Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Five Good Emperors

Episode Date: June 7, 2024

Depending on how you define it, there were approximately 70 Roman Emperors.  They were a mixed bag ranging from philosophers to the insane, from generals to children.  Some were truly horrible, but some were actually pretty good at their job. In particular, there were five consecutive emperors who reigned during the peak of Pax Romana. Learn more about the Five Good Emperors on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors Available nationally, look for a bottle of Heaven Hill Bottled-in-Bond at your local store. Find out more at heavenhilldistillery.com/hh-bottled-in-bond.php Sign up today at butcherbox.com/daily and use code daily to choose your free offer and get $20 off. Visit BetterHelp.com/everywhere today to get 10% off your first month. Use the code EverythingEverywhere for a 20% discount on a subscription at Newspapers.com. Visit meminto.com and get 15% off with code EED15.  Listen to Expedition Unknown wherever you get your podcasts.  Get started with a $13 trial set for just $3 at harrys.com/EVERYTHING. Subscribe to the podcast!  https://link.chtbl.com/EverythingEverywhere?sid=ShowNotes -------------------------------- Executive Producer: Charles Daniel Associate Producers: Ben Long & Cameron Kieffer   Become a supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/everythingeverywhere Update your podcast app at newpodcastapps.com Discord Server: https://discord.gg/UkRUJFh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everythingeverywhere/ Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/everythingeverywheredaily Twitter: https://twitter.com/everywheretrip Website: https://everything-everywhere.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The following is an encore presentation of Everything Everywhere Daily. Depending how you define it, there were approximately 70 Roman emperors. They were a mixed bag ranging from philosophers to the insane and from generals to children. Some of them were truly horrible, but some of them were actually pretty good at their job. In particular, there were five consecutive emperors who reigned during the peak of Pax Romana. Learn more about the five good emperors on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed.

It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. When talking about good Roman emperors, you have to put things into perspective. Being a good emperor doesn't mean that they were necessarily good people. This is ancient Rome, after all, where slavery was a massive institution, people were killed for sport in arenas, and crucifixion was considered an acceptable form of execution. So when I say good, it doesn't mean that they were saints, but rather they were good at their

jobs, or at least they weren't crazy. The term five good emperors was coined by Niccolo Machiavelli in 1531, and then popularized by the 18th century English historian Edward Gibbon in his landmark book, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. With that, I should give you a quick overview of the emperors who led up to the five good emperors. The Roman Empire is considered to have started in the year 27 BC when the Senate gave Julius Caesar's posthumously adopted son Octavian the title of Augustus. Augustus is widely considered to be the greatest Roman emperor in history, as well as having been the longest serving.

He was the first emperor in what became known as the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Following Augustus, there was Tiberius, Caligula, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero. Nero and Caligula are usually put on the list of the worst emperors. When Nero died in the year 68, he had no heir, and it led to the chaos of the year of the four emperors, which I've covered in a previous episode. The man left standing was Vespasian, the first emperor of the Flavian dynasty.

Vespasian is widely considered to be a good emperor, and he was the one who commissioned the Roman Coliseum. The only other emperors in the Flavian dynasty were his two sons, Titus and Domitian. Titus was actually a pretty good emperor, and Domitian was, again, a horrible emperor. The story of the five good emperors starts with the death of Domitian. In the year 96, Domitian was assassinated by members of his inner circle. When Nero died 28 years earlier, led to chaos in the empire.

And no one wanted to see a repeat of that and possibly a civil war. By this time, everyone had become accustomed to the position of emperor, so the impulse wasn't to go back to a republic, but rather just to get a new emperor. The same day that Domitian was killed, the Senate proclaimed a 66-year-old senator, Marcus Kocchius Nerva, as emperor. This was the first time, and one of the only times, when the Senate openly said, selected an emperor rather than just rubber-stamping a selection that was made for them. Nerva was selected as a steady hand who could stabilize the empire to undo much of the damage

which was caused by Domitian. Nerva cut taxes and released political prisoners. He didn't punish the assassins of Domitian and allowed the Senate to pass a Damnedio Memori on Domitian, which allowed for the destruction of all of his statues and references to his name. And here I'll reference my previous episode on Damnatio Memori. He also paid a large donation to the army to quell any concerns as the army was the only group where Domitian was popular. He stopped treason trials, didn't execute a single senator, and instituted reforms to make the government more responsive and effective.

