Impostor pretenders

leader of a Russian peasant uprising (1742–1775)

Bardiya or Smerdis ( ; ; possibly died 522 BCE), also named as Tanyoxarces (; ) by Ctesias, was a son of Cyrus the Great and the younger brother of Cambyses II, both Persian kings. There are sharply divided views on his life. Bardiya either ruled the Achaemenid Empire for a few months in 522 BCE, or was impersonated by a magus called Gaumata ( ), whose name is given by Ctesias as Sphendadates (; ), until he was toppled by Darius the Great.

Byzantine military commander (c. 760–823)

Ruler of the Greek Seleucid kingdom

king of Pergamum, imposter

Imposter-pretender to the throne of England

Andriscus (, Andrískos; 154/153 BC – 146 BC), also often referenced as Pseudo-Philip, was a Greek pretender who became the last independent king of Macedon in 149 BC as Philip VI (, Philipos), based on his claim of being Philip, a now-obscure son of the last legitimate Macedonian king, Perseus. His reign lasted just one year and was toppled by the Roman Republic during the Fourth Macedonian War.

Pretender to the Norwegian throne

Wikimedia disambiguation page

Armenian leader of Babylonian revolt against the Achaemenid Empire (died 521 BC)

king of Babylon

Imposter-pretender to the throne of England

French draughtsman (1920-2000)

thumb|right|King Sebastian of Portugal

Pretender to the Russian throne

Ruler of Montenegro

Peudo-Nero during the reign of Titus

European braggart, self claimed to be the Son of Ottoman Sultan Mehmed III

imposter princess (1791–1864)

ruler of Moldavia (1511–1563)

Roman slave and imposter for Agrippa Postumus

thumb | right After the emperor Nero committed suicide near the villa of his freedman Phaon in June of 68 AD, various Nero impostors appeared between the autumn of 69 AD and the reign of the emperor Domitian. Most scholars set the number of Nero impostors to two or three, although St. Augustine wrote of the popularity of the belief that Nero would return in his day, known as the Nero Redivivus legend. In addition to the three documented Pseudo-Neros, Suetonius refers to imperial edicts forged in the dead Nero's name that encouraged his followers and promised his imminent return to avenge himse

Imposter of the Margrave of Brandenburg

Romanov imposter (1899-1970)

Imposter pretender executed in 1402

Byzantine rebel leader active in Bithynia

Norwegian imposter

Byzantine pretender

Ethiopian politician and traveller

British artist and imposter (1772-1834)

late 12th-century Byzantine Empire usurper

Canadian conspiracy theorist linked to the QAnon movement

Swedish con artist (1817-1885)