From the start of the Qin dynasty in 221 BC until the end of the Qing dynasty in 1912, China was ruled by hundreds of emperors. Most of these men were ethnically Chinese, although some were also Mongol or Manchu. Though some of them were self-made men who took the throne by force, others were appointed heirs groomed for the title.

A few of them radically changed the history of their country, while others ended up only as footnotes. Many were competent and intelligent. Others were cruel and lazy. Some of them were quite fascinating and a tad bit strange to boot.

10 Toghon Temur

Established in 1271 by Genghis Khan’s grandson, the Mongol-ruled Yuan dynasty controlled China for almost an entire century. Although the Mongol emperors adopted some Chinese customs and really weren’t radically different from their Han predecessors, their policies discriminated against ethnic Chinese and favored Mongols.

In the four-tier social hierarchy of the time, Mongols sat at the top of the pyramid, followed by foreign groups like West Asian Muslims, northern Chinese, and then southern Chinese. The Mongols weren’t keen on giving up their cultural identity and generally tried to keep themselves separated from the Chinese, even enforcing different rules and laws for the two groups.

This officially sanctioned discrimination upset many Chinese and made Mongol rule unpopular. The Yuan rulers were widely perceived as incompetent and decadent, and no Mongol emperor represented these unsavory qualities better than the last one, Toghon Temur.

Toghon Temur, who had taken the throne when he was only 13 years old, was more interested in sex and Buddhist spiritualism than confronting the economic and natural disasters that had befallen China in the last few decades of Mongol rule. While his subjects were starving and dying from plague, Toghon Temur dressed up as a Buddhist priest and organized vast sex orgies in the Forbidden City.

As rebellions broke out across China, Toghon Temur and his chief minister contemplated the bizarre idea of killing anybody with the surnames Zhang, Wang, Liu, Li, and Zhao. These were five of the most common surnames among the Chinese. Had the plan been carried out, over 90 percent of the population would have been exterminated. By 1368, a rebel Chinese army led by Zhu Yuanzhang had captured most of the country, and Togon Temur fled his palace and took refuge in Mongolia, where he died in 1370.

9 Hongwu

In the same year that the last Yuan emperor left China, the rebel leader Zhu Yuanzhang proclaimed the beginning of the Ming dynasty and took the title of Hongwu. The new emperor was a notoriously tough, paranoid, and ugly man.

His early life was exceptionally harsh. After being orphaned at age 16, Zhu became a Buddhist monk and took to begging and wandering to survive. Through his travels across his home province of Anhui, Zhu witnessed the widespread starvation and suffering of the common people under Mongol rule. In 1352, Zhu joined a rebel army and quickly rose to become its leader, capturing the Mongol capital of Daidu (present-day Beijing) in 1368.

Once in power, Hongwu concentrated on driving out the last of the Mongols and restoring Chinese culture and values. In 1369, he ordered public schools to be built across the country, where students would study classic Chinese texts. Later, he reestablished the bureaucratic civil service exam, an emblem of Chinese culture that had earlier been abolished by the Mongols. He also reformed the tax system and left behind an influential legal code before his death in 1398.

Despite these accomplishments, Hongwu’s legacy is mostly mixed. While some historians have praised him for bringing an end to Mongol rule, others have expressed disdain for the inefficiency of his reforms and the brutal and paranoid nature of his reign. Anybody who criticized him was publicly flogged on their bare buttocks in court or sometimes even sentenced to death.

Distrustful of his own officials, Hongwu was also constantly afraid that he would be overthrown. In 1380, after uncovering an actual plot by his prime minister to depose him, Hongwu abolished the office and had the man beheaded. He then went on a mad purge to kill the man’s family and anybody he suspected of plotting against him, possibly executing as many as 100,000 people.

8 Wang Mang

Some 1,900 years before Mao Zedong founded the communist People’s Republic of China, China’s first “socialist” ruler, Wang Mang, seized power from a child emperor and founded the Xin dynasty in AD 9. Wang, an ambitious and socially conscious reformer, embarked on a number of policies that many later historians have interpreted as socialistic.

In an attempt to fix China’s dire economic situation and a starving and poor peasantry, Wang’s government took control of all the land in the country and ordered that rich landholders equally redistribute their estates. He also introduced price controls, banned the slave trade, and confiscated thousands of pounds of gold to weaken the power of the elite.

Not surprisingly, the country’s rich merchants and nobles weren’t very enthusiastic about Wang’s new policies. The reforms only worsened China’s terrible economic crisis, and Wang called them off after only eight years. Wang’s timing, however, proved to be too late. A civil war erupted, and both the elite and the peasantry that he had tried to help took up arms against him.

By the fall of AD 23, Wang realized that his situation was hopeless. As the rebels approached his capital of Chang’an (modern Xi’an), Wang lingered in his palace, consorting with magicians and trying to cast spells. On October 7 of that year, the rebels invaded Chang’an and stormed Wang’s palace. They beheaded him and then dismembered his body, bringing an end to the first and last Xin emperor.

7 Xuanzong

Xuanzong’s 43-year reign is considered the high point of the Tang dynasty (618–907), a time in Chinese history renowned for its beautiful poetry and cosmopolitan culture. Not all of Xuanzong’s time on the throne was great, however, and the later half of his reign also marked the beginning of the Tang’s decline.

For most of his time on the throne, Xuanzong was a very competent ruler. After becoming emperor in 712, Xuanzong embarked on a number of successful reforms, cleaning up the bloated imperial bureaucracy and keeping the frontiers of the empire well-protected with military governors who commanded professional armies.

In his later years, Xuanzong’s interest in governing declined. He used much of his time to dote on Yang Guifei, a concubine who was initially his son’s wife. Yang used her powerful influence over the emperor to advance her friends and family, helping her cousin Yang Guozhong to become prime minister. Her adopted son, An Lushan, was also made a military governor.

By 755, An Lushan had a falling out with Yang Guozhong and launched a rebellion to topple the Tang government. As the rebels began to close in on the capital city of Chang’an, Xuanzong and Yang Guifei had to flee the city for safety. After stopping at a remote village, the Imperial Army came to a halt and demanded that the emperor execute Yang Guifei and her cousin for their role in instigating An Lushan’s rebellion.