While Nerva brought stability and normalcy to the empire, he was very old for an emperor at that time and he had no sons. There was also no clear path of succession for anyone else. To rectify this problem, Nerva made what was argued. his best decision. He selected as his successor, the popular military commander, Marcus Ulpius Trianus, known to us as Trajan. Moreover, he adopted Trajan as his son. Nerva died in January of 98, having served for only 16 months. However, as short as his reign was, it was incredibly important as he righted the ship of state after the disastrous reign of Domitian. The selection of Trajan as his successor was one of the best.

best decisions in Roman history. Trajan is widely considered to be one of the best emperors in Roman history, and at the time, he may have been considered even greater than Augustus. Just as Octavian was given the title of Augustus, Trayson was given the title of Optimus Princeps, which basically means the greatest emperor. Trajan's conquest grew the Roman Empire to the largest extent it would ever achieve. There was one thing about Trajan which separated him from all previous emperors. Trajan wasn't actually Roman or even Italian. He was born and raised in Spain. Trajan was known for his public works projects, which included the construction of new roads, bridges, aqueducts, and public buildings throughout the empire. One of his most famous projects was the

construction of a new harbor at Ostia, which helped to facilitate trade and commerce in the Mediterranean. Trajan was so highly regarded that when future emperors were sworn in, they were told, quote, May you be more fortunate than Augustus and better than Trajan? If you visit Rome today, you can see Trajan's column, which is across the street from the ruins of the forum. It's a 35-meter or 115-foot-tall column that documents the military exploits of Trajan and Dacia, or modern-day Romania. Trajan served as emperor for 19 and a half years. Before he died, he favored a young man by the name of Publius, ailius, alyus adrianus, a.k.a. Hadrian. He had given Hadrian a ring which was given to him by his successor, Nerva.

Despite publicly favoring Hadrian, he also never openly named him as his successor. Trajan died on August 11, 11th, 117, without having named an official heir. His wife, Pompeia Plotina, kept his death a secret until she could create documents showing the adoption of Hadrian. The adoption went against all Roman legal norms. and it was incredibly shady, but it was a done deal. Hadrian quickly consolidated his power and presented it to the Senate as a fate accompli. Like Trajan, Hadrian was also from Spain, which just showed how diverse the empire was now becoming. Hadrian, like his predecessors, took steps to reform the government.

He realized that the empire had gotten too big to manage adequately and took steps to consolidate the empire into something more defensible. His best-known construction is Hadrian's wall, which separated Roman Britain from Scotland. While emperor, Hadrian traveled constantly visiting many of the remote Roman provinces. He spent over half of his 21-year reign traveling around the empire outside of Italy. He also commissioned many large construction projects, including the current version of the Pantheon, which is still standing in Rome. Hadrian had no children of his own, and by all accounts didn't even like his wife. He was known for a scandalous relationship with a Greek teenage boy by the name of Antinous.

When Antinuous died at the age of 18 in the Nile River, Hadrian was devastated and ordered his deification. There are more surviving statues of Antinous today than of any other person from that era. Hadrian ended up adopting a man by the name of Titus, Aurelius, Fluvius, Bonius Antoninus Antoninus, or as we know him, Antoninus Pius. Hadrian died in 138 after ruling for a lengthy 21 years. The transition to Antoninus Pius was incredibly smooth. When Hadrian died, there was no controversy at all, as Antoninus Pius was well established, and everyone knew who was next.

