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The first five of these are commonly known as the "Five Good Emperors". The first five of the six successions within this dynasty were notable in that the reigning emperor did not have a male heir, and had to adopt the candidate of his choice to be his successor. Under Roman law, an adoption established a bond legally as strong as that of kinship.
The Five Emperors may refer to: The Five Good Emperors of the Roman Empire who ruled from 96 to 180: Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius; Year of the Five Emperors, 193 CE; The Five Emperors and Three Sovereigns, mythical rulers of ancient China; Wufang Shangdi a set of five Chinese deities called Emperors
The first five of these are commonly known as the "Five Good Emperors". The first five of the six successions within this dynasty were notable in that the reigning emperor did not have a male heir, and had to adopt the candidate of his choice to be his successor. Under Roman law, an adoption established a bond legally as strong as that of kinship.
Coin of Pescennius Niger, a Roman usurper who claimed imperial power AD 193–194. Legend: IMP CAES C PESC NIGER IVST AVG. While the imperial government of the Roman Empire was rarely called into question during its five centuries in the west and fifteen centuries in the east, individual emperors often faced unending challenges in the form of usurpation and perpetual civil wars. [30]
He was a member of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty, the last of the rulers later known as the Five Good Emperors and the last emperor of the Pax Romana, an age of relative peace, calm, and stability for the Roman Empire lasting from 27 BC to 180 AD. He served as Roman consul in 140, 145, and 161.
Gibbon considered Nerva the first of the Five Good Emperors, five successive rulers under whom the Roman Empire "was governed by absolute power, under the guidance of wisdom and virtue" from 96 until 180. Nevertheless, even Gibbon notes that, compared to his successors, Nerva may have lacked the necessary qualifications for a successful reign:
GettyIn an age when statues of slaveholders and Civil War generals are being sent to the smelters, it’s strange to contemplate how little ire is provoked by busts of the Roman Caesars, or for ...
[citation needed] In the Renaissance, Machiavelli, speaking on the advantages of adoptive succession over heredity, mentioned the five successive good emperors "from Nerva to Marcus" [3] – a trope out of which the 18th-century historian Edward Gibbon popularized the notion of the Five Good Emperors, of whom Trajan was the second. [4]