The Five Emperors, also known as the Five Emperors, ruled the Roman Empire from 96 to 180. They are:
Staphylococcus Nerva (Nerva, 1996-98)
Trajan (Trajan, 1998—1 17).
Hadrian (1 17—138, "Yongdi")
Antoine Asylum (Antoninus Pius, 138—16 1 year, also translated as Antoniou Asylum).
Kyle Horillo (16 1 year-180, also translated as Marcus Aurelius, or Marcus O'Leary, "philosopher emperor").
One by one, the five people allowed the Roman Empire to enjoy peace and stability, political clarity, economic development, social prosperity and people's prosperity for nearly a hundred years, which was a huge contrast with the previous hundred years. These five emperors were generous and modest, practiced "benevolent government" and were deeply loved by their subjects. This period was also the most powerful period of the Roman Empire since Augustus. This period is called the "golden age" of the Roman Empire, and it is also called the period of five wise emperors or the period of five wise emperors. Among them, Antoine Pius was in office for the longest time, and the empire reached its peak during his reign, so this period is also called Antony Dynasty. But these emperors were not directly related by blood, and most of them were related by blood. The way of power alternation in the era of the Five Emperors was very peaceful. Among the Roman emperors, these five people were famous for their peaceful succession. Every emperor chooses his own heir and then adopts him as his adopted son, making him Chu Jun, thus avoiding the political turmoil and crisis before and after the alternation of power. Therefore, the throne can be alternated smoothly to ensure political stability.
Before the Five Emperors, the Flavian dynasty of the Roman Empire was ruled by Wei Pa Mi and his two sons Titus and Titus Flaviu Domitian. After the tyrant Titus Flavius Domitianus was killed, old Marcus Cocceius nerva succeeded to the throne in 1996 and founded the Andoni dynasty. The Roman Empire's infrastructure such as laws, road traffic, weights and measures, and monetary system were unified in this era and spread all over the country. When Trajan was in office, he expanded his territory, and when he died, his empire reached its maximum. East to Mesopotamia, south to the Sahara desert in North Africa, west to Britain, north to the Carpathian Mountains and the northern shore of the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea has become an imperial inland sea. Hadrian perfected the bureaucratic system of the empire and built Hadrian's Great Wall in northern Great Britain to stop the invasion from the northern Gulut. When Antoine ascended the throne, the Roman Empire reached its peak.
The martial arts of Wenzhi in the Five Emperors period was also rare in other periods of the Roman Empire. Therefore, edward gibbon (1737- 1794), an English historian in the18th century, hailed this era as "the happiest time for mankind" in his book "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire". He praised the virtues of the five sages as follows:
(Old school translation) "In all previous dynasties, when did people's wealth and happiness come first? Hearing this, he said, "From Titus Flavius Domitianus to Kangmao Deli, you can do it. At that time, Rome was all over the world. Although one statue decided state affairs, it was guided by benevolence, morality and wisdom. The four emperors ruled the company one after another, and they could be both rigid and flexible. Marcus Cocceius nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoine Pius and Marcus Aurelius all admired their noble behavior. The way of governing the country is always to be kind to the people, while governing the country is based on statutes, which is praised by everyone and the emperor masturbates. When it is, if Rome attaches importance to reason and freedom, then * * * and can be restored, and merits belong to saints. "
If someone is asked to name the happiest and most prosperous period of human life in the history of the world, he will not hesitate to say that it was from the death of Titus Flavius Domitianus to the succession of Commodus. At that time, the vast Roman Empire was completely under the rule of autocratic power according to the principle of benevolence. For four generations, the Roman emperor, who was naturally and universally respected for his personality and authority, firmly and gently controlled all the troops. Marcus Cocceius nerva, Trajan, Hadrian and two Antonija people all love the sight of free life and are willing to regard themselves as responsible law enforcers, so they have always maintained the form of civilian government. If the Romans of their time could enjoy a rational and free life, these kings could fully enjoy the honor of restoring harmony. "
However, modern historians only admit many details of the above analysis, but fail to fully agree with its overall praise. They pointed out that under the rule of these emperors, only a few people lived well and could go down in history, while more people were unknown. Most of them were farmers or people who lived by farming. Officials are greedy, thieves are rampant, and these people suffer. Whether the "saints" are in office or not, their plight is no different. What is the life of the people under the five wise emperors? Historians are still arguing.
