Whats the process of determing a Roman Emperor?

Answer 1

The Romans never established clear rules for succession and the way it occurred varied over time and according to the stresses the empire was under. Designation of the successor by the incumbent emperor, assassination, military coups or rebellions, bribery, civil wars, proclamations of emperors by troops, and usurpations were the ways emperors were determined at different times. The army was often a key player in the process.

Successors were initially chosen be the emperor and this could create dynasties. The first dynasty was the Julio-Claudian dynasty, where the emperors were drawn for the two intertwined families of the Julians and the Claudians. It produced five emperors. The first military coup was by the imperial guard which murdered the third emperor, Caligula. The soldiers chose Claudius as the next emperor because he belonged to the Claudian family. This dynasty was ended by a military rebellion which led to Nero committing suicide. The imperial guard supported a power bid by Galba, who became the next emperor, but then was bribed by Otho and installed him as emperor and killed Galba. However, Vitellius the governor of Germania, declared himself emperor with the support of the troops in Germania, marched on Rome and defeated Otho, who committed suicide. Vitellius proved unpopular. The troops in the eastern part of the empire supported Vespasian. He seized Rome and became the next emperor. All this happened in one year (the Year of the For Emperors, 69 AD)

Vespasian started a brief dynasty, the Flavian dynasty. He was succeeded by this son Titus who, in turn was succeeded by his brother Domitian. Domitian was assassinated by court officials and he was succeeded by his advisor, Nerva, who was chosen by the senate. This was the first time that an emperor was chosen by the senate. He was chosen because he was considered 'safe' as he was old and did not have children, and therefore a man who could not persecute the senate as Domitian had done. With Nerva there was the beginning of the Nerva-Antonine dynasty, which produced six emperors. Four of these emperors were adoptive sons of the previous emperor. The last emperor, Commodus was the natural son of Marcus Aurelius. He was the most cruel emperor Rome ever had and he was assassinated in a plot.

Pertinax, the city prefect took over, but was assassinated by the imperial guard. The guard actioned the imperial title and this was won by Didus Julianus. However, three other men wanted the imperial title. Septimius Severus fought and won a civil war against Prescennius Niger and then defeated Clodius Albinus in another war. Septimius Severus established the Severan dynasty, which produced five emperors. The last of these emperors, Alexander Severus, alienated the army which proclaimed a usurper emperor. Shortly after this Alexander Severus was assassinated.

In what has been called the Crisis of the Third Century, the army came under great strain because it became overstretched by repeated attempted invasions of the empire in several areas of its vast frontiers. This was a period on military anarchy. Most of the emperors of this period were generals who were proclaimed emperors by their own troops. The turnover of emperors in this period was fast as many emperors were assassinated by troops, sometimes even by their own troops which had proclaimed them emperors. There were also 35 usurper emperors who either tried to usurp the incumbent emperor or to become the rulers or parts of the empire.

This period ended with the emperor Diocletian who created the tetrarchy (rule by four). He decided to co-rule with another senior emperor and appointed two junior emperors to help the senior ones. This was followed by Constantine the Great who became sole emperor by fighting two civil wars, one against a usurper emperor and another against his co-emperor. He was followed by the brief rule of his sons. Then there was the Valentinian which produced four emperors. The first of these emperors, Valentinian I was chosen by the army, because it needed a commander-in-chief urgently. Theodosius the great initiated the Theodosian dynasty, which produced three emperors. Theodosius was originally decimated as co-emperor by Gratian, one of The Valentinian emperors, because he had no heirs.

As the western part of the Roman Empire begun to crumble under the weight of the invasions by the Germanic peoples, it lost political cohesion. There was a lot of infighting and a number of usurper emperors. In the end there commanders-in-chief of the army could become the effective rulers and install puppet emperors.