A cruel leader
Tyrant
The emperor's personal bodyguards, who also sometimes kill him
Praetorian Guard
Founder of the Nerva-Antonine Dynasty, first of the Five Good Emperors, and remembered as a wise ruler.
Nerva
Jewish healer and prophet who claimed to be the son of God
Jesus
Emperor who created a new system to manage the massive empire by dividing it into East and West
Diocletian
Non-Romans
Barbarians
Augustus's reign was the beginning of this 200-year period
Pax Romana
Expanded the empire to its greatest territorial size
Trajan
First Roman emperor to convert to Christianity
Constantine
Type of government where four people are in charge
Tetrarchy
The person who came before you
Predecessor
Raised on a murder island and told his soldiers to stab the ocean to assert dominance over Neptune
Caligula
Built a wall which was the northern border of Britannia
Hadrian
Roman province where Christianity originated
Judaea
Caesar whose son, Constantine, was held hostage by Diocletian to ensure his loyalty
Constantius
A philosophy that says true happiness comes from obeying the natural flow of the universe
Stoicism
Hidden away from public life, became emperor by accident, and probably poisoned by his wife
Claudius
Called Pius because of his generosity and gave slaves some rights
Antoninus
Natural disaster in 64 CE that Nero blamed on Christians
Great Fire of Rome
476
To add somewhere to an empire
Annex
Used his own money to help Rome recover from the Great Fire of 64, then declared a public enemy by the Senate and died by suicide
Nero
Last of the Five Good Emperors and a stoic philosopher
Marcus Aurelius
Act passed by Theodosius I that made Christianity the official religion of the empire
Edict of Thesalonnica
Law that made it illegal to persecute Christians
Edict of Milan