Historical Rankings of Roman Emperors
On the Historical Rankings of Roman Emperors, Nero and Caligula are GeneRally agreed upon as the worst Roman Emperors. Constantine I and Augustus are usually viewed as the greatest.
Subjective rankings
According to the rankings of AbOUT.com, the Worst five emperors were as follows:
- Caligula - for his rapings, killings and operation of a brothel in the palace
- Elagabalus - for running a brothel in the palace and executions of criticizers
- Commodus - for alleged laziness and degrading of the position by competition in gladatorial fights.
- Nero - for murders of his mother and wife as well as his reaction to the Roman Fire of 69 AD
- Domitian - for torture and harassment of Jews and philosophers and the executions and confiscations of the property of officials that criticized him
Polling
According to an unofficial poll conducted among historians on the blog "The Punch Die", Augustus was ranked as the greatest emperor with 29%. Trajan followed with 20% and Constantine ranked third with 18%. Marcus Aurelius, Vespasian and Hadrian also received votes.
For reference, Augustus is considered the first Roman emperor and Byzantine emperors were not counted.
See also
Historical Rankings of United States Presidents
Historical rankings of British Prime Ministers
Historical ranking of Australian Prime Ministers