We Asked A Historian Who Were The Worst Roman Emperors in History??

Did Commodus kill his father and have a relationship with his sister? Did Caligula declare war on an ocean? Join Historian Simon Elliot as he reveals the contenders for worst Roman Emperor ever!

TIBERIUS

00:55 Was Tiberius a bad Emperor?
01:30 Why did Tiberius leave Rome?
02:07 Did Tiberius have sex with underage boys?

CALIGULA

02:49 Did Caligula enjoy executing people?
03:47 Did Caligula build a bridge on the Bay of Naples?
04:22 Did Caligula make his horse a consul?
05:09 Did Caligula start a war against Neptune?
07:02 Did Caligula think he was a god?

NERO

08:21 Did Nero kill his own wife?
08:44 Did Nero castrate a boy and make him his wife?
09:16 Did Nero rebuild Rome for himself?
09:57 Did Nero persecute Christians?

DOMITIAN

10:55 Did Domitian kill his own brother Titus?
11:29 Was Domitian a tyrant?

COMMODUS

12:06 Did Commodus kill his father?
12:40 Did Commodus have an affair with his sister?
13:13 Did Commodus kill his sister?
13:44 Did Commodus think he was Hercules?
14:36 Did Commodus dissolve the Senate?
15:18 Did Commodus rename Rome after himself?

CARACALLA

15:47 Did Caracalla kill his brother?
16:50 Did Caracalla destroy Alexandria?
17:41 Did Caracalla make everyone a Roman citizen?

MAXIMINUS THRAX

18:29 Who was Maximinus Thrax?
19:17 Did Maximinus nearly destroy the Roman Empire?

19:54 Who was the worst Roman Emperor?

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[chuckles]

The lack of any explanations with a series of yes/no answers was really frustrating.

Also he failed to explain why he considers some stories about roman emperors to be baseless propaganda and others to be based in fact. where's the cutoff? how do we not know its ALL lies?

[automaticmattywhack]

This guy needs to expand his answers. No Caligula didn't make his horse a consul, but he threatened to do it to make the senators look foolish and powerless. No, Caligula didn't sleep with his sister's. But remember his mother, father, and older siblings were killed by Tiberius and he probably had a close relationship with them because they were the only family he had. It was propaganda from the senators.

[jordanbooth]

No disrespect to this dude, but for those of us with an interest but a somewhat limited understanding of Rome and it’s emperors, more detailed explanations would have been welcomed rather than just “yes” or “no” answers then moving on

[yorkiegrl]

I did enjoy the video, but not as much as some of the other videos on this channel in which questions from Google were being answered. It would have been nice if some of the straight “yes” and “no” responses would’ve had a bit more explanation. Please remember that most of the viewers are not experts in ancient Rome. 😊

[charlesvigneron]

Caligula thought of making his horse a consul until he realized it would always vote "Neigh."

[tahw]

This dude's like a mafia lawyer for roman emperors

[valis]

Isn't this the same guy that stated emphatically that all Roman gladiators were slaves, with no exceptions? I've been wary of HH ever since that little nugget.

[aaronmiller_Liand]

"Here's where I think the historic writings are lying. Here's where I think they're based in fact. I will not explain the logic behind these beliefs." - This Guy

[CrisSelene]

Yes and no answers with barely no arguments behind them. I'm sorry History Hit but this is not the quality content you usually deliver.

[mbm]

Some context would be nice! Like Nero had his mother killed. Ok… why?!

[janerkenbrack]

The lesson I take from this is, keep the Republic, and don't adopt an emperor. (I hope it isn't too late).

[Alex-cwrz]

Imagine living in Commodus's time when everything, has been renamed. "I'm going down to the commodus, on commodus street in commodus next commodus, do you want to come, it'll be so commodus"

[therealpat]

Completely unwarranted Domitian slander in this video, he recalled Agricola but he had an unusually long tenure to begin with and wasn't delivering results justifying his expenses at that point. It was the same deal as Tiberius recalling Germanicus. Overall I agree with all the Yes/Nos on what probably did or didn't happen, but it could have been expanded that while Nero probably didn't kill his second wife he definitely killed his first wife.

[arglebardconnden]

I gave up after the fourth or fifth ''No. Next question.''
Comes across as a little patronising and even more terrifyingly - dull.

[EastyyBlogspot]

I always did assume caligula did make his horse consula but it was more of a joke or insulting gesture as if to say my horse could do a better job then you lot

[therealpat]

Tiberius technically spent "part of his time" in Capri, but not in the sense of a weekend retreat, he spent the last 13 years of his life there. And while he did leave a lot of business to Sejanus he did continue conducting state affairs while absent from Rome so it wasn't a complete abdication of his duties.

[Lynette-bd]

Thank you for the bare minimum. Perhaps Metatron will be kind enough to reshoot this Q & A properly.

[chriswald]

Regarding the question whether Nero did kill his wife: One might add that Nero let his first wife Octavia be executed so he could marry Poppaea.

[saidtoshimaru]

Helagabauls deserves more than a passing mention.

[dziooooo]

This might be my least favorite of your "historian answers questions" videos. Bunch of yes/no answers, no context, no explanation.

Okay, this guy has a PhD, I'm sure he knows what he's talking about. But I would like to know WHY some contemporary sources are believable and others are not? Who wrote them, when and with what agenda? If a story is a fabrication, what actually DID happen? Why THIS story was fabricated, what was so outrageous about it to the contemporary people? And for the weird and outrageous things that DID happen - what were the consequences?

Most of your guests are enthusiastic and can tell a great story. This guy sounds like he doesn't want to be here.