[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

‘A united Rome under Domitian and Constantine were able to provide a formidable resistance, but Constantine didn’t follow Domitian’s perfect succession rule’

I wouldn’t call the Tetrarchy perfect since it was not self enforcing and failed at the first succession. Otherwise a good summary of Romes’s decline EXCEPT that the Emperor Domitian was a tyrannical Emperor of the later first century AD. The Emperor who set up the Tetrarchy was Diocletian, who also set up the system used in the middle ages to bind folks to their employment and their parent’s employment, which led to serfdom.

[Cronos]

Hail Sulla. Moritori te salutant ;-p

Dammit -- I keep mixing up Domitian and Diocletian (the Ds!). As a nerd I used to remember the dates and reigns of the Emperors until Septimus Severus to try to sleep! Now I think I can remember some reigns but should be able to remember the names

1. Augustus - 27 Bc to 14 AD
2. Tiberius 14 AD to 37
3. Caligula 37-41
4. Claudius 41-54
5. Nero (last of the Julio-Claudian emperors) 54-68
6. year of the 4 emperors: Otho 68
7. Galba 68
8. Vitellius 68-69
9. Vespasian 69-79 (founder of the Flavian dynasty)
10. Titus 79-81
11. Domitian 81-93 (end of the Flavian dynasty)
12. Nerva (first of the 5 good emperors) 93-94
13. Trajan (and a personal hero -- this Spanish Emperor conquered Iraq!) 94-..?
14. Hadrian
15. Antoninus Pius
16. Marcus Aurelius
17. Commodius (until 193)
18. Pertinax
19. Dido Julianus
20. Septimus Severus
21. Caracalla (until 220 AD)
22. Geta

Ok, I do remember until Geta. Beyond that, there are just too many conflicting emperors until it comes to Diocletian and whatsisname his co-emperor. Post Constantine too, I never looked in much detail except for Justinian who nearly recreated the entire Roman Empire