Emperors of Rome: The Story of Imperial Rome from Julius Caesar to the Last Emperor

by David Stone Potter

In 27 BC, after the civil war that followed the assassination of Julius Caesar, Octavian was proclaimed emperor by the Roman Senate and given the title 'Augustus'. "Emperors of Rome" charts the 500 years that followed the death of Caesar and eventual triumph of Augustus, an era during which Rome reached heights of economic prosperity and cultural achievement, but also plumbed depths of anarchy, cruelty and chaos.

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

256 pages, Hardcover

First published September 6, 2007

About the author

David Potter is the author of Constantine the Emperor and The Victor’s Crown: A History of Ancient Sport from Homer to Byzantium. He is the Francis W. Kelsey Collegiate Professor of Greek and Roman History and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor at the University of Michigan.

Reviews

[Harry B · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic book, providing what first time readers of the Roman Empire would need to know about its 500-ish years of history. It is of course a mere outline, but one which is smooth and action packed, with the unavoidable intrigues at court and in campaign. Potter did an excellent job at providing the most important points of how the emperors acted within government, how governance evolved from the Princeps system to the Dominate, and ultimately the Kingmaker governance during the last decades of the Western Romans.

The insight he eventually points to is that the West gradually lost touch with its people, which lost their support and patriotism during crises.

Put differently, compared to the Punic Wars, Roman citizens during the fifth century felt less need to defend the government, when all they do is fight amongst each other, kill each other, and forget the rest – namely, the people and their well being. Political intrigue took precedence over political prudence, and eventually the West lost its ability to muster civilians efficiently as it used to during the fight against Hannibal, which it did with substantially less territory and people to draw from.

To conclude, it seems the main reason why the West failed was its inability to convince people to fight back, who were more willing for a change in leadership and governance instead.

[Joline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eigentlich gebe ich Sachbüchern keine Sternbewertung, aber das was einfach klasse.
Ich habe Sachen gelesen wie:
„In AD 371 a group of officials consulted a bizarre prophetic device (an ancient form of ouija board) to determine who the next emperor should be.“
und will jetzt über alle Kaiser eine Doku sehen. Das war so spaßig. Kann ich allen empfehlen, die sonst auch nur Romane lesen 😍😍

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent overview, although you get the feeling it is very much meant as an introductory book, with the idea that readers will want to use other books/sources to research into the lives of those featured. Some emperors literally only get a line or two of explanation - partly because in some cases, they only ruled for a couple of months or perhaps because of a lack of definite information about them.

Some maps would have been useful to illustrate the various changes in imperial boundaries and administrative organisation - or just to make it clear where certain provinces and regions were. I like to think I have a good idea where most of them equate to on a modern map as I've studied the Roman Empire, but someone newer to the subject might find it confusing to keep up with constant references to areas like Dacia and Thrace which are now called quite different names.

The book does also touch on aspects of Roman life such as religion and trade in order to put events and the empire itself into perspective. This is useful and ensures the book is not just a constant stream of biographies.

All in all, it's a decent book, fairly accessible to the general reader as well as specialists.

[Miles Watson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, which is a concise and largely easy read that is also highly informative. Author David Potter manages to alternate biographies of the all the Caesars with asides on Roman history, politics, economics, and culture, much of which I was unfamiliar with. I particularly appreciated his view of history not merely as battles and coronations, but as an ebb and flow of political ideas and economic systems -- he explains at the end of the book that the Roman Empire died not so much from outward attack but from an increasing belief among the Roman people that they had no stake in the government or the Empire. The reason I only gave it three stars is because the sheer size of the subject necessitates that many periods and people get short shrift; also because, especially after about the second century A.D., the cast of characters becomes utterly bewildering. Emperors are constantly getting deposed, poisoned, assassinated, stabbed or (occasionally) just dying of old age, and with all the usurpers and pretenders, plus the fact that after Diocletian, multiple emperors served at the same time, things just get confusing. It is worth noting that Potter does not continue his history past the destruction of the Western Roman Empire in the late fifth century A.D., even though the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) lasted an additional thousand years. I found this understandable (for starters, it would have tripled the length of what was clearly meant to be a short book) but a little disappointing, since I would have greatly appreciated his insight. Nevertheless, I can recommend this book as a good source on a list of the men who not only ruled the Western world during its formative period, but also largely created it.

