Year of the Four Emperors

(noun)

A year in the history of the Roman Empire, 69 AD, in which four emperors ruled in succession: Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian.

Related Terms

Examples of Year of the Four Emperors in the following topics:

  • The Flavian Dynasty

    • The Flavian dynasty, which began under the rule of Vespasian during the Year of the Four Emperors, is known for several significant historic, economic and military events that took place during their reign.
    • The Flavians rose to power during the civil war of 69, known as the Year of the Four Emperors.
    • Chaos ensued, leading to a year of brutal civil war known as the Year of the Four Emperors, during which the four most influential generals in the Roman Empire—Galba, Otho, Vitellius and Vespasian—successively vied for the imperial power.
    • Little factual information survives about Vespasian's government during the ten years he was Emperor.
    • The Roman Empire during the Year of the Four Emperors (69 AD).

  • The Last Julio-Claudian Emperors

    • Nero’s consolidation of personal power led to rebellion, civil war, and a year-long period of upheaval during which four separate emperors ruled Rome.
    • Britannicus was still shy of 14 years old and legally still a minor, but because he was the previous emperor Claudius’s son by blood, Agrippina held hope that he would be accepted as the true heir to the throne.
    • The suicide of Emperor Nero was followed by a brief period of civil war.
    • Then, between June 68 and December 69, four emperors ruled in succession: Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian.
    • Vespasian remained emperor for the rest of his natural life.

  • Rise of the Tang Dynasty

    • In the winter of 617, Li Yuan occupied Chang'an, relegated Emperor Yang to the position of Taishang Huang or retired emperor, and acted as regent to the puppet child-emperor, Emperor Gong of Sui.
    • On the news of Emperor Yang's murder by General Yuwen Huaji on June 18, 618, Li Yuan declared himself the emperor of a new dynasty, the Tang.
    • During the forty-four-year reign of Emperor Xuanzong, the Tang dynasty reached its height, a golden age with low economic inflation and a toned down lifestyle for the imperial court.
    • Seen as a progressive and benevolent ruler, Xuanzong even abolished the death penalty in the year 747; all executions had to be approved beforehand by the emperor himself.
    • Portrait painting of Emperor Yang of Sui, the last emperor of the Sui dynasty, commissioned in 643 by Taizong, painted by Yan Liben (600–673).

  • The Structure of the Holy Roman Empire

    • Although the Habsburgs held the title of Holy Roman Emperor for nearly four centuries, the title was not hereditary and their power over the decentralized empire was limited and separate from their reign over the territories under the Habsburg rule.  
    • The power of the emperor was limited and while the various princes, lords, bishops and cities of the empire were vassals who owed the emperor their allegiance, they also possessed an extent of privileges that gave them de facto independence within their territories.
    • The division between the positions of the Holy Roman Emperor and the Emperor of the Austrian Monarchy is best illustrated by the circumstances around the War of the Austrian Succession.
    • However, he gained the rule over the hereditary territories of the Habsburgs only after his mother's death fifteen years later.
    • In doing so he created a formal overarching structure for the Habsburg Monarchy as he foresaw either the end of the Holy Roman Empire or the eventual accession as Holy Roman Emperor of Napoleon, who had earlier that year adopted the title of an Emperor of the French.

  • Diocletian and the Tetrarchy

    • Facing the pressures of civil war, plague, invasion, and economic depression, Diocletian was able to stabilize the Roman empire for another hundred years through economic reform and the establishment of the Tetrarchy.
    • Born to a family of low status in the Roman province of Dalmatia, Diocletian rose through the ranks of the military to become cavalry commander to the Emperor Carus.
    • Under this "tetrarchy," or "rule of four," each emperor would rule over a quarter-division of the empire.
    • When in 305 the 20-year term of Diocletian and Maximian ended, both abdicated.
    • This map shows the four zones of influence under Diocletian's Tetrarchy

  • The Rise of the Han Dynasty

    • The Han and Chu states emerged as the most powerful, but the Han state was the victor of the Chu-Han Contention, a four-year civil war.
    • It would rule China for over four hundred years, from 206 BCE-220 CE, and ushered in a golden age of peace, prosperity, and development.
    • This period also saw the further development of the four-class hierarchy, called the "four occupations," which gave aristocratic scholars the highest social status, followed by farmers, then craftsmen and artisans, and finally merchants.
    • One of the most exalted Han emperors was Emperor Wu, who ruled from 141-87 BCE.
    • A portrait of Emperor Wu, one of the most influential rulers of the Han Dynasty.

  • The Five Emperors

    • The Mythical Period was next under the rule of the Five Emperors, who served as moral exemplars and introduced the use of fire, houses, and silk.
    • According to myth, following the period of the Three Sovereigns, five successors, known as the Five Emperors, introduced the basic aspects of culture.
    • One of them—Huangdi, or the Yellow Emperor—is sometimes said to be the ancestor of all Chinese people.
    • Huangdi reigned from 2698 BCE to 2599 BCE, about 1000 years before the first record of Chinese history.
    • The Yellow Emperor as depicted in a tomb from the mid second century AD.

  • The Mythical Period

    • It encompassed the legends of Pangu, and the rule of the Three Sovereigns, and the Five Emperors.
    • These phenomena took place in China about 1000 years later than in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus River valley.
    • The Three Sovereigns and the Five Emperors, a series of legendary sage emperors and heroes, helped create man.
    • The existence of these emperors occurred before written Chinese history, and so the dates of reign are uncertain.
    • Portrait of the first of the Five Emperors, who was considered the original ancestor for Han Chinese.

  • The Nerva-Antonine Dynasty

    • The Golden Age of Rome was a period of prosperity that fell under the "Five Good Emperors" of the Nerva-Antonine Dynasty: Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius.
    • The first five of the six successions within this dynasty were notable in that the reigning emperor adopted the candidate of his choice to be his successor.
    • With Commodus' murder in 192, the Nerva-Antonine dynasty came to an end; it was followed by a period of turbulence known as the Year of the Five Emperors.
    • He was the last of the Five Good Emperors and was a practitioner of Stoicism.
    • Describe the characteristics of the Golden Age and the achievements of the Five Good Emperors

  • The Eastern Roman Empire, Constantine the Great, and Byzantium

    • It would become the standard for Byzantine and European currencies for more than a thousand years.
    • The first Roman emperor to claim conversion to Christianity, Constantine played an influential role in the development of Christianity as the religion of the empire.
    • It would later become the capital of the Empire for over one thousand years; for which reason the later Eastern Empire would come to be known as the Byzantine Empire.
    • In the course of the 4th century, four great sections emerged from these Constantinian beginnings, and the practice of separating civil from military authority persisted until the 7th century.
    • Usually, there was an emperor of the Western Roman Empire ruling from Italy or Gaul and an emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire ruling from Constantinople.