Valerian, Emperor of Rome

Valerian is one of the lesser known Roman Emperors but he has a special claim to fame in that he was the only one who was captured by a foreign enemy and died in exile as a result. This puts him quite high on the list of failed Emperors, of which the later Roman Empire, in particular, had a large number.

Publius Licinius Valerianus was born in around the year 200 (possibly a few years earlier). Little is known about his early life except that he was a consul at some time in the 230s and a high-ranking member of the Senate who held the position of “princeps senatus” in 238, a year of civil war during which seven men claimed office as Emperor at various times.

It is known that Valerian was married to Egnatia Maririana, by whom he had two sons.

He was a trusted ally of both Emperors Decius and Trebonianus Gallus. The latter had been declared Emperor in 251 when Decius was killed by the Goths at the Battle of Abrittus (in modern Bulgaria).

Two years later Gallus was in turn threatened by a usurper, Aemilianus, and he called upon Valerian, who was commanding the legions on the Rhine, to come to his aid. However, Valerian was too late and Gallus had been overthrown and killed (possibly by his own troops) before he arrived.

The reign of Aemilianus was even briefer than that of Gallus, and his fate was similar in that his army mutinied and killed him before battle could be joined with the approaching army headed by Valerian, who was then acknowledged as Emperor. He was probably aged about 55 at the time (September 253).

One of Valerian’s first acts as Emperor was to elevate his son Gallienus to the rank of Augustus which signified his status as co-Emperor.

As Emperor, Valerian showed himself to be a deeply committed traditionalist, in that he was content to make the same mistakes that his predecessors had done in refusing to adapt to changing times. This meant that the borders of the Empire were to be defended at all costs and no concessions were to be made to the cultural diversity of the peoples who lived within those borders.

This thinking was behind Valerian’s edict in 257 that sanctioned persecution of Christians throughout the Empire. This included seizure of property and the execution of Christians who would not recant their beliefs.

On the military side, Roman armies failed to learn from their defeats against enemies such as the Goths and the Persians, in that Roman battle strategies were ineffective against the hit-and-run tactics of their opponents. The aim of these invaders was not so much to conquer territory as to raid and pillage and then retreat before the Romans could muster an army to confront them.

In 259 a new invasion threatened the Empire from the east. This was launched by Shapur, the leader of the Sassanid Empire that covered the whole of modern Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan and reached as far as India. Valerian headed an army to confront Shapur but his troops were in no shape to put up much of a fight due to disease and incipient mutiny.

Valerian offered to sue for peace and a meeting was arranged between the two rulers. However, this was a trick and Valerian fell into the trap. He was captured by Shapur and taken back to Persia in chains, never to be heard from again.

Various stories have arisen about what happened to Valerian, many of them put about by later writers who had a reason for denigrating the former Emperor. One story was that Shapur used Valerian as a footstool when mounting his horse, and another was that, when he died, his body was stuffed with straw and exhibited in a Persian temple. All that can be known for certain is that Valerian died in captivity, leaving his son Gallienus to rule as sole Emperor.

Shapur was clearly proud of his triumphs against the might of Rome, having the events preserved in the form of reliefs carved at Naqsh-i-Rustam, near Persepolis. However, it should be noted that, although in a submissive posture, the figure of Valerian is not shown as being on his knees. That dishonour is reserved for another former Emperor, namely Philip, who had been defeated in a previous battle.

© John Welford

Gallienus, Emperor of Rome

Gallienus is one of the Roman Emperors whose reputation has undergone considerable change over the centuries. Early historians regarded his reign as “one of the most ignoble and disastrous in the history of Rome” and himself as “indolent, profligate and indifferent to the public welfare” (to quote Smith’s Classical Dictionary) but modern research has credited him with some successes and qualities during a very difficult period of Roman history.

Publius Licinius Valerianus Egnatius Gallienus was probably born in 218, his father being the Emperor-to-be Valerian and his mother Egnatia Mariniana. When his father became Emperor in 253 he appointed Gallienus as his co-Emperor.

Gallienus was himself the father of three sons by his wife Cornelia Salonina. Two of these sons, Valerianus and Saloninus, were given the title of Caesar on Valerian’s accession, although they were probably aged only 15 and 11 respectively. The young princes were despatched to Illyria and Gaul respectively to create an imperial presence, but both were to die under suspicious circumstances.

Gallienus concentrated on securing the northern borders of the Empire while Valerian headed east to face the Persian threat. In this he was largely successful, but his main troubles were to come from internal revolts. One of these was from a commander named Ingenuus who had been entrusted with the care of young Valerianus. He declared himself Emperor after Valerianus died and Gallienus sought to demote him. Gallienus defeated Ingenuus in battle in 260, after which the usurper commited suicide.

