Category: Twelve Caesars
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Augustus’s Greatest Diplomatic Victory – The Parthians & Crassus’s Legionary Eagles
Leaders of the past generation, such as his stepfather Julius Caesar, had placed military symbols on their coins – a trophy of Gallic arms with a bound captive, in Caesar’s case. Augustus, though never one to shy away from a war, was a more diplomatically inclined ruler that pushed a narrative of peace and stability.…
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Conquered Crocodile: Rome Annexes Egypt under Augustus
The annexation of Cleopatra’s former kingdom was the Roman state’s most prized conquest; Egypt had been the richest land in the Mediterranean for centuries and, under the Ptolemaic Greeks, had asserted its status as the center of learning and philosophy in the Hellenistic world, boasting such wonders as the Lighthouse and Library of Alexandria.
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The Short Reign of Galba: Both a Beginning and an End
Galba’s short reign, though missing significant policy initiatives or decisive events, was an important turning point in how the empire, particularly the imperial succession, would develop. He was the first emperor not born of the family of Caesar Augustus, proving that there was, theoretically, opportunity for anyone to become emperor. This might seem an easy…
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Antonia Minor’s Central Role in Rome’s First Dynasty
At least among some historians, she had a reputation for being harsh with rivals, including her own children. After her daughter Livilla was accused of conspiring with Sejanus to kill the emperor, Cassius Dio reports that Antonia locked her daughter in a room until she starved to death. Sejanus was later executed on Tiberius’ orders,…
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The Progression of Nero’s Portraiture on Coinage – Handsome Prince to Neck Beard
Due to the efforts of a wealthy senatorial class that hated him for his populist measures, that recognition is almost invariably negative. Nero is remembered as the emperor who “fiddled while Rome burned” and the man who led the first great persecution of the Christians, which claimed, among thousands of other victims, the first Pope,…