Aemilianus-Partea-2!

 1-Acest articol este copiat !

2-Istoria ramane pasiunea mea nr-1!

“Aemilianus came from an extremely insignificant family, his reign was even more insignificant, and he was slain in the third month.”

Rome’s new emperor, Aemilianus, was either a Moor or a Libyan, born in Rome’s north Africa provinces at Girba (modern Djerba, and island off the coast of Tunisia). As with Septimius Severus before him, the Senate was less impressed with his lineage than the fact he was African, deeming that he was no Roman. His military accomplishment had been the destruction of the Gothic army under King Cniva that had destroyed the legions of Emperor Decius after they crossed the Danube. Aemilianus was already envious of the incumbent Emperor Gallus when he assumed command of the legions in Moesia, and the emperor’s failure to deal with the Gothic invasion of Asia Minor and Sassanid encroachments into Roman Persia left him in a strong position to usurp the purple.

Aemilianus left Moesia unguarded for his march down the Flaminian Way to Rome, and after the death of Gallus he was declared emperor by the Senate after a short spell of opposition in June 253 AD. He wrote to the Senate promising to relinquish his power to them, to act as their tool in leading a Roman response to the incursions into Thrace and Roman Persia. The Senate bestowed titled on him, and he issued coinage focussing on his military accomplishments, having defeated the rampaging Gothic army. He was hardly secure in the post though, as Valerian, the governor of Gaul, had mobilised the Rhine legions and was marching into Italy – leaving both Germanic frontiers dangerously undermanned, shorn of their legions for the purposes of civil war shortly after the annihilation of the legions under Decius.

Valerian was ostensibly marching to the aid of Gallus, but – oh dear – arrived too late to help. A more cynical analysis would be that he waited to see how the confrontation betwixt Gallus and Aemilianus played out, now realising he had an opportunity to claim the throne himself. Some sources say he was raising an army to head east and respond to the Sassanids, but now took the opportunity to direct it south at other Romans instead. Aemilianus were fearful of a larger force and another civil war, so killed the emperor at Spoletium, before declaring for Valerian. Aemilianus’ memory was condemned, he was 46-years-old, and had ruled over the Roman Empire for three months.

Valerian was of a Senatorial family, and so the snobby Senate were much happy accepting him as emperor than they were the upstart Aemilianus.

The first act of the new emperor was to announce his son Gallienus as his deputy and heir (Caesar). Affairs in Europe deteriorated, and soon the whole of the western section of the Roman Empire was in disarray. In the east, Antioch was occupied by a Sassanid vassal and Armenia was occupied by Shapur the Great himself. Thus Valerian devised to split the empire, and thus its problems, betwixt Gallienus managing the west, and him managing the east. While the empire was not formally split in two, this was still the first time it had been done officially, with father and son now de facto western and eastern Roman Emperors respectively.

Heading east, Valerian was initially successful and had recaptured Antioch by 257 AD, and reclaimed the province of Syria for Rome, returning Roman Persia to the empire. The following year the Goths again ravaged Asia Minor, and Valerian gathered his forces in Edessa, only to see them decimated by an outbreak of plague. In the west, the 35-year-old Gallienus was proving competent at repelling the Germanic tribes along the Rhine. He also visited the Danube provinces and Illyria, and rallied the legions while raising fresh troops following the removal of most of the legions for his father’s march on Rome earlier. Gallienus won numerous victories in the region, and even crossed the Danube to stamp his authority down on Roman Dacia. He briefly visited Rome, as served several terms as Consul (as did his father), and while at the Danube proclaimed his elder son Valerian II as Caesar (heir), leaving him to impose imperial authority on the Danube while his father pushed west to the Rhine. Valerian’s three-generation family rule appeared to be restoring order to Rome.

Around 258, the Pannonian governor Ingennus took advantage of Valerian’s Persian woes and Gallienus’ attendance on the Rhine to declare himself emperor. Valerian II had died on the Danube, likely murdered by Ingennus in his bid for power. Gallienus’ left his other son, Saloninus, as Caesar in Cologne, and organised an army under the command of Postumus to attack Ingennus. Crossing the Balkans with a new cavalry corps, Ingennus was swiftly defeated at Sirmium – mainly thanks to said new cavalry, under Aureolus. Ingennus was either killed by his own guard, or committed suicide by drowning after the fall of his capital, Sirmium.

While in the east, Valerian asserted his authority by writing home and encouraging persecution of the Christians. In 257, clergymen were again ordered to perform sacrifices to the Roman pantheon, or face banishment. The following year, he ordered the execution of prominent church leaders, including the confiscation of property of Christian Senators and equestrians, and reducing Christian members of the Imperial Court to slaves – suggesting an increasing number of Christians were gaining powerful positions of state. Executions included St Prudent (in Narbonne) in 257, and Pope Sixtus II, St Romanus Ostiarius, St Lawrence, St Denis (in Paris), St Pontius (in Cimiez), St Cyprian (in Carthage) and St Eugenia (in Rome), all in 258, plus St Patroclus (in Troyes) and St Fructuosus (in Tarragona) in 259. Rome’s return to dominance over external threats would be short lived through, for Italia was about to play host to a huge Germanic invasion, and Valerian was about to set an unwanted new record in the east.