Another revolt was launched by a general from Dacia named Regalianus, who attempted to seize power when Gallienus was busy elsewhere. He was, however, murdered by his own troops in 260.

A more serious threat was posed by general Marcus Postumus, who declared himself “Emperor of the Gauls” and remained in power until after Gallienus’s own death in 268. Gallienus believed that Postumus had been responsible for the death of his second son, Saloninus, and could never forgive him for that.

The number of rebellions throughout the reign of Gallienius was so great that the ancient “Historia Augusta” listed “thirty tyrants” who were pretenders at various times. Although later scholarship has disputed several of these names, the evidence that Gallienus was never secure on this throne is very strong.

A number of these revolts were occasioned in or around 260 when Gallienus became sole Emperor with the capture and disappearance of Valerian when fighting against the Sassanid Empire under Shapur.

One reason why the reign of Gallienus has had such a “bad press” among historians is that they have misunderstood the way in which Gallienus sought to deal with threats to his rule. He recognised that Rome could no longer be self-sufficient in organising its defence and that other powers had to be accommodated.

An example of co-operation of this kind is that with Palmyra (in modern Syria). The prince of Palmyra was Septimius Odaenathus who gave invaluable assistance to the Roman army after the capture of Valerian. He was himself threatened by the Sassanids and realised that an alliance with Rome was in his best interests. He had considerable success against Shapur and proclaimed himself “king of kings” but was always loyal to Gallienus. It is therefore unfair for Odaenathus to be counted among the “thirty tyrants” as he was never a threat to Roman rule.

However, Gallienus could not withstand the constant onslaughts for ever. In 268 he fell victim to a plot by his own senior officers who had staged a rebellion in northern Italy, and was killed while besieging Milan.

As sole ruler, Gallienus offered a new model for ruling the Empire in which the monolithic structure of the earlier Empire was broken down into largely self-contained units, often governed by commanders who had asserted themselves but who were nevertheless loyal to the Emperor. At least some of the thirty tyrants need to be seen in this light as opposed to being merely pretenders to the throne.

Although Gallienius’s personal reputation was smeared by many later commentators, he did have some qualities that should be cited in his favour. He was, for example, less interested in persecuting Christians than his father had been, and he granted freedom of worship to many Christian communities, returning property that had been seized during Valerian’s rule.

Gallienus had one of the most difficult reigns of any Emperor of Rome, but he achieved some major victories and proved himself to be a pragmatic ruler who responded well to the crises that arose.

© John Welford

Macrinus, a short-lived Emperor of Rome

Macrinus was the first Roman Emperor to come from a non-Senatorial background, but his occupation of the highest office in the Empire was neither long nor distinguished.

Macrinus becomes Emperor thanks to a murder

Marcus Opellius Macrinus was what might be termed an “accidental Emperor” in that he had neither background nor training for the job, and there is some evidence that he did not actually want it.

He was probably born in around the year 165 in Mauretania, North Africa, but nothing is known about his parentage. He rose through the ranks of the Army to become a prefect in the Praetorian Guard, the task of which was to protect the person of the Emperor, who – from the year 211 – was Caracalla, a brutal and obnoxious man who became the target of plots against his life.

One such plot had Macrinus’s fingerprints all over it, although it is possible that he was actually framed as a plotter by Flavius Maternianus, a friend of Caracalla.

Whatever the truth of the matter, Maternianus wrote a letter to Caracalla with evidence that implicated Macrinus, and recommended that the latter be eliminated. However, the letter fell into Macrinus’s hands and he decided to get his retaliation in first.

On 8^th April 217 Caracalla – who was on campaign against the Parthians – made a detour to visit a shrine devoted to the moon-god Lunus. He stopped en route for a toilet break, but Macrinus’s assassin seized the opportunity to plunge his sword between the Emperor’s ribs.

At least, that is the story. The murderer was himself killed immediately afterwards and so could not reveal who had paid him to do the job, but Macrinus was certainly very high on the list of suspects.

A reluctant Emperor?

Macrinus was acclaimed Emperor by the Army, but there is some evidence that he was reluctant to accept the honour. It is possible that he did not want to throw the suspicion for Caracalla’s murder on to himself by appearing to be too eager to seize the crown, and it is also possible that he knew exactly how difficult it was going to be to take over the Empire, given the fact that a strong Parthian army was heading his way.

Whatever the reason, there was an interregnum of several days before Macrinus took the job, which was never going to be an easy one.

Emperor Macrinus

Macrinus’s first problem was the Parthians, led by their king Artabanus V. In the end he had to buy them off at great expense, and he also had to reach accommodations with the Dacians and Armenians who had seen the change of Emperor as an opportunity to make nuisances of themselves.

He decided against returning immediately to Rome, which was a mistake given that the Imperial city was suffering from a major fire followed by flooding and the people looked to their new Emperor for support which they were not getting.

