History of Europe

Who is the worst? The 10 worst tyrant rankings in Roman history!

As the phrase "absolute power corrupts", too strong power certainly causes corruption.

Rome has produced a large number of great princes, but it has also produced tyrants as well.

Here are 10 tyrants in the 1000-year history of Rome.

10th place:Domitian

It is one of the few emperors who has been sentenced to erase records, and therefore no records remain.

In the contemporary history of Tacitus, the greatest historian of Rome who lived in the same period, the part of Emperor Domitian is scattered, and it is unknown how bad it was actually.

Hadrian, who is said to be the Five Good Emperors, was about to be sentenced to erase records, so this sentence is mainly given to a person who was hostile to the Senate, but he is said to be a tyrant below. It is said that it was because he did that.

・ Assassinated his brother
・ He was a male man
・ He often executed Roman citizens
・ Wasted his national finances

Of these, the assassination of his brother is probably not.

It seems true that he often executed Roman citizens.

It is certain about waste, but it is also certain that the defense line "Limes" connecting the Rhine and Donau rivers was built, and it is certain that peace was enjoyed during the Five Good Emperors era that continued thanks to this Limes, so this part is a tyrant. It is a difficult place to say.

The problem was probably that he used a whistleblower called Delator to carry out terrorism and tried to dictate by creating a position of whole life finance officer.

The Roman emperor is not an oriental tyranny, but Princeps, the first citizen of Rome.

Caesar, who also aimed for dictatorship, was assassinated. Emperor Domitian was also assassinated. The bad guy is a freedman named Stefano, but there is a Senate behind him, and the theory that the next emperor, Nerva, was involved in the crime has been deeply rooted since ancient times.

9th place:Lucius Tarquinius

Perhaps few people know.

The name of the last Roman king was Lucius Tarquinius, and because he was too tyrant, Rome abolished the royal government and moved to the republic.

Rome was not hereditary, even though it was a royal government. It was a mysterious nation in which an excellent person became a king with the approval of the Senate, but Tarquinius was the only person who became the Roman king with ambition, and he colluded with his wife, the former king Servis, who was his father-in-law. When he was killed and forced to become the king, he executed one after another the Senators who did not agree with him.

It wasn't popular because it even banned the funeral of the former king, but his son caused the Lucretia incident and further disappointed Roman citizens.

It is said that Rome leaned toward anti-Tarquinius in the wake of this incident, and he fled the country and was assassinated in exile.

However, in the case of this king, his wife and son seem to be more suitable for the name of the tyrant ...

8th place:Nero

The Roman emperor is Nero, the Roman emperor is a tyrant, the Roman emperor is a tyrant, and in a sense, the most famous Roman emperor is Nero.

Nero had a relatively decent politics for his first five years. He had excellent subordinates such as Seneca, Bruce and Colbro, and was initially financially sound thanks to his late emperor Claudius' efforts to recuperate.

As is often said, it went crazy after Seneca, who was also a tutor of Nero and a cornerstone of policy, left.

Nero assassinated his brother-in-law, Britannicus (no evidence). The assassination of his mother, Agrippina, accelerated his runaway.

When a big fire broke out in Rome in 1964, it was determined that the cause was arson by Christians, and it was slaughtered without trial. At this time, Peter, a disciple of Jesus, who is said to be the first Pope, also died.

Nero was reportedly laughing at the execution of an innocent Christian. Zhang himself, who knows more than anyone else that he is not guilty.

Nero then began construction of Domus Aurea, translated as the Golden Palace, in a place burned by a great fire, and sought to sneak the Senate.

Eventually, the attempted assassination of Emperor Nero, such as the Piso conspiracy case and the Benevent conspiracy case, occurred, and many senators and people around Nero were executed one after another for being involved in the conspiracy. It is said that this included his teacher, Seneca.

As a result of this incident, the famous general Colbro was also executed, which culminated in the anger and fear of the governors in the Senate and various provinces.

Oto, the governor of the province, marched on Rome, and the Senate supported it, leaving Nero as the emperor.

The cornered Nero escaped and chose to commit suicide.

Nero had some unhateable aspects such as bringing the Greek Olympia competition to Rome and singing in theaters, and many Roman citizens offered flowers for Nero after his death.

