Who are the most underrated Roman emperors?

The senator Cassius Dio called the new emperor a public-spirited reformer and man of great personal integrity. Pertinax had little time for vain honorifics and pomp; after all, he was the first emperor not born into nobility. But his incredible skill as a military commander – and then governor – won him rapid promotion under Marcus Aurelius. Despite so much raw talent and experience, however, Pertinax reigned a mere 87 days, making him one of the shortest-lived and yet most underrated emperors in Roman history.

In his brief but highly productive reign, Pertinax somehow managed to reverse Rome’s declining economic and political fortunes. During the dark years of Commodus, the imperial finances became a shambles, and Pertinax inherited a nearly empty treasury. Even worse, the Roman denarius – the silver coin that had been the bedrock of the imperial monetary system for centuries – had been adulterated with base metal.

Pertinax deftly resolved this twin financial and monetary crisis by liquidating the lavish luxuries and works of art accumulated by Commodus. Pertinax even sold off Commodus's pricy concubines. Bribes that Commodus had paid out to German tribes were recalled. Soon, Pertinax raised enough money to restore the purity of the coinage, and even hand out substantial cash bonus to the citizens of Rome as well as his soldiers.

But it was not enough. Pertinax expected his army, and especially his Praetorian Guard, to be both satisfied with their wages and return to a more disciplined lifestyle. They refused, and on the 28 March AD 193, several hundred soldiers rushed the imperial palace. Pertinax’s guards let the rabble into Pertinax’s chambers, where they murdered their own emperor in cold blood. Pertinax’s visionary agenda was subsequently undone during the civil war that erupted later that year. The Roman Empire resumed its trajectory toward decline. Pertinax, had he lived longer, may very well have granted the Empire a meaningful reprieve from the many crises that pummelled the empire during the late second century, but it was not to be.

Professor Colin Elliot is an economic and social historian with an interest in money, disease and ecology in the ancient Roman world

Emperor Tiberius (r14–37 AD), nominated by Dr Hannah Platts

For me, Tiberius is the most underrated Roman Emperor. From the outset it’s important to understand the context behind his succession. Tiberius was the second emperor of a new imperial system and the first of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. That he followed the remarkable Augustus, who set the model for imperial rule, highlights Tiberius’s difficult position at the outset of his reign.

Moreover, Tiberius was the first emperor to inherit sole power in a society where, until recently, neither autocracy nor bequeathing political posts was accepted. Being related to Augustus by marriage not blood, Tiberius was not Augustus’s preferred successor but was adopted as heir under sufferance because all other options had either died or, as in the case of Agrippa Postumus, were deemed unsuitable. Thus he lacked the auctoritas (influence) that being part of the Julian clan offered, especially when it came to managing the Senate. Consequently, although initially Tiberius sought to restore elements of senatorial authority that had declined under Augustus, he struggled in dealing with them. Given this background, that he ruled for almost 23 years and successfully passed on imperial power is no mean feat.

Tiberius didn’t leave behind a legacy of magnificent buildings compared with emperors such as Augustus, Vespasian and Trajan, but he was a highly successful general. Before coming to power, he secured Rome’s frontiers against Germania, Pannonia and the Balkans. Yet he also understood the importance of maintaining stability in the empire to protect resources and, as emperor, engaged in prudent military diplomacy. This, together with his careful management of state finances, meant he left a strong imperial treasury for his successor Caligula to inherit.
Why is Tiberius so underestimated? Much of the responsibility lies in the hostile sources, particularly Tacitus and Suetonius, who choose to depict him as tyrannical, immoral, and secretive. Such representations undermined Tiberius’s achievements, tarnishing his legacy for centuries to follow.

Dr Hannah Platts is a senior lecturer in Ancient History and Archaeology at Royal Holloway, University of London

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Emperor Probus (r276–82 AD), nominated by historian Guy de la Bédoyère

Few have heard of Probus today, yet he was one of the most successful and important soldier emperors of the third century AD. That was a time of chronic instability in the Roman Empire, beset by the disorder of military usurpations, civil war, and frontier incursions.

Not much is known about Probus’s early career though he was said to have performed with exceptional bravery during a Sarmatian war, during which he held the rank of tribune. Probus had done extremely well in the Roman army. He probably joined it during the reign of Valerian (253–60 AD), rising by the time of Aurelian (270–75 AD) to a prestigious appointment on the Rhine fighting the Alamanni. Following Aurelian’s murder he was promoted by Aurelian’s successor Tacitus (r275–76 AD) to a command in Egypt and Syria.

After Tacitus’s premature death, Probus was the perfect choice for emperor. He faced major frontier invasions by barbarian tribes, continuing the work done by Aurelian. He fought off internal rebellions and used his soldiers on large-scale civil engineering and building projects. He even held a morale-boosting triumph in Rome in 281 AD. Probus also made a settlement with the Persians that warded off the threat they posed to the eastern frontier, until he could set on campaign against them.

An interesting side to Probus was that he allegedly dreamed of a future golden age when soldiers could leave the army to become farmers or students. The story may be apocryphal, but in 282 AD he ordered thousands of troops to drain a marsh and build a canal to enrich his homeland in Pannonia. The men refused, rebelled and chased Probus to a look-out tower where they killed him. In happier times he might have been one of Rome’s greatest rulers.

Guy de la Bédoyère is a historian and broadcaster, specialising in ancient Rome

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Emperor Julian (r361—363 AD), nominated by Professor Edith Hall

Julian, one of Constantine the Great’s nephews, was emperor for only 20 months, but his reputation as the ‘Apostate’ earned him a unique position as the favourite emperor of countless atheists, philosophers and radicals.

He must have possessed moral stature; at about six years old the motherless boy’s cousin, Emperor Constantius II, had his father executed. Raised as a Christian under close supervision in the Greek East, Julian, however read the great pagan philosophers. This led him to doubt and renounce Christianity.

He was no slacker on the battlefield, either. As Caesar of the West, he won successes against Germanic tribes; as emperor, his daring campaign against the Sasanians was initially successful.

But he was fatally wounded in battle aged 31. His last words are supposed to have been, “You have beaten me, Galilean”. As the last non-Christian ruler of the Roman Empire, his defiant defence of the ancient way of life won him many admirers. He purged the top-heavy state bureaucracy and reinstituted pagan religion.

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It is not that he was addicted to pagan pleasures: he practised asceticism. He infuriated Hellenised Christians by attempting to prevent them from teaching the pagan curriculum. But Julian had an advocate in Libanius, the official sophist of Antioch, who watched with dismay the encroachments of Christianity into the old classical curriculum. Libanius wrote an obituary oration for his hirsute friend, even though his clean-shaven fellow Antiochenes had regarded the Emperor as gauche, badly groomed and excessively austere. Julian had a sense of humour, and had responded to them with a satire in his own defence, called Misopogon or ‘Beard-Hater’.

We will never know whether Julian might have delayed the triumph of Christianity by a few more decades had he lived. But Libanius’s heartfelt response to the terrible loss of the last defender of the old religion shines through his obituary, as he asks his fellow citizens, “Did he not raise up your fallen altars, did he not erect new ones to your honour? Did he not worship magnificently, gods, heroes, ether, the heavens, the earth, the sea, fountains, rivers? Did he not wage war against those who warred against you?’...Did he not restore the world to health when almost at the last gasp?”

Professor Edith Hall is professor in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at Durham University