Who's the best Roman emperor including Byzantine emperors

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Justinian and Augustus are the clear favourites whenever this gets brought up and for good reason.

Augustus kept the empire stable despite fighting almost half a dozen civil wars in his life time. Though he lived a long time he never got couped or assassinated like the ones who came immediately after him (literally all of them until Vespasian). The only "failed" policy he ever pushed was him trying to push a morality law to crack down on prostitutes that ended up in the banishment of his own daughter, everything else was great.

Justinian took an empire torn in two and took large swaths of it back. Had it not been for the plague that befell his empire even with the travesty that was his heirs reign it is likely that his conquests would have held and the Persians fought off.


Those two juggernauts aside there are some great choices however:

Aurelian - Put the empire back together even if not all of it can be directly attributed to him, but died very quick after doing it (5 years total was his reign) so hard to judge how he would have fared in the long term.

Trajan - Saw the empire at it's greatest extent but not much is actually known about his reign or him.

Constantine - Transitioned the Empire to a slightly stabler system and Christianity while establishing it's second capital.

Pius, Aurelius, Hadrian - part of the five good emperors along with nerva and trajan, all with their own strongpoints and lowpoints (especially hadrian who was a mixed bag) but I can't be bothered giving a synopsis for them.

Basil II - You don't get a nickname like "The Bulgar Slayer" without being a badass. Oversaw the Byzantine golden age while living a substantially long time (if I'm recalling correctly the top 4 reigns are him, constantine, justinian, and augustus)

Alexius I, Manuel II, John/Ioannas I Komnenos - all three ruled in succession, used the crusades to take back land in the Balkans and Anatolia. Of the three Alexius is the most well known, but the conquests and utter devestation Manuel II brought upon the magyars and other balkan territories were the most long lasting and beneficial to the empire long-term.

Heraclius - had Mohammad came to Jerusalem even 5 years later than he did, this man would have been solidified up there with Justinian and Augustus.

There are others who's names could be thrown out of course but here's my run down of who I'd list as the main candidates.