

96

This action helped the future Rome to develop better a lot because it successfully calmed people down and they will have enough life supplies to maintain their normal life. This means that there will be more people available to do different jobs and improve the whole society. To gain further support from the whole population, he also gave each citizen around 75 denarii (money) and gave each solider 5000 denarii.

Trajan

98

Trajan is the second ruler during the Pax Romana (98 - 117 C.E.). I will consider him as a good emperor too. He worked and thought for the people in the country with respect and settled laws help the poor people who don’t own any land. This action helps him gains popularity and support from the citizens. He also won a few wars that helped him to gain military succession too.

Trajan Pt.2

98

As a kinder emperor, he is also not that harsh on Christianity and other religions. He also built more roads for Rome to make traveling even easier. (Britannica)

Hadrian Pt.2

117

The total defense of Rome has been improved which means they can defeat other enemies better. He also built a temple for the Jupiter to let people worship but it got the Jew angry because it was build close to the Jewish temple. (Encyclopedia)

Hadrian

117

Hadrian is the third ruler during the time of Pax Romana (117 - 138 C.E.) He is also a good emperor because he contributed a lot to the defense systems of Rome. During his time ruling Rome, he traveled to different places of the empire and checked with each separate parts of military. (Britannica)Even though it might takes more time but the outcomes are very good.

Antonius Pius Pt.2

138

From these small reasons above, it is not hard to identify and being able to consider him as a good emperor. (Britannica)

Antonius Pius

138

Antonius Pius ruled Rome during 138 to 161 C.E. and he is the fourth of the five good emperors. I think that he is a good emperor too because he accomplished a lot of projects that Hadrian left and make it stronger to protect the empire to improve the living standard of citizens. Since he didn’t really make any big mistakes during the time he ruled Rome. His time period is even more “peace” than the other 4 of the five good emperors.

Marcus Aurelius

161

Marcus Aurelius is the last emperor of the five good emperors. He ruled during 161 C.E. till 180 C.E. He is also considered as a good emperor because he contributes a lot to the public buildings of Rome. During his ruling period, he built hospitals to cure people and help them overcome diseases. (Encyclopedia)

Marcus Aurelius Pt.2

161

He also lowered the tax so it is more affordable towards everyone and the slaves are get treated slightly better. Since he’s also a philosopher, he also wrote pieces like “Meditations” to influence other people later on. These traits suited him to become a good emperor of the Roman empire. (Britannica)

Commodus Pt.2

177

He also spent a lot of the treasury his previous emperors left and made the situation in Rome worse. (Britannica)

Commodus

177

From Commodus, things starts to change. He ruled Rome during 177 to 193 C.E. (dictator after 180 C.E.) He ended the 84 years of sustainable empire. Commodus is defiantly a bad emperor. After he ruled Rome, he became corrupted and drowned in his fantasies. He even gave Rome a new name “Colonia Commodiana” and imagined himself as Hercules the god. He got into fights and battles with animals because he though he was powerful.

Constantine

306

Constantine is the last empire in the whole list. He became the sole emperor and ruled Rome during 306 - 337 C.E. He took the concepts of Christian and accepted the religion. I’ll consider him as an neutral emperor; he have done good things such as building a new city in the East Rome.

Constantine Pt.2

306

This allows people to distribute the population and solve some military and financial problems. On the other hand, by believing in Christian, the Roman lost the faith of battling and becomes more “peace”. So when they started to defeat the invasion, they are easier to lose. (Spielvogel 178)