Greatest Roman Emperors

Trajan, by far, was the greatest emperor, he restored the title to what emperor was under Augustus, especially given the damage caused by everyone from Tiberius to Domitian which included some of the worst emperors rome ever saw, pushed the empire to the furthest boundaries and secured the empire's future of prosperity all the way to 192 ad by choosing Hadrian as his successor who choose Marcus Aurelius. Theer is a reason why he is listed as as one of the four "Good emperors"; and really was the start sense Nerva served only two years.

he's the best Roman emporor the senate even gave him the title 'optimus' for restoring freedom

He's #3. Doh! =p

If Trajan is not in the Top Ten then this list is a joke if not completely worthless. He should really be included somewhere between #2 - #5

he was the #1 nobody did more to the greatest empire then anybody brought more money home built more things for his people and had one of the best military careers ever

The unified roman empire had its greatest size in his rule, Trajan was a very good emperor!

"felicior Augusto, melior Traiano"

He fought a woman and some rebels no great achievement

Why is he not higher? He brought back the Gallic and Palymyran Empire into the fold and did this all in only five years. Who knows what he could have done had his reign been longer!

Started the great recovery of the late 3rd century, killed by people who immediately regretted it.

A great emperor, who brought back stability to the Roman empire, even though the tetrarchy did start to fall apart after he abdicated.

He was not strong enough to govern the empire alone and had to rely on others to rule. A very poor general who had even lost the battle for the control for the empire, fortunately for Diocletain his rival Carinus was murdered at the moment of his triumph by one of his own. Carinus was quite poor as a general therefore Diocletain was indeed poorer.

A monster who killed people because of their religious beliefs. Please don't write nonsense that Constantine did so because its not true STOP DISTORTING HISTORY

It's criminal that the guy who basically gave the Roman Empire an extra 100 years still appears on 'Worst Roman Emperor' lists just because he was hard on the Christians - a group aggressively changing Roman society ('paganism' would be made illegal a generation after Constantine). Talk about cultural bias.

An empire is made up of citizens. And killing those citizens over silly religious matters is a bad move. Also, breaking up the empire is a greatly debatable move. Either way, he doesn't deserve the top 5.

ehhhh I don't think he should have split the empire. I guess at the time it wasn't a bad idea but in time the two halves began to drift apart the Eastern side to become more Greek and Oriental while the West more Germanic.

Constantine did too. We are voting on good emperors not good people.

He killed thousands of innocents in religious persecutions.

I rank him 3rd on my list of leaders with the greatest achievements. !st is a tie between Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan.

It was the Pax Romana not Pax Augustus

He sound's like a great guy from what I've looked up but i'm NOT the type of girl that believe's what other's say i have to see for myself..

No reason he should be top just because he was first and longest. He was no Trajan or Diocletian.

While he was certainly clever and established the empire, why is that a good thing? 1.) His new system took away power from the people, 2.) His system ensured a cyclical series of civil wars roughly every hundred years until the empire's demise, 3.) He killed numerous innocent families for both political reasons and to seize their money. He isn't hardly the #1.

They were Roman Emperors they all had people killed and murdered. Just what makes Augustus an animal as opposed to say Caligula or Nero?

ya he wasnt only a dictator he was an animal Trajan should be number and the list dhould be like that:1trajan 2hadrian 3Marcus Aurelius 4nerva 5 antinous pius

He wasnt a dictator, the people of Rome were going to burn down the senate if they didnt vote for him to be made dictator, but he refused.

He was a great ruler and from the statues I've seen of him He was kinda cute ( for a dead guy and a staue)

He wans't a "dictator" if he ruled from the senate.

Great administrator poor general. Others fought for him while stayed safe. As a military leader he fares badly compared to Caesar, Trajan or Constantine.

Simply the best (better than all the rest, LOL).

he ruled for 49 years and 4 days which is possibly the longest reign EVER

He was one of the cleverest as well

He was good, if you like dictators!!

He was good!

Overrated. Although times where good he did not face long term problems facing the Empire and allowed the Parthian Empire to build up to much power.

It's sad that he's mostly forgotten. He had the longest reign since Augustus. He had NO major wars, NO tawdry rumors said about him (in fact he only married one woman over his entire life), NO political or religious persecutions. During his reign the empire had it's greatest peace and prosperity.

