Emperor Justinian I of the Roman (Byzantine) Empire. The man has it all, skill, shrewdness, patience, and the ability to think strategically on multiple levels. With apologies to Trajan, Justinian might just have been the real "Last Roman." Hi dynasty was one of the last to be named in Latin. His dynasty was also the last one to rule Rome itself.

Justinian spent his entire career getting amazing things done with never quite enough resources to do them properly. He weathered the plague and invasions from literally all sides, locked horns with a Persian empire at the height of its own strength, and still managed to reclaim several lost Roman provinces including Hispania, Italia and Africa. He goes down in history as one of the greatest individual monarchs the world has ever known.