Emperors of Rome: The Complete List From Augustus to Romulus Augustulus

Contents13

• How this list of the emperors of Rome is built
• The Principate, 27 BCE-235 CE
• The Crisis of the Third Century, 235-284
• The Dominate and the united empire, 284-395
• Western emperors, 395-480
• Eastern emperors after 395
• The titles Roman emperors used
• Where the emperors came from
• Co-emperors and shared rule
• Reading the dates
• Patterns in the list
• Famous emperors of Rome
• Verdict: the emperors of Rome at a glance

The emperors of Rome ruled one of the largest states of the ancient world. They held the West for five centuries and the East for nearly fifteen. This page lists every emperor most sources accept, from Augustus to the end of the West.

Each is shown in order, with reign dates and dynasty. It also marks the years when several men claimed the title at once. And it covers the dispute over who counts as the last.

TL;DR: Augustus was the first emperor of Rome, from 27 BCE. Dynasties followed: Julio-Claudian, Flavian, Nerva-Antonine and Severan. From 235 to 284, dozens of short-lived emperors held power. Diocletian and Constantine rebuilt the system. After 395 the empire had separate Western and Eastern emperors. The Western line ended in 476-480. The Eastern line lasted until 1453.

How this list of the emperors of Rome is built

The list includes emperors that the Senate, the army or a fellow emperor accepted. It leaves out most local usurpers. It also leaves out breakaway states, such as the Gallic Empire of the 260s-270s.

Dates are CE unless marked BCE. Many dates in the 200s are rough. The sources are thin.

The list follows De Imperatoribus Romanis, a peer-reviewed online encyclopedia of Roman emperors. We check it against Britannica. We also check it against the Metropolitan Museum of Art's history of Rome.

The Principate, 27 BCE-235 CE

Five rulers in a row are known as the "Five Good Emperors". They were Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. Each of the first four chose his heir by adoption, not birth. Trajan, born in Spain, was the first emperor from outside Italy. Under him the empire reached its largest size, in 117.

The Crisis of the Third Century, 235-284

Valerian is the only Roman emperor known to have been caught by a foreign foe. The Persian king Shapur I took him prisoner in 260. He died in captivity.

The Dominate and the united empire, 284-395

Western emperors, 395-480

Who was the last Western emperor

Julius Nepos or Romulus Augustulus.

Status: Disputed Two answers are in common use.

Note: Britannica calls Julius Nepos "the last legitimate Western Roman emperor". He reigned in 474-475 and died on 9 May 480. Romulus Augustulus was raised to the throne by his father on 31 October 475.

Odoacer removed him in 476. Britannica calls him a usurper whom the Eastern emperor never recognised. Popular histories still name Romulus Augustulus as the last emperor. That is because 476 is the usual date for the fall of the West.

Sources: Britannica, "Julius Nepos"; Britannica, "Romulus Augustulus".

To see how the West ended, read when did the Western Roman Empire fall.

Eastern emperors after 395

The Eastern line did not end in the 400s. Arcadius, Theodosius I's elder son, ruled the East from 395. His heirs went on ruling from Constantinople for more than a thousand years. For the early Eastern emperors, see Roman Empire of the East. For the later ones, see Byzantine Empire.

The titles Roman emperors used

The emperors of Rome never used one single title. They built their position out of several older Roman words.

The gap between the early and late titles shows how the office changed. Augustus posed as a first citizen in a restored republic. By the time of Diocletian, the emperor was openly a supreme lord. Court ceremony surrounded him.

Where the emperors came from

The first emperors were Roman nobles from Italy. Over time the office opened to men from across the empire.

• Spain: Trajan and Hadrian, from the province of Baetica.
• North Africa: Septimius Severus, born at Leptis Magna in present-day Libya.
• Syria and Arabia: Elagabalus and Severus Alexander came from a Syrian family, and Philip the Arab from the province of Arabia.
• The Balkans: many 3rd-century soldier-emperors, including Aurelian, Probus and Diocletian, came from the Danube provinces.

This spread shows how far Roman citizenship and the Roman army reached across the provinces.