He also had a good relationship with Parthian Empire in Persia, and King Armenia and others even asked Rome to celebrate Nero's birthday even after Nero was assassinated.

There has been no war between Rome and Persia for about 50 years since the time of Nero, and in terms of diplomacy, it is mostly Colbro's achievement, but it can be said that it is.

Regarding Nero, there is a trend of re-evaluation in recent years, and there is no doubt that he was a tyrant, but for some reason he is a person who can not hate personally.

7th place:Commodus

Many may think that the villain in the movie "Gradiator" and the world-famous tyrant Commodus in 7th place is too low.

That's because Commodus isn't a good emperor, but there are still many worse emperors.

Commodus was a typical tyrant, believing in the praise of his vassals, executing Roman citizens, and buying and selling official officials.

Those who did not agree were executed immediately, and some of the Secretary of State Konoe were executed six hours after taking office.

It seems that he himself cosplayed as Heracles and often fought as a gladiator in the Colosseum, and was not necessarily disliked by Roman citizens.

This area may be common with Nero.

What is different from Nero is that he did not persecute Christians.

The Roman Empire is mysterious:emperors who are enthusiastic about governance suppress Christianity, and those who are not are more forgiving.

The only thing that Commodus can defend is that it didn't crack down on Christians.

The end of Commodus was an assassination promised to a Roman tyrant, and the perpetrator was a servant, but it is certain that there was a Senate and a guard behind him.

6th place:Caligula

Rome was delighted when Caligula took office.

The festival celebrating the inauguration of the emperor of Caligula lasted for several months, and Roman citizens were said to be happy.

One of the reasons was that the late emperor Tiberius was an unpopular emperor, and the other was that Caligula was the son of the hero Germanicus and had the blood of the god Augustus.

Caligula also seemed desperate to live up to that expectation, and even distributed money to Roman citizens for his popularity. He built a temple dedicated to Augustus, built a water supply, and built a theater.

At first glance it may seem like a good thing, but obviously it was a waste.

Many people say that Caligula was born with a brain disorder.

The actions that Caligula is said to have actually performed are as follows.

・ I told all human beings to admire myself as a god
・ I told each place to make their own image and believe in it.
・ I told the Great Jewish Temple in Jerusalem to enshrine his statue (Petronius, Governor of Syria). The construction of the statue was delayed due to the measures of ,'MS PGothic', sans-serif; font-size:16px; font-style:normal; font-variant-ligatures:normal; font-variant-caps:normal; font-weight:400; letter-spacing:normal; orphans:2; text-align:start; text-indent:0px; text-transform:none; white-space:normal; widows:2; word-spacing:0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width:0px; background -color:#ffffff; text-decoration-style:initial; text-decoration-color:initial; "/> After recovering, I pushed it off the cliff.
Forced
・ I also deified my real sister
・ Execution of Senator members one after another
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These are highly credible information, and when it comes to less credible information, many are even worse, and there are many terrible stories about having their horses worshiped as gods and enjoying affairs with their sisters.

Caligula was killed by the Chief of the Guard, Casius Kerea.

Kerea is said to have quietly accepted the death penalty after the killing of Caligula.

5th place:Gaius Marius

Gaius Marius is also said to be the third founder of Rome, and is also a hero who led the Cimbrian War with the Germanic people who invaded on a scale of 100,000 people to victory.

Marius as a soldier is one of the best generals in Rome.

But Marius as a politician would be the worst.

As a representative of the civilian sect, Marius slaughtered hostile senators and Roman citizens, causing Rome to fall a sea of ​​blood.

Among the victims of the slaughter were Caesar's uncle, Pompey's father, and Crassus's father, who should be the ones who caught Rome in the vortex of the civil war.

While he has achieved achievements such as military reforms, he is a tyrant who also carried out tyranny.

4th place:Heliogabalus

He was the grandson of Julia Domna's sister Julia Domna, the wife of Septimius Severus, and became emperor at the age of 14 in her plot.

Perhaps Elagabalus was born upset, he did a ridiculous task that couldn't be written here and was assassinated at the age of 18.