[Julesmarie · Rating 3 out of 5]

As other reviewers have said, this is a good overview of each of the emperors of Ancient Rome. I, however, did not find it to be an excellent reference book.

When read chronologically, the book provides fascinating facts and insights into each emperor and also into how each relates both to his predecessor and to his successor. Also helpful were the fact summarizers on the sides of the pages introducing each new emperor.

When I tried to go back and pull out information on a specific emperor to share with my students, however, I found it challenging to remember all I needed to about the previous emperor in order to follow what was being said about the one I wanted to focus on. In other words, unless being read in order, the facts are too obscure and not reviewed enough to use it as a reference book.

[Bryan Whitehead · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those “coffee table” books that probably aren’t really intended to be read. It’s full of a lot of pictures from Corbis and typesetting that’s more attractive than functional (especially the sidebars set atop faux marble that renders them almost completely unreadable). Nonetheless, it’s a reasonably good summary of 500 years of Roman history. To be sure, the text frequently loses itself in long catalogs of “Then Licentious Maximus died and was replaced by Snoozius Longboringus,” prose that doesn’t do much to breathe life into what should be fascinating history. But for a brief and reasonably well illustrated coverage of the title topic, it’s acceptable.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. I feel I need to review my rankings of the latest books. This one was excellent. It reviews the Emperors of Rome. Parts are a list of who killed whom, but there is an introduction to Roman government, tax systems, religion, and more. Everything is brief. I found it a great review. While reading, I realized I hadn't read much between the beginning of the Empire and the Byzantine period. There are no footnotes or suggested reading lists in my copy of the book. I enjoyed the author and will look for other books by him. I do suggest the book. Roman history is so long, I'm not sure I can suggest the 1 ideal book about Ancient Rome, or the best book to start with.

[Zach Carter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Decent overview of the Roman Empire from Augustus to Romulus. He does his best in the first handful of emperors, when it's a bit easier to trace the power structures. But once you start getting into the split empire and contesting struggles for domination in east and west, it got a bit jumbled for me. Potter is a very standard, and by that I mean bourgeois, historian. So there's virtually nothing interesting in his analysis, particularly is it relates to class struggle or otherwise imperialist domination. You read this book to get some of the names down, and the general trajectory from the beginning of the empire to its fall.

[Nicolas · Rating 3 out of 5]

To cover around 450 years of roman imperial history in such a small book is not an easy task, and although the author clearly tries to avoid excessive telling of unimportant facts, so much names (which are so similar) in such less periods of time in some periods give the reader a hard time by understanding what was going on on each event.

I would give it a 3.5, is a good introduction book to imperial Rome and also tries to explain the life, the culture, the political and the economic roman system that led to its biggest extent and thereafter to its downfall.

[Geicodave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting overview of origins and the decline and fall of the Roman Empire

The book describes the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, as well as providing an interesting summary of how it came into being. The author states clearly why he believes the Empire collapsed and points to specific events and societal and demographic changes causing the fall. He does not get lost in the weeds, however, and his argument is easy to follow. The Kindle edition does not have a bibliography of a "suggestions for further reading" section.

[B K · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

A very ambitious project of an anthology of the Roman empire in 300 pages. Quite dense in terms of dates and names but very concise (in most cases birth-battles-death of each emperor who marked his era in a particular way). The fall of the empire is explained in greater depth: it wasn't just due to foreign forces but also the fact that the empire had overgrown its capacity and was simply unable to govern itself and fully integrate new migrants. Food for thought.

