The Righteous and the Unrighteous Emperors of Rome - Assignment Example

Romans made possible the prosperous trades by which Roman civilization acquired rich imports of Chinese, Persian rugs, Arabian perfumes, Phoenician purple dyes, Indonesian spices, as well as Greek porcelains and Indian fabrics. As such, during the reign of Roman Emperor Trajan (A.D. 53 – A.D. 117), a Spanish military commander, there had been rigorous efforts to construct useful buildings for Romans. Among his great achievements besides facilitating extensive projects on building public structures, Trajan is additionally recognized for his policies on social welfare and conquests in the east.

Because of him, Rome would stand in pride even in modern times due to Trajan’s Forum, Trajan’s Market, and Trajan’s Column which were all erected upon implementation of his successful program. Similarly, the rule of Roman Emperor Hadrian (76 A.D. - 138 A.D.) brought wealth and security for the empire the time he eradicated the territorial expansion of Rome and fortified Roman boundaries upon the construction of several “Walls of Hadrian”. . Apparently, Trajan and Hadrian did make salutary emperors of Rome based on the aforementioned accomplishments from which I can perceive how they took care of the entire citizenry by focusing on provisions and works that improved the empire and strengthened healthy socio-political relations among people who looked up to leaders whose ideas were far from corrupt and selfish inclinations.

Together with the other three good emperors namely – Nerva, Antonius Pius, and Marcus Aurelius, they had been able to establish a kind of government that consisted of officials who advanced people’s interests and worked for the empire with a large sense of integrity and heart. To this extent, I must highly commend Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 161 – A.D. 180) for all the good vibes felt by the empire out of his exceeding humble goodness. His wonderful character trait basically demonstrated the capacity to share imperial powers like the treatment he gave to Lucius Aurelius Verus and his predecessor Antonius Pius whose wishes were granted after his regime.

Marcus Aurelius is such a remarkable emperor for bearing not just the knowledge of good leadership but even of refined intellect since he was widely known and acclaimed for being a writer and philosopher of the Stoic school of thought. As a philosopher-king of his time, he authored exemplary works such as the “Meditations” along with the writings which manifested wisdom of truth and beauty of reason. At this point, I could quite imagine how the needs of each citizen were sincerely taken care of by the rule of such an emperor who, by his nature, respected and employed moral virtues of philosophy.