Favorite Roman Emperor? - Hadrian Built the Wall, Elagabalus trooned out...

[TiggerNits]

I've got to go with Augustus. Not only did he stabilize the Roman World militarily, economically, and socially, he completely revamped Rome's political practices. The Roman institutions that were perfectly adequate for governing a city-state or a small nation were obviously and clearly falling apart when attempting to administer a large country with many territories, both internally and overseas. Sulla had tried to fix this by returning the Republic back to its roots and strengthening the control of the most important Roman political families, but that wasn't the solution. Augustus went the other way, and largely neutered the Roman political families and opened up important positions to capable outsiders, like Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. Agrippa almost succeeded Augustus on several occasions when it appeared Augustus would die without a suitable heir. It's a shame, in a way. If the principle that the empire should go to the most capable man could have been integrated into the Empire from the start, there's no telling what could've been.

Fire what it's worth, Agripa's bloodline ended up spawning Nero and Caligula, two of the most infamous fuck ups of all time. So maybe he got some form of awful revenge in the afterlife

I count Caesar as an emperor, and he, his nephew and Aurelius are in a row for best, mostly by being fair rulers who tried their hardest to attain lasting peace and prosperity for their people

 

[Karl der Grosse]

I don't think you can really blame Marcus Agrippa for Caligula, Tiberius had a much larger influence on him than his own mother did. As for Nero, he was also descended from the Domitii Ahenobarbi, a notoriously cruel and arrogant and hot-blooded clan.

 

[Łimønča]

ElEgAbAlUs

Spoiler: GOODS

 

[Solid Snek]

Question for Roman Empire spergs: did anyone care about Elaglabloobloobus prior to the Current Year? I'm not too hep on the Rome-sperg scene myself, but I had a Rome-sperg aunt growing up, and I don't remember anyone mentioning Elgibulgolus until maybe the last few years.

My personal favorite Emperor-kun was Julian. Dude was based as fuck and had he lived, he might have turned back the tide of Semitic ignorance that was swallowing the empire whole. Maybe that's just wishful thinking, like how people mythologize Kennedy, James Dean, and XXXtentacion, but it is how I feel regardless.

 

[Karl der Grosse]

Question for Roman Empire spergs: did anyone care about Elaglabloobloobus prior to the Current Year? I'm not too hep on the Rome-sperg scene myself, but I had a Rome-sperg aunt growing up, and I don't remember anyone mentioning Elgibulgolus until maybe the last few years.

Yes, to an extent. He was always one of the ones pointed at when discussing the worst Emperors. This focus on his potential transgenderism has started only recently, before then I always saw the focus being placed on his financial and religious mismanagement. His sexual behavior was known, of course, and gone into, but not nearly as much as other aspects of his misrule, especially the religious. He only lasted four years as emperor, so it's not like he had a giant impact in his time there. The Romans saw him as an aberration, and so did historians.

 

[Big Brown Schlub]

Octavian. Caesar knew what he was doing when he picked him as his successor.

did anyone care about Elaglabloobloobus prior to the Current Year?

Yes, if you had to make a list of top 5 worst emperors.

 

[Spooky Bones]

I don't think you can really blame Marcus Agrippa for Caligula, Tiberius had a much larger influence on him than his own mother did.

Yeah and in fairness to Cal it has got to fuck you up to be raised in the household of the man who killed starved your mother to death, executed your brother, and who probably poisoned your dad (certainly his family would've beaten this into his head even if untrue.)

Maybe if Germanicus lived Caligula would have had a better childhood and then gone on to be a perfectly decent emperor after Germanicus got through subduing the shit out of the rest of Germania and Brittania to boot.

Yes, to an extent. He was always one of the ones pointed at when discussing the worst Emperors. This focus on his potential transgenderism has started only recently, before then I always saw the focus being placed on his financial and religious mismanagement. His sexual behavior was known, of course, and gone into, but not nearly as much as other aspects of his misrule, especially the religious. He only lasted four years as emperor, so it's not like he had a giant impact in his time there. The Romans saw him as an aberration, and so did historians.

He was probably better known for the rose petal thing than for being a troon.

 

[mr.moon1488]

Best: Hadrian
Worst: Nero

Chad Hadrian

(((Nero)))

 

[Spooky Bones]

My personal favorite Emperor-kun was Julian. Dude was based as fuck and had he lived, he might have turned back the tide of Semitic ignorance that was swallowing the empire whole.

Julian was an interesting man for sure. He even overcame a reputation as an effete intellectual (cue TTS: "nerrrrrd") and became an effective military commander at least for a short time. His attempts at modernizing paganism are very interesting: his was a philosophical and syncretic Neoplatonism that honestly wouldn't have been out of place in today's New Age circles. One of the most interesting things though are the cues he took from the Christians: he organized his neopagan religion on their model complete with deacons, bishops, ministry to the sick and poor, etc. He's sometimes portrayed as a religious conservative, he definitely wasn't that, if anything he was an innovator. One does wonder what would have happened if he had donned his armor before catching a Sassanid spear to the liver.