Co-emperors and shared rule

Rome often had more than one emperor at a time. Marcus Aurelius shared power with Lucius Verus from 161. Diocletian made shared rule formal in the Tetrarchy.

It had two senior emperors, each called Augustus, and two junior ones, each called Caesar. After 395, separate Western and Eastern courts ran the empire. It was still thought of as one empire.

A Western emperor expected his Eastern colleague to recognise him. That is why recognition matters in the dispute over the last Western emperor.

Reading the dates

Reign dates for the early emperors are well recorded in Roman histories, inscriptions and coins. From 235 to 284, dates are often known only to the year. Some reigns overlap, because rival emperors held different provinces at the same time. Some rows give a single year. Those reigns lasted under a year, or their months are not known.

Patterns in the list

Three patterns stand out in the list of the emperors of Rome.

• Violent ends were common. Roughly half of the emperors listed here were killed, took their own lives or died in battle.
• The army made emperors. From 68-69 onward, and above all in the 3rd century, soldiers raised and removed emperors.
• Succession was never fixed. Rome had no law of succession. Emperors used adoption, co-rule and family ties to name heirs, with mixed success.

For the families behind these names, see Roman dynasty.

Famous emperors of Rome

A handful of names dominate popular history.

• Augustus, the founder of the imperial system.
• Caligula and Nero, remembered for cruelty and excess, though ancient accounts of them are hostile.
• Trajan and Hadrian, the conqueror and the consolidator, who gave Rome its widest borders and its best-known frontier wall in Britain.
• Marcus Aurelius, the philosopher-emperor, author of the Meditations.
• Constantine I, the first Christian emperor and founder of Constantinople.
• Justinian I, the Eastern emperor who rebuilt Hagia Sophia and codified Roman law.

Three early emperors have their own pages. See Tiberius. See Caligula. See Claudius.

To read more, try our guide to the best Roman history books. It picks seven. Together they cover Rome from the Republic to 1453.

Verdict: the emperors of Rome at a glance

The emperors of Rome began with Augustus in 27 BCE. Four dynasties followed: the Julio-Claudian, Flavian, Nerva-Antonine and Severan. Then came the chaos of the 200s. Diocletian and Constantine rebuilt imperial rule. After 395 the empire had Western and Eastern emperors.

The Western line ended with Romulus Augustulus in 476, or with Julius Nepos in 480. It depends on the source. The Eastern line lasted until 1453. For Rome in the East, see the Eastern Roman Empire hub.

Sources checked for this page

• De Imperatoribus Romanis, an online encyclopedia of Roman emperors (Loyola University Chicago)
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art, "The Roman Empire (27 B.C.-393 A.D.)"
• Britannica, "List of emperors"
• Britannica, "Julius Nepos"
• Britannica, "Romulus Augustulus"
• Britannica, "Diocletian: Reorganization of the empire"

Questions people also ask

How many emperors did Rome have?

It depends on who is counted. Counting the generally recognised emperors from Augustus to the fall of the West in 476 gives about 70 to 80, depending on whether short-lived co-emperors and rival claimants are included. The Eastern line added about 90 more before 1453.

Who was the first emperor of Rome?

Augustus, formerly Octavian, who received the name Augustus from the Senate on 16 January 27 BCE and ruled until 14 CE.

Who was the last emperor of Rome?

In the West, Romulus Augustulus was deposed by Odoacer in 476, but Britannica names Julius Nepos, who died in 480, as the last legitimate Western emperor. In the East, Constantine XI died when Constantinople fell in 1453.

Who was the longest-reigning Roman emperor?

Augustus, who ruled for about 40 years as emperor, from 27 BCE to 14 CE, after earlier years of power as Octavian. In the East, Basil II reigned as senior emperor for almost 50 years.

What was the Year of the Four Emperors?

The year 69 CE, after Nero's death, when Galba, Otho, Vitellius and Vespasian each claimed the throne in turn. Vespasian won and founded the Flavian dynasty.

Were there female Roman emperors?

No woman ruled the Western empire as emperor in her own right. Several empresses held great power, and in the East, Irene ruled alone from 797 to 802, and Zoe and Theodora ruled jointly in 1042.