The Worst Roman Emperors: Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know

Roman emperors have a bad press in the popular imagination. Their reputation for cruelty, excess, and debauchery, enabled by unbridled power at the head of a decadent society, still serves as a warning against the pitfalls of absolute power, and people draw lessons from their lives in defence of democracy. Figures like Caligula, Nero, and — thanks to Ridley Scott's Gladiator—Commodus have become household names and bywords for depravity. But how deserved is the reputation of the Roman emperor?

Testament to how bad (or at least unpopular) many Roman emperors were was their incredibly short lifespan after ascending to the throne. Of the 69 emperors from the accession of Augustus and the reign of Theodosius, a staggering 62% suffered a violent death. So who were the worst Roman emperors? Where does the fact become fiction? And which traces (if any) of these megalomaniacal men survive in the modern city of Rome? 

Tiberius

As Rome’s second emperor (reigned 14 - 37 CE) after the empire was founded by Augustus, Tiberius had a lot to live up to. Augustus had found the perfect balance of executing one-man rule while pretending the Senate still held all the power. He brought peace to Rome after nearly 100 years of civil war, and enriched the city beyond recognition through a series of military conquests in Spain, Croatia, and modern-day Macedonia. 

When Augustus died peacefully in his bed at the age of 75, he left no successors. And so the throne passed to Tiberius, his adopted son - the offspring of his wife Livia, and her first husband. 

Tiberius was an excellent soldier, but never wanted to become emperor. Instead, he was forced onto the throne through the machinations of his mother, who if our sources are to be believed, poisoned every other potential successor to secure her son’s promotion.

One reason Tiberius was such a bad emperor is that he spent as little time in Rome as possible. 

In 26 CE, Tiberius retreated to the island of Capri off the coast of Naples, never to return to Rome. He promoted a man called Sejanus, the head of his Praetorian Guard, to effectively administer the Empire in his absence, and for the next five years Sejanus purged the Senate and imperial family of all potential threats. But a failed conspiracy five years later saw Sejanus' fall from grace and swift execution, and his corpse unceremoniously thrown down Rome’s Germonian Stairs.

Orgy from the times of Tiberius on Capri by Henryk Siemiradzki (1881)

Tiberius remained on Capri, where he indulged in the most perverse of pleasures. His imperial biographer, Suetonius, accuses him of unchecked bloodlust and all sorts of sexual depravity involving prostitutes and even infants. He murdered anyone who posed a threat, including the entire family of his great-nephew, Caligula. He even kept Caligula hostage on Capri, privy to the pornographic perversions in which Tiberius indulged. 

How did Tiberius die?

The official version relates that Tiberius died of natural causes. However, there were rumours that Caligula conspired with Macro, the head of the Praetorian Guards, to have Tiberius poisoned over a prolonged period. 

In one version of events, Macro smothered Tiberius with his own bedsheets. In another, Tiberius managed to get up from his deathbed but collapsed at once and was pronounced dead. 
If the Senate weren’t fans of Tiberius, the people hated him even more. According to Suetonius, upon hearing news of his death the people ran around Rome chanting “into the Tiber with Tiberius”. Alas his body was not cast into the river, but cremated and placed in an urn in the dynastic Mausoleum of Augustus which you can still visit today.

Caligula

Caligula (37 - 41 CE) has entered the annals of history as one of the worst emperors of the Roman Empire. During his short but chaotic reign, he wreaked havoc among the Roman elite, demanding senators worship him as a god, brazenly taking their wives as concubines, and ordering the arbitrary executions of all those he mistrusted.

Caligula executed his teenage co-ruler, Tiberius Gemellus, for the audacious crime of drinking an antidote to protect himself from poison. Such was Caligula’s hatred for the Senate that he joked about making his horse a consul (Rome’s most senior office) rather than offer the role to one of them. 

When Caligula came to power, the Romans hailed him as their golden prince. His father, Germanicus, had been a darling of the Roman military, winning a string of military victories against the marauding German tribes, and his mother, Agrippina the Elder, had been a model of Roman virtue. Both were brought down by the machinations of Tiberius: Germanicus was poisoned in Antioch, Syria, in 19 CE while Agrippina was later starved to death in prison on the Italian island of Pandateria.

Caligula spent his teenage years as the emperor Tiberius’ hostage on the island of Capri. Unable to mourn his parents or siblings, his only chance of survival was to sweeten up to the emperor — to participate in his perversions and act as if he posed no threat. One of the most famous sayings we have about Caligula refers to his talent for dissimulation: “Never was there a better servant or a worse master.” 

How did Caligula die?

Just four years into his reign, at the age of just 29, Caligula was hacked to pieces on his way out of the theatre. Assassinated by disgruntled senators under the leadership of the Praetorian Prefect. All held personal grievances against him, not least the Praetorian Prefect, Cassius Chaerea, who Caligula routinely mocked for his apparent effeminacy.

A Roman Emperor by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1871). Caligula's corpse is splayed out on the floor while his successor, Claudius, hides behind a curtain.

The conspirators cut Caligula’s genitals off, and to put an end to his Julian bloodline they butchered his wife and infant daughter. His wife, Milonia Caesonia, was hacked to death beside him while his daughter was taken out of sight and dashed against a wall.

Later writers tried to justify the murder of his one-year-old daughter Julia Drusilla by saying she’d inherited her father’s savagery and would bite and scratch at the faces of those who played with her. But it’s patent that this was no more than desperate propaganda to justify the barbaric murder of an infant.

