#nerva antonine

[grayjoy15]

Roman Emperors: Augustus – Gordian I

27 BC – 238 AD

Excited to be working on these again! The series is nearing completion! Pride edition will follow shortly…

[lightdancer1]

Hadrian, of course, is one of the most controversial Emperors other than Constantine:

Out of all the Roman Emperors Hadrian is one of those who has left one of the most directly contemporary presences in the world today. This is because of two wars that occurred during his reign involving the Judean ethnos and the Roman state. The first was when he was heir to the Emperor Trajan, held as the model Roman Emperor, and depopulated parts of the islands of the Mediterranean and North Africa in a gruesome bloodbath that derailed Trajan's plans to extend Roman power far to the east.

The second was at the end of his reign and largely followed from the consequences of the first. Hadrian was an unconventional Emperor, he can in a sense be held to be the first Byzantine Emperor as he was very self-consciously Greek, sought to Hellenize the entire region (which is what touched off the Egyptian and Jewish revolts of his reign) of Eastern Rome and to Hellenize Rome and the Western Empire itself. He also adopted a very Chinese-style policy of All Under Heaven bowing before the First Citizen of the Empire, while erecting walls to mark what was within the imperium and what was beyond it.

In his lifetime the legacies of his predecessor were enough that the faults didn't start creaking through and they largely avoided doing so under Antoninus Pius as well. And then with the reign of his second successor, Marcus Aurelius, the crises restarted and slowly escalated into the Military Anarchy. And of course in his own lifetime the effort to refound the city of Jerusalem as Aelia Capitolina and to erect a temple of Zeus on the Temple Mount touched off the Bar Kochba revolt in which a third of the Roman Army waged a genocidal war against the Jewish people, marking the final end of the Second Temple era and of the Jewish presence in Eretz Yisrael as the majority of its inhabitants for almost 2,000 years afterward.

Hadrian would have been very surprised that it was this one war against a troublesome group in the east that was his main legacy to the future and not his revival of the Augustan policy on not expanding the Empire, and still more surprised (if dubiously pleased) that the Greek version of Rome he so esteemed would outlast the pagan one he led for another thousand years as the medieval 'Byzantine' state.

9/10.

[ancientcharm]

Optimus princeps

Marcus Ulpius Trajan was born on 18 September 53 in Hispania Baetica ( Andalusia, Spain) in the ancient city Italica. He stood out for his military and political brilliance, his uprightness and fight against corruption, his austere character, and his philanthropy.

He was the only Roman emperor to whom he granted the title Optimus (The Best). With him the so-called Golden Age of the Roman Empire began. With him also began the so-called era of provincial emperors.

Trajan created Institutio Alimentaria, a program that helped orphaned and poor children throughout the Roman Empire. It provided food and subsidized education.

He conquered Dacia (Roman Dacia would evolve over time to give rise to present-day Romania) and defeated the Parthian Empire by conquering vast territories. During his reign the Roman Empire reached its maximum extension, setting its eastern border on the Tigris River and not on the Euphrates as it was before Trajan.

Trajan is mentioned in The Romanian National Anthem. In Romania the name TRAIAN is very common.

He was the only Roman emperor, before Constantine, who was held in high esteem in medieval and Renaissance Christian Europe, even though under his reign Christianity was prohibited (but without bloody persecutions).

Trajan was the last conqueror of Rome; his nephew and successor Hadrian marked the definitive borders of the empire.

"Be more fortunate than Augustus and better than Trajan" It became the greeting to emperors

Trajan spent his childhood during the reign of Nero. At the age of 15 he experienced the first civil war of the imperial era and the year of the 4 emperors. He made a career in the army under the principate of Vespasian and his sons Titus and Domitian; Was close and loyal to the Flavian Dynasty.

Following the assassination of Domitian in September 96, Nerva was proclaimed emperor.

In 97 a revolt by members of the Praetorian Guard forced the elderly and childless Nerva to adopt as his heir and successor the popular Trajan, then governor of Germania Superior.

Nerva died on 28 January 98 and Trajan succeeded him. One of his first acts was the construction of a limes to secure the Decuman Fields, Germanic lands on the right side of the Rhine, which had been won under Domitian.

Trajan arrived in Rome two years after being proclaimed emperor, having secured the Rhenish frontier. He was received with great joy.

Trajan's Forum in Rome was built by the architect Apollodorus of Damascus, chosen by Trajan himself. It included a basilica, two libraries, and after Trajan's death, a temple was built in his honour. Trajan's Column is the only structure that has survived.

