[Music] over the Millennium and a half that separate the rise of Augustus from the fall of Constantinople there were about 150 Roman emperors they reigned on average 11 years living to a median age of 51 not quite half met unnatural ends some Emperors never received a formal burial bellus elagabalus and petronus were flung into the Tyber Constantine II was dumped into the river ASA Justinian II and Alexius II were cast into the sea so was Constantine V after being posthumously declared a heretic all that was moral of andronicus II was left to rot in a
vault of the Hippodrome at Constantinople the ashes of focus were scattered to the winds the bodies of several Emperors likewise were never recovered Deus was lost in the mud of a Balan swamp the lens was incinerated in a farmhouse outside adrianople the skull of neris I became a favorite drinking cup of the bulgar krumb most Emperors however were buried with great ceremony by the third century an elaborate ritual had evolved a waxed Effigy Of The Emperor was placed on an ivory couch it was attended for seven days by the Senate dressed in morning black then
the Effigy was brought into the forum where corses sang the emperor's Praises in the campus Marcus finally the apigy was placed on a gargantuan pire decorated with statues and paintings and packed with incense troops of Horsemen paraded around the p as the Chariots carrying likenesses of famous Romans when the P was lit an eagle was released from the top to symbolize the Flight of The Emperor's soul to Heaven although Septimus seus and most of his predecessors were cremated inhumation was standard from the 3rd Century onward the body of Justinian was so well embalmed that the
Crusaders pillaging the emperor sarcophagus more than six centuries after his death found it almost perfectly preserved the rest of this video we'll consider where the Roman emperors were buried from Augustus in 14 ad to Constantine the 11th in 1453 I haven't been able to track down every Emperor but I've come pretty close buckle up Augustus the first emperor designed his own melum it stood on the Northern edge of Rome's campus Marcus between the Tyber and the Via flaminia a vast circular structure with walls of travertine face concrete it was crowned by a terrac roof planted
with trees a long passageway led to the burial chamber where rows of niches held the sary earns of Augustus and his family Tiberius was buried in the melum of Augustus so presumably was Claudius A generation later the ashes of nerva were placed there the less reputable Julio claudians were denied admission Caligula was cremated and buried in the lamian Gardens on the outskirts of Rome although his sisters later exhumed The Remains his ghost reportedly lingered there Nero's ashes were placed in the Tomb of the deti his father's family on the pincian hill galba was assassinated in
the Forum and his head was paraded around the city on a spear after various Adventures head and body were reunited and buried in the former Emperor's gardens near the Via Aurelia AO took his own life outside Brook selum modern bra shello and was buried there vellus struck down near the Forum was hauled to the Tyber with a meat hook his wife however managed to fish the body from the river and bury it near Rome the flavian Emperors basian Titus and demission all ended up in the temple of the Gans Flavia which stood on the quirinal
hill demission himself was initially buried at elsewhere his faithful nurse however smuggled his ashes into the family Temple traent ashes were interred at the base of his namesake column a signal honor since the column stood inside the pomerium the ritual boundary within which burials were normally forbidden hadrien built a grandio melum modeled on that of Augustus but considerably more elaborate every part was sheathed in gleaming marble colossal statues stood guard on the roof centuries later during Justinian's reconquest of Italy they would be hurled down to break the siege ladders of the Goths inside the melum
a circular ramp cork screwed up to the chamber in which the Emperors lay all this was despoiled long ago but visitors can still see the papal apartment built over the tomb chamber during the Renaissance which features a bathroom with Fresco of questionable propriety antoninus pus cilus Commodus and Septimus seus were buried in the melum of hadrien So eventually was carala seus Alexander was buried just outside Rome in the melum now known as the Monte del Grano the famous Portland vase in the British museum may have contained his ashes ganus was laid to rest in a
melum along the Via apia aurelan was probably also buried at Rome but the location of his tomb is unknown a series of third Century Emperors were buried far from Rome gordian III was buried at Zea in Mesopotamia hostilian at vakum on the danu frontier valaran was probably buried at gundes shapur in modern Iran where he had been taken as a captive of the Persian Emperor it would later be rumored that the Persians had Valyrian corpse flayed stuffed and displ La in a temple Claus gothicus was failed by a plague at serium and likely buried there
