Accomplishments
While emperor, Domitian committed many adulteries and he also was very strange. Among some of the more stranger things he did was watching women and dwarfs fight each other and pulling the wings off of a fly and watching it suffer. He also liked eunuchs very much. A eunuch is a castrated man in charge of an Oriental harem or employed as a chamberlain or high officer by an Oriental potentate. Oddly enough Domitian supposedly despised bloodshed.
Domitian was a very strict ruler. He was also harsh, cruel, and was angered very quickly. In other words Domitian was a tyrant. However, he did do many great deeds for Rome. He was very well known for his building project, were he restored, built, and completed many, many buildings. Some of the buildings that he restored were the Capitol of Jupiter, the Circus Maximus, the Bibliotheca Apollonis Palatini, the Pantheon, and the Forum Caesaris. Some of the buildings that Domitian had built were the Atria Septem, the Forum Nervae, the Ludi, and the Stadium. Some of the buildings completed by Domitian were the Amphitheatrum Flavianum, the Arcus Titi, and the Templum Divi Vespasiani.
Domitian had also saved Rome from a rebellion. A man named Lucius Antonius Saturninus, the governor of Upper Germany, wanted to rebel against Rome. He seized the savings banks of the two legions at Moguntiacum, which pretty much forced his men to call him emperor. As soon as Domitian got word of this rebellion, he sent out an army to meet Saturninus. Another army in Germany was supposed to aid Saturninus in his battle, but turned against him. His army was overwhelmed and he lost his life and Domitian stopped the rebellion.
Domitian was not one of the best emperors that Rome had had. He relied heavily on his council and he worked hard to protect the dignity of the "senatorial class". He forced the senators to vote for his ideas. In 85 A.D. he adopted the title of Perpetual Censor, which gave him more power and he controlled what could or could not be done in public. The whole time he ruled, Domitian was very popular with the army for obvious reasons; however, most of the senators hated him because he wanted a monarchy. Like many other of Domitian's predecessor, he deteriorated over the years.