The column was inaugurated on May 12, 113 and consists of a long spiral frieze describing the Dacian Wars (101-106)

The Alcántara Bridge, Extremadura, Spain, widely regarded as a masterpiece of Roman engineering, was built during the reign of Trajan. Photo: Dantla from de.wikipedia - Own work, GFDL

His wife Pompeia Plotina. Ph: Carole Raddato. And his niece Salonia Matidia. Ph: Louvre Museum , CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Trajan was married to Pompeia Plotina, who according to Pliny the Younger "Added to Trajan's virtues of modesty and nobility of spirit her own, for she was kind, intellectual and benevolent."

They had no offspring but Trajan had a single niece, Salonia Matidia, whom he and his wife loved as a daughter and in fact she lived with them since she was 10 years old when her father died.

This lady is the key to understanding how Trajan's successors, supposedly adopted by choice only for their qualities, are linked by blood or marriage ties related to Salonia Matidia. In the so-called "Antonine Dynasty" (name given by 18th century European historians) or dynasty of the "adoptive Emperors" all except Nerva were related to each other and to Trajan through women, either through collateral kinship, marriage or both.

Ulpius-Aelia is the correct name for the dynasty that begins with Trajan and ends with Commodus. And in the list of the "five good emperors" modern historians should eliminate Nerva, who did nothing good - and appointed Trajan as his successor under duress - and include instead Lucius Verus, co-emperor with Marcus Aurelius, who ruled for eight years and was a good ruler.

Trajan died of illness between 8 / 9 August 117 in Selinus (Cilicia). His wife placed the urn containing his ashes on Trajan's Column. He was deified by the Senate.

Trajan's Column, Rome. Photo: Nikon Z7II, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Trajan's Column was an absolute novelty in ancient art and became the most avant-garde work of Roman historical relief.

[blueiscoool]

A ROMAN MARBLE PORTRAIT BUST OF THE EMPEROR LUCIUS VERUS ANTONINE PERIOD, LATE 2ND CENTURY A.D.

Lucius Aurelius Verus (15 December 130 – January/February 169) was Roman emperor from 161 until his death in 169, alongside his adoptive brother Marcus Aurelius. He was a member of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. Verus' succession together with Marcus Aurelius marked the first time that the Roman Empire was ruled by more than one emperor simultaneously, an increasingly common occurrence in the later history of the Empire.

Born on 15 December 130, he was the eldest son of Lucius Aelius Caesar, first adopted son and heir to Hadrian. Raised and educated in Rome, he held several political offices prior to taking the throne. After his biological father's death in 138, he was adopted by Antoninus Pius, who was himself adopted by Hadrian. Hadrian died later that year, and Antoninus Pius succeeded to the throne. Antoninus Pius would rule the empire until 161, when he died, and was succeeded by Marcus Aurelius, who later raised his adoptive brother Verus to co-emperor.

As emperor, the majority of his reign was occupied by his direction of the war with Parthia which ended in Roman victory and some territorial gains. In the spring of 168 war broke out in the Danubian border when the Marcomanni invaded the Roman territory. This war would last until 180, but Verus did not see the end of it. In 168, as Verus and Marcus Aurelius returned to Rome from the field, Verus fell ill with symptoms attributed to food poisoning, dying after a few days (169). However, scholars believe that Verus may have been a victim of smallpox, as he died during a widespread epidemic known as the Antonine Plague.

Despite the minor differences between them, Marcus Aurelius grieved the loss of his adoptive brother. He accompanied the body to Rome, where he offered games to honour his memory. After the funeral, the senate declared Verus divine to be worshipped as Divus Verus.

[elancholia]

RVLES

You must survive for one week.

This takes place in a nonspecific Rome of no particular era.

The participants are the imperial families themselves and their closest confidants, plus you. (So Tiberius spawns in with Sejanus, Hadrian with Antinous, Elagabalus with that gladiator, etc.)

While infighting is allowed and, in many cases, inevitable, all participants will consider your salvation or murder their ultimate objective.

The Praetorian Guard and the mob exist and start off neutral, but can potentially be swayed to one side or the other by a popular or persuasive figure.

The Contrarian Option gets you the five Pre-Severan non-dynastic emperors who actually controlled the city of Rome at some point (Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Pertinax, and Didius Julianus).

