Chronicle of the Roman Emperors: The Reign-By-Reign Record of the Rulers of Imperial Rome

by Chris Scarre

The essential dual-purpose book on imperial Rome: a highly readable popular history and a unique work of reference. This is the first book to focus on the succession of rulers of imperial Rome, using timelines and other visual aids throughout. Now no one need be in any doubt as to who built the Colosseum or when Rome was sacked by the Goths: Chronicle of the Roman Emperors provides the answers quickly and authoritatively. The biographical portraits of the principal emperors from Augustus to Constantine, together with a concluding section on the later emperors, make the book a comprehensive history of imperial Rome. Colorful contemporary judgments by writers such as Suetonius and Tacitus are balanced by judicious character assessments made in the light of modern research. The famous and the infamous―Caligula and Claudius, Trajan and Caracalla―receive their due, while lesser names emerge clearly from the shadows for the first time. In addition to timelines detailing major events, each emperor is introduced by a coin portrait, a bust, and a datafile listing key information, such as name at birth, full imperial titles, and place and manner of death. 111 color, 217 b&w

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Ancient History, Biography, Roman, Reference, Ancient

240 pages, Paperback

First published October 17, 1995

Reviews

[Lili Kyurkchiyska · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Хроника на римските императори" е полезен справочник за любители и студенти с основното за епохата и владетелите. Няма да ви направи специалисти по Древен Рим, но със сигурност стои добре на библиотечния рафт.

[GoldGato · Rating 4 out of 5]

Those naughty, naughty Roman emperors. They may have been a handful and then some, but they certainly make for interesting reading. While some were downright scary, a few were more Benny Hill-ish, which was scary by itself.

While you don't need to start with Chronicle of the Roman Republic: The Rulers of Ancient Rome from Romulus to Augustus , it would provide a good historical overview as to how the ancient Romans went from a strong Republic to a chaotic empire. Augustus is the link between the two and the A#1 when it came to the emperors. Broken up into chapters based on dynasties, each imperial ruler gets a good biography along with chunks of data including maps and pictures. It's quite a bit and by the end, I was actually cheering for the Goths and Vandals to do their thing, as the quality of each emperor seemed to decline a bit with each new assassination/coup.

If I could have a starting line-up of Roman emperors, this would be my all star team:

Octavius Augustus
Numero uno! The Michael Jordan/Lebron James of ancient rulers. Not much to look at, as he was a slight young adult when he came to revenge Julius Caesar's death, but smart and ruthless.

Claudius
Most people wouldn't have him on a team, but I admired the Great Limper for being able to survive the terrors of Tiberius and Caligula and still end up being the main man. Chris Paul.

Trajan
He just looked cool. Tough but fair and a more than able administrator, he would be my Kevin Durant.

Maucus Aurelius
He is my Steph Curry, the down-to-earth prototype who could lead an empire, win wars, and write meditative notes on Stoicism.

Constantine
I wasn't sure about him but I need a James Harden on my team.

I have enjoyed all of the Chronicle Of... books in my collection. They make history fun and enthralling. Even if the subjects themselves were whacked out of their heads.

Book Season = Year Round (build those walls)

[Laura Leilani · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great overview of the emperors and the changing political climate of their times. Easy to understand. Maps and diagrams help to help clarify the facts. Photos of the emperors portrait sculptures is a nice touch. It was helpful to put a face to a name.

[H.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent history book. It is well organized and a useful reference work for projects and information purposes. It is well enough written to be an enjoyable read. It does not pretend to be a general/complete history of Imperial Rome; instead it covers the emperors themselves, giving a coherent unbiased picture difficult to get from most traditional histories. It gives an account of each emperor from Augustus to Romulus Augustulus.
This book provides a history that acknowledges the reports of historians from all areas (including enemies of Rome), these are critically analyzed for their biases (e.g., that of senatorial authors against emperors who ignored the senate, or of Christian authors against the persecutors) to attempt to give a balanced account. The author does not blindly accept what either group has to say about emperors who they either demonize or deify. This is a very worthwhile practice, and so overall the book is a very helpful primer for a novice on the subject.
Especially interesting was the family information as well as the timelines, maps and illustrations. This book is concise and complete for its size and also manages to include text sketches of other prominent people of the day as well as each emperor's most famous construction projects, laws or other interesting tid bits.
The smaller details of imperial titles, etc., are pulled out into handy sidebars where they can be ignored if desired or enjoyed by those who like that sort of thing.

The book is beautifully illustrated with photographs of portrait busts of most of the emperors as well as the monuments they built. There are also many drawings and plans showing reconstructions of their palaces and monuments. It is very easy to read and Latin concepts are easily explained. An excellent book for author research or school projects.

