its always nephews or son-in-laws or adoptions. i think vespasian was the first one to give it over to his son. were they all gay or unmarried or what? i see they occasionally had daughters but for real, did they all not like having children? Julius had a son he diddnt give to but what of the others?
augustus: Great-nephew and adopted son of Julius Caesar
tiberius: Natural son of Livia Drusilla, Augustus' third wife, by a previous marriage; stepbrother and third husband of Julia the Elder, daughter of Augustus; adopted by Augustus as his son and heir. (wtf)
Caligula: Great-nephew and adoptive grandson of Tiberius; natural son of Germanicus; great-grandson of Augustus.
Claudius: Uncle of Caligula; brother of Germanicus; nephew of Tiberius; great-nephew and step-grandson of Augustus; proclaimed emperor by the Praetorian Guard.
Nero:Great-nephew, stepson, son-in-law and adopted son of Claudius; nephew of Caligula; great-great-nephew of Tiberius; grandson of Germanicus; great-great-grandson of Augustus
then year of four emperors ending with Vespecian dynasty which diddnt last further then his sons
appointed nerva adopted trajan who adopted hadrian who adopted antonius pius who adopted lucius verus who then adopted marcus aurelius finally passed it onto his real son commudus
who fucking got murdered and started the year of five emperors
ending with severan who passed it onto his sons
who got overthwrowm by macrinus for a little bit
and then elgabulus Grandson-in-law of Septimius Severus, alleged illegitimate son of Caracalla; proclaimed emperor by Syrian legions
and severus alexander Grandson-in-law of Septimius Severus, cousin and adoptive heir of Elagabalus
que crisis of the third century and that clusterfuck
thrax first then gordian and his son usurped it as co emperors but not for long some other randos and then gordian gets a grandson through his daughter on the throne and was the first emperor to rule for more than 3 and a half years in the last 6 goes at it.
philip the arab then got it coemperoring with his son both of which got murdered by decius who got murdered but actually successfully passed it to his son for the 5 months his son was alive
trebonnianus Assassinated by their own troops, in favour of Aemilian
who was then Assassinated by his own troops, in favour of Valerian who passed it onto his son who was then murdered
and this shit just goes on for the whole page
ive seen one father-son-grandson ruling as emperors and thats the gordians and the grandchild is through his daughter and there was a hiccup
theres also the leo dynasty but again throught the daugther
the first thru father-son-grandson dynasty was the heraclian dynasty.
thats 27 BC to 610 ad, in the eastern empire alone, the first time the succession actually worked and even fucking then it got interrupted by Heraclius other son trying to take it for himself.
This may be of interest to you
In point of fact plenty of emperors had sons. When we speak of adopted sons--a perfectly legitimate way to keep a family line alive in the Roman world, in which child mortality rates were so high that the city's population had to be constantly rejuvenated from Italian migrants--we usually are speaking of either individuals married to an emperor's daughters or the nearest male relative, usually a grandson but sometimes a nephew. The fact of the matter is that the Julio-Claudians in particular tended to outlive their offspring. The only emperors, prior to the destabilization of the state in the third century, to rely extensively on adoption from outside the family were the Antonines. Nerva was an old man, and unmarried. Hadrian was well known to be more interested in Antinous than his wife. Antoninus Pius had at least two sons, both of whom died before he became emperor, and at least two daughters. Marcus Aurelius' case is critical in understanding the trials of child mortality. Marcus Aurelius married at the age of 24 (as opposed to Trajan, who married nearly in his forties, only shortly before becoming emperor) and had ample time to sire children. Of about fourteen children only a handful survived into adulthood: Commodus, Marcus Verus, Antoninus, and his daughter Lucilla. This is not a particularly high child mortality rate, this is normal in the ancient world. Of offspring who did survive, e.g. Germanicus, there was no guarantee that they would survive their parents, particularly if they were active, as imperial family members tended to be, waging war or politicking in the provinces. Moreover, as the third century shows us quite clearly, the emperors of the Principate were not like ordinary kings. They did not really have established dynasties or complicated laws of royal succession, although just as any other Roman nobiles they tried their damnedest to preserve their clan lines in a world in which nobilis families died out very quickly due to restrictive marriage laws and other legal issues, to say nothing of civil wars. The Roman emperors, while extraordinarily powerful, were dynastically identical to all the other nobiles, and they had to deal with a senate and a sometimes independently-minded army.