Which Roman Emperor am I? Part II Quiz

Answer: Caligula

Caligula is known for being one of the most insane Roman emperors, though his terrible childhood might have been an excuse: many of his family members were murdered on the orders of his uncle Tiberius, and when he was summoned to Tiberius' palace in Capri, he found himself a prisoner of Tiberius, and decided to play along, working his way up to becoming Tiberius' favourite.

It is debated if Caligula had a hand in Tiberius' death, but what is sure is that he quickly took sole power. He ruled 4 years, from 37 AD until 41 AD. Contrary to popular belief, he never made his horse Incitatus consul. He did however appoint the horse as priest.

Answer: Didius Julianus

Pertinax had taken over from Commodus, and actually did a pretty good job restoring the empire after Commodus' catastrophic rule. He found himself at odds with the Praetorian Guard, and was murdered by them. The Praetorians thought it was a good idea to sell the empire, and Didius Julianus thought it was a good idea to buy it. Both were wrong obviously, and Septimius Severus had little problems taking over from Didius Julianus, who in the end was even abandoned by the Praetorians he bought. Didius Julianus' rule lasted two months of 193 AD.

Answer: Maximinus Thrax

Maximinus Thrax came to power after the last member of the Severian dynasty had been assassinated. As a powerful general he took over, but many people disagreed, and his rule is often considered as the start of the Crisis of the Third Century. Three years into his rule, 5 contenders to the emperorship popped up: three Gordians, Pupienus and Balbinus.

Hence that year, 238 AD, is known as the Year of the Six Emperors. When Maximinus Thrax was on his way to Rome to set things straight, he was assassinated by his troops.

Answer: Otho

Otho was one of the emperors in the Year of the Four Emperors, 69 AD. His rule was squeezed in between the strict military man Galba, and the glutton Vitellius. He was a friend of Nero, until Nero desired Otho's wife. Otho was also a friend of Galba, until he had Galba assassinated.

Although his end might seem noble, his battle against Vitellius still resulted in more than 40000 deaths. After giving a speech to his troops after the lost battle, he retired to his tent and stabbed himself in the heart and left Vitellius as the victor and the new emperor.

Answer: Elagabalus

When 14-year old Elagabalus took over from his cousin Caracalla in 218 AD, he was already strongly invested in the Syrian Sun God Elagabal as a high priest. When moving to Rome, he decided to bring the religion with him, and that caused quite a few issues with traditional Romans. He tried to make the worship of Elagabal the official religion of Rome, and showed little respect for the traditional religion of Rome by marrying a Vestal Virgin.

According to a primary source from the time, Cassius Dio, tells us how Elagabalus liked to pretend he was married, in a marriage where he played the part of the wife. Dio also tells us Elagabalus prostituted himself. The Roman society didn't put up with it, and it was eventually his own grandmother, Julia Maesa, who had him assassinated in 222, age 18.

Answer: Aurelian

Aurelian had a lot on his plate when he became emperor in 270. From very minor upbringing, he became a well respected cavalry leader in the Roman Army, in such a way that songs were sang about him killing a thousand men. His plate contained the following: Barbarian incursions from the Alamanni, the Goths, the Vandals, and others. An eastern part of the Roman empire which had separated as the Palmyrene empire, and a western part which had separated as the Gallic Empire.
His solution: defeat them all. He accomplished this in only 5 years.
In France, the city of Orléans was named after him, which the Americans copied as New Orleans.

Answer: Numerian

Numerian became emperor in 283 AD along with his brother Carinus, at the very end of the Crisis of the Third Century. When his father Carus died, he wanted to return to Rome, just like his brother Carinus had done. On the way over there, it appears that he got an eye infection, which caused him to retreat in his closed coach while travelling to Rome.

However, this might have been a ruse. He did retreat to a closed coach, but his life signs had gone from alive to very dead. At one point, the stench became so obvious that soldiers insisted on taking a look inside the closed coach, and found indeed a decomposing emperor. It is unclear how this happened. If foul play was at hand, likely suspects would have been his prefect Aper, or his successor Diocletian. Even if this foul play involved a natural death, and then hiding that death from the public.

Answer: Julian

Julian The Apostate became emperor in 331 as a member of the Constantinian dynasty, one of the few members of that dynasty who survived the family-killing-spree of his predecessor Constantius II.

Although Constantine The Great had pretty much declared Christianity to be the official state religion, Julian tried to return to the original Roman religion, and possibly even the original Greek religion. He didn't have much time to do it though. When he was at the brink of a civil war against his half-cousin Constantius II, the latter died, naming Julian as his sole successor. Once emperor, Julian gathered a massive army and went to Persia seeking eternal glory. Although the campaign seemed initially very successful, it ultimately ended with the Roman army stuck in the Persian desert and Julian being killed.

Answer: Romulus Augustulus

Romulus Augustulus was the very last emperor of the Western Roman Empire. His successor Odoacer was never really emperor, and it would take more than 300 years before someone in Western-Europe claimed the title of Roman Emperor again, Charlemagne in 800 AD. Little is known about Romulus the little emperor, other than he was appointed emperor as a teenager by his dad, was quickly deposed by Odoacer in 476, and disappeared from history records.

A sad end to be forgotten, for someone with such a brilliant name.

Answer: Tacitus

The military felt really bad about having killed Aurelian in 275. So bad in fact, that they were too scared to pick a new emperor themselves, and asked the Roman Senate to pick a new emperor. The Roman Senate, barely aware it was still alive, jumped on the opportunity to be relevant again.

It only took them 8 months to find a candidate, which was one of the oldest senators, Tacitus (who was probably no relation at all to his namesake historian). Not even a year later, Tacitus died. According to some rumours he was murdered, though it was more likely he just died of a fever, being already 75 years old.