Antoninus Pius served as emperor for 23 years, the second longest reign of any emperor in Roman history other than Augustus. There were no major revolts during his reign. He was known for being probably the most humane and kind of all the Roman emperors. He fought in no major wars, and there is no record of him even visiting a military unit during his entire tenure as emperor. This was arguably the peak of Pax Romana. He built another wall in Britain, which was further north and much more defensible than Hadrian's

wall. Yet, despite having such a long, successful tenure, there is shockingly little writing about him which survives. 99% of all the texts from ancient Rome have disappeared, and this particular period is devoid of surviving documents. By any measure, Antoninus Pius is one of the greatest. Roman emperors, and by some measures maybe even the greatest. However, he is largely unknown to most people today. As the fourth of the good emperors, he did what the others before him did,

and selected his heir and formally adopted him. He had two adopted sons, which he appointed as co-emperors, Lucius Verus and Marcus Aurelius. Both men began their term as co-emperor in 161 upon the death of Antoninus Pius. Unlike other co-emperors, they didn't try. try to kill each other, and it marked the first time in Roman history that two rulers actually ruled together. Lucius Verus actually only ruled for eight years before succumbing to an illness in 169. He's widely overlooked as an emperor and is not put on the list of good emperors, even though his entire reign was during that period. After his death, his co-emperor, Marcus Aurelius, became the sole emperor. Marcus Aurelius was the last of the good emperors, and the last emperor

during the period of Pax Romanah, which began under Augustus. Marcus Aurelius is noted for his military campaigns, which put him in stark contrast to his predecessor who never went on campaign. He fought campaigns with Parthia in the East and Germanic tribes in the north. He's also best known as one of, if not the greatest, Stoic philosophers. His book Meditations is one of the greatest philosophical treaties of all time, and it was never even intended to be published publicly. It was simply his diary of writing. for himself that was found after he died. If you've ever seen the movie Gladiator, the emperor who dies at the beginning of the movie was Marcus Aurelius. The five good emperors are

often grouped together as the Nerva Antonine dynasty. Of the five emperors I've mentioned, four of them, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius are almost always on every list of great emperors. And the only reason Nerva isn't considered a great emperor is because he ruled for little over a year, but that year was still of pivotal importance. What did these emperors all have in common? They were all selected and adopted by their predecessor. None of them were the natural-born offspring of an emperor. Because none of the emperors had sons, they were able to pick successors who were able

and talented, not just related. Moreover, all of the successors were mature and experienced by the time they became emperors. So, what happened? Why did this all fall apart? It was because Marcus Aurelius had a son, Comedus. Comedus was born into the purple, meaning when he was born, his father had already become emperor. He was the first emperor to grow up knowing his whole life that he would be emperor someday.

Marcus Aurelius made him co-emperor when he was just 16 years old to help give him experience. But Marcus Aurelius died just two years later, making Comedus the sole emperor at the age of of 18. To put it succinctly, Comedus was a horrible emperor. He was a horrible administrator, he put himself into gladiatorial games, and left the coffers of the empire empty, whereas his predecessors left them full. Commodus was so bad he was killed by his own Praetorian Guard, and his downfall ushered in the year of five emperors, which, again, I've covered in a previous episode. Edward Gibbon marks the death of Marcus Aurelius and the ascension of Cometus as the beginning of the end of the Roman Empire. It would take centuries for everything to unwind, but this is the point where the car started to roll downhill.

If you were to find yourself with a time machine and could pick a time to visit ancient Rome, sometime during the reign of the five good emperors wouldn't be a bad choice. As Edward Gibbon himself stated, quote, If a man were called upon to fix that period in history of the world during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian to the ascension of Cometus.

The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Benji Long and Cameron Kiever. I want to give a big shout out to everyone who supports the show over on Patreon, including the show's producers. Your support helps me put out a show every single day. And also, Patreon is currently the only place where Everything Everywhere Daily merchandise is available to the top tier of supporters. If you'd like to talk to other listeners of the show and members of the Completionist Club, you can join the Everything Everywhere Daily Facebook group or Discord server.

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