[whencyclopedia]

The Five Good Emperors of the Roman Empire (96 - 180 CE)

An infographic illustrating the succession of Roman rulers between 96 and 180 CE, known as the Five Good Emperors (a term unknown to the ancient Romans, coined by Nicolo Machiavelli in his 1531 manuscript Discourses on Livy and made widely popular by Edward Gibbon in his 18th century The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,) Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius. Those were everyone but two of the Nerva-Antonine Dynasty, with Lucius Verus and Commodus not making the cut. During the time of this “kingdom of gold” (Gibbon), the Roman Empire “was governed by absolute power under the guidance of wisdom and virtue.” (Gibbon) The 84-year period is widely accepted as the high point of the Empire, with Imperial Succession ensured through adoption based on merit and acceptance rather than a strict bloodline.

Image by Simeon Netchev

[corporialus]

Hadrian Sestertius engraved by the "Alphaeus Master"

Sestertius of the Emperor Hadrian, struck 132 (?). (i swear to god every time these coins go up for auction these coins have a different date attributed to their striking on the listing). Obverse legend reads "HADRIANVS AVG COS III PP Reverse legend reads "PAX AVG" Among all Roman portraiture of the second century, the coins and medallions attributed to the "Alphaeus Master" stand out as being the best. The engraver is also thought to be a certain "Antoninianos of Aphrodisias" and was possibly a part of Hadrian's inner circle, as Hadrian was a notorious lover of Greek culture.

As far as I know there are only other 4 coins known from these same dies, here are photos of two of the other examples that I was able to find.

I've taken an interest in the coins attributed to him, and recently been drawing original Sestertii of the other Nerva-Antonine emperors in an attempt to try and replicate the Alphaeus Master's style. I'll be posting those at some point soon.

[raffaellopalandri]

Book of the Day - Meditations

Today’s Book of the Day is Meditations, written by Marcus Aurelius from 161 to 180. Marcus Aurelius was a Roman emperor from 161 to 180 AD and a Stoic philosopher. He was a member of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty, the last of the Five Good Emperors (the others were Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius), and the last emperor of the Pax Romana, an age of relative peace, calm, and stability for the…

[along-the-silkroad]

Portrait of Emperor Domitian (r. 81-96) at the Louvre. He was the younger brother of the beloved Titus who only ruled for a brief period. This last emperor of the Flavian dynasty ultimately met his demise through his arrogant dismissal of the Senate's authority and his tyrannical pretensions, ordering his subjects to call him "dominus et deus" (master and god). Senators, who held the highest positions in the empire, started to boycott the regime, withdrawing from public life. Most of them were inspired by Stoicism, leading the increasingly paranoid princeps to prosecute Stoic philosophers. Domitian was eventually killed in a coup which saw the rise to power of the old Nerva, whose reign ushered in the golden age of Rome under the Antonine rulers.

[venicepearl]

Avidia was a well-connected noble Roman woman. She is among the lesser known members of the ruling Nerva–Antonine dynasty of the Roman Empire.

[alsadeekalsadouk]

In 97 AD, Emperor Nerva adopted Marcus Ulpius Traianus, known as Trajan, as his heir due to Nerva’s unpopularity with the military and a revolt by the Praetorian Guard. Trajan was a distinguished general, which made him a favorable choice for securing military support. This adoption marked the beginning of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty, which included five emperors known for their effective governance and prosperity. Trajan later became renowned for expanding the Roman Empire to its greatest territorial extent

Aureus Description: Trajan Pater and Nerva. AD 98-117. (7.02 g,). Rome mint. Struck around AD 112-113. Scripted: IMP TRAIANVS AVG GER DAC P M TR P COS VI P P, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / DIVI • NERVA • ET • TRAIANVS • PAT, laureate bust of Nerva right, slight drapery and bareheaded and draped bust of Trajan the Elder left. #archaeology #history #ancient #art #Caesar #ancienthistory #archaeological #rome #italy #roman_empire #roma #heritage #roman_republic #archaeologylife #Orichalcum #Roman_mythology #italia #medallion #romancoin #romanarcheology #romanancientcoins#aureus #denarius #dupondius #follis #antoninianus #sestertius #fils #alsadeekalsadouk #الصديق_الصدوق

Image copyright: https://www.khm.at/objektdb/detail/1060087

[grayjoy15]

Roman Emperors pride edition! I just think they’re neat

Augustus — Gordian I

[lightdancer1]

'And now we turn as events did for the Empire in that day from a Kingdom of Gold to one of Iron and rust':

There are no topics in some ways more ancient in English Classical history than the idea of a decline of the Roman Empire, the ways in which it worked, and how to explain the ultimate implosion of the Western Empire (usually bereft from having to explain what factors specifically made the West unlike the East which remained completely intact to 1204 and resurrected itself for a few centuries after). This book takes one approach at it by starting with Marcus Aurelius and ending with Theodosius I. In this span of time the Roman Empire, the unified bloc around the Mediterranean + Western Europe up to a border surprisingly close to the English-Scottish border underwent some major transformations.