In the later period of Marcus Aurelius's rule, the Parthian Empire rose and invaded the imperial frontier many times, and the northern barbarian Germany also took advantage of it. The power of the empire began to decline. In 180, Marcus Aurelius died, and his own son Kang Maode succeeded to the throne. His brutal rule ended the beautiful era of the Five Emperors, and the Roman Empire never recovered, and entered the "crisis of the third century" era, from its heyday to its decline.
I. Marcus Cocceius nerva
(Marcus Cocceius Nerva, 165438+981October 8 +351October 27). He was the first monarch in the Five Sages of the Roman Empire (96 -98) and the last non-Roman citizen who was born in the Italian Peninsula and became a monarch.
He was born in the aristocratic class of the old patriarch and was a respected patriarch. After Titus Flavius Domitianus was assassinated, he was elected as the head of the Roman Empire by the Senate. Some people think that Marcus Cocceius nerva was chosen as the emperor according to the background of the assassination of Titus Flavius Domitianus. He was elected because he was old and childless.
In view of Titus Flavius Domitianus's tyranny, Marcus Cocceius nerva decided to adopt a lenient policy. Marcus Cocceius nerva regained the status and power of the Senate soon after he ascended the throne, and vowed that all important affairs of the country must be negotiated with the Senate, and promised not to kill the elders at will. In addition, he also made necessary reforms to some Roman institutions. He pardoned the people exiled by Titus Flavius Domitianus, restored their property and eased their hostility; Established a system to help poor farmers and poor children, and distributed land worth 60 million Ceste to the poor; At the same time, he also exempted many taxes, reduced the inheritance tax and lifted the tax levied by Vespa on Jews. He retrenched to make up for the loss of the national treasury.
However, his rule and excessive frugality aroused the dissatisfaction of the army, and his lack of prestige in the army eventually led to the rebellion of the guards: in 98 AD, the guards surrounded the palace under the leadership of Caspario Elian, demanding that the emperor release the assassin who assassinated Titus Flavius Domitianus and kill several of his advisers. Marcus Cocceius nerva was forced to surrender under the intimidation of the guards.
This incident taught him a great lesson and made him thoroughly realize that without the support of the army, the Fuehrer could not rule the empire. So he followed Augustus' example, recognized one of his military generals, Malcus Dolpi uz Trajan, the governor of Upper Germania, as his stepson, and granted him Caesar's name and the power of tribune. In this way, Trajan not only became the successor of Marcus Cocceius nerva, but also became his ruler. Trajan is a great commander-in-chief, with rich administrative experience, and behind him there is a powerful upper German legion. Marcus Cocceius nerva adopted Trajan as his son, which actually solved the problem of consolidating the new rule with military factors.
It can be said that this measure of Marcus Cocceius nerva is very wise and appropriate. Later historical facts proved that it not only chose the right successor-Trajan, but also created a good system-adopted son inheritance system.
Second, Trajan.
(Trajan, Trajan) (1September 53, 8-11August 9, 7), emperor of the Roman Empire (98-1 17), one of the five wise emperors of the Roman Empire. At the beginning of 98 AD, Marcus Cocceius nerva died, and Trajan, who was guarding Cologne, was called to the throne. Trajan was born in Spain. He was the first person to climb the throne of the head of state from a provincial aristocrat.
Trajan is an excellent commander-in-chief, but also a consul with considerable administrative ability. In view of the loss of the previous dynasty, he took more effective measures to ease the contradictions in all aspects. He respected the political status of the Senate, paid attention to absorbing the big slave owners and nobles from the eastern provinces to participate in the Senate and expand its foundation; He reformed the local administration; Appoint some loyal cronies as provincial governors to improve the relationship between the central government and the provinces; He knows the importance of cultivating people's strength, that is, reducing people's burden and helping small farmers make a living through government loans. In addition, he also imitated the method pioneered by Marcus Cocceius nerva, that is, the government used part of the tax revenue to set up funds in various places to raise poor orphans. He was awarded the title of "Prince Optimus Prime" by the Senate.
