General List of Roman Emperors

This article provides a complete but concise list of those individuals who claimed the title of 'Emperor' between the inception of the imperial period (27 BC) and the end of the empire on 29 May 1453.

  • For a more detailed description of the title and its use, see: Roman Emperor
  • For a comprehensive list of Western Roman Emperors, see: List of Roman Emperors
  • For a comprehensive list of Eastern Roman Emperors, see: List of Byzantine Emperors
  • For a graphical representation of how the emperors related to one another, see: Roman Emperors family tree

Those individuals who have historically been accepted as the 'official' emperors are in bold; usurpers or other claimants generally excluded from regnal lists are in italics. Unless otherwise stated, the succession to the title was from an emperor to his nominated heir, and death was by natural causes.

Famous quotes containing the words general, list, roman and/or emperors:

    “A constitutional statesman is in general a man of common opinions and uncommon abilities.”
    —Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)

    “Lastly, his tomb
    Shall list and founder in the troughs of grass
    And none shall speak his name.”
    —Karl Shapiro (b. 1913)

    “The gale, it plies the saplings double,
    It blows so hard, ‘twill soon be gone:
    To-day the Roman and his trouble
    Are ashes under Uricon.”
    —A.E. (Alfred Edward)

    “How does Nature deify us with a few and cheap elements! Give me health and a day, and I will make the pomp of emperors ridiculous. The dawn is my Assyria; the sun-set and moon-rise my Paphos, and unimaginable realms of faerie; broad noon shall be my England of the senses and the understanding; the night shall be my Germany of mystic philosophy and dreams.”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)