The 

Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman Empire during the imperial period (starting with

the granting of the title augustus to Octavian in 27 BC). The emperors used a variety of different
titles throughout history. Often when a given Roman is described as becoming "emperor" in English
it reflects his taking of the title augustus (and later basileus). Another title often used was caesar,
used for heirs-apparent, and imperator, originally a military honorific. Early emperors also used the
title princeps civitatis ('first citizen'). Emperors frequently amassed republican titles, notably princeps
senatus, consul, and pontifex maximus.
The legitimacy of an emperor's rule depended on his control of the army and recognition by
the Senate; an emperor would normally be proclaimed by his troops, or invested with imperial titles
by the Senate, or both. The first emperors reigned alone; later emperors would sometimes rule with
co-emperors and divide administration of the empire between them.
The Romans considered the office of emperor to be distinct from that of a king. The first
emperor, Augustus, resolutely refused recognition as a monarch.[1] For the first three hundred years
of Roman emperors, from Augustus until Diocletian, efforts were made to portray the emperors as
leaders of the republic, fearing any association with the kings of Rome prior to the Republic.
From Diocletian, whose tetrarchic reforms also divided the position into one emperor in the West and
one in the East, until the end of the Empire, emperors ruled in an openly monarchic style[2] and did
not preserve the nominal principle of a republic, but the contrast with "kings" was maintained:
although the imperial succession was generally hereditary, it was only hereditary if there was a
suitable candidate acceptable to the army and the bureaucracy,[3] so the principle of automatic
inheritance was not adopted. Elements of the republican institutional framework (senate, consuls,
and magistrates) were preserved even after the end of the Western Empire.
The reign of Constantine the Great witnessed the removal of the Caput
Mundi from Rome to Constantinople, formerly known as Byzantium, in 330 AD. The Western Roman
Empire collapsed in the late 5th century after multiple invasions of imperial territory
by Germanic barbarian tribes. Romulus Augustulus is often considered to have been the last
emperor of the West, until his forced abdication in 476, although Julius Nepos maintained a claim
recognized by the Eastern Empire to the title until his death in 480. Following Nepos's death, the
Eastern emperor Zeno abolished the division of the position and proclaimed himself as the sole
emperor of a reunited Roman Empire. The subsequent Eastern emperors ruling
from Constantinople continued to style themselves "Emperor of the Romans" (later βασιλεύς
Ῥωμαίων in Greek), but are often referred to in modern scholarship as Byzantine
emperors. Constantine XI Palaiologos was the last Roman emperor in Constantinople, dying during
the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453.
The "Byzantine" emperors from Heraclius in 629 and onwards adopted the monarchic title
of basileus (βασιλεύς), which became a title reserved solely for the Roman emperor and the ruler of
the Sasanian Empire. Other rulers were then referred to as rēgas.[4]
In addition to their pontifical office, some emperors were given divine status after death. With the
eventual hegemony of Christianity, the emperor came to be seen as God's chosen ruler, as well as
a special protector and leader of the Christian Church on Earth, although in practice an emperor's
authority on Church matters was subject to challenge.