At one point during his brief reign, the Roman emperor Elagabalus purportedly threw a dinner party during which many of his guests were smothered by a flower display that was released from the ceiling. This, however, was far from the worst thing that Elagabalus did. And Elagabalus is just one of the rulers considered to be the worst Roman emperors.
Over the course of ancient Roman history, from roughly 27 B.C.E. until 476 C.E., some 70 men ascended to the position of emperor. They came from different walks of life and from different parts of the empire. And they each defined their rule in different ways — for better or for worse.
Below, discover the stories of nine men who are considered to be Rome’s worst emperors. They include Elagabalus, who may have dabbled in human sacrifice; Honorius, who failed to hold off a Visigoth invasion; Caligula, whose madness became notorious; and many more.
Nero, The Emperor Who ‘Fiddled’ While Rome Burned
Public DomainViolent and disinterested in rule, Nero is considered one of Rome’s worst emperors.
Perhaps Nero didn’t play the fiddle as Rome burned, as it’s often alleged. But he certainly stands as one of the worst Roman emperors.
Born in 37 C.E. as Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, Nero rose to power after the death of his stepfather, Claudius, in 54 C.E. It’s been alleged that Nero’s mother, Agrippina the Younger, had a hand in her husband’s death — possibly by feeding him poisoned mushrooms — in order to ensure her son’s ascendency.
At first, Nero was seen as a good ruler. He ended secret trials, banned capital punishment, and reduced taxes. However, this trend did not last.
In 59 C.E., he had his mother, one of his most vocal advisors, murdered. Nero also had his first wife executed, infamously kicked his second wife to death when she was pregnant with his child, and purportedly castrated a slave to become his third wife, whom he called by his second wife’s name.
Free from his mother’s supervision, Nero indulged his artistic and athletic interests. He sang and played the lyre, ordered that public games be held every five years, and forced senators to sit through his recitals. Perhaps it’s unsurprising, then, that after the Great Fire of Rome tore through the city in 64 C.E., rumors spread that Nero had been singing during the disaster. A more damning rumor was that Nero had started the fire himself in order to clear space for his Domus Aurea (“Golden House”) palace complex.
Public DomainAn 18th-century depiction of the Great Fire of Rome, during which Nero was rumored to have “fiddled.”
Thus, Nero did not play the fiddle as the city burned. But he did “fiddle” as things in Rome got slowly worse. As problems within the empire escalated, Nero went to Greece to perform in the Olympic games (where he insisted that he was the victor) and further indulged his love of performance.
He failed to respond to other political crises and lost the confidence of the Roman people. When the Praetorian Guard threw their support to one of his rivals, Nero took his own life, purportedly exclaiming: “What an artist dies in me!” The Colosseum was later built on the site of his Domus Aurea.