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think the writer sacrificed too much detail to shorten the book. Some of the emperors lack so much detail that it's hard to imagine them. He spent only a couple of paragraphs talking about some of the major figures in the 5th century like Stilicho, Alaric, or Aetius. But for a summary, it is pretty good. For more detail, I highly recommend the history of rome podcast by Mike Duncan.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating and well written book. Always good to be reminded of past empires and how they ended. The only thing I would have liked would be a list of all the emperors and their dates in an appendix.

[Richard Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent study of the nature and development and demise of the Western Empire

This is a very well-written study of the nature and problem of imperial power and of the different holders of imperial power. Highly recommended…

[Bob Lundquist · Rating 4 out of 5]

An OK summary of the emperors as far as I can tell. Gives a good history of how the republic became the empire.

[Saksham Vaidya · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Just realised they didn't bother to name drop the last emperor in the subtitle because no one knows who that is." - Romulus Augustus

[Isaac Foo · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Romaboo's bible.

[Jennefer Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked this one especially all the pictures.

[Charlotte · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Diocletian ❤️ 🥬🥬🥬)

[J.P. Lantern · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, I picked this up from Half-Price Books after listening to a ton of Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcast. Carlin does a fantastic job of giving listeners overviews of the Punic Wars, Rome's first major conflict, and the Fall of the Roman Republic when Julius Caesar came to power.
But, I was still fascinated with what happened with Rome, as like a lot of people who took an American high school ancient history class, more or less what I learned was that Rome fell sometime in the 1st millenia AD, and then there was kind of nothing happening until the Renaissance (i.e. I learned bad history). So, I picked up this book because I was really interested in filling the gaps of my knowledge, and it did a good job in providing me with a little more context with which to view the subject.
I would suggest approaching this book like a sort of survey course in imperial Roman history. It's not designed to go deep into any one particular subject outside of the subject of "Emperors." As a result, there are a great many fascinating characters who have to be shot past in a hurry, because Rome had so MANY emperors. At a certain point in the writing, the events start to run together: this guy killed this other guy who pissed off this last guy and they're all related and the military wants these OTHER guys in charge...it's a big mess, imperial Roman history.
I think that's sort of the point Potter tries to make; that imperial power isn't sustainable when it's arranged through the force of personality (because that personality dies), but at the same time, there was no real system of government possible that could accommodate so many needs for assimilation and warfare all at once over so great a space of land. At any rate, this is a very good book about a dense subject, and I think it's admirable to cover so much information in so short an amount of pages.

[Jaime Fernández Garrido · Rating 3 out of 5]

El historiador David Potter repasa, de manera extremadamente somera, el papel de los emperadores de Roma, desde la muerte de Julio César hasta la caída de la ciudad y la desaparición del imperio de Occidente.

La intención de hablar de todos y cada uno de los emperadores es tan compleja que es imposible hacerlo de manera sensata en 300 páginas. Teniendo en cuenta que hablamos de unos 500 años y en torno a 100 emperadores, el número de páginas que se le puede dedicar a cada uno es ridículo.

Por lo tanto, es prácticamente imposible no perderse en el libro de Potter, donde no se profundiza en nada en absoluto, con lo que es imposible desarrollar ideas sobre unos u otros emperadores, o incluso sobre el devenir de Roma. De ahí tras todo el torrente de datos sea difícil entender la conclusión del historiador sobre la caída de Roma, que para él fue La incitación al prejuicio y las fantasías relacionadas con la naturaleza del mundo". Yo, en realidad, no sé a qué se refiere.

Hay que reconocer, eso sí, que el arranque es muy bueno: "Uno reveló ser un matricida. Otro se decidió a luchar como gladiador. Dos ejercieron de filósofos. E incluso hay uno al que la iglesia ortodoxa tiene por santo y rinde veneración".

[Roisin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don't think I've read anything by this author, but the book looked like a relatively quick read and was. Good for a refresh on the topic. I'm more interested in going to the ancient or other sources for detail.

