Western Civilization I / Unit 7 WC1 0624 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Sequencing the Emperors, 27 BCE to 235 CE
The idea
The exam gives four emperors and asks their order, and the method is to learn the three dynasties as blocks with a date at each seam. Julio-Claudians from twenty-seven B.C.E. to sixty-eight; the seam is sixty-nine, the year of four emperors. Flavians sixty-nine to ninety-six; the seam is Domitian's assassination. Adoptive emperors ninety-six to one eighty; the seam is Commodus. Severans one ninety-three to two thirty-five.
In practice
Place six names. Claudius: Julio-Claudian, so before sixty-nine. Vespasian: first Flavian, right after. Trajan: adoptive, early, greatest extent in one seventeen. Nero: last Julio-Claudian, dead in sixty-eight, so before Vespasian. Marcus Aurelius: last true adoptive emperor, dying in one eighty. Septimius Severus: Severan, after one ninety-three. Read in order: Claudius, Nero, Vespasian, Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus. Add Augustus at the front and Severus Alexander, dead in two thirty-five, at the back.
Where people slip
Two seams trap students. Titus and Domitian are Flavians, not adoptive, though they follow Vespasian, and Commodus is Marcus Aurelius's son, not an adoptee, though he sits inside the adoptive century. Classify by dynasty first, then order within it.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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