A Chronicle of the Emperors and Scotland

Introduction

Our recent interviews on TV - BBC Scotland’s Landward - and radio - BBC Scotland’s Out of Doors Show - on Caesar’s interest in Scottish freshwater pearls highlights the great interest still alive today in famous individuals from antiquity.

Few ancient figures are more famous than the best known Roman Emperors, yet even among the Imperial roll-call there remains a great many little known characters.

In this serialised release we will examine the mighty and great, the megalomaniac and mad, the despotic and depraved and record those Emperors whose actions continue to echo today. We will place them and measure their times firmly against the context of ancient Scotland.

We have covered Caesar separately in our newsbite on Scottish freshwater pearls. Our chronicle will begin therefore with Claudius who invaded Britain in 43 AD, an act which provides the first reference to individuals and acts from ancient Scotland in the surviving corpus of Imperial records. Our chronicle ends with Honorius and the end of Roman military and political involvement with Britain in 410 AD.

The Julio Claudians

  • Claudius 41 – 54
  • Nero 54 – 68
  • Galba 68 – 69
  • Otho 69
  • Vitellius 69

The Flavian Dynasty

The Adoptive Emperors…..

…& the Antonines

  • Antoninus Pius 138 – 161
  • Marcus Aurelius 161 – 180 with;
  • Lucius Verus 161 – 169
  • Commodus 177 – 180
  • Commodus 180 – 192
  • Pertinax 193
  • Didius Julianus 193

The House of Severus

  • Septimius Severus 193 – 211
  • Caracalla 211 – 217 with;
  • Geta 211
  • Macrinus 217 – 218
  • Elagabalus 218 – 222
  • Alexander Severus 222 – 235

The Troubled Century (Part 1)

The Troubled Century (Part 2)

  • Philip the Arab 244 – 249 with;
  • Philip II 247 - 249
  • Decius 249 – 251
  • Trebonianus Gallus 251 – 253
  • Aemilianus 253
  • Valerian 253 – 260 with;
  • Gallienus 253 - 260
  • Gallienus 260 – 268
  • Claudius II Gothicus 268 - 270
  • Quintillus 270

Breakaway Gallic Empire

  • Postumus 259 – 269
  • Laelianus 269
  • Marius 269
  • Victorinus 269 – 271
  • Tetricus 271 – 274

The Restored Empire

  • Aurelian 270 – 275
  • Tacitus 275 – 276
  • Florianus 276
  • Probus 276 – 282
  • Carus 282 – 283 with;
  • Carinus 283
  • Numerian 283 – 284 with;
  • Carinus 283 - 284
  • Carinus 284 – 285

Breakaway province of Britannia

  • Carausius 287 – 293
  • Allectus 293 - 296

The Tetrarchs I

  • Diocletian 284 – 305 with;
  • Maximian 286 – 305/310
  • Galerius 293 - 305
  • Constantius Chlorus 293 – 305

The Tetrarchs II

  • Galerius 305 – 311 with;
  • Constantius Chlorus 305 – 306
  • Severus II 306 – 307
  • Maxentius 306 – 312
  • Maximinius Daia 310 - 313
  • Constantine 307 – 313
  • Licinius 308 – 313

The End of the Tetrarchy

  • Constantine 312 – 324 with;
  • Licinius 313 – 324

The House of Constantine

  • Constantine I 324 – 337
  • Constantine II 337 – 340 with;
  • Constans I 337 - 350
  • Constantius II 337 - 351
  • Constantius II 351 – 361 with;
  • Julian 355 – 360
  • Julian Apostate 360 – 363
  • Jovian 363 – 364

The House of Valentinian

  • Valentinian 364 – 375 with;
  • Valens 364 – 378
  • Gratian 375 – 383 with;
  • Valentinian II 375 – 392
  • Theodosius 379 - 392
  • Magnus Maximus 383 – 388
  • Eugenius 392 – 394

The Theodosian Dynasty

  • Theodosius The Great 392 – 395
  • Honorius 395 – 423 with;
  • Arcadius 395 - 408

 

©2009 Roman Scotland. All Rights Reserved
First Published February 2009

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