This is a list of the dynasties that ruled the Roman Empire and its two succeeding counterparts, the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire. Dynasties of states that had claimed legal succession from the Roman Empire are not included in this list.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/timeline/p7tiuia1nycp7i82cx64q6i4um38oye.png)
- As adoption was widely practiced by the upper classes, some Roman monarchs were not directly biologically related to their predecessors despite belonging to the same dynasty. For example, the second emperor of the Julio–Claudian dynasty, Tiberius, was in fact an adopted son of the dynastic founder, Augustus.
- The Nerva–Antonine dynasty is sometimes subdivided into the Nerva–Trajan dynasty and the Antonine dynasty.
- The rule of the Severan dynasty was interrupted between 217 CE and 218 CE. Caracalla was the last ruler before the interregnum. Elagabalus was the first ruler after the interregnum.
- The Constantinian dynasty is also known as the "Neo-Flavian dynasty".
- Maurice and Theodosius reigned as co-rulers.
- The rule of the Heraclian dynasty was interrupted between 695 CE and 705 CE. Justinian II was both the last ruler before the interregnum and the first ruler after the interregnum.
- Justinian II and Tiberius reigned as co-rulers.
- The Isaurian dynasty is also known as the "Syrian dynasty".
- Michael I Rangabe and Theophylact reigned as co-rulers.
- The Amorian dynasty is also known as the "Phrygian dynasty".
- The Komnenid dynasty ruled the Empire of Trebizond between 1204 CE and 1461 CE.
- The rule of the Komnenid dynasty was interrupted between 1059 CE and 1081 CE. Isaac I Komnenos was the last ruler before the interregnum. Alexios I Komnenos was the first ruler after the interregnum.
- Andronikos I Komnenos and John Komnenos reigned as co-rulers.
- In the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade, the Laskarid dynasty of the empire of Nicaea is traditionally accepted by historians as the legitimate continuation of the Roman Empire, mostly because in 1261 it recovered Constantinople, New Rome.[16] During the period between 1204–1261, however, there were four competing dynasties—aside from the Laskarids in Nicaea, these were the Latin emperors of the "Flanders dynasty" in Constantinople,[17] the Komnenodoukai of Epirus and the Megalokomnenoi of Trebizond—equally claiming the east Roman emperorship.
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