The Five Good Emperors and the Fall of Rome: A Historical Overview

1. Focus Discuss a little about the Five Good Emperors in a paragraph.

2. End of Pax Romana

3. Marcus Aurelius 161-180 A.D. • Marcus accepted the throne on the condition that he and Verus were made joint emperors (Augusti), with Verus partly subordinate. • During his reign Marcus Aurelius was almost constantly at war with various peoples outside the Empire • Germanic tribes and other peoples launched many raids along the long European border, particularly into Gaul

4. Cont… • This joint emperorship was faintly reminiscent of the political system of the Roman Republic. • Joint rule was revived by Diocletian's establishment of the Tetrarchy in the late 3rd century • While on campaign between 170 and 180, Aurelius wrote his Meditations as a source for his own guidance and self-improvement.

5. Cont… • The first of several Roman embassies to China, although attributed to Antoninus Pius by the Hou Hanshu (History of the Later Han Chinese dynasty), was probably sent out by Marcus Aurelius. • Marcus Aurelius died on March 17, 180 • He was able to secure the succession for his son Commodus, whom he made co-emperor in his own lifetime (in 177), though the choice may have been unfortunate • Aurelius' death is often held to have been the end of the Pax Romana.

6. Commodus 177-192 A.D. • The period of the "five good emperors" was brought to an end by the reign of Commodus from 180 to 192. • Commodus was the son of Marcus Aurelius, making him the first direct successor in a century, breaking the scheme of adoptive successors that had turned out so well. • As generous as his father was, Commodus turned out to be just the opposite.

7. Cont… • Commodus is often thought to have been insane • He began his reign by making an unfavorable peace treaty with the Marcomanni, who had been at war with Marcus Aurelius • Commodus also had a passion for gladiatorial combat, which he took so far as to take to the arena himself, dressed as a gladiator. • The months of the calendar were all renamed in his honor, and the senate was renamed as the Commodian Fortunate Senate. The army became known as the Commodian Army.

8. Cont… • Commodus was strangled in his sleep in 192, a day before he planned to march into the Senate dressed as a gladiator to take office as a consul

9. Severan dynasty (193–235) • The Severan dynasty includes the increasingly troubled reigns of Septimius Severus (193–211), Caracalla (211–217), Macrinus (217–218), Elagabalus (218–222), and Alexander Severus (222–235)

10. Crisis of the 3rd Century (235–284) • The Crisis of the 3rd Century is a commonly applied name for the crumbling and near collapse of the Roman Empire between 235 and 284. • During this period, Rome was ruled by more than 35 individuals, most of them prominent generals who assumed Imperial power over all or part of the empire, only to lose it by defeat in battle, murder, or death. • After nearly 50 years of external invasion, internal civil wars and economic collapse, the Empire was on the verge of ending.

11. Cont… • A series of tough soldier-emperors saved it, but in the process fundamentally changed the Roman Empire • The transitions of this period mark the beginnings of Late Antiquity and the end of Classical Antiquity.

12. Late Antiquity • The transition from a single united empire to the later divided Western and Eastern empires was a gradual transformation. • In July, 285, Diocletian defeated rival Emperor Carinus and briefly became sole emperor of the Roman Empire. • Diocletian saw that the vast Roman Empire was ungovernable by a single emperor in the face of internal pressures and military threats on two fronts.

13. Cont… • He therefore split the Empire in half along a north-west axis just east of Italy, and created two equal Emperors to rule under the title of Augustus. • Diocletian was Augustus of the eastern half, and gave his long time friend Maximian the title of Augustus in the western half. • In 293 authority was further divided as each Augustus took a Caesar to aid him in administrative matters, and to provide a line of succession

14. Cont… • This constituted what is called the Tetrarchy (in Greek: the leadership of four) by modern scholars. • The system allowed the peaceful succession of the Augusti as the Caesar in each half rose up to replace the Augustus and proclaimed a new Caesar. • The Tetrarchy would effectively collapse with the death of Constantius Chlorus on July 25, 306. • Constantius' troops immediately proclaimed his son Constantine an Augustus.

15. Cont… • This left the Empire with five rulers: four Augusti (Galerius, Constantine, Severus and Maxentius) and a Caesar (Maximinus). • Eventually, the two remaining Augusti divided the Empire again in the pattern established by Diocletian, Constantine becoming Augustus of the Western Roman Empire and Licinius Augustus of the Eastern Roman Empire.

16. Cont… • This division lasted ten years until 324. A final war between the last two remaining Augusti ended with the deposition of Licinius and the elevation of Constantine to sole Emperor of the Roman Empire. • Deciding that the empire needed a new capital, Constantine chose the site of Byzantium for the new city. • He re-founded it as Nova Roma, but it was popularly called Constantinople: Constantine's City.

17. Cont… • The East Roman Empire which had its capital in Constantinople from then until 1453, has often been called the Byzantine Empire or Byzantium by modern scholars.