Post your favorite Roman Emperor!

Although awesome, was never a Roman Emperor.

For a moment I took one of the earlier posts to mean that Robert Graves was the one who wrote a comic book about Augustus. That would've been weird.

Doviculus is an emperor with a Roman-sounding name; does that mean I get to choose him?

If not, Doviculus.

Marcus Aurelias was so smart that the ever intelligent Hannibal Lecter quoted him. I believe I know where I stand on this issue.

Don't think he was an emperor boy...

I like Octavius to much to say anyone else.

Yes he was...

• Augustus, for being badass.
• Hadrian, for touring the empire and getting to know people rather than being detached. He also made a nifty wall.
• Caligula, for being the Crazy Awesome villain who might just be our world's answer to Nobunaga Oda from Sengoku Basara.
• Elagabalus, for, well, being just plain weird.

edited 20th Jan '11 5:56:01 PM by NickTheSwing

Another Byzantine emperor in my book is Ioannes II Komnenos. His father started the Komnenian Reforms, he took it to its height and his son was most famous for exploiting it.

He died too young, though. God was not on Byzantine's side.

Your story about him was pretty cool, IIRC.

Julius Caesar.

Caligula ,for beeing so hilariously insane; and Constantine XI Palaialogos, for his badass death.

Commodus, now that's a man who knew how to have a good time! Let's not forget Diocletian either, if it wasn't for him, the Empire would not have made it much longer.

Hm... I'd have to go with Constantine I.

He stopped persecution of Christians, and moved the capital to Byzantium.

edited 21st Jan '11 6:59:14 PM by Mukora

Hadrian built a wall. I'd to see Augustus top that oh wait he can't because he's dead!

Augustus presided over Rome during its most prosperous period; he wins by default .

edited 21st Jan '11 7:47:04 PM by Wicked223

In terms of totally psychopathic emperors, Caligula gets a bit too much airtime due to the flagrancy of his misbehaviour. On the other hand, Tiberius, while less talked about, has always struck me as far more sinister: A seemingly normal man who, for whatever reason, transformed over the span of maybe two years into a Complete Monster on every level. Seriously. It's even been suggested that part of what made Caligula what he was had something to do with Tiberius...

I'm not sure if I'd ever want to know.

On a far less hideously evil note, my quasi-namesake was a pretty interesting guy. He was the last non-Christian Emperor of Rome, as well as a respected philosopher.

@Bud Zer: I thought you said Hannibal Barca, who was way too early to know emperors.

Aureilan was a good man.As was Hadrian.

Of course, since we're restricting ourselves to emperors here, we're forgetting the true Magnificent Bastard of the Julio-Claudian period: Livia Augusta, power behind the throne, alledged poisoner, and Evil Matriarch extrordinaire. It was her influence that put Tiberius on the throne (somewhere he really didn't want to be), and her constant meddling may have been one of the things that led to his breakdown.

Agrippina, mother of Nero, was also a notable conniver and manipulator, and survived a Rasputin-worthy number of assassination attempts by her son.

Didn't Nero eventually kill her using a collapsing boat, though?

That's got to be the most badass death in history.

Really? I think it's a pretty laughable death. I mean, when you get killed by something that seems like it should be an ACME product, I don't find that impressive.

Of course, this is assuming I'm remembering correctly.

Ah, I thought he destroyed the boat like in Titanic or something.

He tried to kill her with a collapsing boat. She swam to shore and survived. So he had his guards stab her. That worked.