Augustus was adopted by Julius Caesar in his will and became a member of the Julian family. Augustus married Livia Drusilla in 38 B.C., daughter of Marcus Livius Drusus Claudius, thereby uniting the Claudian family with the Julians. Augustus tried to keep the succession in the Julian line but his chosen heirs all met early and suspicious deaths. Augustus was forced to adopt his step-son Tiberius as his successor, Tiberius being Livia's son by a previous marriage. The succession therefore passed to the Claudian side of the family. The remaining emperors of the dynasty were all Claudians and the line finally ended with the death of Nero on 9th June A.D. 68. James R. Wadman B.A., M.A. [History and Archaeology] for TimeLine Originals.

Augustus eliminated all his political rivals and guided the Roman government from a republic to a monarchy. He died at the age of seventy having given prosperity and stability to the Empire.

Tiberius proved himself as a competent general. At the beginning he ruled wisely and competently. But soon he became cynical after the flattery of Senators and rumours of betrayal. He quickly descended into a bitter and reclusive old man and then retired to Capri for the remainder of his life. While deathly ill and advanced in age, Caligula had him smothered with his own bed sheets.

Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa was a renowned Roman general and close friend of Octavian (Augustus). Agrippa was consul first in 37 B.C. He was also governor of Syria. As general, Agrippa defeated the forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium. Upon his victory, Augustus awarded his niece Marcella to Agrippa for a wife. In 21 B.C., Augustus married his own daughter Julia to Agrippa. By Julia, Agrippa had a daughter Agrippina, and three sons, Gaius and Lucius Caesar and Agrippa Postumus.

Gaius was the son of the general Germanicus, nephew of Tiberius. Gaius was raised on the Rhine frontier while his father was fighting the Germans and it was in the camps that Gaius was given the name 'Caligula' (Little Boot) as the youngster was often dressed in military uniform to the delight of the soldiers. Germanicus died under suspicious circumstances in A.D. 19 and his family's fortunes began to decline. By A.D. 33 Gaius' mother and brothers had been murdered by a jealous Tiberius who suspected plots against him everywhere. At the age of 18 Gaius went to live with Tiberius on Capri. The emperor finally named Gaius as his heir, claiming that 'he was rearing a viper in the bosom of the Roman people'. Gaius succeeded Tiberius without opposition in March A.D. 37 but it is believed that the old emperor's death was 'assisted'.

Gaius' accession was greeted with wholesale rejoicing by the Roman people and the first six months of the reign seemed promising until Gaius fell ill. The emperor recovered but emerged as a cruel, despotic megalomaniac. He insulted the Senate, used extortion to raise money for a rapidly depleting treasury and invented all types of bizarre and cruel amusements. Gaius planned to invade Britain in A.D. 40 but suddenly told his troops to collect shells and fire arrows into the English Channel as he was now at war with Neptune, god of the sea. Plots against him began to multiply and he soon lost the support of the army. The emperor insulted officers of his Praetorian Guard and they quickly formed a palace conspiracy. Gaius was assassinated as he left the Palatine Games on 24th January A.D. 41. Few mourned his death. James R. Wadman B.A., M.A. [History and Archaeology] for Time Line Originals

Lacking a military reputation, the essential attribute of an emperor, Claudius in AD 43 undertook the conquest of Britain, a task contemplated by Gaius three years earlier. Claudius visited Britain for 16 days, to preside over the capture of Colchester, the capital of the new province. The Apocolocyntosis of Seneca, a leading senator and Nero's tutor, lists the crimes that Claudius committed, and mocks his (purely cynical) posthumous deification by Nero.

Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus, born Decimus Claudius Drusus and variously called Drusus, Drusus I or Drusus the Elder was the younger son of Livia, wife of Augustus, and her first husband, Tiberius Claudius Nero, and was thus a patrician Claudian on both sides.

Agrippina Junior was daughter of Agrippina Senior and Germanicus. She was married to Cneaus Domitius Ahenobarbus, by whom she had the future emperor Nero. Exiled by her brother Caligula, she was recalled by Claudius, her uncle, and married him soon after. She was murdered by her son, Nero, in 59 A.D.