In foreign policy, Trajan broke away from the tradition of the early empire established by Augustus, but revived its aggressive tendency in the period of * * *. In AD 10 1- 106, Trajan launched the second campaign to attack the Dacia people in the Danube River valley, overthrew the rule of Dacia king Dirk Balus, turned his kingdom into a Roman province, and transplanted a large number of Roman soldiers and poor people there to settle down. Today's Romania developed from these Roman colonies. Subsequently, Trajan pointed its aggression at Asia and went to war with Parthia. Since the middle of the first century BC, Parthia has been a deadly enemy of the Roman Empire, with constant wars between the two countries and changing borders from time to time. From A.D. 105 to A.D. 106, the Roman legions stationed in Syria occupied most of the areas between Palestine and the Arabian Desert and Sinai Peninsula on the orders of Trajan, and established a new Roman province-Arabian province. Then in 1 14, Trajan attacked Pattaya under the pretext of suzerainty of Armenian kingdom. He led a great army to occupy Armenia, then went south, occupied the two river basins, captured TeXie Feng, the capital of Pattaya, and reached the mouth of the Persian Gulf. Trajan has established three provinces in this land, namely: changing the Kingdom of Armenia into an Armenian province; Establish Assyrian province on the site of Assyria; Establish Mesopotamia province in the two river basins. After a series of expansions, the territory of the Roman Empire expanded to the greatest extent. It starts from the two river basins in the east, reaches most of Brittany in the west, reaches Egypt and North Africa in the south, reaches the Rhine River in the north and reaches Dacia on the Danube in the north.
However, Trajan's victory in Southwest Asia did not last long. When the battle between Trajan and Parthia reached its climax, a Jewish uprising broke out in its rear. Due to the situation, Trajan had to Li from the two river basins, but he got sick on the way and died in Silesia in the south of Asia Minor. After Trajan's death, his measures in the two river basins immediately went up in smoke.
Trajan is a kind and simple but determined monarch. More than 250 years after his death, the Senate announced the succession of Emperor Vallans (reigned from 364 to 378), and also expressed the hope that he would surpass Augustus in benefiting the people and Trajan in kindness.
Third, Hadrian
(Publius Aelius Traianus Hadrianus, 65438+76-654381October 24th+July 038, Emperor Yong of posthumous title, one of the five wise emperors of the Roman Empire, reigned for1138) Trajan was critically ill. Hadrian is Spanish, too. He is Trajan's cousin. He followed Trajan to various places from his early years, which won the appreciation of the emperor and was entrusted with important tasks from time to time. Shortly after Trajan's death, he was promoted to head of state by the Syrian army, and this action was quickly approved by the Senate.
The first important thing Hadrian did after he succeeded to the throne was to stop the Eastern War and conclude a peace treaty with King Pattaya. He abandoned the provinces of Assyria and Mesopotamia established by Trajan, made Armenia a small kingdom only attached to Rome, and shrank the eastern border of the Roman Empire back to the Euphrates River. Hadrian clearly realized that Trajan's conquest of the East could only be carried out at the expense of all imperial troops. At that time, the frontier forces of the north and the west were very empty, and the residents of Mesopotamia were obviously hostile to Rome. In this case, it will be an extremely difficult task to stick to the new border beyond the right bank of the Euphrates River. On other borders, Hadrian also abandoned the policy of large-scale attack and only focused on defense. In order to resist the Germanic invasion, he built the Great Wall in today's southern Germany, connecting the upper reaches of the Rhine River and the Danube River. In addition, he also built a "Hadrian side wall" across the east and west in the northern part of the British Island to resist the invasion of "barbarians" living in present-day Scotland.