Faced with a revolt from his own troops, Xuanzong realized that there was no way out but to have Yang Guifei killed. The historical record varies about what happened next, but Yang either voluntarily hanged herself or was strangled to death by an imperial official. Xuanzong, devastated by his lover’s death, then gave up his throne and left the job of putting down An Lushan’s rebellion to his son.

6 Jianwen

In 1398, Jianwen succeeded his grandfather, Hongwu, as the second emperor of the Ming dynasty. This was a controversial move that had greatly angered Jianwen’s uncles, whose power he quickly moved to reduce. His uncle Zhu Di, a successful military veteran who helped keep the Mongols out of China, seized control of the northern part of the country and launched a rebellion to take the rest.

After fighting Jianwen for three years, Zhu Di and his supporters invaded the imperial capital of Nanjing in 1402. Although the city went down quite easily, Zhu Di had a bit of a problem: Jianwen’s palace was destroyed during the invasion, and nobody could find his body. Zhu Di claimed that his nephew accidentally died in the palace fire, but others believed that the old emperor had escaped and left China.

Four days after Jianwen allegedly died in the fire, Zhu Di declared himself the Yongle emperor. Yongle wanted his predecessor’s reign completely erased from history, going so far as to rewrite himself in historical records as Hongwu’s successor. He also launched a bloody purge across the southern side of the country, wiping out the former government’s supporters.

Despite the official story of Jianwen being dead, it seems that Yongle might have believed otherwise. In 1405, when he commissioned Zheng He’s first expedition to explore the world, Yongle told the renowned explorer to look for information about Jianwen. The old emperor never popped up during Zheng He’s travels, however, and whether he really died that day in Nanjing remains a mystery.

5 Zhengde

The emperor Zhengde, also known as Wuzong, is little remembered today except for his extravagant and shocking lifestyle. With the help of his friend Jiang Bin, Zhengde enjoyed kidnapping women and raping them.

In one infamous incident, after fighting a rebellious prince, Zhengde and his men raped an untold number of virgins and widows as they made their way across the city of Yangzhou. One historian said, “His violence plunged the city into such a panic that families grabbed any young men available to marry their daughters.”

Zhengde eventually abducted so many women that there was no room in the Imperial Palace to keep all of them. His “Leopard Quarter,” a second palace complete with a zoo, was where he spent much of his time. The emperor’s taste for sex was endless, and it was even rumored that he had a sexual relationship with his eunuch Wang Wei.

In autumn 1520, when he was 29 years old, Zhengde became sick after falling off a capsized boat and almost drowning. He never recovered from his illness and died several months later in the comfort of his Leopard Quarter. While his reign might have been short of any actual accomplishments, Zhengde’s larger-than-life personality and free spirit were celebrated in many works of literature after his death.

4 Jiajing

While many Chinese emperors survived assassination attempts by family members or rivals, only one of them was nearly killed by his concubines. Emperor Jiajing, the successor to Zhengde, reigned from 1521 until 1567. Although China enjoyed great stability under his long rule, Jiajing was also a very cruel man. In 1542, a group of Jiajing’s concubines decided that they would put an end to his tyranny.

On November 27 of that year, while Jiajing was sleeping alone in a concubine’s room, 18 of his other concubines suddenly came in and ambushed him. While some girls drove hairpins into Jiajing’s crotch, others wrapped a silk cord around his neck and tried to strangle him. The emperor eventually fell unconscious, but he survived the attack because his concubines couldn’t tighten their cord hard enough to kill him.

While her husband lay unconscious, Empress Fang had all of the conspirators behind the assassination plot immediately executed. After recovering from his close brush with death, Jiajing moved out of the Imperial Palace and dabbled with Daoist magic at a self-designed palace near old Zhengde’s Leopard Quarters. He then spent the next 25 years of his rule generally ignoring his duties, devoting himself instead to having sex with virgins and drinking “magic” potions made from bodily fluids.

3 Wu Zetian

Over the more than 2,000 years that China was ruled by emperors, Wu Zetian was the only woman who ever held the title. Originally a concubine of lowly origins, Wu became the empress after hatching a scheme to kill her own baby daughter. When the baby was only one week old, Wu suffocated her and pinned the death on Emperor Gaozong’s wife, Empress Wang. Since Wang often visited the baby’s nursery alone, the accusation stuck easily and she was dethroned.

In 655, despite opposition at the imperial court, Wu took Wang’s place as empress. Her first act was to get rid of Wang and a concubine named Xiao, a former rival who also had her heart set on becoming empress. Without an ounce of mercy, Wu had the two women executed by having their hands and feet cut off. Their bodies were then hurled into wine jars, where they choked on the wine and drowned.

Wu spent the next few decades consolidating her power and ruling behind the scenes. It was not until 690, after Gaozong was long dead and she forced two of her sons off the throne, that Wu became the official emperor of China.

While historians have traditionally criticized her as a violent ruler, her reputation has improved in recent times due to the stability of her reign, her reform of the civil service examinations, and her policy of keeping nationwide suggestion boxes in which ordinary subjects were allowed to criticize government officials.

Still, Wu’s ruthless attitude and secret police force made her many enemies during the time, and she was eventually forced off the throne after a coup in 705 by one of her sons.

2 Taichang

The death of Taichang, a Ming-era emperor who ruled for little more than a month in 1620, is said to be one of the dynasty’s greatest mysteries. After taking the throne on August 28 of that year, Taichang suddenly fell sick a few days later. Within two weeks, he had become so weak that he couldn’t sleep or walk.

By September 25, Taichang was desperate to try anything. Li Keshao, a man recommended to the emperor by 13 of his officials, gave and personally prepared for Taichang a special red pill. Miraculously, the emperor began to recover after taking Li’s pill. He could sleep again, and he regained his appetite as well. When the evening came, Taichang relapsed and was given another pill. A second dose failed to improve his condition, however, and the emperor died by early morning.

Taichang’s sudden death caused a great deal of controversy. Some cried of a conspiracy, accusing Li and the 13 officials who had visited Taichang the day before his death of assassinating him. It seemed strange that Li, a man with no real medical training, was allowed to give his mysterious red pills to Taichang.

It sooned surfaced that Taichang was given a laxative by an eunuch around the time that he started to get sick. There was also a rumor, earlier denied by Taichang himself, that an old concubine of his father named Zheng had deliberately worsened his health by sending off eight palace maids to have sex with him.