Great emperor. Had to deal with wars, financial problems and a great plague early in his reign so all those people saying he didn't do much for the empire is dumb. As a philosopher he was one of the fairest emperors. His only real flaw, his son.

Shouldn't really be this high, Diocletian, Constantine and Aurelian all gave so much more to the empire. He was a good emperor but just like how Caracella is Septimus Severus' bad legacy, Commodus is his very bad legacy.

Maybe the only true intellectual to ever rule a major empire or nation, people still read his phillosphy. Shame about the son.

He was the only emperor to demand that statues of him be seen without a sword in his hand -- he despised violence of all kinds.

A great philosopher but that does not make a great emperor. He was a good emperor but not equal of Trajan and Antoninus Pius his immediate predecessors.

Had a nutty son!!

Great Emperor, finished the war against the germans ( last battle is shown in the movie Gladiator), a thinker as said before, unfortunately his son Commodus was crazy indeed and bad. The last of thr so called time of the 5 good emperors. ( Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius )

the republic (while technicaly oligarchy) was so corrupt and dysfunctional that it cuased many civil wars and that eld to dictators like sulla and julius ceaser dictators. Thanks to Augustus and his empire system rome entered a lang period of peace and prosperity kown as pax romania. How could you possible think that the roman republic a better form of government?

The increased stability and economic gains of his reign should speak for themselves. But he's only a good ruler by the standards of the principate. The republic was a better form of government anyway, since there was little need for military coups.

Good emperor but not one of the very best.

Paid for his own history(cough!) PR.

I agree completely. Vespasian also promoted the keeping of histories by offering financial reward to writers. If anything, he should be higher.

No way , this guy was never fully trusted by trajan, and spent his rule increasing fear and building stupid edifices

Nope. He did some really insane things like single-handedly starting a war with the Jews by passing restrictive laws and desecrating their temple. The war was long and painful, and cost Rome at least two entire legions.

thanks for this l v

good wall

The Greatest Roman Emperor, superb general, clever statesman, just ruler and if necessary ruthless that is stuff which makes Great rulers

It's not about converting them to Christians it's about showing them love!

He destroyed classical culture by making chiristianity legal, because it would soon become the official imperial religion making the greek traditional gods forgotten, the gods that shaped classical culture.

Called "the Great" by the senate for his military achievements not by Christian scholars. He was ruthless to those who betrayed and to survive a Roman Emperor had to be ruthless!!!!

Very average Emperor, utterly rutheless to friends and enemies alike but a world class opportunist. Made 'the Great' only by later Christian scholars.

good emperor , horrible person. killed his own sisters family

Constantine the Great and that says all

The greatest Emperor !

Constantine THE GREAT and he was really great. With Caesar he was the greatest general in Roman history!!!!!!!!

Constatine was a great emperor and should be placed higher. He made Christianity legal and that then led to the major change of Western Civilization.

He was a great emperor and should be much higher

Crazy!!!!!!!!!!

Constantine was born in 272, and his reign was 306-337.

Because the discussion is about them being great Emperors and leaders and not good husbands you big dummy!

kept the Germans out

great emperor and nice person he's not killed his mother and wife

Umm.. He killed many,many people including his mother and wife!! how is that good?

His victory at arentoratum- heroism, bad luck that he died when he did, who knows how much he could of done. Great philosopher

Julian did not reduce his powers and gave the senate no power. He was a dreamer who believed he was Alexander the Great, He was just lucky that his cousin died en route to kick his ass. However the dreamer died stupidly trying to be Alexander, He was not tolerant on religious matters

Nero was worse or at least just as bad as Caligula.

In a time of great religious turmoil, Julian attempted to increase the tolerance of all the religious sects: pagans, cults, Christians, etc. He also was one of the few emperors to attempt to drastically reduce his own power, giving much of it back to the senate and the people.

Wish we had his study of the Etruscan language today!!!

Claudius surprised everyone by being a decent leader, despite assumptions that he was an idiot. His reign stabilized the Roman world after the short reign of the emperor Caligula. He incorporated Britain into the Empire, was interested in the arts and sciences, and ruled fairly. His one big fault: Nero was his successor.

should be in top 10. found the roman empire in good shape and made it even better

A very unfortunate guy, his reign was actually only from 79-81. And during that time he dealt with the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius and a large fire in Rome very effectively.