[Simon Robs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Concatenation of murder/mayhem. Lots of building to self-deification. Lust & debauchery aplenty!

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the third installment of Historic Side Pots march down the Roman roads I needed something that wasn't too big but covered the emperors after Augustus to the end of the Roman West. This historically accurate timeline isn't all that scholastic but it fits the bill and gave us all a good idea of who ruled when, what they did or did not accomplish, and eventually their deaths.

This all comes with pictures, diagrams, paintings, an exhaustive timeline, etc.

The point was to give us all a steady timeline of events and people at the head of the ship and it accomplished all of that. It's basic, it's simple, easy, and useful as a timeline guide and for further reading down the line. It's hard to criticize any of the writing since you get a couple pages at most about any one Emperor and each entry follows the same formula. This formula is birth/family ties/coronation, early years/accomplishments/Issues, death/assassination.

It's awfully simple but I'm happy that it's in the library.

Flat 2.5/5 for Goodreads.

[Lora Shouse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nothing to complain of - he covers all the emperors from Augustus (the first real Roman Emperor) to Romulus Augustulus, the last sort of puppet-emperor based in Rome. It's all there, kind of abbreviated, the wars, the plots, the murders, the best rumors as reported by the historians of the times. Includes lots of pictures of the ruins of what they built, drawings of some of the buildings, pictures of statues of as many of the emperors as they could find statues of, and pictures of their coins. Also a continuous timeline, and family trees of some of them. And sidebar features on special events and people. It read a little slow due to all the special features, but overall very informative.

[So Hakim · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the title says, overview of Roman Emperors through the ages, from Augustus (27 BC-14 AD) to Romulus Augustulus (475-476 AD). Very neatly organized -- which in turn makes it easy to read.

Other than flowing prose, readers are treated with timelines, head busts, and quote boxes from contemporary sources. I should add, however: some of the quotes are from suspect source (i.e. Historia Augusta), but some others are considerably credible (e.g. Cassius Dio & Tacitus).

People casually interested in Roman Empire should find this book entertaining -- if also useful.

[Natalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Como todos os livros de esta serie, gostei a forma como esta estruturado. Só lamento os erros de edição, que foram mais dos habituais, não sei se o culpado é o autor ou a editora, mas a verdade é que nalgumas situações estes erros deixavam a história bastante confusa. É o caso da confusão entre os nomes Constantino, Constâncio e Constante. Aos poucos consegui identificar os erros, mas foi verdadeiramente confuso.

[Kara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an AMAZING history book. From the beginning to the end we are shown the long line of men who ruled the Roman Empire, giving each a short but full bio, along with lots of pictures of both today's ruins and full color reconstructions of palaces and temples, photographs of statues that may or may not resemble the emperors, graphs of ruling timelines, family trees, primary sourced quotes, and more.

My favorite part was the section at the beginning that lists all of the most often quoted authors for "primary" source material and gives a brief but sharp analysis of each author's biases and ability to have been at all close to the source. Good job Scarre! THAT'S how you write history!

[Koeneman · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all, truly a magnificent book. Every emperor (almost all about “western” Roman emperors) got his own biography telling all the important and interesting events that happened. Also teling about their personalities and giving room of what people said/thought about them during their reign.

I am praising this book in all aspects and the only reason I am giving this a 4/5 stars instead of 5/5 is the cover and the way how big the book is. I know they did it because the book also contains a lot of images, but I would always still recommend a normal/smaller sized book.

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unless there’s an update, this 1995 publication By Dr C Scarre is a manifestation of the times. The author purports to rendering a “reign by reign record” of Rome’s Emperors. Sadly, he frequently editorializes, revealing his personal disdain for certain rulers. Given that Cassius Dio, Tacitus and other contemporary historians of the time did the same, you would expect higher standards from this historian.

[Felice D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a quite comprehensive book (considering how many emperors and the time covered ) and well written , relatively precise about information (you can still find more on Wikipedia for every single emperor but this will not be as fluid lecture as this book is).
I liked it very much; just because of the amount of figures you can't buy in eBook format .... need to go in a real library and by the old paper version !!