Zheng, a palace woman who wanted to become empress, was alleged to have acted in a plot with another palace woman and some other power-hungry officials to get rid of Taichang. Whether Taichang died from taking Li Keshao’s medicine, either accidentally or deliberately, has never been established.

1 Xuantong

Xuantong, better known by his personal name of Henry Puyi, was the last emperor of China. At age 3, Puyi took the throne after the death of his uncle Guangxu in November 1908. Puyi’s dynasty, the Manchu-led Qing, had been in a long decline at this point. In October 1911, a democratic revolution broke out, and Puyi abdicated only a few months later as part of the peace negotiations. After more than 2,000 years as a monarchy, China was now a republic.

Although he was now powerless, Puyi was allowed to keep his title as the Xuantong emperor, and the new republican government also let him live in his old palace in Beijing with an annual allowance. Aside from a 12-day restoration of the monarchy in 1917, Puyi’s life was pretty uneventful until he was forced to relocate to the city of Tianjin in 1924. During that time, Tianjin was divided up into a variety of different foreign concessions and Puyi stayed in the Japanese part of the city until 1931.

By 1932, the Japanese were in control of Manchuria, the ethnic Manchu Puyi’s ancestral homeland. The Japanese invited Puyi to assist as “chief executive” of the puppet state they established there, now known as Manchukuo. After two years in power, Puyi was made emperor of Manchukuo, a move which enraged his former Chinese subjects.

Once World War II was over, the Soviets abducted Puyi and held him as a prisoner in the USSR for five years. Puyi was terrified to go back to China because he was considered a war criminal for helping the Japanese, but the Soviet authorities denied his request to stay in the country for good.

In 1950, the Soviets returned Puyi to China, where he stayed in prison for almost a decade. After being released, Puyi worked as a gardener at the Beijing Botanical Garden. He spent the last few years of his life quietly working at this job, releasing a ghostwritten autobiography and dying of cancer in 1967.

Tristan Shaw is an American blogger interested in crime, literature, and history. His first two books, Mexico’s Unsolved Mysteries and 20 Unsolved Mysteries of Japan, are now available on Amazon for Kindle.

The Roman Empire was one of the greatest civilizations ever established. Lasting over 1,000 years, they dominated the ancient Mediterranean. Roman laws and culture have had a lasting impact on the world around us that is deeply felt even today.

The history of the empire was also well-documented compared to the Dark Ages that followed—but those histories do tend to focus on the earlier emperors. Yet some incredible stories came after them: the man who reunited a broken empire, the teenagers who ruled Rome, and the man who bought the imperial throne at auction. Here are ten fascinating stories of Roman emperors after the first 12 Caesars reigned.

10 Caracalla
AD 198–217

Caracalla and his brother Geta provide a wonderful historical tale of sibling rivalry. They were the sons of Septimius, who founded the Severan dynasty. He urged them to cooperate and rule together, but the two despised each other. It is said that they even divided the imperial palace down the middle, with each brother occupying one half.

Caracalla, in one of the more despicable acts of history, called a truce between himself and Geta, with their mother to mediate and settle the dispute between the two. When Geta arrived, however, Caracalla had him murdered—in front of their own mother. The official story was that the “assassins” had intended to kill them both, but most people in Rome knew the truth behind Caracalla’s throne.

As you might expect from a man who had his brother killed in front of his mother, Caracalla was a harsh ruler. His father had given him dying advice: “Enrich the soldiers, and scorn all other men.” That’s exactly what he did. The soldiers were paid handsomely, but Caracalla’s enemies, including anyone who dared to criticize or mock him, faced terrible vengeance. He is remembered for extending citizenship to all the citizens of the empire (not just Italians), but this may have been done so that he could collect more taxes to pay the soldiers.^[1] He was so despised by his enemies that historian Edward Gibbon called him “The Common Enemy of Mankind.” His fearsome reputation may have led to his assassination and overthrow by . . .

9 Macrinus
AD 217–218

Macrinus was the first Roman emperor to hold the office without having been a senator first.^[2] Although the Senate lost its power to the emperor when Augustus (the first emperor) took over, the wealthiest class were usually members of the Senate, and this included the generals and members of the royal dynasties who traditionally ruled Rome.

The most fascinating fact about Macrinus is how he ascended to the throne. As a prefect in the Praetorian Guard, one of his duties was to read the imperial mail for his predecessor, Caracalla. Caracalla was well-known as a paranoid, vengeful, and suspicious man. When Macrinus read in the imperial post a prophecy that the emperor would be murdered and deposed by his prefect, he was in a bind. When Caracalla heard of the prophecy, he would likely have Macrinus killed. Macrinus, fearing for his own life, felt that he had no alternative but to overthrow Caracalla. So he paid a gladiator to murder the emperor while he was urinating by the side of the road.

Macrinus managed to secure the loyalty of the army and the approval of the Senate after he declared himself emperor. But the good times weren’t to last, as you can see by the fact that he only reigned for a single year. The surviving members of Caracalla’s family plotted against him, and the new heir to the throne, Elagabalus, was also proclaimed emperor. As was often the way in the Crisis of the Third Century, when many imperial rulers were overthrown, they secured the loyalty of the troops by offering them more gold: Macrinus was hunted down and executed, and his head was sent to Elagabalus.

8 Alexander Severus
AD 222–235

Alexander Severus was just 13 years old when he ascended to the throne. Just imagine how you would deal with that kind of responsibility at the age of 13; it’s a miracle his reign wasn’t a complete disaster. Most of that owed to the influence of his mother, Julia Mamea, who was the real power behind the throne for most of his reign.^[3]

Alexander reduced taxes, encouraged literature as well as the arts and sciences, and was religiously open-minded. Rome was still pagan at that time, worshipping Jupiter and the Roman pantheon, but Alexander allowed a synagogue to be built in Rome and even wanted to erect a Christian church as well.

Although he did well on the domestic front, there were plenty of foreign wars with Rome’s great Eastern enemy, the Parthians, and the Germanic tribes were constantly threatening to invade across the Rhine and Danube Rivers. Alexander was never too popular with the soldiers, who were insulted at the prospect of effectively being ruled by a woman and probably wanted a stronger leader, more willing to take them into battle. This would lead to Alexander’s assassination and overthrow by the next emperor on this list . . .

