Picture: Justinian | Heraclius | Basil II | Alexios Komnenos, from thecollector.com
For our 300th episode I decided to do something different. I chose my 10 Greatest Byzantine Emperors.
Stream: The 10 Greatest Byzantine Emperors
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The History of Byzantium 
The importance Robin places on succession planning in ranking emperors is being sadly vindicated right now in the US presidential debates. President Biden is clearly not the man he once was, making a strong case for the thesis that the Democrats have wasted the four good years of his presidency by not taking the opportunity to bring on a new generation of younger, more dynamic candidates who would present a much more compelling alternative to a similarly aging ex-President Trump.
Listening to the review of rating criteria that you bring up, I’d suggest that a comparison avoiding apple-to-orange comparisons could be used if the list was structured differently. You mentioned that dividing the list into different time periods having their own top 10 list becomes rather bland, which on my own inspection looks true — you basically just end up listing the good emperors in that time period. I would suggest making those lists smaller in proportion to the number of emperors who ruled in that time period. For example, if one time period is 476 to 640, another is 640 to 1071, and another is 1071 to 1204, then you might list the top 2 emperors from 476 to 640, the top 7 from 640 to 1071, and the top 1 from 1071 to 1204, and thereby maintain interest.
Granted, it’s boring to list the top 10 emperors from 476 to 640 because that list would amount to simply excluding those who were worst, but the top 2 requires a decision on which two of Anastasias, Maurice, and Heraklios deserve room on the list.
Moreover, for the 1071 to 1204 portion, the decision of Alexios I over John II and Manuel I is interesting, and a decision of only 7 emperors from 640 to 1071 still requires some decent candidates to be excluded.
Interesting ideas