Rome: Five good emperors

After the Julio-Claudian emperors a long line of emperors follow who increase the power of the military. But let's jump forward a bit. To the last five emperors during Pax Romana. The Five Good Emperors. This is Nerva.

Nerva doesn't inherit the emperorship. Instead he becomes the first to be elected by the senate. The senate wants to reclaim power from the military. Nerva has previously been consul, and was both mild and wise; exactly what is needed from an emperor, the senate believes. But the military don't like this at all.

They have got used to being in power. So the very section of the military that is supposed to protect the emperor - The Praetorian Guard - revolts. They prefer this young and popular general to be emperor: Trajanus. Nerva is old and lacks heirs, so to avoid being deposed he adopts Trajanus. He can be the next emperor instead.

The military is pleased. When Nerva dies, Trajanus is in Germania, at war. It's normal for a newly appointed emperor to come to Rome but Trajanus stays here to finish the war. Instead he invites The Praetorian Guard - those who tried to rebel against Nerva that is - to Germania. They think that Trajanus will reward them since it was their action that made him emperor.

Instead, he executes them as a punishment for their rebellion. During the reign of Trajanus, the Roman Empire becomes greater than it ever was - and ever will be again. Since the empire is this huge Trajanus has a lot of border skirmishes to deal with. Look, here he comes, riding from one war to another when... what's going on?

Trajanus has a heart attack and dies on the way. But he hasn't appointed any heir to the throne. Who then, will become the next emperor? Hold on... now his wife claims that Trajanus did actually adopt someone - on his deathbed: Hadrianus.

Trajanus' wife is the only one to have witnessed this adoption. Fishy huh? The senate are having some doubts about her story. But the military likes Hadrianus, so the senate pretends that it's nothing, they don't wish to fight the military. Hadrianus becomes emperor.

Now the Roman foreign policy changes totally. Hadrianus is not at all interested in extending the empire. He is more concerned about keeping it together and defending it as it is; he wants peace. Hadrianus thinks that it will be easier to defend the empire if all the borders are moved to follow rivers, seas, and mountains: natural borders. So he moves the borders to achieve this.

He even abandons some areas to do so. But here in Britannia there are no suitable natural borders. Hadrianus builds a wall instead. This is Hadrianus' advisor: Antoninus Pius. He must have been a very good advisor because Hadrianus adopts him.

He becomes the next Emperor. Antoninus Pius avoids wars - they are expensive and unnecessary. He also avoids struggles for power in Rome by sharing his power with the senate. The money he saves from avoiding wars he instead uses to fortify and renovate the cities of Italy. This is the last of the Five Good Emperors: Marcus Aurelius.

Marcus Aurelius is not only an emperor but also a writer and a philosopher. He belongs to a group of Philosophers that believed that by resisting all strong feelings you could achieve peace of mind and live righteously and wisely. This is called Stoicism. Marcus Aurelius probably needs some extra peace of mind, because during his reign the plague breaks out in the empire. And not only that.

There are wars and revolts in several areas. So although he is a peaceful man he spends large parts of his life in battle. When Marcus Aurelius dies - probably of cancer - Commodus inherits the power. Commodus does not belong to the good emperors. On the contrary!

Now Pax Romana is definitely over.