Your top 3 most underrated emperor(severans and up)

[Ragimund Von Wallat]

state the 3 emperors you think are the most underrated.my personnal choice:

-Carus,dont get a whole lot of attention,succesfull on the danube,wipe out the sarmatians and ''goths''.Acheive the first big victory for a longtime in the east againt sassanids,thrash ctesiphon and made a show of power across the tigris.die of natural death wich is a rarity for the period and his succeded by his son without troubles wich is even rarer.

-Anastasius,manage to get frontiers stable again,fortifying everithing on big scale with in ,my opinion,the long term view that investing alot in fort now would prove an economy later in troops and act as a big deterent for raiding action by reducing almost to 0 the prospect of soft and rich target for a quick grab.More importantly he let the imperial treasury at his death with 28 millions solidii(150,000 kilos of gold!)enough to fuel the whole empire for at least 4 years without any income.Having no child he managed to choose as succesor someone wo was not a total incompetent!

-Mauricius,restored the dignity of rome by stopping any payment to the persians by finishing a war he didint started in a victory.expanded the empire in the caucasus.not only he pushed back the avars across the danube but he lauch a series of pay back campaign across the river like the emperor of old,he was the first to do so in 200 years!enforced the direct control of the emperor on italy and africa(if others would had kept his belief of holding the west as an asset instead of a liability the fate of the emprie may had been vastly different) he was a very fond of millitary tactic being credited as the author of the strategikon,that would be a stapple of millitary litterature till the end of the empire in 1453,and also in the western medieval kingdom.his court continue the use of latin.he was a very good diplomat in international affairs.he was a firm beleiver in great mass of infantry against the more and more popular theroys of small but all mounted and elite forces.


state yours!

-

[Leonnatos]

Claudius II: Member of the conspiracy that killed Gallienus, he managed to drive the Goths over the Danube where they stayed for the next 100 years. Died early of plague. His memory was upheld by the Constantinians, and one of the numerous nephews of Constantine was named in his honour

Zeno the Isaurian: Replaced Aspar as most influental general and became son-in-law of Leo I, father of Leo II, ruled after the death of both Leos in his own name. Had the most bad-tempered mother-in-law you can imagine, a lot of people where after his purple cloak and the treasury was empty after Basiliscus ed up the African expedition. Managed to play out his numerous enemies against each other (Theoderic Strabo against Theoderic the Great, his fellow Isaurian Illus against both of them, Armatus against Basiliscus). Managed to neutralize the Gothic influence in the Balkans and send Theoderic the Great to Italy. Ruled officialy as Sole Augustus over the entire Empire after Julius Nepos died.

Constans II: Grandson of Heraclius, came to the throne at the age of 11 after Heraklonas was deposed. A very active soldier in the defense against the caliphate, he lost Egypt and Armenia but went to the West to gather new forces and funds to recapture Syria and Egypt. As the recapture of Alexandria 645 showed, the population wasn't all to fond of their new overlords. The Arabs themselves were thrown into civil war and a determined attack might see Syria and Egypt revolting back to his rule. But, alas, as the preperations in Syracuse where neary finished he was killd in the bath by getting a dish on his head. Had the capable but unpopular emperor lived, the Empire could have managed to reclai their lost eastern provinces. With his death and the subsequent rebellion and short civil war that followed, the Arabs were able to get the initative back and even siege Constantinople. The chance for the restoring of the limes of Justinian was over.

[Ragimund Von Wallat]

''Had the capable but unpopular emperor lived, the Empire could have managed to reclai their lost eastern provinces'' the exact same thing for mauricius for a bigger scale,nice choice