Roman Emperors Family Tree | Diocletian to Constantine VI

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CREDITS:
Charts & Narration by Matt Baker
Animation by Syawish Rehman
Audio editing by Ali Shahwaiz

[StuziCamis]

Seeing these charts at the end makes me realise how short our recorded history is.

Assuming a generation is 25 years, it only takes roughly 80 generations to go back to the times of Augustus.

We as a species have advanced so much in so little time it's incredible.

[Cheemsarion]

A small correction for the chart. The picture for Irene is not Irene of Athens, it is Irene of Hungary wife of John II Komnenos.

[xlicer]

Constantine didn’t renamed Byzantion to “Constantinople”. He built the whole city from the ground of the old one (which was basically a glorified small town at that point) where he intended it to be called something along the lines of “Nova Roma” or “Roma Secunda”. The name Constantinople first arose as popular unnofical folk name to refer to the new city (as in “Constantine’s City”) until it eventually became the official name of the city

[lacintag]

Some comment about the title of "The Great". The title can mean a title of honor, but it can also be used to differentiate between people with the same name, with the older one being the Great/Elder and the younger one being the Lesser/Younger. All of the Roman emperors whose title is the Great in our sources were the first of multiple emperors with the same name, and the title isn't given to them by the sources until after another emperor with the same name comes to power, which makes the latter interpretation of the title more likely. The only exception is Constantine, whose title in Greek is different (and should really be translated as The Greatest).

[RmsOceanic]

Regarding Irene as the first Roman Empress Regnant, there's actually a claim from the mid-270s that possibly precede her. After the Emperor Aurelian was assassinated, the elites of the empire were gunshy about grabbing power, since he was the popular Restorer of the World, so both the Army and the Senate kept inviting each other to select the next emperor and thus look like the guy who killed him for base ambition, and thus be the target for revenge. Some histories have this interregnum at six months, though popular consensus is closer to a month or six weeks. However long this interregnum however, there are coins minted in the name of Ulpia Servina, Augusta and widow of Aurelian, leading some to believe she actually presided over the empire in some form until Emperor Tacitus was finally selected by the Senate.

[ferrjuan]

6:49 Constantine did not called his new capital city “Constantinople” that name would come much later after him instead he called it “Nova Roma” or New Rome.

[officerbutton]

Oh yay a new video!! My daughter is going to be so happy when she wakes up tomorrow!! She's 10 and she loves your videos. She would watch all of them in a weekend if I let her haha ❤

[ruyfernandez]

A note about Constantine's nickname.
Calling him "The Great" is actually a habit of modern historians. Up to the XIXth century no one called him that.
My source : italian historian Alessandro Barbero, who explains this in his book "Constantine the Winner" ("Costantino il Vincitore" in italian, "victor" beign one of the epithets that Constantine chose for himself).

[Jayvee]

14:24 - This enraged the Vandal King who punished Western Rome severely

[thomasdixon]

Been waiting for part 2, could u do some family tress of ancient royal families like Pontus or the Anatolian kingdoms?

[ruyfernandez]

The thing I prefered about this video is that it made me realise just how little time, in terms of generations and therefore human memory, passed between the fall of Rome and the reign of Justinian.

[NaseerZanki]

Thank you Matt Baker for explaining again the long story of Rome Empire.
I hope you also will create videos about "germanic" tribe like vandals, angles, saxon, lombard and others to the reference in the game of Imperator: Rome by paradox interactive. Also the hair color of the rulers may be excited topic.

[dominionmoudabe]

Finally I've been waiting since the first video

[hannibalbarca]

It was amazing video. The Roman history is full of action.

[gchecosse]

Corpus Juris Civilis not adopted in England and superceded in most places by Napoleonic law, but still the basis of South African law and a major influence on Scots law. (A simplification of course).

[BillGreenAZ]

I have to say this is one of your most "fractured" videos with emperors skipping all over the place. But I have to say that's not your fault since this is the path of history and that you did a pretty decent job of tying it all together.

[Nooticus]

Such an excellent overview of this topic. Matt you've done it again!

[sevelofficial]

I am studying to be a history teacher and in about 9 months when I get hired full time, I will be putting this poster along with many others of yours up in my classroom!

[ptolemeeselenion]

Would you like to make a genealogy list review video of the Exilarchs of Babylon and other Post-Babylonian Exile Davidic lineages of Exilarchs and princes?? It might be interesting to see their connections with the dynasties of ancient Persia, with Hellenistic dynasties, Roman emperors, the Lagid dynasty of Egypt, the Herodian dynasty, Armenian royalty, the Palmyrene royalty, North African royalties from the early imperial Roman period to Moorish Roman (Byzantine annexed) period prior to the Islamic period, to pre-Islamic Yemen, the Horn of Africa and the kings of France as well as Anglo-Saxon kings, following the Princes of Navarre and his descendants's connections to the Carolingian Dynasty onward.

[denethweerasinghe]

Arguably the end of Western Rome is during Justinian's Gothic Wars, which completely and utterly destroyed Italy.
Infrastructure, defences, farms and urban centres were all devastated by war, leading to massive population losses.

These are what many people think happened in 476 but actually happened in the 6th century.

A weakened Italy was ripe for the taking by the Lombards.

But also if Justinian spent resources against the Sasanians instead of trying to take Italy maybe Eastern Rome wouldn't be weak enough by the time the Rashidun Caliphate turned up and the Levant and Africa wouldn't have been lost.

I wonder if Justinian's invasion was inevitable and Amalasuintha's assassination was merely an excuse.

If not, an interesting alternate history scenario would be "what if Amalasuintha wasn't assassinated?"