He also managed to cause disquiet in the Army by not treating them with the same generosity, in terms of pay, that Caracalla had done.

A new Emperor, especially one with highly dubious claims to office, needs powerful friends if he is going to enjoy a long reign, and Macrinus was clearly lacking in that department.

Powerful female foes

However, it was the women of the Severan clan who would prove to be Macrinus’s undoing.

Caracalla had been the son of Septimius Severus, a well-respected and long-serving Emperor. Septimius’s widow Julia Domna was still alive at the time of Caracalla’s death, as was Julia’s sister Julia Maesa. The sisters did not want the upstart Macrinus as Emperor as long as there were suitable Severan candidates.

Julia Domna died within a few months of Macrinus’s accession – she was suffering from breast cancer but there is a suggestion that she was forced into suicide by Macrinus.

That left “aunt Julia Maesa” to take up the cause, aided by her own daughters (two more Julias!), who each had a son of their own who were therefore suitable Severan candidates to be Emperor.

One of Julia Maesa’s grandsons was Varius Avitus Bassianus, then aged 14. He bore a passing resemblance to Caracalla, and the Julias invented the idea that he was actually Caracalla’s illegitimate son. This was a clever move, given that the soldiers recalled the former Emperor’s reign with fond nostalgia and were willing to believe anything that might promise a return to the good old days.

Avitus, despite his youth, was therefore declared Emperor by the local legion (Legio III Gallica stationed at Emesa in Syria), and Macrinus clearly had a problem on his hands.

The end of Macrinus

Macrinus had no choice but to declare war on the Severan family and the legion that supported them. The battle looked to be going in Macrinus’s favour until Julia Maesa and her daughter Julia Soaemias leapt from their chariots and persuaded the soldiers to fight on.

Macrinus then lost heart and fled the scene, possibly hoping to end his days in exile. However, he was eventually captured, along with his own young son whom he had lined up to succeed him. They were duly executed and their heads stuck on pikes.

Rome was now back under Severan control, but a period of even worse government lay ahead.

© John Welford

Deucalion and Pyrrha: a Greek flood myth

Flood myths are common in the mythologies of ancient civilisations across the world, and several theories have been put forward to account for why this might be so.

One such theory is that the release of large amounts of water at the end of the last Ice Age (at around 10,000 BCE) could have caused sudden catastrophic flooding as natural barriers were breached. This would have created folk memories that were subsequently passed down through many generations. Another theory is that such stories were invented to explain the presence of marine fossils and shells far above current sea levels (which are now known to be the result of geological processes over millions of years).

Whatever the reason, most of the stories have similar themes relating to the anger of a god and the saving of the only men and women who are righteous enough to be trusted to rebuild the human race after the rest have been wiped out. In Babylonian mythology (the Gilgamesh tablets) the lucky survivor is Utnapishtim, whose story is remarkably close to that of Noah in the Book of Genesis. In Greek mythology the equivalent story is that of Deucalion and Pyrrha.

As is usually the case with Greek mythology, various versions of the story exist, told by such writers as Hesiod, Apollodorus or Homer. One version has it that Lycaon, king of Arcadia, tried to trick Zeus unto eating the flesh of a murdered child, but Zeus responded by destroying Lycaon and his family with a thunderbolt and then decided to destroy the rest of mankind by sending a flood, given that Lycaon’s wickedness was only symptomatic of the evil that pervaded everyone else.

The titan Prometheus got to know of Zeus’s plan and warned his son Deucalion, whose wife Pyrrha was the daughter of Epimetheus (brother to Prometheus) and Pandora, the first human woman. The couple stored enough food for nine days and nights which they placed in a large chest (or a ship, in some accounts). When the flood came they floated in the chest until it came to rest on Mount Parnassus.

Deucalion and Pyrrha were now the only mortals left alive, for which they gave thanks to Zeus and consulted the goddess Themis as to what they should do next (some accounts say that it was Hermes who conveyed instructions to them from Zeus).

Themis (or Hermes) advised them to throw their mother’s bones over their shoulders. They interpreted this as meaning the bones of Mother Earth, and they each picked up stones and threw them behind them. Every stone that Deucalion threw turned into a man and those thrown by Pyrrha became women.

As well as creating new humans in this way, Deucalion and Pyrrha had children of their own, most notably Hellen who gave his name to the Hellenes who occupied the land of Hellas, which is the name that the Greeks use for their country down to the present day.

Hellen’s sons and grandsons would become the founders of the four main branches of the Greek people, namely the Aeolians, Dorians, Ionians and Achaeans.

There is therefore another parallel between this myth and that of Noah, in that Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, would give their names to the Semites, Hamites and Japhethites respectively.

© John Welford