So too did its neighbors, the Germanic tribes underwent consolidation under larger territorial and military blocs like the Quinquegentiani, the Marcomannic Kingdom becoming more powerful in turn. Parthia was overthrown by the Sassanians, who became a far more formidable enemy of both classical Rome and ultimately its medieval successor which they very narrowly failed to kill entirely.

Ultimately one is left to the reality that the Western Empire did fall and some of the ultimate aspects of that fall were indeed laid by both the waves of migrations of barbarians, which can be compared in certain ways to the impact of the Syrian Civil War in modern time. Not in the sense of being hostile invading armies, but in the sense of relatively small groups of desperate people having a knock-on effect all out of proportion to their numbers and one all too vivid.

Too, one is left with the reality that some historians try to claim that the Crisis of the Third Century was exaggerated, which it may well have been to a point and shaded more by comparison with the overly idealized Five Good Emperors. And yet in looking at the Roman Three Kingdoms and the sequence of bloody coups and short-lived Emperors one cannot with a straight face insist that this doesn't count as a crisis. The state corroded in power and only partially rebuilt itself and in the end lost the entire western half of its territory.

Too, one of the most important shifts was both the consolidation of Christianity as a fully separate religion from the equally co-evolving Rabbinic Judaism on the one hand and its ultimate shift, after the Emperor Constantine I the Great defeated Maximian at the Milvian Bridge, to an imperial religion swollen with the power of the Roman Empire. In this it should be noted that Constantine I was not the first ruler to take such steps, Ashoka Maurya did so a long time before him, and that in this regard Constantine represents a pattern that would recur again with Muhammad and the Caliphate and with the Tang Dynasty deliberately promoting Buddhism in China and the Heian era in Japan.

And if the adoption of state power for Buddhism and Islam is forgivable than the Christian version is not something to be uniquely singled out as an evil or a corruption of society (granted this requires Western white people to actually read about the history of Buddhism and the Asian kingdoms that adopted it which is, to say the least, unlikely even when the Internet allows for a starting point there but). The Gibbons thesis that Christianity killed Rome also fails to account for the longevity of the Eastern half, which held together intact until 1204 and rebounded from major crises, including that one, until Mehmed II broke its power with gunpowder. So, ultimately, Constantine I can be seen without being aware of it as the true father of the Byzantine state and the architect of the first steps to the collapse of the West from larger-scale invasions that broke up any ability to retain the Western Empire as a unified sociopolitical unit.

8/10.

[ancientcharm]

Wikipedia article that is only available in Spanish. I translated into English some abstract to share here. I always wanted to write a post about that "Antonine dynasty" fallacy. Luckily I found someone who explains much better

Ulpia-Aelia Dynasty

Ulpia-Aelia Dynasty is the new name proposed by Alicia M. Canto and adopted by a sector of current historiography to refer to the seven emperors of the Roman Empire, from Nerva to Comodo. Specifically includes emperors Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius and his co-emperor Lucius Verus.

Doctrinal approaches

Unlike other dynasties such as the Julio-Claudian dynasty, the Flavian dynasty or the Severan dynasty, there is no agreement in Ancient History on how to group and name the emperors of the 2nd century, "the best century in the history of Humanity" according the British historian Edward Gibbon.

The most used definitions from the 18th century until today have been and are "the Antonines", "the Good Emperors" and "the Adoptive Emperors". There were only two Antonine: Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, and both were, above all, two Aelii (from the Aelia family). The adoptions were just a political cosmetic operation, but they did not comply with the ideal principles of adoption described by Galba or Pliny the Younger.

The inappropriateness of these three universal classifications is more evident in the face of the 48 ancient texts that demonstrate that throughout that century there existed an authentic dynasty, of Hispanic origins and roots, whose real link was not the adoptions, but the line of blood and kinship, entrusted to the women of the dynasty, who transmitted the legitimacy to inherit the throne: Pompeia Plotina, Vibia Sabina, Matidia the Younger, and both Annias, the so-called Faustina the Elder and Faustina the Younger, ending in Commodus.

