Being a Roman emperor was a dangerous job. It wasn’t uncommon for emperors to be killed by usurpers eager to take away them from energy. In addition they confronted many well being challenges, resembling demise from epidemics and infections.
Regardless of the hazards, some emperors managed to realize lengthy reigns. However which Roman emperor dominated the longest?
“On one degree it is fairly fundamental, as you may simply have a look at an inventory of emperors and see who had the longest reign,” David Parnell, a historical past professor at Indiana College Northwest, advised Reside Science in an e-mail. Nevertheless, the query is definitely trickier than it appears.
To begin with, you must outline when precisely the Roman Empire ended. The Roman Empire completely break up in two in A.D. 395, with the Western Roman Empire persevering with till A.D. 476. The Japanese Roman Empire, usually referred to as the Byzantine Empire by modern-day historians, lasted till 1453 when Constantinople was captured by the Ottoman Empire.
“Nowadays many individuals in my area — me included — are insisting that the Byzantine Empire just isn’t a separate empire however simply the Roman Empire,” Parnell stated.
If that is the case, then Basil II, who dominated from 976 to 1025, can be the longest ruling emperor, Stanislav Doležal, a historical past professor on the College of South Bohemia in České Budějovice within the Czech Republic, advised Reside Science in an e-mail.
Warfare was a continuing throughout Basil II’s reign. He confronted a sequence of civil wars in the course of the first half of his rule and a variety of wars overseas within the second half that led to the Japanese Roman Empire conquering all of Bulgaria.
“His just isn’t a reign to heat the guts. However as an train within the preservation of emperor and empire it’s unparalleled in Byzantine historical past,” wrote Catherine Holmes, a historian on the College of Oxford, in her guide “Basil II and the Governance of Empire (976-1025)” (Oxford College Press, 2005).
Different contenders for longest-serving Roman emperor
Even should you suppose the Roman Empire led to 476, when the Western Roman Empire fell, the query of who was the longest ruling Roman emperor remains to be sophisticated. Some emperors have been co-rulers alongside different emperors, Doležal famous, whereas some emperors exercised little or no political energy and have been emperors in identify solely.
Theodosius II (dominated 402 to 450), who was an emperor of the Japanese Roman Emperor, “could have reigned for 48 years,” Doležal stated. Historic information point out that his father, emperor Arcadius, named him co-emperor in about 402, not lengthy after he was born. Arcadius died in 408 and Theodosius II grew to become sole emperor, however he was nonetheless too younger to rule on his personal. Even when he was sufficiently old to rule, he had highly effective courtiers who exercised heavy political affect. “His precise effectiveness as a ruler has been debated,” Doležal stated.
When you contemplate the Roman Empire to have led to 476 and depend solely emperors who have been sufficiently old to rule for his or her total reign then Augustus — the primary Roman emperor — dominated the longest, together with his 41-year-rule lasting between 27 B.C. and A.D. 14, Doležal stated.
Augustus, who was often known as Octavian earlier than he gained the throne, rose to prominence when his nice uncle Julius Caesar named him his successor in his will. After the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C., Octavian shaped a triumvirate ruling with Mark Antony and a statesman named Lepidus.
Lepidus was faraway from energy in 36 B.C. and a civil conflict erupted between Octavian and Mark Antony that led to Antony’s defeat and suicide in 30 B.C. Cleopatra VII, the pharaoh of Egypt who had kids with Antony and Julius Caesar, died by suicide that very same yr. However Cleopatra and Caesar’s inheritor — the kid Caesarion — was nonetheless alive. Not eager to take probabilities, Octavian had him killed to forestall him from being a risk to his rule.
In 27 B.C., the Roman senate gave Octavian the title “Augustus” (which means “revered one” in Latin).
Throughout his rule, Augustus repaired, refurbished and rebuilt an enormous array of buildings and infrastructure in Rome, together with temples, shrines, the discussion board, the senate home, sewers and roads, Diane Favro, a professor emerita of structure and concrete design at UCLA, wrote in a chapter of the guide “The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Augustus” (Cambridge College Press, 2005). Civil wars in the course of the first century B.C. meant that Rome’s infrastructure had been uncared for and was badly in want of refurbishment, Favro famous.
Nevertheless, Augustus’ rule additionally suffered defeats. Throughout his reign, Augustus additionally tried to broaden the Roman Empire into Germany. This led to catastrophe with three Roman legions being annihilated on the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in A.D. 9.
The traditional author Suetonius (lived circa 69 to 122) claimed that after Augustus heard the information, he refused to chop his beard or hair for a number of months. He additionally wrote that at instances, Augustus would bang his head towards a door and name for Quinctilius Varus (the commander of the legions who was killed within the battle) to “give me again my legions!” (translation by J. C. Rolfe)
