My favorite emperor of all time is Emperor Akbar the Great, son of Humayun, grandson of Babar, father of Jehangir, grandfather of Shah Jehan (who built the Taj Mahal), descendant of Timurlane and Chinggiz Khan, expander and consolidator of the Mughal Empire. He was revolutionary (as far as Muslim rulers go) in his tolerance of all the religions and ethnicities of his land. He ruffled many feathers with this.
One act of his always makes me giggle. He had stamped on his coins “Allahu Akbar!”, which usually means in Arabic, “God is the Greatest!” However, considering his name was Akbar, his probable intention was to stamp on the coinage throughout his Empire the declaration, “Akbar is God!” goes into a fit of giggles Oh, how that incensed the religious orthodox Muslims of the time!
Akbar was a very enlightened, tolerant ruler. Sure, he was capricious at times and a tyrant (as most emperors are), but he was the best emperor the world has ever seen. Anyone who could rule, control, and keep together the empire he did would have to be exceptionally great.
Anyway, who is your favorite emperor? Why?
(I’m excluding from this Emperor Norton of San Francisco.)
Well, since I’m Eastern Orthodox, I’m of course going to have to go with Constantine the Great. Besides the obvious religious accomplishments (such as the Edict of Toleration and the defeat of Arianism) he had the foresight to move the capital of the Roman Empire to Constantinople, thus ensuring its survival as a beacon of knowledge and civilization for over a thousand more years, while the western provinces were overrun by barbarians and became Europe’s backwater.
Obvious pick, I know but I think being the first Emperor of one of the largest empires of the world and reigning over the civilization that is the basis for half of the world’s culture is pretty significant.
I’ve always been partial to Qin Shi Huang Di, the first emperor of China. He didn’t rule for long, but things he did have lasted to this day. Such as setting standards of measurement, unifying the writing, the great wall. Of course, he was also a right bastard and the first real facist of the world, but I still like the dude.
That would be Akihito, or Heisei Tenno if you prefer his formal designation. And yes, he’s the one sitting “emperor” currently.
The last other monarchs of “imperial” rank (with some kind of history behind the title) were Haile Selassie of Ethiopia and Mohammend Reza Pahlevi of Iran. (The sovereigns of Britain were Emperors(resses) of India until 1948) Then there was “Emperor” Bokassa of Central Africa, but that was just a preposterous exercise in megalomania from a vulgar dictator.
I mean, Shih Huang Di, First Emperor of China is certainly a significant guy. He united all China, eliminated a fair amount of civil strife, standardized the road system, cleaned up the government, and so on, and so on…
…and he did so by busting heads and instituting a reign of terror that lasted until his death. And you can tell he was one of THOSE emperors, because his own physicians were so terrified, they didn’t dare tell anyone he was dead until it was too late! When you croak the way Stalin croaked, you have taken things too far.
Emperor Norton I, Suzerain of the United States Of America and Protector of Mexico, never did anything like that, and there is no record of him ever actually killing anyone, having anyone killed, or even whackin’ anyone with his fancy walking stick.
He reigned for many years, and was beloved by all San Francisco, as opposed to being feared by his subjects. Nobody was glad to see Emperor Norton go.
I mean, I can’t think of a better example of why King Log is durn near always preferable to King Stork…
My favorite is Lucius Domitius Aurelianus, aka the Emperor Aurelian. He was born in a backwater Roman province, rose to eminence as a soldier, and was chosen by the Emperor Gothicus as his successor while Gothicus lay on his deathbed.
His most famous acts were building the Aurelian Wall and defeating Zenobia, the warrior queen of Palmyra whose beauty is as legendary as her daring. She rebelled and captured a sizable chunk of the empire that stretched from Egypt to Asia Minor. Aurelian defeated her on her own turf, then generously spared her life and that of her son. He then quashed the rebellious provinces in Gallia and Brittania, and captured their “emperor”, Tetricus. Both Zenobia and Tetricus were exhibited in Aurelian’s triumph and both were treated with surprising gentleness.
He only ruled five years (dying in a coup generated by a paranoid secretary) but in that brief time he managed to shore up the rapidly declining empire and extended its lifespan by a couple of hundred years.
My personal favorite crazy emperor, however, was Caligula.