Famous as the emperor who "fiddled while Rome burned". The first five years of his reign were considered the "Golden Time" of Imperial Rome. However, he was more passionate about the arts and chariot racing than he was about governing the Empire, which soon made him extremely unpopular with the army and the Senate. Emotionally and psychologically unstable, having a flare for the dramatic, and possessing nearly unlimited resources made Nero a truly shocking figure at points during his reign. In the end, several rebellions and mutinees brought about his death through suicide.

Nero's tyrannical behaviour encouraged conspiracies to develop. Julius Vindex, governor of Gallia Lugdunensis, rebelled against Nero in March A.D. 68 and he was eager to promote a figurehead of his rebellion. Servius Sulpicius Galba, the aged governor of Hispania Tarraconensis, accepted Vindex's invitation and he soon gained support from the army and most of the governors in the western provinces. Galba was renowned for his severity and greed along with a tactless and superior attitude. It was his blunt refusal to reward the troops for their support which hastened his end; the legions in Germany declared Aulus Vitellius as their new emperor. Galba was hacked to death in the Roman Forum and his head was paraded around the city.

Meanwhile, Marcus Salvius Otho, the governor of Lusitania under Nero, won over the Praetorian Guard and seized power before Vitellius could reach Rome. Otho seemed to be an able man but the Senate viewed him with suspicion and the army in Germany had already proclaimed a rival emperor. The forces of Otho and Vitellius met at Cremona in April A.D. 69 and, with the complete rout of his legions, Otho committed suicide on April 16th.

Vitellius was a tool of the German legions who had declared him emperor. He had no great achievements to his name and he was known as a glutton. In July A.D. 69 Vitellius learned that the eastern legions had proclaimed a new emperor, their general Titus Flavius Vespasianus. The forces of Vitellius and Vespasian met at the second battle at Cremona in October A.D. 69 and Vespasian's hardened troops won the day. An orgy of destruction followed as Vespasian's victorious legions entered Rome and Vitellius was murdered in the Forum on December 20th. Vespasian was confirmed as emperor in absentia. James R. Wadman B.A., M.A. [History and Archaeology] for Time Line Originals.

Gaius Julius Vindex descended from the kings of Aquitan. He was the governor of Gallia Lugdunensis when he raised his standards against Nero. In May, the rebellion of Vindex was crushed by L. Verginius Rufus, governor of Upper Germany. Nero committed suicide just a few weeks later.

He was born near Terracina. He came of a noble family and was a man of great wealth, but unconnected either by birth or by adoption with the first six Caesars. In his early years he was regarded as a youth of remarkable abilities, and it is said that both Augustus and Tiberius prophesied his future eminence (Tacitus, Annals, vi. 20; Suet. Galba, 4).

Praetor in 20, and consul in 33, he acquired a well-merited reputation in the provinces of Gaul, Germania, Africa and Spain by his military capability, strictness and impartiality. On the death of Caligula, he refused the invitation of his friends to make a bid for empire, and loyally served Claudius. For the first half of Nero's reign he lived in retirement, till, in 61, the emperor bestowed on him the province of Hispania Tarraconensis.

Marcus Salvius Otho was born on 28 April AD 32 and was Governor of Lusitania between 58 - 68 A.D. He married Poppaea Sabina, future wife of Nero. Otho was hailed emperor in January AD 69, but the legions of the Rhine preferred their own commander Vitellius, for no better reason than the fact that he was their commander. Vitellius' generals defeated Otho's troops at Bedriacum (Cremona) and Otho duly committed suicide on 17th April 69 A.D.

Aulus Vitellius Germanicus, (September 24, 15 A.D. - December 22, 69 A.D.)one of the emperors in the "Year of the Four Emperors" (the others being Galba, Otho, and Vespasian).

The surviving sources, particularly Suetonius' Lives of the Twelve Caesars, give an unfavorable picture of Vitellius; however it should be remembered that Suetonius' father was an army officer who had fought for Otho and against Vitellius at the first Battle of Bedriacum. Vitellius was the son of Lucius Vitellius, who had been consul and governor of Syria under Tiberius. Vitellius the son was consul in 48, and (perhaps in 60-61) proconsul of Africa, in which capacity he is said to have acquitted himself with credit. At the end of 68 Galba, to the general astonishment, selected him to command the army of Germania Inferior, and here Vitellius made himself popular with his subalterns and with the soldiers by outrageous prodigality and excessive good nature, which soon proved fatal to order and discipline.