The Roman Emperor was
the ruler of the Roman Empire during the imperial period (starting in 27 BC). The
emperors used a variety of different titles throughout history. Often when a
given Roman is described as becoming "emperor" in English, it
reflects his taking of the title Augustus or Caesar.
Another title often used was imperator,
originally a military honorific. Early Emperors also used the title princeps (first
citizen). Emperors frequently amassed republican titles, notably Princeps senatus, Consul and Pontifex Maximus.
The
legitimacy of an emperor's rule depended on his control of the army and
recognition by the Senate; an emperor would normally be proclaimed
by his troops, or invested with imperial titles by the Senate, or both. The
first emperors reigned alone; later emperors would sometimes rule with
co-Emperors and divide administration of the Empire between them.
The
Romans considered the office of emperor to be distinct from that of a king. The
first emperor, Augustus, resolutely refused recognition as a monarch.[1] Although
Augustus could claim that his power was authentically republican, his
successor, Tiberius, could not convincingly make the same claim.[2] Nonetheless,
for the first three hundred years of Roman Emperors, from Augustus until Diocletian,
a great effort was made to emphasize that the Emperors were the leaders of a
Republic.
From
Diocletian onwards, emperors ruled in an openly monarchic style[3] and
did not preserve the nominal principle of a republic, but the contrast with
"kings" was maintained: although the imperial succession was
generally hereditary, it was only hereditary if there was a suitable candidate
acceptable to the army and the bureaucracy,[4] so
the principle of automatic inheritance was not adopted.
Elements of the Republican institutional framework (senate, consuls, and
magistrates) were preserved until the very end of the Western Empire.
The
Eastern (Byzantine) emperors ultimately adopted the title of "Basileus"
(βασιλεύς), which had
meant king in Greek, but became a title reserved solely for
the Roman Emperor and the ruler of the Sasanian Empire.
Other kings were then referred to as rēgas.[5]
In
addition to their pontifical office, some emperors were
given divine status after death. With the eventual hegemony of Christianity,
the emperor came to be seen as God's chosen ruler, as well as a special
protector and leader of the Christian Church on Earth, although
in practice an emperor's authority on Church matters was subject to challenge.
The Western Roman Empire collapsed in the late
5th century. Romulus Augustulus is often considered to
be the last emperor of the west after his forced abdication in 476,
although Julius Nepos maintained a claim to the
title until his death in 480. Meanwhile, in the east, emperors continued to
rule from Constantinople ("New Rome");
these are referred to in modern scholarship as "Byzantine
emperor" but they used no such title and called themselves
"Emperor of the Romans" (βασιλεύς Ῥωμαίων). Constantine XI Palaiologos was the
last Byzantine Roman Emperor in Constantinople, dying in the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in
1453.
Due
to the cultural rupture of the Turkish conquest, most western historians treat
Constantine XI as the last meaningful claimant to the title Roman Emperor,
although from 1453 Ottoman rulers were titled "Caesar of Rome"
(Turkish: Kayser-i Rum)[6] until
the Ottoman Empire ended in 1922. A Byzantine group of claimant Roman Emperors
existed in the Empire of Trebizond until its conquest by
the Ottomans in 1461. In western Europe the title of Roman Emperor was revived
by Germanic rulers, the "Holy Roman Emperors", in 800, and was used
until 1806.
Credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_emperor
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