Packed full of info, fascinating stories and some very amusing ones about these band of merry emperors, this highly readable book is good, but short. If looking for more information on each emperor, look elsewhere. The text can get a bit confusing at times. When trying to cross check, look up stuff, quick references, forget it. Not that kind of book.

No notes, so unsure of where some of the sources have come from. Annoying! Though does mention some early historians who wrote about them.

If want a quick overview of this topic, go for it, snog or marry. If want great detail and references, avoid. Pod has spoken!

[Alexis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book on sale at B&N because I really just wanted something simple to get all the Roman Emperors straight - from Julius as Dictator onward. This book is that kind of overview. It's not for a deep historian. However, it really does cover all the basics for each and every Emperor, and has wonderful moments of drama, skeptical analysis and even moments of humor - without being salacious - to make it a very enjoyable read. If you use it as I did, as an overview start to this enormous historical period, you won't be disappointed. Some of the insets are hard to read because of the color design, but the book is generally very inexpensive for its depth and breadth so I didn't mind that so much. I keep it as a reference because it's very easy to find each Emperor and his often horrifying exploits.

[Cirilio · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a growing love for history, I would definitely recommend this book to those with a military-political fascination. This book was fun for me to read as it gave a lot of background information about the rise of the many Roman Emperors such as Augustus, Nero, Claudius, and such. Books like these are what make good tales. They explain the political and military philosophy, such as how Julius Caesar would never deploy some of his same war tactics twice to prevent spies from making connections with his battle tactics. I would have loved to remember more information that I took in while reading about the ancient Roman leaders, but I guess that isn't really up to me.

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an okay book with an overview of the Emperors of Rome from Julius Caesar to the end. They have brief overviews of the emperors and detail the events going on in the Empire during each of their reigns. They do have lots of maps detailing the make up of the empire during the periods and they have photo's of the various monuments, baths, ampitheatres and other buildings built by the various emperors. An okay overview but many of the emperors deserve more than a few pages.

[Mahmoud Haggui · Rating 4 out of 5]

قيصر العظيم. سيد الشواهد البيضاء فى الدجى, فى عصره تم اضافة شهر الى السنة و سُمى ب يوليو تيمناً بقيصر. الديكتاتور الاشهر فى التاريخ, قتل 50 مليون شخص فى حروب الغال, وضع صورته على النقود اغتصب زوجات مؤيده و معارضيه على السواء. أراد يثبت انه الملك. حول روما من جمهورية. الى امبراطورية. 15 مارس عام 44 ق.م نصف السنة بالتقويم الرومانى القديم كان اغتيال قيصر, اخر ما لفظ به لحليفه السابق برونس "هذا مصير الطغاه" .

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A textbook-format overview of the Roman empire, through the actions of its emperors. It rises above the usual standard thanks to (1) a very clean & easy to digest layout, and (2) the use of a concise, storytelling prose style that makes the information far more than a standard info dump. It is a useful, entertaining & interesting read. However, it doesn't earn a fifth star...thanks to its obvious need -- on many occasions -- for a stronger copy editor.

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is my first time really researching into Roman History so I don't know if it's just me but it seemed pretty hard to follow. They kept jumping around Emperors and throwing in new developments without any introduction. A timeline with all the Emperors would have been a nice edition at the beginning. And interrupting the Emperors with a description of the set up seemed random and out of place and should have been used at the beginning. But for a first introduction it wasn't all bad.

[Dan Honeywell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew that the Roman Empire was ruled by some bad men. I didn't know how bad and I didn't know how many of them were murdered or died mysterious deaths. The sheer number of power hungry sleazy delusional characters is amazing. The story is fascinating and was an easy read from start to finish.

One thing that would make this book better is pictures of the emperors and key players and possibly a few timelines. But it is still a great book.

[Holden Attradies · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was a decent read. It was laid out in a decent and easy to read manner and the writer was rarely too thick. The last third got a little hectic and confusing, but I think that's less too do with the writer and more to do with the fact things WERE more hectic and confusing during that time period.