7 Maximinus Thrax
AD 235–238

If Macrinus caused a stir by being the first non-Senatorial Roman emperor, the senators wouldn’t have liked Maximinus Thrax. Not only was he a commoner, but lots of people in the Senate viewed him as a barbarian. He began life as a common soldier, gradually being promoted up the ranks. The story goes that Emperor Alexander noticed that one of the soldiers was unusually strong and had him promoted until he was eventually put in charge of a legion. The ancient sources rather dubiously claim that he stood over 244 centimeters (8′) tall.

Alexander was a young and weak emperor, however, and the soldiers gradually grew to mistrust him for making payments to Rome’s enemies rather than crushing them outright. Soon enough, they murdered Alexander and his mother and acclaimed Maximinus the emperor. With the soldiers on Maximinus’s side, there was little the Senate could do at first about the indignity of having a barbarian ruling over them instead of fighting in the gladiatorial arena for their amusement.

Maximinus had overthrown the last member of the Severan dynasty, which had ruled Rome for many years, and had no legitimacy of his own, so it wasn’t long before he had to put down several revolts across the empire, with various provinces putting forward their own candidates to rule. The Senate backed one of these revolts. When it failed, they knew that Maximinus would have them all killed when he returned to Rome, so they elected some of their own members to rule. As Maximinus returned to crush the rebellion, his soldiers got bogged down besieging the city of Aquileia, and chafing under the harsh discipline of Maximinus, they assassinated him. As was so often the case for a ruler who took the throne by violence, his reign had a violent end.^[4]

6 Julian
AD 361–363

Julian cuts a fascinating figure in Roman History; he was the last pagan emperor of Rome. The only issue for Julian was that the Roman Empire had been converted to Christianity 30 years before by the Christian emperor Constantine, and his sons had continued the tradition. Julian fought against the grain of history, trying to restore Rome to what he believed were its superior former religious values.^[5]

He was the last surviving relative and heir of Constantine’s last son, the brutal and ruthless Constantius II, who had fought civil wars against his brothers to claim the throne. Constantius never trusted Julian, likely suspecting that his religious beliefs were not truly Christian, but he had little choice other to make him his heir in order to continue the dynasty. As heir, Julian controlled the troops in Gaul (France), but Constantius grew jealous and ordered half of Julian’s army to be transferred to the East, where Constantius was fighting. The Gallic soldiers refused to go and proclaimed Julian emperor—and fortunately for Julian, Constantius died on the way toward fighting what would have been another civil war.

Once Julian had sole control of the empire, he gradually attempted to ban Christianity by revoking all of the privileges that the religion had before. He encouraged the pagan cults to return and made many other legal reforms. But he still needed to win the loyalty of the troops in the East and thought that best way to do this was by winning a great victory against the Parthians. Unfortunately for Julian, he rode valiantly into battle but forgot to wear his breastplate and was grievously wounded by a spear. He later died of his injuries.

It’s incredible to think what could have happened if Julian had lived. Would he have succeeded in converting the Roman Empire back to paganism and changing history? We can never know.

5 Majorian AD 457–461

Majorian took over the Western Roman Empire toward the end of its life. (Most historians agree that the empire officially ended in AD 476.) They had lost many of the territories that had once made Rome great; by the time Majorian came to rule, the Western Empire was essentially reduced to Italy, some territories in Gaul, and a strip of land in the Balkans. The Eastern Empire was beginning to drift away, with its own capital in Constantinople, and became less concerned with the affairs of the West.

Despite this, Majorian made the last truly concerted effort to restore the Western Roman Empire to its former glory. He fought military campaigns that reconquered much of Spain and Gaul and prepared a great fleet to retake the province of Africa from the the Vandals who had taken up residence there.^[6] Unfortunately, his fleet was destroyed in the harbor by fire ships used by the Vandals as well as some traitors within the Roman ranks.

Majorian had ruled with a Germanic general named Ricimer, who had campaigned with him in the past, but after the loss of the fleet, his partner in crime turned on him. Majorian suffered an undignified end for such a successful soldier: He was stripped of his imperial robes, tortured, and then executed by Ricimer. After his death, the Western Roman Empire continued to decline, quickly losing its remaining power and influence. Majorian was the last competent emperor of Rome—at least in the West.

4 Didius Julianus
AD 193

Didius Julianus was only emperor of Rome for nine weeks, but he merits inclusion on this list because of the incredible story of his rise to power. This took place during a perilous time for Rome: AD 193 was the Year of the Five Emperors, so called because . . . there were five emperors that year. The man who came before Didius was Pertinax. He made the terrible mistake of underpaying the emperor’s elite military unit, the Praetorian Guard.

The Praetorians were enraged, rushed the palace, and murdered Pertinax. While they were all standing around wondering what happened next, one of them had a very smart idea: Why don’t they auction the throne to the highest bidder? Announcing to the public that the emperor was dead and that the man who would offer to pay the guards the most would be the new emperor, they waited for the bids to roll in.

According to ancient sources, Didius was reluctant to enter the bidding but was persuaded to by his wife. After several bids against another man, Sulpicianus, Didius emerged victorious and was proclaimed emperor by the jubilant guards—who were now being paid a lifetime’s salary for an ordinary soldier.

The guards may have backed Didius, but no one else recognized his legitimacy. After all, he had essentially tried to buy the throne from a military unit. The generals in the various provinces of Rome rose in revolt against Didius, and as it became clear that the bodyguards would be no match for the legions, he was assassinated.^[7] Severus took the throne next.

3 Elagabalus
AD 218–222

Elagabalus, like Caracalla, Geta, and Alexander, was another member of the Severan dynasty. He came to power aged just 14, after Macrinus was overthrown by the Severus family. History remembers Elagabalus for his eccentric religious beliefs and scandalous sexuality by the standards of the day. The ancient sources report that he dressed as a woman, married five times, had many male lovers, and even prostituted himself in the imperial palace. These may all have been rumors, but they were believed by many. It’s very likely that if he was alive today, he would be considered transgender. Rome tolerated homosexuality, but Elagabalus caused outrage in Roman high society.

There’s even a rumor, immortalized in a famous painting, that he had his lovers crushed to death with rose petals once he was finished with them. Alongside this, he was a high priest of the Sun god El-Gabal (aka Elagabalus) and changed his name to reflect his position. He forced the senators of Rome to worship this god in lengthy ceremonies.