Hadrian's era is an important development stage of Roman state bureaucracy. The bureaucratic management system of the empire has laid the foundation in the era of Julia Claudius. But at that time, it was the liberated slaves who occupied an important position in the central bureaucracy, because there was no difference between the central organization and the private property management organization of the Fuehrer, whose members mainly came from the liberated slaves and the Fuehrer's slaves. This situation is not in line with the interests of the whole slave-owning class, especially the middle slave-owning class. Therefore, it must be changed. By the time Flavi came to power, the number of slaves who were freed in the imperial administrative organs decreased obviously, and the rank of knight gradually became the main supplement of the imperial bureaucracy. By Hadrian's time, knights almost squeezed out all the freed slaves and became a real bureaucratic class. At the same time, Hadrian turned the Fuehrer's Advisory Council founded by Augustus into a bureaucracy. Like ordinary officials, members of advisory committees can receive their salaries from the state treasury regularly. As a result, the Advisory Council itself lost the last trace of doing things independently and became a tool to carry the will of the emperor.
Hadrian was a learned emperor, who had profound attainments in literature, art, mathematics and astronomy. Many buildings during his reign have also been preserved, including Hadrian's Great Wall and villas. Emperor Hadrian loved to travel. During his reign, all provinces in the empire left his footprints. In this regard, Gibbon wrote in the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: "Hadrian's life is almost always on an endless journey. Because he has many talents, including soldiers, politicians and scholars, he can completely satisfy his curiosity by completing his duties. Regardless of the change of seasons and climate, he always walks barefoot in the snow of Caledonia and the hot plains of Upper Egypt. During his reign, there was not a province in the empire that was not visited by this autocratic emperor. " . Hadrian's strong curiosity and vanity led him to "become a great emperor, a ridiculous debater and a jealous tyrant." Of course, the general trend of his behavior is justice and gentleness. Hadrian maintained a homosexual relationship with his adopted son and successor Anthony. Before that, he maintained a homosexual relationship with his entourage Antinous, who was a beautiful teenager, but the latter drowned in the Nile while visiting Egypt with the emperor himself, and was later regarded as a god by the grieving emperor.
Four. Antoine shelter
(Antoninus Pius,1September 9, 86- 16 1 March 7, 138- 16 1 reign year), the fourth among the "five emperors" of the Roman Empire, was in his reign. Therefore, the reign of the Five Emperors was also called "Antoine Dynasty" because of his name.
In A.D. 138, Hadrian died of illness and his adopted son Anthony ascended the throne. Anthony is the nephew of Hadrian's wife and the first head of state to be born in Gaul. During the 23 years of Anthony's rule, he inherited Hadrian's policy. Internally, pay attention to adjusting the relations in all aspects. After he ascended the throne, he first exempted the people from tax arrears, donated a large amount of private property to the state treasury, and paid all the holiday expenses. At the same time, wine, oil, rice and wheat were purchased and distributed to civilians free of charge. He was good at managing money and governing the country diligently, so after his death, the state treasury was rich in cash, with a balance of 2.7 billion Cestes. He is diligent in state affairs and "cares about others as he cares about himself". He continued to pursue Hadrian's policy of legal freedom, restricted the use of torture devices on slaves and severely punished the owners who killed slaves for no reason. He rewarded education, provided school education for poor children and expanded the privileges of teachers and philosophers. Externally, he advocated adopting a defensive policy. But in order to defend the frontier, he also held some military activities. In Britain, the Romans repelled the harassment of Scottish tribes and pushed the border northward 100 km. In the northern part of the Black Sea, the arani advancing from the North Caucasus attacked the Greek cities on the north bank of the capital, and then invaded Olivia; Roman troops came to the rescue from the western United States, repelled arani's invasion in one fell swoop, and avoided arani's large-scale ravages on this area.
Anthony was a gentle, kind and amiable monarch, and was awarded the title of "Protector" by the Senate. Unlike his adoptive father Hadrian, during his twenty-three years of rule, he spent a quiet life in Rome; The longest journey the kind emperor has ever experienced is from his palace in Rome to his retired villa in Lu Fen.
