Ultimus Romanorum

[CiceroD]

If anyone feels disappointed that their "hero" didn't make the list don't worry.

 

Mine didn't either. I personally think that Majorian as the last good western emperor is most deserving.

The list is courtesy of Wikipedia and reflects who has actually been called Ultimus Romanorum.

 

So what do you all think?

[Maladict]

I'm going with Boethius, but if we're including the Byzantine period I'd have to change my vote to Plethon.

[Northern Neil]

I suppose Heraclius. The Roman Empire of course carried on henceforth in a different cultural phase, but I believe Heraclius was the last emperor to govern a recognisably Roman state.

[CiceroD]

Do you all think that we should include the Byzantines? I was under the Impression that they were more Greek than Roman in any case. Although they did preserve a Roman civilization.

[CiceroD]

Im surprised that so many know about Boethius. This is a character who has (to my knowlege) never had a movie or a novel written about him. I wouldve suspected the well-known Aetius to have swept the polls!

 

[Ludovicus]

Here's my vote for Heraclius, too.

[M. Porcius Cato]

Of course, I went with Cremutius Cordus' opinion, but I'm wondering what the case would be for Pollio.

[CiceroD]

So with the death of the Republic there died the last of the Romans MPC?

 

Its a bit harsh for me, but a valid point nonetheless.

 

I expect that Asinius Pollio was added to the Wikipedia list by someone (like my dad) who believed that "I Claudius" was real!

 

My history on the Byzantines is a bit fuzzy. Who was Heraclius? and why did he preside over the last "recognisably Roman State"

[Ursus]

My history on the Byzantines is a bit fuzzy. Who was Heraclius? and why did he preside over the last "recognisably Roman State"

 

He switched the official language of the empire from Latin to Greek. He also reorganized the government and the army - until then, it had largely retained the outline left by the Late Roman Empire (Dominate).

 

One wonders if the Eastern, Greek-speaking Empire was ever truly Roman. As I wrote in my "Romanization at a Glance" article the core of the Roman Empire was the western Mediterranean, and the Greek east had never been fully integrated. But after Heraclius it seems to gain a critical mass and start evolving considerably.

[Nerva]

Heraclius is an interesting suggestion. He did rise to power from the reconquered Carthage (though Armenian by descent). Still I picked Boethius. He was classically trained and a learned scholar and after his age, schooling in the West descended into a pitiful state. He was a philosopher and a consul of Rome. Such a great mind was lost when he was executed. He could have given more to the world.

[CiceroD]

Didn't Gibbon call Boethius the last man that Cicero or Cato could've recognized as one of their countrymen?

[Gaius Paulinus Maximus]

To be honest I don't know enough about the candidates to give an honest vote, but after googling each one and doing a bit of brief research on their careers and their lives I would have to give my vote to Aetuis, simply because his victory over Attila the Hun at the Battle of Chalons guarantees him, as Edward Gibbon states, immortality as "the man universally celebrated as the terror of Barbarians and the support of the Republic" of Rome.

 

One name that hasn't been mentioned but I think deserves to be is Flavius Belisarius, he was undoubtedly one of the greatest Roman generals of all time, although he was from the Byzantine era he had the morals and virtue of the ancient Romans from the days of the Republic, many times his army had urged him to declare himself Emperor and overthrow Justinian, and everytime he flatly refused, he believed in the glory of the Empire and that he was there to serve and not to rule.

 

His many campaigns and victories against the Vandals and the Ostrogoths he achieved with very little help or support from his Emperor but using his military genius and nearly always with the odds stacked firmly against him he always seemed to prevail.

 

The one thing he had in common with Aetius is that no matter how much they did for the Empire they never really had the support or trust from their Emperor that they truly deserved although Aetius had once supported Joannes against Valentinian, so maybe Valentinian did have a reason to mistrust him, where as Belisarius had been thoroughly loyal to Justinian throughout his life, but in the end their Emperors were responsible for their demise.

 

Anyone else think General Belisarius is worth a vote?

Edited March 14, 2007 by Gaius Paulinus Maximus

[Gaius Octavius]

And the last Emperor, Constantine XI, died fighting to the last on the walls of the Queen of Cities at the St. Romanus Gate?

[Nerva]

Anyone else think General Belisarius is worth a vote?

You've certainly made a convincing case for him.

 

It raises the question how tough these super tribes were if Belisarius could defeat not only the Vandals but the Ostrogoths with such small forces of his own. But I digress.

[Neos Dionysos]

It raises the question how tough these super tribes were if Belisarius could defeat not only the Vandals but the Ostrogoths with such small forces of his own. But I digress.

 

 

I think that should atest to his superior generalship rather than the Germanic Tribes being possible pushovers...

 

 

 

I did not vote... since mine would've went to Marcellinus.