Justin Paola's Collection of Roman Emperors

A Visual Compendium of Roman Emperors

The goal of this page is to present an illustrated list of Roman Emperors. While I was in Rome In July of 1995 the idea for this page hit me at some point in the Vatican museum. I had seen lists of emperors on the net and I figured these lists would be much more interesting if they had pictures as well. Thus, I tried to snap pics of as many emperors as I could find in various museums.

While I did quite a bit of reading before I went to Rome, and I could identify many of the more famous Roman Emperors, I ended up missing quite a few that I'm sure I had stood right next to many times. I'm very disappointed I didn't get a Caligula or a good Nero. And alas, since I have been back I have seen many photos in books of Emperors that were in some of the museums I visited but WERE NOT LABELED (Doh!) there. One such unfortunate lost opportunity was the Hercules-like bust of the Emperor Commodus in the Palazzo dei Conservatori. (See my note on picture contributions below)

Anyway, what follows is a list of the Roman emperors and whenever possible, their busts and/or any other contributions they made to Roman art or architecture. Click on the emperor's name to see his coin portrait.

This list is now essentially complete with respect to my trip to Italy in July of 1995, and you can see I'm missing quite a few emperors. If anyone out there has pictures of sculpture portraits for any emperors I do not have, I would love to have an electronic copy to post to this site. I will provide appropriate acknowledgements and sufficiently shrink and JPEG each image so that it is not posted in publication quality. I will also tag it with your name if desired (like in my pics).

Comments?

Please note that there are many links below to other sites with information about individual emperors. I am not responsible for the content of these pages. Before you write me with requests/complaints please make sure you are looking at one of my pages.

Roman Dictators
Coin	Scultpure	Links & Info	Books
Julius Caesar		A comprehensive site about Caesar	Caesar Julius Caesar : Man, Soldier, and Tyrant Caesar : A History of the Art of War Among the Romans Caesar : Politician and Statesman The Assassination of Julius Caesar The Conquest of Gaul

Roman Emperors (27 BC - 117 AD)
Coin	Scultpure	Links & Info	Books
Augustus (27 BC - 14 AD)		One of his obelisks. Its inscription reads: IMP * CAESAR * DIVI F AVGVSTVS PONTIFEX MAXIMVS IMP XII * COS * XI * TRIB POT * XIV AEGVPTO * IN POTESTATEM POPVLI * ROMANI REDACTA SOLI * DONUM * DEDIT A list of burials at the Mausoleum of Augustus The Gemma Augustea from Augustus: Images of Power A comprehensive site about Augustus Augustus and the Early Roman Empire More info on Octavianus	Augustus Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor Augustus: The Godfather of Europe The Roman History : The Reign of Augustus
Tiberius (14 - 37)		Biography of Tiberius Tomb of Tiberius	Tiberius Caesar
Caligula (37 - 41)	Scanned Portrait	Caligula's sister Agrippina the Younger Biography of Caligula Another Biography of Caligula	Caligula : The Corruption of Power
Claudius (41 - 54)		Biography of Claudius More Info on Claudius	I, Claudius : From the Autobiography of Tiberius Claudius
Nero (54 - 68)	Scanned Portrait	Biography of Nero	Nero
Galba (68 - 69)		Biography of Galba
Otho (69)		Biography of Otho
Vitellius (69)	Scanned Portrait	Biography of Vitellius
Vespasian (69 - 79)	Scanned Portrait Another portrait	Biography of Vespasian Pictures of the Temple of Vespasian	Vespasian (Roman Imperial Biographies)
Titus (79 - 81)		Biography of Titus
Domitian (81 - 96)		A glimpse of his stadium Biography of Domitian	The Emperor Domitian Domitian : Tragic Tyrant
Nerva (96 - 98)		Biography of Nerva
Trajan (98 - 117)		Trajan's column: Near the top Part 2 Part 3 Near the bottom Biography of Trajan More info on Trajan Another site	Trajan : Optimus Princeps : A Life and Times Trajan : Optimus Princeps Trajan's Column