The years 251 to 253 have been reckoned as among the worst
in the whole of Roman imperial history. This was a time of utter chaos, when
major cities were sacked by invading tribes, armies were destroyed, and
emperors came and went with considerable rapidity.
This article concerns two such emperors, of whom relatively
little can be said because they emerged from nowhere and played only minor
roles in the story of Rome’s sorry decline.
Trebonianus Gallus
Emperor Decius was killed at the Battle of Abrittus in June
251, the enemy being an invading army of Goths. He had previously indicated
that his preferred successor was Publius Licinius Valerianus, but it was Gaius
Vibius Trebonianus Gallus who was declared emperor
when the time came.
Born in about the year 206, of aristocratic stock, Trebonianus
Gallus had been governor of the province of Moesia Superior, which was one of
the provinces being threatened by the Goths. He appears to have been a loyal
and trusted follower of Decius, and a perfectly suitable successor. Valerianus
(usually known as Valerian) seems to have accepted the situation and not to
have been anxious to challenge Gallus for the throne. Given the track record of
emperors of the time – in terms of short reigns and violent deaths – this was
understandable.
The first act of Gallus as emperor was to conclude a peace
treaty with the Goths. His second was to adopt the younger son of Decius to
rule jointly with him, but this plan fell through when the young man died of
the plague soon afterwards. Gallus then appointed his own son, Volusianus, to
fill this position.
Trebonianus Gallus’s short reign was marked by a
continuation of Decius’s persecution of the Christians, although this was not
pursued with any great energy and consisted of expulsions rather than
executions, and further efforts to defend the empire from barbarian incursions,
which was by far the more pressing problem.
The troublesome tribes included the Franks and the Alemanni,
the latter of whom managed to cross the Rhine and pillage as far as Spain
before heading for home. In 252 the Goths claimed that the Romans had not
fulfilled their side of the peace treaty and resumed their attacks in Greece
and Asia Minor. They launched seaborne attacks from the Black Sea, burst
through the Dardanelles and sacked a number of cities around the Aegean,
including Ephesus.
The Sassanids also made a reappearance, with Shapur
advancing up the Euphrates and crushing a Roman army at Barbalissos (northern
Syria) in 253.
Rome and its emperor were in deep trouble.
Aemilianus
Marcus Aemilius Aemilianus was born in around 207, probably
in Libya and of Moorish stock. As a general he had a measure of success in
countering the Gothic incursions in the Danube region, and was considered by
his troops to be a better bet than Trebonianus Gallus. They therefore declared
him to be emperor and he set out towards Italy to stake his claim.
Gallus called on Valerian, who was commanding troops on the
Rhine, to come to his aid, but he was too late. Gallus was killed by his own
troops in August 253 before Valerian arrived.
Aemilianus may now have thought that he was home and dry, as
long as he could see off the army led by Valerian when it turned up. However,
the troops that had acclaimed him on the Danube had second thoughts now that
they were in Italy. Valerian looked to be a much more acceptable prospect as emperor,
and he was also likely to be approved by the Senate, which was not the case
with Aemilianus.
Aemilianus therefore suffered the same fate as Trebonianus
Gallus, just one month later.
© John Welford
No comments:
Post a Comment