[Falk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chris Scarre’s Chronicle of the Roman Emperors is very well written and amply illustrated. This 240 page book presents all the basic information on the different emperors and their reigns in a balanced and very readable manner. It is quite a feat to manage to outline their respective characters in the relatively brief space allotted to each of them within the format of this book; yet the author generally succeeds remarkably well at this. Some are of course necessarily portrayed more detailed than others, and some only very sketchily, depending on how long they held (or vied for) power. For the most part the layout works well, though not always – at times I would choose to rather leaf back to read some of the information in the sidebars, and especially in the case of the double paged inserts with photos and texts focusing on construction works. Though just that detailed information on the major buildings and monuments that were constructed under the different reigns was also one feature of this book that I very much appreciated.
Each short biography starts out with photographs of busts and/or coin portraits of the individual emperors and quotations from Roman historians, and there are also sidebars with information about dates of birth, accession and death, and imperial titles – which gives you a quick overview - and their genealogical trees are given whenever it is relevant. The bias of earlier historians are discussed, and I thought this was handled really well also in connection with the tensions between paganism and Christianity. Scarre has done a great job in his descriptions and discussions of the personal qualities of each emperor; be it in warfare, in private, public and religious life, or as reformers or builders - and the waxing and waning of the empire is presented clearly and with good maps, though there could perhaps have been a few more of them. Then again there could have been more of almost everything (after all this book covers a period of nearly 500 years) but then that would also have been an entirely different book. This works perfectly well as it is, and as a basic introduction I’d recommend it for anyone.




This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

[Jimyanni · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gives a very thorough, surprisingly readable and commendably balanced look at the succession of Roman emperors from Augustus through Romulus Augustulus. The subject may be considered rather dry for most readers, and I won't claim that someone not inherently interested in the subject matter could find themselves captivated by this book, but for a reader who has voluntarily chosen to read up on the subject, this book does a very good job of keeping the information coming at a pace that is slow enough to be comprehensible but fast enough to avoid tedium.

It is also true that the author does a fine job of identifying bias in the reports of the most common sources of this history, so that this book provides a history that acknowledges the reports of both pagan and Christian historians, but does not blindly accept what either group has to say about emperors who they either demonize or deify. This is a very worthwhile practice, and so overall the book is a very helpful primer for a novice on the subject.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great intro to the Emperors of Rome. This book is more like a textbook format, with images, maps, family trees, etc… I find books like these are great for dipping your toe into a subject, and perfect for helping you find topics/figures you may want to read about next. I do think, however, that the format of the book didn't always aid Scarre in his retelling of these Emperors' histories. Sometimes the Emperors were stepping into power and being murdered so quickly that the fast-paced narrative left me a little lost as to who we were talking about. But otherwise an easy read and well put together.

[Martin Witchard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Covers a fascinating preiod in Rome's history and, having seen the television series 'Rome' and having seen 'I, Claudius', I am intrigued to read about the reality of the leaders and their environment. The book starts with Augustus, probably the best of the lot. I've just finished reading about Caligula also bringing to mind a rather infamous movie of decades past. I am enjoying this book - the style is lucid and fact-filled.

[Vicki Cline · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good summary of Roman emperors from Augustus through Romulus Augustulus, the last emperor in the West. I especially like the timelines of the reigns of each emperor or group of emperors. There are lots of photos and maps and lots of selections from ancient authors such as Tacitus, Cassius Dio and Eusebius.

[Leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a history buff so I love this book but it's not for everyone. Most people would probably find it boring but I have marked pages to puruse later. Fatefully purchased in a small used book store in Monterey, it has been my go-to book for anything "Roman Empire".

[2bnallegory · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really nice book for referencing the time line of the emperors of Rome and a brief record of their history and achievements. It also has many nice pictures, especially many busts which puts a face to whom you are reading.

[David Rude · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good reference book to have on your anicent Roman book shelve. I find myself reading about one of the emperors and wanting to find other books to read about them. Or at least go out on the web and do more follow-up research on them. Good high level detail about each emperor.

[Cooper Renner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Profusely illustrated, breezy. Scarre frequently reminds readers that the ancient sources are frequently biased, generally against the emperors, but there is still oversimplification in the text, as is almost inevitable in a work of such brevity. Still interesting and useful.

[Deanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gives a quick synopsis of the Roman Emperors from start to finish. Not an in-depth study for the serious student, but a concise overview for the person looking for someone specific or a general knowledge. Great pictures and contemporary quotes.

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Boo for the Empire . . . but read it anyway . . .

[Michael Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great way to get to know the emperors.

[Bob Mask · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great guide to Roman Emperors.....Use it frequently to refresh memory

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good reference book !!!

[Anne]

Good reference. In depth on some stuff, not enough on others. But overall, a nice thing to have. Like a thesaurus!

[Adam Meek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Curious about those crazy Roman Emperors? Were the rumors about Nero and Caligula true? This book will tell you everything you wanted to know.

[Greg D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perhaps the most concise source for all of the Roman Emperors. Great photos of antiquity included.