Hadrian adopted him on the condition that he also adopted Marcus Aurelius and Verus as adopted sons. In this way, Hadrian identified two generations of heirs for the empire, and historical facts proved that his vision was good. Anthony achieved a smooth transition of power for two consecutive generations with his calm style.
Verb (short for verb) Kyle Hollylow
(Marcus Aurelius, 12 1 April 26th,1March 80 17) He was the last emperor among the five emperors of the Roman Empire, and his reign was from 16 1 year to/kloc-0.
In A.D. 16 1 year, Anthony died and passed it on to his adopted sons Kyle Horillo and Verus. This is the first time in Roman history that two heads of state are in power together.
When the new head of state took office, the first thing he encountered was the Parthian invasion. In 16 1 year, King Vologus III of Parthia invaded Syria, and Verus led his troops to fight back. At first, Rome was very smooth. They not only removed the Parthians from Syria and Armenia, but also went deep into Mesopotamia and occupied the two capitals of Parthia, Selev and Tehifeng. But it didn't last long. Rome withdrew from Mesopotamia in 166.
In A.D. 167, Verus preached in Rome and was warmly welcomed by the Roman people. However, Verus not only brought good news of victory to Rome, but also brought disaster to Rome. A terrible infectious disease spread rapidly to all parts of the empire with the arrival of the Eastern Army. The plague not only devoured countless people, but also affected the supply of soldiers; But also reduced the tax revenue of the national treasury, causing a serious financial crisis in the country. All this provided conditions for the German invasion.
In A.D. 168, the Germanic tribes of the Outer Danube invaded the border areas of the Roman Empire in a large scale, among which the Mani, Vandal and Cuader of Kel were the most ferocious. They not only ravaged the vast areas of the northeastern provinces of Rome, but also cleared the door to enter Italy. The two heads of state quickly mobilized troops from all over the world and personally led the dangerous Manny War in Kyle. In A.D. 169, Verus died in a military camp, and Horizo continued to lead the war. After defeating the barbarians many times, the enemy agreed to surrender. In order to protect the northern Roman frontier and prevent new invasions, Horizo decided to let those tribes willing to serve Rome settle in the northern border of the empire. Since then, the German army has gradually become the main source of Roman mercenaries, and the Roman army has begun its barbaric process.
In A.D. 178, Makomani and Quad attacked the imperial border again. Holliro's army conquered. In A.D. 180, Horizo died of plague in Du Wen Guna (Vienna) military camp in Pannonia. The situation in the empire is in a state of extreme tension.
Horizo was one of the greatest emperors in the Roman Empire. He is not only a wise monarch, but also an accomplished Stoic philosopher. His Meditations was written in Greek and has been handed down from generation to generation. In the whole western civilization, Horizo is a rare saint. What is more worth mentioning is that although he yearns for peace, he has extraordinary military leadership skills. But he was cheated by his wife, the dissolute queen Faustina.
Horizo was born in Rome on April 26th, 12 1, and grew up in a very powerful and wealthy family. When I was young, I was noticed by the then Roman emperor Hadrian, so I got a special education. At the age of six, he entered the equestrian regiment, and at the age of seven, he entered the Sallie College in Rome and received education from various cultural elites. Horizo succeeded to the throne of the Roman Empire on March 7th, 16 1. Since he took office, wars and many natural disasters have occurred. /kloc-in 0/63, he invaded Armenia. At the same time, infectious diseases flooded the whole empire, but he successfully drove the Germanic nomadic tribes out of Roman territory. As a result of these wars, when Horizo was in power, the treasury was empty and the emperor's life became increasingly difficult.
After Kyle's death, his unworthy son Commodus (the young emperor who killed his father and usurped the throne in the Hollywood blockbuster Gladiator, but he didn't kill his father in history) succeeded to the throne. Commodus is a coward who bullies the weak and fears the hard. He values martial arts more than literature. During his reign, he was tyrannical and later killed, and the Antoine dynasty ended. The golden age initiated by the five wise emperors is gone forever.