History paints a bad reputation for Tiberius because of the treason trials but in reality only 50 people where accused of treason and over half where pardoned. In the end, the Roman Empire was well managed under Tiberius with large surpluses in the Treasury.

Caracalla was a total psychopath. He was nowhere a good emperor. The only thing of worth he left were the astounding baths in Rome.

The senate loved him because he was a puppet in their hands, his mother ruled behind the scenes.

The Senate Loved him very much. In that time it wasn't very common. He has a wise rule, but he restored and helpes the empire a lot, but his sucessors only made several mistakes.

The most of human member of the Tetrarchy. A much loved and respected emperor by his subjects.

A monster who caused horrible sufferings to thousands just because of religion.

If he lived the Empire would have had no Julian, unfortuantely for the Romans, Constantius died before he could kick Julian's ass

Partied harder than any other emperor. Only appears on Worst lists thanks to puritans like Gibbon.

His craziness and cruelty are over rated. Plus he established the cult of Sol Invictus, was nice to Christians, and built the largest temple in Rome. Not a great emperor, in all probability a mad emperor, but realise he's not the worst emperor.

The glutton - crazy with his food!

Conqueror of the Goths ....should be higher

Nero burned Christians to light his dinner parties. Not a nice guy at all!!!

He killed his own mother and wife!! How the HELL do you call that good?

Most of the people on this list didn't survive for two years on the throne. Nero ruled over a decade. The bar isn't exactly very high here! duh!!!!

He was pretty good!!

Was a courteous and just ruler and tried to restore Rome back to its former stability after the tyranny of Commodus.

not even an emperor on wikipedia it is writen "Dictator Of the Roman Republic"

wasn't even an emperor

Never emperor. Doesn't belong on list. Doesn't matter how good a ruler he was.

He loved the people -- gave money and land to the poor. he was a people's ruler.

He was declared dictator for life so that would be an emperor by most definitions.

He was never an emperor. The title emperor came after he was dead.

he wasn't an emperor so why da heck is he here

because he never became emperor in the 1st place because he got assinated by the senate

y isnt there a time period when he ruled??????

Got what he deserved!! Egotistical, brutal, self seeking and cynical man!! Destroyer of the Roman Republic, leading to all the mad emperors!!!

too bad he wasn't an emperor

he was the greatest roman of all time

Almost succeeded in resurrecting the undivided empire, but failed due to a plague epidemic. Should be much higher.

Great leader. Not a Roman Emperor, to say that he was is like saying George Washington was one do the great British PMs.

Perhaps his only lasting accomplishment was his codex of Roman law. The long term effects of his "recovery" of lost territory, especially Itayl, was in the long run ruinously expensive and was a major factor in weakening the Eastern Roman Empire and aided in the loss of Syria, Palestine and Egypt to the Arabs in the 630s/40s.

hey wow no date NEED IT!!!

Byzantium , aka Byzantine Empire is the modern name for the eastern roman empire, was very sucesfull like 300 years after the fall of Rome, and could withstand despite many invasions, treason of Republic of Venice and Rise of Islam, until without help from othwe catholic nations collapsed in 1453, unfortunatelly in my opinion, i would like to visit the sucessor of the roman empire. ( stupid people say USA, does not make sense at all)

He was a tyrant and unpopular, but he was effective and ruled the empire well.

C'mon guys, this guy laid the foundation for the pax romana! He fortified lines of defence in across the rhine,fought succesful border wars, reacted with capable speed, created a stronger currency and was very loved with the military and most of the people, his stupid wife conspired against him to take his life.

A horse for a senate EPIC

is this for real? he made a donkey a member of senate.... INSANE.

Totally immoral.

mad as hell maybe played too much chess

Blame Julius Caesar !!!

Thought he was the incarnation of Heracles, randomly killed members of the Senate, participated in Gladiatorial games (gladiators-- despite what we may think-- were either slaves or political prisoners and were not viewed as respectable or heroic), and most importantly drained Rome of its funds and allowed the Praetorian Guards to become unruly. If anything, he was the instigator for the gradual decline of the Empire after the Five Good Emperors.

How the hell do you end up with a harem of 2000?