Elagabalus was intended to be a puppet of his grandmother, who had schemed to put the Severan dynasty back in charge of Rome. But she evidently considered him to be a liability and arranged for him to be assassinated by the Praetorian Guard and replaced by Alexander, who was easier to control. Elagabalus was just 18 years old when he was killed.^[8]

2 Aurelian
AD 270–275

Aurelian came to power at the height of the Crisis of the Third Century, which we mentioned earlier. It’s no exaggeration to say that the Roman Empire was on the verge of complete destruction when this occurred—yet it recovered and flourished for another century afterward. Aurelian is a major part of the reason why.

When he came to power, the empire had split into three. In the West, the Gallic Empire consisted of the island of Britain and the province of Gaul and had been run independently for years. In the East, the city of Palmyra under Queen Zenobia had taken many of the Eastern provinces from Rome. In the meantime, the remaining provinces faced invasion from Germanic hordes, including the Goths and the Alemanni, who threatened Italy.^[9]

Aurelian changed all that. In an astonishing five-year reign, he won military victory after military victory. He defeated the invading tribes and reorganized the Roman provinces so that they would be easier to defend. Then he went east and reconquered the old Roman territories in the Palmyrene Empire. By showing mercy to the provinces that he had defeated, he was able to win them back into the Roman fold. Nevertheless, the city of Palmyra was sacked, and its rulers were paraded in chains, as was the Roman tradition. When he returned to the West, the Gallic Empire essentially agreed to reunify with Rome without a fight, and Aurelian was given the title of restitutor orbis: the restorer of the world.

Despite this, Aurelian was murdered by conspiracy. He was a harsh man who punished easily. An imperial secretary, concerned that Aurelian would execute him, forged a document which supposedly listed the names of Aurelian’s enemies who were scheduled for execution. He showed this document to those “enemies,” and they conspired to murder Aurelian. When they realized that they had been deceived, it is said that they felt very ashamed. Interestingly, it seems that Aurelian’s widow may have ruled in her own right for a time before the new emperor was proclaimed.

1 Diocletian
AD 284–305

Diocletian was perhaps one of the most successful emperors Rome ever had. After coming to power, he put the Crisis of the Third Century to bed by completely remodeling the Roman system. He established the Dominate, a new system of government in which the emperor’s word was law—he was almost to be worshipped as a god. He established a huge bureaucracy based on subdivisions of the provinces called dioceses, which are still used by churches today.

Deciding that the job of governing the empire was too much for one man to do alone, Diocletian divided it into four and had each district governed by a single emperor, a system called the Tetrarchy. This allowed each of the emperors to focus on their own province more effectively and deal with military threats along their borders. He reformed the currency and the army to deal with the instability that had led to so many emperors being overthrown and killed in the century before.

Perhaps one of the greatest achievements Diocletian had was being able to die of natural causes. He was, in fact, the only emperor to voluntarily retire and abdicate the throne. He went to his palace, which is now the city of Split in Croatia, and farmed cabbages. When the emperors who came after tried to persuade him to come out of retirement to help them rule, he essentially told them, “If you could see the size of the cabbages I’m growing, you’d give up on the Empire, too.”^[10] When you consider that every other person on this list was assassinated, you might see why he preferred cabbage farming.

Thomas is a physics student at the University of Oxford. In his free time, he produces a podcast, Physical Attraction, which explains concepts in physics—one chat-up line at a time. Find him on Twitter @physicspod.

According to legend, the first emperor of Japan took the Chrysanthemum Throne in 660 BC. Since Emperor Jimmu’s ascension, some 126 emperors are counted to have ruled Japan, although some early emperors might have only been legendary figures.

Historically, the role of the emperor has alternated between being a public symbol and a powerful monarch. Some emperors had little influence over the country, while others proved to be tremendously important to Japanese history. For better or worse, the following emperors are remembered for the extraordinary personalities, intrigues, and acts of violence that marked their reigns.

10 Sudo

Emperor Sudo never served as emperor during his lifetime. In fact, he was only declared an emperor after he died. When he was alive, Sudo was known as Prince Sawara and his elder brother was Emperor Kanmu.

With his eyes on the throne, Sawara plotted the murder of one of his brother’s favorite officials, Fujiwara no Tanetsugu. In punishment, Kanmu executed and exiled Sawara’s coconspirators and sent his disgraced brother to live on distant Awaji Island.^[1]

Prince Sawara died of starvation before he reached Awaji, but the trouble plaguing the emperor didn’t stop there. After Sawara’s death, the empress fell sick and died and Kanmu’s heir, Prince Ate, became ill as well. When offerings and prayers failed to help Prince Ate, Prince Sawara’s ghost was accused of haunting the imperial family. Anxiously, Kanmu set out to appease his brother’s spirit and built a temple in his honor.

In 800, afraid that Prince Sawara’s ghost was still hungry for revenge, Kanmu posthumously named him Emperor Sudo. The new, dead emperor was reburied in a spot that held the graves of many other emperors, and a shrine was built for him. Later, in 806, Kanmu formally forgave everybody involved in the death of Fujiwara no Tanetsugu, allowing the surviving conspirators to come back from exile.

9 Sushun

Ironically, Emperor Sushun had the fate of being assassinated by the very man who brought him to power. In 587, Sushun’s half-brother Emperor Yomei died and two powerful clans called the Mononobe and the Soga clashed over who would succeed him. Sushun’s other brother Prince Anahobe fought with the Mononobe but was eventually killed by the Soga and their leader, Soga no Umako.

Once the fight was settled, Umako decided to place Sushun on the throne as a compromise. However, Sushun was furious over the death of his brother and made no secret of his hatred for Umako. On one occasion, Sushun ordered a boar to be killed and then said, “I want the person I hate killed just as this boar has been killed.”^[2]

Umako wasn’t thrilled over the emperor’s threats. He had a supporter assassinate Sushun and, after falling out with the assassin, hanged the man from a tree. At the time, Umako was so powerful that he didn’t suffer a single consequence for killing Sushun. Sushun’s nephew Prince Shotoku even claimed that his uncle deserved it, and Sushun was hastily buried without any of the usual imperial rituals.

8 Go-Daigo

During Japan’s Kamakura period from 1185 to 1333, the country was controlled by military dictators called shoguns. Though the Japanese emperor continued to reign, the shogun was the real ruler of the country. In 1318, Emperor Go-Daigo took the throne, dreaming of restoring the kind of power his ancestors once held.

