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Which Roman emperors did Edward Gibbon call the Five Good Emperors?
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Edward Gibbon
Edward Gibbon, oil painting by Henry Walton, 1774; in the National Portrait Gallery, London.
The British historian Edward Gibbon identified the "Five Good Emperors" as the rulers who presided over the period from the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus, which he famously described as the time when the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous.1
These five emperors are:
- Nerva (reigned 96–98 CE)1
- Trajan (98–117 CE)1
- Hadrian (117–138 CE)1
- Antoninus Pius (138–161 CE)1
- Marcus Aurelius (161–180 CE)1