Being a Roman emperor was a highly dangerous occupation, research finds New study finds there was a good chance of dying in the first year on the job

Roman emperors are well known for their luxurious lives of debauchery and penchant for cruelty.

But it turns out that they also had one of the most dangerous occupations in history, with death by violence or suicide more likely than not, and often within a year of taking the job, a new study finds.

Researchers looked at the reigns of 69 rulers across four centuries of the Roman empire and found that 43 – or 62 per cent – were assasinated, killed in combat or suicide, often done to avoid execution.

The i newsletter latest news and analysis Email address is invalid Email address is invalid Thank you for subscribing! Sorry, there was a problem with your subscription.

By contrast, about four per cent of the climbers scaling Mount Everest die in the attempt.

“The odds of survival for a Roman emperor were roughly equivalent to playing Russian roulette with a six-chambered revolved, in which the participant places not one but four bullets, spins the cylinder and pulls the trigger with the muzzle against his head,” said said Joseph Saleh, of the Georgia Institute of Technology in the US.

He found that Roman emperors faced a high risk of violent death during their first year of reign, as they failed to grip the hugely difficult role at the apex of the famously complex, competitive, scheming and wide-ranging empire.

Things have stabilised by year eight

The risk of death stabilised by the eighth year but increased again after 12 years of rule as rulers increasing exhibit signs of “fatigue, corrosion or wear-out”, the study found.

“It’s interesting that a seemingly random process as unconventional and perilous as the violent death of a Roman emperor – over a four-century period and across a vastly changed world – appears to have a systematic structure,” Dr Saleh said.

“Although they may appear as random events when taken singularly, these results indicate that there may have been underlying processes governing the length of each rule until death,” he added.

De Imperatoribus Romanis

The data was taken from the De Imperatoribus Romanis, the online encyclopedia of Roman emperors.

Dr Saleh cautions that the data is by no means exact, as sources of ancient history are often inconsistent and the precise causes of death may differ between accounts.

Further studies could explore why emperors repeatedly met a violent end and whether other historical events may be analysed in this way, he said.

The study is published in the journal Palgrave Communications.

Brutal Roman deaths:

-No Roman ruler died as ignominiously as Valerian, 40th Emperor (ruled 253-260). After his defeat at Edessa in 260, his Persian counterpart Shapur seized him and held him captive for the rest of his life, which was spent in humiliating slavery. Shapur reportedly used Valerian as a human footstool when mounting his horse and eventually killed him by forcing him to swallow molten gold. The emperor’s skin was then stuffed with straw and kept as a trophy in the main Persian temple.

-Commodus (who ruled from 177-192 AD) Commodus was poisoned by his concubine, but vomited the substance, whereupon senators sent in his wrestling training partner to strangle the emperor in the bathtub.

-Caracalla (who ruled from 198 to 217 AD) was killed by his own bodyguard, when he was urinating by the side of the road.

-Joannes (ruled from 423 to 425AD) In 425, the eastern Empire’s army captured him, cut off his hands, and placed him on a donkey to be paraded and jeered at in a hippodrome. Having suffered both insult and injury, Joannes was put out of his misery and decapitated.

-Flavius Valentinianus, 68th Emperor (ruled from 375 to 392) was four years old when he was promoted to the top job. However, at just 21, he was found hanged in his residence . He was only 21. Flavius Arbogastes, a general in the army, claimed it was suicide – although the general consensus is that he did it.