The Five Good Emperors

 The Five Good Emperors were Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Markus Arelius, and they ruled during the time of the Pax Romana meaning Roman Peace. (During their reigns there was stability throughout the Empire) Prior to the five good emperors the government was very unstable’ revolts, political unrest, and civil war characterized the beginning years of Rome. These problems were linked to the method of succession, normally it was decided who would replace emperors after their death, this system was dangerous for several reasons, number one being that the fact that an emperor was not already decided after the passing of the previous one meant that there was room for conflict between two parties fighting for the position, another reason was that in the previous method one of the contenders would typically be the son of the emperor and these sons tended to be incapable tyrants who brought about disaster. Nerva, who began ruling, in 96 AD pioneered this new method restoring the empire after the unrest and terror under the reign of Nero and other oppressors. In 98 AD he stepped down after selecting Trajan as his successor. Trajan was mostly involved in developing building prodjects in Rome, in fact, many of his public works remain famous to this day. Hadrian came to following the departure of Trajan, he is mainly remembered for his military feats, in both tactical defense and cunning offence. Following Hadrian was Antoninus Pius, who’s reign was oriented towards building the economy of Rome, which was successfully done. Markus Arelius took his place and built up the culture in Rome. Himself being a Stoic Philosopher, art and social culture thrived under his reign. The essential thing that brought stability to the empire was this method of succession; by preventing civil war and social upheaval. The new succession method recruited capable men who brought benefit to the empire in different ways in contrast to the old method that tended to attract dangerous tyrants.

            Being the first of The Five Good Emperors, Nerva had to pave the way for the new function of things, and while many other aspects of his reign were flawed he did succeed in setting the new precedent for the leadership of Rome. Nerva began as a Senator and was elected by the senate to be Emperor. Once he had done so he recalled all who had been exiled under the Emperor Domitian, also he lowered and even removed certain taxes; as far as fostering the empire Nerva was definitely a descent emperor. However, he had little to no ability in controlling and directing the military, and relative to other emperors before him he accomplished little in the way of military feats. Regardless of his tax cuts, Rome was still challenged financially, so therefore; as his time as emperor went on he chose the successful military leader Trajan to succeed him. Nerva’s reign is most dominantly characterized by a dedication to the improvement and fostering of the empire, weather it be socially, financially, or Militarily. Some of these he succeeded at and some he did not but over all Nerva got The Five Good Emperors off to a good start.

The Second of the Five Good Emperors was Trajan, who’s reign is remembered for its incredible construction of great building projects. Trajan was a successful military leader who had many great feats before becoming emperor: he is a good example of working your way up from the bottom to a position of power. he came from a small town in Spain and was one of the first emperors to come from a province in Rome. Trajan’s Reign is remembered for his great buildings. Some notable works are The Forum of Trajan, The Pantheon, and a new harbor in Rome, as well as practical projects such as aqueducts and roads; many of these structures can still be seen today. By the people he was viewed as the ideal emperor, which is not surprising. He named Hadrian as his successor, who was also a Military leader.

Hadrian and Trajan were the two most militarily oriented of the Emperors during this period, however, Hadrian was more famous for his success. During his reign he was away much of the time because he wanted to expand Rome’s borders and increase its defenses’ a famous example of this is Hadrian’s Great wall, a seventy mile structure that kept invaders out of Roman territory. He was one of the greatest military leaders in Rome’s history, therefore; he greatly expanded Rome’s borders and was able to keep all attackers out. He selected Antoninus Pius to be his successor, perhaps because he saw potential in him, or more likely he was prompted to do so, but whatever the case after leaving his position Hadrian put Antoninus in charge of Rome.

As Emperor Antoninus Pius is remembered as a very generous emperor, he gave to the poor and built public works for the people to enjoy. Basically he is remembered for his wise financial decisions in Rome, during his reign, even though he spent money on the people Rome made more money than it spent, and with this balanced budget Rome thrived, but still it is rather strange that when the government spent on the people and built things such as the Colusium, which did not even make money, Rome had a profitable financial structure. Antoninus Pius was accepted as emperor under the condition that he would make Markus Arelius his successor; the process of election was extremely future oriented, and they were very cautious so as not to bring about civil unrest.

The last of the five good emperors was Markus Arelius, a rather odd choice for emperor, himself being a soldier and stoic philosopher, a rather strange combination, and even more strangely being elected emperor, in the early times philosophers were frowned upon, some were even executed, but in Rome there was more tolerance for people like that. Markus Arelius focused on the culture of Rome, the art, architecture, and literature. As a matter of fact, he himself had written a book called The Meditations. His reign was going well until the time came for him to select a successor, so he looked for the most capable person to rule the empire, unfortunately, after looking for a while he decided that the most capable ruler just so happened to be his own son. None of the prior four emperors had sons, and as it turned out this was one of the things that allowed for such a smooth transition of power; Markus Arelius’s choice for emperor brought the downfall of The Five Good Emperors.

The five good emperor’s blessed Rome in many different aspects, since they did not have sons they chose people who were very different from themselves, this was another advantage of the new method, instead of a chain of emperors who all focused on the same thing, this new way allowed for diversity in the empire, resulting in improvement of Rome as a whole. The Five Good Emperors brought a period of peace and stability to Rome, and I believe that the key to this was their method of succession, in contrast, it was the bypassing of this by Markus Arelius that threw Rome back into the chaos that had reigned over it for almost a century prior to the Pax-Romana. I also believe historians view these emperors as being “good” because they were simply the right men for the job; the system combined with the wise emperors worked perfectly to provide a point in Rome’s history that was so prosperous.