After having built his lavish palace with ruins of the fire, Rome's discontent for him at last exploded in 68 AD, when he, under pressure, committed suicide. Although this wasn't entirely true, it was fact that he had been ruling when Rome suffered its Great Fire in 64 AD. So infamous were his lyre concerts that a myth came about that spoke of Nero playing his lyre while Rome burned. Nero commonly invested in extravagant projects and forced roman citizens to listen to him playing his lyre. Like Augustus, however, Claudius was vulnerable to an unstable succession this being realized in 54 AD, when he was succeeded by yet another tyrant known as Nero. Luckily, Caligula's successor and only spared family member, Claudius, proved to be a capable emperor, conquering Britain in 43 AD. Ultimately, Caligula and most of his family were assassinated in 41 AD. His mental health in particular, proved again and again to be questionable. He even humiliated the Senate to the point where he threatened to make a horse the consul of Rome. Although Caligula's rule proved short, his turbulent rule still stuns history to this day. More disappointing still was when Tiberius's successor, Caligula, came to throne after the former emperor's death in 37 AD. Tiberius's reign, however, was marked by tyranny and persecution, as well as ineffective administration. When Augustus mysteriously died in 14 AD, this man, Tiberius, came to the throne. For the son of Augustus's wife, Julia, had been the one to seize it with the help of his mother's playing hand.
Neither, however, succeeded in claiming it.
Intrigues over his succession proved common during his reign Mark Antony's sons, and those of Augustus's old friend, Marcus Agrippa, both had claims to the throne. Octavian then renamed himself Augustus and led Rome with fair success. The Roman Empire at its height under Emperor Trajan The Julio-Claudian Dynasty Īugustus, the first emperor of the Roman EmpireĪfter decades of civil war amongst dictators and triumvirates, Octavian of the former Second Triumvirate defeated his rival Mark Antony at the Battle of Actium and over the course of a few more years, gradually persuaded the Senate to grant him the status of Rome's first emperor.