After the elderly Nerva as a necessary introducer, the following six emperors: Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, Lucius Verus and Commodus - externi (foreigners) according to the Roman historian Aurelius Victor - form an authentic lineage.

All this led Maria M. Canto to propose the term "Ulpio-Aelia", "the Ulpii Aelii", to define the true dynasty of Hispanic origin that goes from Trajan to Commodus (98-192 AD). Some ancient authors, such greek historian Herodian, demonstrate that the Romans themselves did see Commodus as a direct descendant of Trajan, katá thêlugonía ("by the maternal line"), that is, through the aforementioned empresses, and as "A fourth generation emperor".

The reason why names such as "the Antonine dynasty" or "the Antonine emperors" have universally triumphed is not found in ancient texts, but in the European historiography of the 17th and 18th centuries, whose arguments in this sense, although they do not find real foundation in the texts, have been so generally accepted until now.

The new proposal has already been accepted by authors such as José María Blázquez,​ the Italian expert Anna Maria Reggiani, among others,​ and the definition can be seen integrated even in some university subject programs. Although, without a doubt, two and a half centuries of historiographic tradition is still very decisive in favor of the other definitions in use.

​Alicia María Canto y de Gregorio (Havana, April 23, 1949 – Madrid, March 4, 2024), known as Alicia M. Canto, was a Spanish archaeologist and epigrapher. In 2011 she was appointed corresponding academic of the Royal Academy of History.

Nerva was chosen just as transitional ruler following the assassination of Emperor Domitian. Except him, the successors of "his dynasty" were related.

I'm really sick of hearing things such "Marcus Aurelius broke tradition by choosing moron Commodus just because he was his son; He made a serious mistake".

None of those emperors were chosen after going through a casting. Trajan's adoptive successor was his nephew, the only male relative he had, plus was married to Trajan's great-niece. Hadrian would have been emperor if Trajan had had a son? Marcus Aurelius and his wife Faustina were descendants of Trajan, he on his father's side and she on his mother's side. Marcus Aurelius did nothing more than continue the true tradition of his family.

Just as Augustus' dynasty is known as the Julio-Claudian, ending with Nero, Trajan's is the Ulpia-Aelia dynasty and ending with Commodus. And in my opinion the term Nerva Antonine dynasty, which I find in all English articles, simply doesn't make sense.

[blueiscoool]

Roman Bust of Emperor Lucius Verus Second half of the 2nd century AD

Marble over life-size portrait bust of emperor Lucius Verus, wearing a cuirass (breast-plate and back-plate) and a paludamentum (cloak), fastened by a fibula (brooch) on his right shoulder.

H. 99.5 x w. 67.5 cm.

Lucius Aurelius Verus (15 December 130 – January/February 169) was Roman emperor from 161 until his death in 169, alongside his adoptive brother Marcus Aurelius. He was a member of the Nerva-Antonine dynasty. Verus' succession together with Marcus Aurelius marked the first time that the Roman Empire was ruled by more than one emperor simultaneously, an increasingly common occurrence in the later history of the Empire.

Born on 15 December 130, he was the eldest son of Lucius Aelius Caesar, first adopted son and heir to Hadrian. Raised and educated in Rome, he held several political offices prior to taking the throne. After his biological father's death in 138, he was adopted by Antoninus Pius, who was himself adopted by Hadrian. Hadrian died later that year, and Antoninus Pius succeeded to the throne. Antoninus Pius would rule the empire until 161, when he died, and was succeeded by Marcus Aurelius, who later raised his adoptive brother Verus to co-emperor.

As emperor, the majority of his reign was occupied by his direction of the war with Parthia which ended in Roman victory and some territorial gains. After initial involvement in the Marcomannic Wars, he fell ill and died in 169. He was deified by the Roman Senate as the Divine Verus (Divus Verus).

[wojakgallery]

Title/Name: Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, popularly known as 'Marcus Aurelius', (121 AD – 180 AD). Bio: Roman emperor from 161 to 180 and a Stoic philosopher. He was a member of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty, the last of the rulers later known as the Five Good Emperors and the last emperor of the Pax Romana, an age of relative peace, calm, and stability for the Roman Empire lasting from 27 BC to 180 AD. Country: Rome / Roman Empire Wojak Series: Feels Guy (Variant) Image by: Unknown Main Tag: Marcus Aurelius Wojak