Your Favourite Emperor?

[D B Campbell]

A) Antoninus Pius - soldiers probably died only for boredom during his reign

... or from sheer hard work, building the outer limes in Germany, Raetia and Britain (the Antonine Wall)!

[Epictetus]

Marcus Aurelius

He had a very modern sense of citizen freedoms, such as freedom of speech. Herodes vehemently attacked him verbally, but Marcus let him go.

He was a fiscal moderate, and even sold off imperial possessions to meet necessary expenses.

He recognised his own faults but was continuously working on them. The Meditations are the best example.

Marcus used diplomacy when he could and used the army when he had to in order to protect the Empire.

He showed others due respect. He honoured the Senate, followed Hadrian’s wishes involving Lucius, and was even polite to Fronto when he rejected rhetoric for philosophy.

He was extremely diligent and hard-working. Fronto was continually begging him to work less and get more sleep.

But he wasn’t perfect. I’m not a fan of his dual lawcodes for the honestiores and humiliores. I think one of his worst mistakes was allowing barbarians to settle inside the Empire without having a plan of integrating them into the local social contract.

[Virilis]

Marcus Aurelius

He had a very modern sense of citizen freedoms, such as freedom of speech. Herodes vehemently attacked him verbally, but Marcus let him go.

He was a fiscal moderate, and even sold off imperial possessions to meet necessary expenses.

He recognised his own faults but was continuously working on them. The Meditations are the best example.

Marcus used diplomacy when he could and used the army when he had to in order to protect the Empire.

He showed others due respect. He honoured the Senate, followed Hadrian’s wishes involving Lucius, and was even polite to Fronto when he rejected rhetoric for philosophy.

He was extremely diligent and hard-working. Fronto was continually begging him to work less and get more sleep.

But he wasn’t perfect. I’m not a fan of his dual lawcodes for the honestiores and humiliores. I think one of his worst mistakes was allowing barbarians to settle inside the Empire without having a plan of integrating them into the local social contract.

Good points, David! Have you learned all this from "Gladiator" :wink: !?

[Epictetus]

No, Anthony Birley. His book is highly recommended, by the way, if you like Marcus. Parts of it are dated, and he takes the Historia Augusta a bit too seriously at times, but I think Birley had a good biography.

I learned to stab my enemies before a public showdown from Gladiator. :wink: And I learned that doesn't work all the time.

[L C Cinna]

Augustus

Septimius Severus

Gallienus

Diocletianus

Iulianus

[Virilis]

No, Anthony Birley. His book is highly recommended, by the way, if you like Marcus. Parts of it are dated, and he takes the Historia Augusta a bit too seriously at times, but I think Birley had a good biography.

I learned to stab my enemies before a public showdown from Gladiator. :wink: And I learned that doesn't work all the time.

Yes, I have this book, a good read! Curiously it has such an awful cover that it must be the ugliest book I have. It has a pink picture of a cameo of the emperor Augustus. I seriously thought about getting another edition because of that :wink: ...

[D B Campbell]

Curiously it has such an awful cover that it must be the ugliest book I have. It has a pink picture of a cameo of the emperor Augustus. I seriously thought about getting another edition because of that :wink: ...

Birley's [amazon]Marcus Aurelius: a biography[/amazon] ? With a pink cover?! I haven't seen that one!

[Sardaukar]

I have a soft spot for Titus Vespasianus. Short reign, but looked like a decent guy.

[Na Saighdiuir]

I have a soft spot for Titus Vespasianus. Short reign, but looked like a decent guy.

Likewise for some reason im a fan! Germanicus is up there as well!

[Octavianvs]

Likewise for some reason im a fan! Germanicus is up there as well!

Germanicus ! I honestly believe would have made an exellent emperor. Has anyone read the Dando Collins Book Blood of the Caesars? Definitly a good read a lot of insight when I have more time I am going to re read a few more time to see how much I am willing to agree with all of it but collins definitly shows a very possable account.

[Na Saighdiuir]

Germanicus ! I honestly believe would have made an exellent emperor.

What i should have made clearer was that Vespasian is my faveourite Caesar while Germanicus is a faveourite "non caesar" if you like.
Sorry for any confusion.

[PhilusEstilius]

I think I would have to say Vespasion as he strikes me as being a survivor, he also appears to be a self made man who was not only a military general but made a living being a Muleteer. Ideed a very down to earth guy in his very last statement before he died, "Me think's I'm becoming a god".

[Jona Lendering]

Well, let me play the advocatus diaboli.

Titus Vespasianus. Short reign, but looked like a decent guy.

Note the cynical undertone of Suetonius' prologue: he condidered to be a good man "by nature, art, or good fortune". The anecdote in 9.1-2 is still shocking: offering two would-be murderers a sharp sword and saying that "danger threatened them both, but at some future time" - well, I think those guys never slept comfortably. As Brian Jones (no, not the guy you are thinking of) remarks in The Emperor Titus (1984): "The mask fell."

I think I would have to say Vespasion ... Indeed a very down to earth guy in his very last statement before he died, "Me think's I'm becoming a god".

Not his last words. Suetonius says that he suffered from an attack of diarrhoea, struggled to get on his feet, and died, saying "An emperor ought to die standing." It must have been a smelly affair, but I think these last words are even better than the well-known joke.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Germanicus definately would have made a great Emperor, and the Dando-collins book is excellent.

But as far as favourite emperors go.....Vespasian, even if he was a cheap bas£$%d, as Caesar himself was never Emperor!

[S SEVERUS]

Septimius Severus :wink:

But also Hadrian, Aurelian and Diocletian.


Hadrian,...for his travelling and wisdom.
Aurelian, Restitutor Orbis !! Very good general.
Diocletian, pulled the empire back together