After a few mishaps, one of which forced the emperor off the throne and into exile, Go-Daigo and his allies launched a revolution and overthrew the government in 1333. For the next three years, as part of the Kenmu Restoration, Go-Daigo ruled again as emperor. His policies alienated his supporters though, especially the samurai.

By 1336, the Restoration was over and Go-Daigo was booted off the throne again. One of his old allies, Ashikaga Takauji, was appointed shogun in 1338, and the figure of the emperor was once more reduced to a figurehead.^[3]

Still, even after being deposed twice, Go-Daigo refused to call it quits. Instead of accepting the new emperor’s legitimacy, Go-Daigo fled the capital of Kyoto and set up a new court in the town of Yoshino.

For the next six decades, Japan had two competing emperors—one side descended from Go-Daigo and the other side supported by the shogunate. Go-Daigo’s line was known as the Southern Court and lasted until 1392 when their last emperor abdicated and made peace with the shogunate.

7 Go-Komatsu

While Emperor Go-Daigo and his rebellious descendants made up the Southern Court, the Ashikaga shogunate gave their approval to a group of six emperors known as the Northern Court. Later scholars had their doubts about this line’s legitimacy, and since 1911, the Southern Court has been recognized as the legitimate line.

Technically, not all the Northern Court emperors are considered pretenders. Emperor Go-Komatsu, the last and sixth of the line, is countered as a genuine emperor.

Initially, after the last Southern Court emperor surrendered in 1392, a deal was struck so that somebody from that line would succeed Go-Komatsu. To satisfy both parties and to prevent one line from dominating the throne, the succession would alternate between the two different sides.^[4]

While that was the deal, it was never actually honored. Emperor Go-Komatsu abdicated in 1412, and his son Shoko took his place instead. The Southern Court line ended up never taking power, and while they might be considered the legitimate line, subsequent Japanese emperors have been descended from the Northern Court.

6 Anko

In the imperial Japanese system, the emperor’s oldest son was normally his heir. In the case of the Emperor Ingyo, who is believed to have died in 453, a romantic scandal cost his first son the throne.

The heir apparent, Prince Kinashi no Karu, fell in love with his half-sister and seduced her. The scandal soured the prince’s relations with the royal court, and after his father’s death, his younger brother Anaho challenged him for control. Unfortunately for Kinashi no Karu, he lost the fight, was banished, and later committed suicide.^[5]

After taking the throne, Prince Anaho became known as Emperor Anko. With his succession built on violence, it might not be surprising that Anko’s life ended in bloodshed as well.

One day, Anko sent a messenger to his uncle Okusaka to propose a marriage for his younger brother. Okusaka agreed to the idea, but the messenger lied and told Anko that Okusaka had rejected it. Anko didn’t bother to double-check and angrily sent soldiers to murder Okusaka and kidnap his wife.

Anko made his aunt an empress and took in Okusaka’s seven-year-old son, Mayuwa. Anko was afraid that the boy might want revenge, and his suspicions ultimately proved right. While Anko was asleep in the empress’s lap, Mayuwa ambushed his stepfather and stabbed him to death with a sword.

5 Kobun

When he died in 672, Emperor Tenji was so highly regarded that the Japanese were still commemorating his reign with ceremonies a century later. Before his death, Tenji’s brother Prince Oama refused to succeed him, so his son Prince Otomo was appointed his successor and became Emperor Kobun.

It seemed like it would be a smooth transfer of power, but the rivalry between Oama and Kobun would engulf Japan in a succession crisis remembered as the Jinshin Disturbance.^[6]

Prince Oama’s rejection of the throne turned out to be a ruse. As part of his plan, Oama moved from the imperial capital to a shrine in the town of Yoshino.

He claimed that he was going to live as a monk, but Oama was actually plotting a rebellion against his nephew. Allying himself with provincial leaders who resented Tenji’s centralization of the country, Oama gathered an army and launched an attack against Emperor Kobun.

The fighting proved to be short-lived, lasting only a month or so. Oama and his soldiers crushed the imperial army and burned down the capital. After ruling for only eight months, Kobun decided to strangle himself rather than face defeat.

His uncle succeeded him as Emperor Tenmu. Despite what his provincial allies signed up for, Tenmu ended up centralizing the government’s control even further.

4 Yozei

For the refined, sensitive court of the Heian period (794–1185), the wild Emperor Yozei must have been a nightmare. Yozei became emperor when he was only nine years old. By the time he was a teenager, he had developed some morbid ways to entertain himself. The young emperor delighted in animal cruelty, pitting dogs against monkeys and making snakes devour frogs.

Animals apparently weren’t the only source of his entertainment. Although details are vague, Yozei is reported to have once killed a courtier for no reason either with a sword or his own fists. The government kept the murder under wraps, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if this was the last straw for many of Yozei’s elders.

When the regent Fujiwara no Mototsune had had enough of Yozei’s bizarre behavior, he invited the emperor to a race. This was a trick. Fujiwara got him out of the palace and then promptly dismissed him from his duties.

The former emperor was considered insane, but he was never arrested or murdered after his disposal. In later life, Yozei took up poetry. His sole surviving poem is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu, a famous anthology of Japanese poetry.^[7]

3 Sutoku

After reigning between 1123 and 1141 (some sources say 1142), Emperor Sutoku was unexpectedly booted off the throne by his own father and predecessor, Emperor Toba. Toba and his consort Fujiwara no Nariko had recently had a son, and the little boy was ordered to take Sutoku’s place. The new Emperor Konoe was a sickly child, and when he died in 1155, Sutoku thought he or his own son would be the successor.

In reality, Toba had no intention of giving the reins back to Sutoku and appointed another of Sutoku’s half-brothers as Emperor Go-Shirakawa. It was a controversial choice, and when Toba passed away the next year, there was nothing to stop Sutoku and his defenders from mounting a claim.

The resulting conflict, the Hogen Rebellion, ended in Go-Shirakawa’s favor. As punishment, Sutoku was forced into exile in the distant Sanuki Province.^[8]

According to history, Sutoku died in 1164. Legend says that the former emperor took his bitterness to the grave, becoming a vengeful ghost or demon. Sutoku’s spirit was blamed for all sorts of disasters, and he remains a well-known figure in folklore today. In 1867, Emperor Meiji even wrote a letter to Sutoku, requesting that his spirit come to the capital as a form of forgiveness.

