Roman rulers

Marble bust of Nero

Rethinking Nero: was the Roman emperor really so bad?

Marble bust of Caligula

Caligula: murderous and depraved, or a victim of history?

Augustus was the first Roman emperor (Photo By DEA / G. DAGLI ORTI/De Agostini via Getty Images)

Your guide to the Roman empire: when it was formed, why it split and how it failed, plus its most colourful emperors

Augustus. (Photo by Getty Images)

The bloody rise of Augustus

Roman republic

Your guide to the Roman Republic

Marble relief depicting the Praetorian Guard, legionnaires and elite soldiers. In the Louvre, Paris, France. (Photo by Leemage/Corbis via Getty Images)

The Praetorian Guard: the emperors’ fatal servants

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Portrait head of Roman Emperor Nero circa AD 59-64. (Photo by Alamy)

Nero: Rome’s Antichrist? . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Marble bust of Nero

Emperor Nero: the tyrant of Rome

Engraving of emperor Commodus's death

Cheese, angry gods and shoddy surgeons: the unlikely deaths of Roman emperors

Once he gained control of the entire Roman Empire, Constantine set about an ambitious programme of reform. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Constantine the Great: the emperor who created Europe

Emperor Nero and the fire in Rome

Q&A Did Emperor Nero really play the fiddle while Rome burned?

Bust of young Caligula. Did he really make his horse a lawmaker of Rome? (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)

Q&A Did Caligula really make his horse a senator?

Early 20th century image showing a tribune in the Roman Republic. (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images)

Elections in the late Roman Republic: how did they work?

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My history hero Nick Knowles chooses Julius Caesar (100–44 BC) . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A 1985 production of 'Julius Caesar'. For all their despotism, Romans thanked their first three emperors for delivering them from the curse of civil war. (Photo by Jean-Jacques BERNIER/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

The glorious Caesars