It is said that the person who assassinated was the chief of the guards, and behind him was Julia Mesa. He abolished the out-of-control Heliogabalus and put his younger brother Alexander on the throne.

When Elagabalus was assassinated, the soldiers were ridiculed, kicking his body up, laying around the city, and finally being thrown into the river like a sinner.

I feel a little sorry, but the following picture is a picture of Elagabalus trying to suffocate people with rose petals, and it can be said that it is a work showing the anomaly and cruelty of Elagabalus.

British historian Edward Gibbon has described "the worst tyrant who surrendered to ugly desires and emotions" and "Heliogabalus was the worst emperor in Roman history in all respects."

I personally agree with that opinion, but I think there are three more terrible emperors in Rome.

3rd place:Honorius

It may be the first place in the degree of darkness.

Regarding Honorius, although there is a reason that he became emperor at the age of only 10, he did not understand politics at all and executed Stilicho, a loyal vassal, believing in the praise of Olympius, a vassal. Olympius was also executed, he withdrew to Ravenna, and even if Rome was looted, he kept silent without sending troops, which is quite terrible.

I don't know if it's true or false, but when Honorius heard the news that "Rome was robbed," he thought that his pigeon, Rome, had been robbed, and wondered if the pigeon, Rome, was still alive. However, there is a story that he lost interest at all when he heard that it was the city of Rome.

As expected, Honorius was actually quite foolish and did nothing during his thirty years of reign.

No matter how much the country was devastated or how many people were killed, the Roman emperor did nothing.

Disappointed by that, Roman citizens began to seek the spiritual pillars of the Pope.

2nd place:Karakara

The tyrant of Emperor Karakara is also amazing.

As soon as he became emperor, he executed his younger brother, Geta, and had his father scrape only his younger brother from the portraits of his family distributed throughout the Roman Empire, which was the direct cause of the decline of Rome. The decree was promulgated.

The "Antonis Edict" is a bad law that gives Roman citizenship to all the people in the territory at first glance, but it drastically reduces the "provincial tax" that is the financial resource of the Roman Empire, and the finances of Rome rapidly. It got worse.

Not only that, the Roman regular soldiers originally had Roman citizenship, and the system was that Auxilia was an auxiliary soldier, but there are no auxiliary soldiers, and the number of regular soldiers has decreased sharply, and the mobilization force of Rome has increased. It has led to a drastic decrease.

In addition, it caused a lot of unreasonable expeditions and public works projects, reduced the silver content of the money that was circulated in Rome in order to secure its financial resources, caused a large inflation, and it seems to be tantrum and almost meaningless. It is said that he slaughtered thousands of Alexandria inhabitants, and when the finances were tight, he tried an innocent person and confiscated his property.

Nero and Commodus were tyrants for only one generation, but the tyrants should be much higher because of the long and insurmountable ill-government of Emperor Karakala and the significant decline in Rome's national power. Let's go.

Edward Gibbon, a British historian who lived in the 18th century, has even described himself as an "enemy common to all humankind."

1st place:Theodosius

Far from having no image of a tyrant, Theodosius is even named "The Great Emperor", but I personally think that he is a tyrant.

Rome was traditionally a polytheistic nation and recognized freedom of religion.

For example, Rome is at war with Judaism, but this is not the suppression of Judaism, but the suppression of the Jewish rebellion against Rome, in religious wars. do not have.

It is certain that the Roman emperors often cracked down on Christians.

It should be said that it is the negative history of the Roman Empire.

However, when Emperor Theodosius made Christianity the state religion, he convicted Yupiteru, the main god of Rome, in the trial and completely destroyed the statues of the Roman gods.

It is said that there are 300,000 gods in Rome, and successive Roman emperors were also deified and statues were erected, so they were completely destroyed during this period.

It can be said that what Theodosius did was a cultural genocide.

The act of denying the "freedom of religion" that should be admitted in the democratic constitution of modern society and mercilessly executing those who oppose it is undoubtedly a tyrant.

Moreover, it is certain that the division and succession of the empire to his young children after his death led to a great decline in his national power and triggered the destruction of the Roman Empire.

It can be said that Emperor Theodosius, who destroyed the traditional Rome, denied various liberties, and greatly declined human civilization, was the greatest tyrant in Rome.