2 Kogyoku/Saimei

Like the later Empress Koken/Shotoku, Empress Kogyoku/Saimei had the rare distinction of ruling Japan during two separate periods. She was born Princess Takara, beginning her first reign as Empress Kogyoku after the death of her husband in 642. During this time, the Soga clan was becoming increasingly influential in the royal court, a development that Kogyoku’s son Prince Naka no Oe disliked.^[9]

In July 645, Naka no Oe and a group of coconspirators ambushed a member of the Soga clan, Soga no Iruka no Omi. The attack was committed in front of Kogyoku, and when she left the room, Naka no Oe’s lackeys killed Iruka. After Iruka’s corpse was sent to his father, Emishi, the aggrieved man burned his house down and killed himself.

The assassination shocked Kogyoku so badly that she resigned. Her brother replaced her, ruling as Emperor Kotoku until his death in 654. Kogyoku then took power again, although the name Saimei refers to her second reign. After Saimei’s death, Prince Naka no Oe finally took the throne and became Emperor Tenji.

1 Antoku

The story of Emperor Antoku is one of Japan’s greatest tragedies, immortalized in the classic epic poem The Tale of the Heike. Antoku became emperor at age two, with his grandfather Taira no Kiyomori acting as regent.

The Taira clan’s rival, the Minamotos, supported another boy for the throne. Their disagreement led to the Genpei War, a civil war between the Minamotos and Tairas that resulted in Antoku and the Tairas fleeing the capital of Kyoto.

Eventually, the Minamotos chased the Tairas to Dannoura, a port city located on the southern tip of Honshu. On April 24, 1185, the Minamotos and Tairas clashed for the last time, engaging in a sea battle. During the fight, the Taira general Taguchi Shigeyoshi cast aside his loyalties and joined the Minamotos. The battle became a hopeless ordeal; the general knew everything that the Taira forces planned to do.

Antoku was just one of the passengers on the Taira ships. When it became clear that the Minamotos had won, Antoku’s grandmother grabbed the boy and jumped overboard with him.^[10]

Many of the other Tairas drowned themselves, choosing to die over surrendering. Since the Tairas’ defeat, folklore says that they haunt the sea as Heike crabs, a unique kind of Japanese crab that has a human face–like pattern on its shell.

Tristan Shaw is an American writer who enjoys folklore, literature, and history. You can follow him on Twitter.

We can all think of current presidents and prime ministers who seem a little out of their depth. Luckily for them the worst that can happen to them is being voted out at the ballot box. For those who rose to the top of the Roman Empire however the end of a political career was often a lot less dainty. If you messed up then there were always those who were willing to replace you, often over your dead body.

Here are ten Roman emperors who suffered horrific downfalls.

Top 10 Little-Known But Fascinating Roman Emperors

10 Vitellius

The year 69 AD was an exciting one in Rome. Known as ‘the year of the four emperors’ it saw a number of people gain the imperial throne only to lose their lives soon afterwards. Vitellius was perhaps the most interesting of the figures who donned the imperial purple.

In an age where people spent fortunes on banquets Vitellius out ate them all. One of his proudest creations was the “Shield of Minerva, Defender of the City” – a vast dish made from “the livers of pike, the brains of pheasants and peacocks, the tongues of flamingoes and the milt of lampreys, brought by his captains and triremes from the whole empire, from Parthia to the Spanish strait.” He was also known for snatching bits of food from the offerings made to the gods. Notably absent from his skills was that of soldiering.

His short reign came to an end when Vespasian, declared emperor in the East, turned up in Rome. Vitellius agreed to abdicate in peace when most of his followers abandoned him but the opposing soldiers refused to let him. He returned to his palace to find even the servants had fled. He was dragged from his home and paraded through the streets of the city.

“But they bound his arms behind his back, put a noose about his neck, and dragged him with rent garments and half-naked to the Forum. All along the Sacred Way he was greeted with mockery and abuse, his head held back by the hair, as is common with criminals, and even the point of a sword placed under his chin, so that he could not look down but must let his face be seen. Some pelted him with dung and ordure, others called him incendiary and glutton, and some of the mob even taunted him with his bodily defects.” His last words before execution were “Yet I was once your emperor.”^[1]

9 Caligula

Becoming Emperor at a young age may not be the best start in life. Imagine being just out of your teens with all the power in the world. His position did not escape a young Caligula who told people “Remember, I can do anything I please to anybody.” Raised in the deadly court of the Julio-Claudian family he had seen many close relatives die suspicious deaths which must have affected his stability and made him somewhat paranoid.

Among Caligula’s most famous acts were waging a war against the god Neptune, declaring himself a god, and kissing his wife’s neck before telling her “Off comes this beautiful head whenever I give the word.” Such actions do not tend to make people very loyal to you. When he turned his fondness for deadly jokes on his guards and senators however they decided to cut short the god’s reign.

The conspirators trapped Caligula as he walked between the theatre and the palace and fell on him with swords. One blow severed his jaw and others fell as the emperor slid to the floor. According to Tacitus his last words were “I’m still alive.” Alas he did not have much time left when that would be true.^[2]

8 Petronius Maximus

By the 5th century the Roman Empire was in trouble. Large numbers of Goths and other peoples from outside the empire had moved into Europe and were carving out kingdoms of their own. The power of the emperor was constantly being challenged. Yet emperors still had time for other activities like seducing the wives of their officers. When Valentinian made love to the wife of Petronius Maximus he also made a powerful enemy.

Maximus convinced Valentinian’s guard to assassinate him, which they did while the emperor was practising archery. Seeing a nice new job opening Maximus had himself declared the new emperor and married Valentinian’s widow Eudoxia to make himself seem more legitimate. It did not work.

Eudoxia called on the help of the Vandal king Geiseric. He turned up with an army and Maximus’ reign was brought to a minimal end. With news of the Vandal advance Maximus abandoned the city but as he rode away a crowd saw their fleeing emperor and stoned him to death. Three days later the Vandals arrived in Rome, sacked the city, and gave us the modern meaning of the word vandal.^[3]

7 Elagabalus

Religion is always a dangerous topic to bring up yet emperor Elagabalus decided to risk bringing a new and foreign cult to Rome. Coming to the throne at the age of around 14 Elagabulus was named because of his position as the chief priest to the Eastern sun god Elagabal. This devotion to a different god was just one reason Elagabalus did not survive for long.