Nero

It’s for good reason that Nero is the most infamous of all Roman emperors. Ascending to the throne in 54 CE at the age of just 16, his 14-year reign was marked by a string of scandals, excesses, and atrocities — not to mention the murder of his mother (and Caligula’s sister) Agrippina the Younger. 

Nero’s most notorious act was the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD, which he is rumoured to have started himself in order to clear space for his grandiose building projects. In the aftermath of the fire, Nero did in fact set about constructing a grand luxurious palace for himself known as the Domus Aurea (Golden Palace), parts of which you can visit today. And stretching out in front of the palace was a large artificial lake, which was drained after Nero's death to serve as the foundations for the Colosseum.

However, there’s compelling evidence that Nero was not involved in the fire: not only was he at Anzio while the fire broke out, but he rushed back to Rome as soon as possible to help extinguish the blaze and open up his gardens to those made destitute. 

One thing that is beyond doubt about Nero is that he was notorious for his persecution of the Christians, whom he blamed for starting the fire. Saint Peter was executed under Nero’s reign, crucified upside down in Nero’s Circus which is now beneath the Vatican, and Saint Paul was beheaded in 64 CE and later interred beneath the present site of the Basilica of Saint Paul outside the Walls.

Nero's Torches, by Henryk Siemiradzki (1876). According to Tacitus, Nero used Christians as human torches

But fewer suffered more than his own family members.

Ultimately, Nero's reign ended in his suicide in 68 AD. It was to mark the beginning of a period of intense civil war, known as the Year of the Four Emperors.

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Domitian

Few Roman emperors have such a damning reputation as Domitian (81 – 96 AD). Domitian comes down to us as the worst emperor of the Flavian dynasty; a cruel, ruthless autocrat, and a powerful, paranoid psychopath who purged the Senate and impregnated – and then murdered – his niece.

Such was Domitian’s sadism that one of his favourite alleged pastimes was to stab flies with a stylus (sharp pen) before plucking their wings out one by one.

The Triumph of Titus by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1885)

Domitian was the younger brother of the more successful emperor Titus, and he inherited the throne in 81 AD. However, his rule was marked by paranoia, cruelty, and extravagance. He was notorious for his purges of the aristocracy, whom he saw as a threat to his power, and for his persecution of philosophers and other intellectuals. He also built grandiose monuments and held lavish games and spectacles, which drained the treasury and alienated the populace. Domitian's reign came to an end in 96 AD when he was assassinated by members of his own court.

Domitian's Obelisk in the centre of Piazza Navona

Domitian might have terrorised the Roman Senate, but he left plenty for the Roman people. You can still visit his stadium underneath Piazza Navona and see the obelisk he brought to Rome embedded in Bernini’s Fountain of the Four Rivers.

Caracalla

Caracalla came to the throne in February 211 CE alongside his younger brother, Geta. By December that year, Geta was dead and Caracalla ruled alone, the head of a regime marked by instability, violence, and bloodshed. But even Caracalla could not hold onto power for long, and by 217 CE he too was dead, slaughtered by his Praetorian Prefect in Parthia while urinating by the roadside.

Caracalla and Geta inherited the throne from their father, Septimius Severus, whose triumphal arch still stands at the northwestern end of the Roman Forum. From the beginning of their joint reign, these brothers had a strained relationship. Their mutual mistrust meant that they always surrounded themselves with armed guards in case either brother made an attempt on the other.

But it was Caracalla who would ultimately prove the more devious.

Caracalla and Geta by Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema, 1907

The historian Cassius Dio tells us that on December 26, 211, Caracalla asked their mother to organise a private meeting in her apartment so they could discuss a truce. Geta entered the apartment unaccompanied, as promised. But as he did the Guard Caracalla had posted outside rushed into the apartment and attacked him.

The scene Dio describes is tragic. Sensing his death, the 22-year-old Geta ran to his mother for protection. But she was unable to help, and in his helpless mother's arms, Geta was hacked to death beneath a flurry of blades.

Following this cold-blooded act of fratricide, Caracalla ordered for all possible traces of Geta to be destroyed. The Arch of the Moneylenders near Rome's Forum Boarium is one of the clearest examples of Geta’s damnatio memoriae - not just on the frieze but on the arch’s inscription. If you look at the top line, you can clearly see where his name has been removed in an attempt to erase any trace of his existence. But there are other examples too. 

Many inscriptions and images of Geta were erased across the empire. His portraits were chiselled out. Even coins bearing his profile were removed from circulation and melted down. Caracalla was told that his crime could be mitigated if he could declare Geta a god and introduce him to the Pantheon of the imperial cult. 

Caracalla’s response was chilling

“Let him be a god, provided he is dead.”

Elagabalus

Elagabalus was a teenage emperor who ruled from 218 to 222 AD, and his reign was marked by scandal, excess, and sexual deviance. He was notorious for his worship of the sun god Elagabal, whom he brought to Rome and installed in a temple on the Capitoline Hill as Rome's main deity. Elagablus also flaunted his sexuality, marrying and divorcing multiple wives and engaging in same-sex relationships with both men and women.

Elagabalus is said to have engaged in shocking acts of sexual perversion, such as prostituting himself in the streets and forcing women to have sex with him in public. His reign ended in his assassination by the Praetorian Guard, who had grown tired of his excesses and instability.

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