a fever claimed tacitus at Tiana as far as we know there he remained carus was reportedly incinerated by a lightning bolt near the Persian capital of tson if so he would have been buried on the spot moving on to the tetrarchy Dian was buried in his retirement Villa so massive that its walls still contained the entire Old Town of Split Croatia in one of those ironies of History the arch persecutors masalam became a Christian Cathedral daian co-emperor maximan seems to have been buried at Marse a medieval Legend claimed that his body was later discovered perfectly
preserved floating in a pool of perfumed oil garius was buried just outside the massive fortified Palace he had built for himself at Felix rulana now in eastern Serbia concentus chlorus died at York but was probably buried at Trier Constantine established the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople where he and many other Emperors would eventually be inomed before discussing that remarkable complex however let's focus on the final rulers of the Western Roman Empire who were left out of Constantine's melum during the fifth century four Emperors were buried in Rome anius was buried in a melum
beside Old St Peter's Basilica the Anan III and probably libus Severus and olbrias were laid in the same structure when the mlum was demolished in the 16th century the sarcophagus of anor's wife was discovered enorus himself and the emperor buried with him however still lie undisturbed beneath the church gracian and valentinian II were buried by St Ambrose in Milan Aus was buried at brude now in central France majorian was probably buried at tortona in Northern Italy after a brief stint as Emperor glycerius was deposed and made Bishop of Salona now in Croatia where he was
eventually buried before his demise however he seems to have orchestrated the assassination of his successor Julius nepos who had also been exiled to the vicinity Romulus Augustus the final Western Roman Emperor lived out his days near Naples and was buried there returning to the Eastern Roman Empire Constantine was buried in a circular melum beside the Church of the Holy Apostles at Constantinople over the following seven centuries batmam and another constructed by Justinian would accumulate dozens of Imperial sarcophagi for reasons ranging from personal Devotion to deposition some Emperors were buried elsewhere in and around Constantinople after
10:28 when the mums of the Holy Apostles were completely full the practice became Universal a few Emperors were buried outside Constantinople Constance II was buried in Syracuse leonus Tiberius III Leo V and Romanus IV were all buried on Pro one of the prince's islands in the sea of marmura another of the prince's Islands PR was briefly the resting place of empress Irene the tomb of Michael V was on Kos Michael the was buried at saturos in bethenia theodosius III who became Bishop of Ephesus after being deposed was buried in that City his tomb became famous
as a place of miraculous cures the kenian dynasty established a family melum at the pator monastery in Constantinople now Z mosque John II and Manuel I were buried here Alexius I the Dynasty's founder was buried at pistos Monastery now Fati mosque after the Crusaders took Constantinople in 1204 several Byzantine successor States Rose in the provinces the most significant of these the Empire of NAA was founded by Theodore lascaris who was buried in the city he had chosen as his capital his successors John II and Theodore II were buried in magnesia and cilum and John I
4th the last of the line was buried on the Asian coast of the Sea of marmura Michael VII who retook Constantinople and founded the palean dynasty was denied burial in the Imperial City due to a religious controversy his remains were interred at a monastery in cimbria thce John V 6 a later member of the dynasty was buried at mistras near ancient Sparta the rest of the pale loans were buried in Constantinople andronicus II buried at the monastery of Constantine lips is the only Roman Emperor whose remains have been discovered by archaeologists andronicus III and John
V ended up at the monastery of panagia H deatria now on the grounds of topaa Palace andronicus IV Manuel II and John II were all interred near their comenian predecessors at the pantor monastery Constantine the 11th the last of the Roman emperors died fighting beneath the walls of Constantinople his body was never found looking at the map of all the burials discussed in this video some clear patterns emerge unsurprisingly most Emperors were buried in Rome or Constantinople Emperors were buried elsewhere either because they fell in battle because they were exiled or because they had established
a capital in the provinces to be buried in a place after all is to claim it if you'd like to claim your place and my upcoming trips to Rome and Eastern Turkey follow the links in the description the turkey trip includes an Excursion in Istanbul where we'll see the remains of several Imperial tombs you'll find the latest episode in my Roman review series which investigates the 1963 film Cleopatra on patreon also linked below finally for more historical content check out my other channels toen Stone footnotes and cnic roots to the Past thanks for watching for