Ascending to the throne because of his blood ties to previous emperors and the influence of his mother and aunt Elagabalus could have enjoyed popular support but his sexual and religious activities made him deeply unpopular. He attempted to have male lovers put in positions of authority, though he also married one of the sacred Vestal Virgins in a sacrilegious ceremony. Vast sums of money were promised to any surgeon who could give the emperor a vagina.

While power makes everyone a little eccentric his activities were a little too much for the Romans. Despite attempts to please his forces the army turned on the emperor. “He made an attempt to flee, and would have got away somewhere by being placed in a chest had he not been discovered and slain, at the age of eighteen. His mother, who embraced him and clung tightly to him, perished with him; their heads were cut off and their bodies, after being stripped naked, were first dragged all over the city, and then the mother’s body was cast aside somewhere or other, while his was thrown into the Tiber.”^[4]

6 Commodus

Marcus Aurelius is often held up as one of the wisest people ever to rule. Yet his death brought about the end of a period of calm and peaceful rule. While the previous five “good” emperors had been adopted by their predecessors because of their talent and abilities Marcus Aurelius chose to leave the empire in the brutal hands of his unstable son Commodus.

As soon as Marcus was dead Commodus abandoned his war against the German tribes to rush back to Rome and all the pleasures he could find there. “After he had come back to Rome he led the triumphal procession with Saoterus, his partner in depravity, seated in his chariot, and from time to time he would turn around and kiss him openly, repeating this same performance even in the orchestra. And not only was he wont to drink until dawn and squander the resources of the Roman Empire, but in the evening he would ramble through taverns and brothels.”

Several conspiracies sprang up against the emperor’s life, including one led by his sister. He survived these attempts only to fall to one which his wife took part in. When poison failed to kill Commodus they arranged for one of his favourite athletes to surprise him in his bath. Instead of a happy ending however Commodus was strangled to death.^[5]

Top 10 Worst Roman Emperors

5 Nero

The Julio-Claudians liked to keep power within the family. But then they also liked to keep murder, sex, and intrigue there too. Nero was great nephew to the emperor Claudius but became his adopted son when Nero’s mother Agrippina married him, despite being his niece. When Claudius died it was Nero who became emperor and not Claudius’ son Britannicus. Poor Britannicus soon died in mysterious circumstances and Nero was undisputed ruler.

Despite his mother attempting to influence his rule, supposedly through incest with him, Nero decided he liked his power to be entirely in his own hands. After several botched attempts to kill her Agrippina was finally stabbed to death by one of Nero’s agents. She told her assassin to stab her in her womb as it had given birth to such an unnatural son.

Nero’s rule was given over to his own pleasure and desire to be an artist. When he competed on stage in poetry and singing everyone had to watch him – some men faked their own deaths in the audience to escape his ‘art.’ When several generals rose up against him Nero dithered until it was too late. He spent time arranging his burial plot and seeing how pretty it was remarked “What an artist dies in me.” With the aid of an assistant he managed to drive a dagger into his throat.^[6]

4 Joannes

Despite the risks associated with being Roman emperor there were always people who seemed to want the throne. When the emperor Honorius died his son was far away in Constantinople. This power vacuum was filled when Joannes, a high ranking civil servant, claimed the crown.

When the Eastern emperor sent a force to remove Joannes it was defeated and the leader captured. Joannes showed mercy to this man as he hoped to negotiate a peace settlement with the Eastern emperor. This mercy was misplaced as the envoy stirred up a conspiracy against Joannes.

The emperor was captured by his enemies and not shown any mercy. They “brought him out in the hippodrome of Aquileia with one of his hands cut off and caused him to ride in state on an ass, and then after he had suffered much ill treatment from the stage-performers there, both in word and in deed, he put him to death.”^[7]

3 Valentinian

The Roman empire in the 4th century was surrounded by enemies. While the empire was able to keep most of them out the situation required emperors to spend most of their time campaigning in various wars. This could be aggravating – and for Valentinian I it proved so annoying that it killed him.

When a tribe called the Quadi were angered by Romans building forts on their territory they sent envoys to the Romans. The Romans invited the Quadi to dinner to discuss matters – and promptly murdered their guests. This pushed the Quadi into forming alliances and invading Roman lands. This required Valentinian to come in person to crush the invasion.

When the emperor turned up with his army the tribes were soon crushed but, fatally, the emperor agreed to meet with a Quadi representative. When the Quadi refused to accept full responsibility for what had happened (their envoys had been treacherously murdered after all) Valentinian became so enraged with their attitude that a blood vessel in his head spontaneously exploded. The emperor collapsed and died.^[8]

2 Carus

Carus was another emperor who had dealings with the Quadi, though his were rather more successful. After being acclaimed emperor by his troops Carus led victorious campaigns against the German tribes before turning his attention to the Persian empire in the East.

Here too he had brilliant successes. Carus recaptured Mesopotamia as a Roman province and drove further into Persia – despite oracles telling him that he would not go any further. Already ill the emperor retreated to his tent when a thunderstorm blew up. In the night lightning was seen to strike within the army camp. When the emperor’s tent was opened in the morning he was found dead inside, apparently struck by lightning.

This death from above was seen as a sign that the campaign should be abandoned and the Romans marched back the way they came.^[9]

1 Valerian

Carus had not been the first Roman emperor to attempt to bring the Persians to heel. With the growing Persian empire threatening much of the Eastern Roman empire many emperors had been forced to wage war against them. Perhaps the most unfortunate was Valerian.

Seeking to recover lost lands he managed to reclaim much that had been taken by the Persians but his army was struck by an outbreak of plague that left him lacking manpower. Despite this Valerian led his men out against the Persian emperor Shapur. At the Battle of Edessa the two armies met – to the complete destruction of the Roman force.

According to Persian inscriptions, which graphically show Valerian being brought before Shapur, the Romans were entirely defeated and captured. For the first time in Roman history an Emperor was captured alive by a foreign enemy. While the captive soldiers were set to work digging water channels in Persia Valerian suffered a worse fate. According to Roman sources “he was flayed, and his skin, stripped from the flesh, was dyed with vermilion, and placed in the temple of the gods of the barbarians.” Others claim that the former emperor was turned into a footstool for the Persian kings.^[10]

10 Facts That Show Why Caligula Was Rome’s Craziest Emperor