43 *GALLIENUS (c.50; r.253-268)
44 *SALONINUS (c.18; r.260.07)
| Battle: Mediolanum | Italy | Gallienus/Alamanni | 259 |
| Battle: Mursa | Croatia | Aureolus/Ingenuus | 259 |
| Battle: Augsburg | Germany | Romans/Juthungi | 260 |
| Siege: Caesarea | Cappadocia | v. Shapur-I (won) | 260-261 |
| Battle: Nestos River | Greece/Bulgaria | Gallienus/Goths | 268 |
| Battle: Pontirolo | Italy | Gallienus/Aureolus | 268 |
Rhine-Danube Frontier (254-260) [4/5]
Weakened by the absence of the legions Valerian had taken to the East, the northern Frontier now faced invasion by the barbarians along its whole length: Franks – lower (north) Rhine (Germania Inferior); Alamanni – upper (south) Rhine (Germania Superior); Juthungi, Marcomanni – upper (west) Danube (Raetia, Noricum); Quadi – middle Danube (Pannonia, Moesia Superior); Carpi, Goths, Sarmatians – lower (east) Danube (Moesia inferior); Borani and Heruli – Black Sea.
From 254 to 256 Gallienus campaigned along the Danube, securing the frontier against the barbarians. During this time he undertook various military reforms, the most important of which was the creation of an independent highly mobile cavalry army. In 256 he moved west to fight the Germans along the Rhine and raised his eldest son 23Licinius Cornelius Valerianus to the rank of caesar in Pannonia. In 258 when he returned to the Danube to renew his struggle with the barbarians there, Valerianus died to be replaced by his younger brother Licinius 24Cornelius Saloninus (c.18; fl.258-260), who was made caesar in Gaul.
In 258 the Alamanni broke through the Roman defences and permanently occupied the agri decumates, the great area of land between the sources of the Rhine and Danube. A combined force of Juthungi and Alamanni then crossed the Brenner Pass into Italy. Gallienus at this time was still fighting along the Danube so Rome itself was undefended. The Senate marshalled all the troops in the city, recruited civilians and mobilised gladiators from the training schools. The invaders, finding themselves facing an army larger than their own, settled for the plundering of northern Italy. Gallienus hurried south and defeated the invaders near Mediolanum (=Milan), and later defeated the Juthungi at Augsburg in spring 260.
In 265 the Franks crossed the lower Rhine in large numbers and devastated southern Gaul; some of them even reached northeast Spain, while others crossed the Mediterranean and raided the North African coast.
Weakened by these assaults, Gallienus made a deal with Attalus, king of the Marcomanni, on the middle Danube, whereby Attalus undertook to guard a stretch of the Roman border in exchange for a strip of land in Pannonia Superior, while Gallienus took Attalus’ daughter as his concubine.
When Valerian was taken prisoner, Gallienus rescinded his father’s edicts against the Christians. By allowing bishops to reclaim churches and cemeteries, the former had been sold off and the latter merely closed by the authorities, he effectively granted Christians freedom of religion.
Usurpers (258-261)
With Roman control weakening, rebellion was inevitable. In 258 Gallienus heard that Ingenuus, his commander in Pannonia and Moesia, had rebelled. He hurried and met the usurper at Mursa in Pannonia Inferior where the cavalry commanded by Gallienus’ general Aureolus (fl.258-268) ensured victory (258/9). Ingenuus was probably killed fleeing the field.
In 260 Regalianus, governor of Pannonia Superior, proclaimed himself emperor at Carnuntum (northeast Austria). Before moving against him, Gallienus, aware that the region was still vulnerable, left his son 24Licinius Cornelius Saloninus Valerianus at the base at Cologne (west Germany) to represent the ruling ‘dynasty’. Saloninus, being only a boy, was entrusted to the praetorian prefect Silvanus, while the military defence of the Rhine was put in the hands of Gallienus’ general Casianus Latinius Postumus (fl.259-268).
In autumn 260 Silvanus, acting on behalf of Saloninus, challenged Postumus to hand over some loot recaptured from a Frankish raiding party. Postumus, however, insisted on distributing the loot among his victorious troops. When Silvanus persisted, the troops mutinied (by now the news of Valerian’s capture had reached the West) and proclaimed Postumus emperor. Silvanus and Saloninus tried to rally troops at Cologne, but it was too late, the garrison murdered the two men and opened the gates to Postumus.
With Gallienus fully occupied elsewhere, Postumus was free to consolidate his position. Gaul, Britain and a large part of Spain joined him and formed the imperium Galliarum or Gallic Empire (259-274), which outlasted him by five years as his four short-lived successors struggled to survive.
After the Battle of Edessa (260), Shapur proceeded to plunder Syria, Cilicia and Cappadocia. He was held up by an effective defence at Caesarea in Cappadocia, led by the Roman general Demosthenes, but finally took the city in 261.
Seeking leadership, the Roman forces in the East rallied around the praetorian prefect Callistus Ballista (fl.260-261), and Valerian’s procurator, 17Fulvius Macrianus (fl.259-261). It was proposed that Macrianus should be augustus but he declined on account of his age and lameness, and made his sons, 18Fulvius Junius Macrianus (fl.260-261) and 19Fulvius Junius Quietus (fl.260-261), co-emperors.
The provinces of Egypt, Syria and Asia soon gave their support to the rebellion. Leaving Quietus and Ballista behind to administer the Eastern provinces, Macrianus and his father advanced with their legions towards Rome. By early summer 261 they were in Thracia where they were met and defeated by Gallienus’ new cavalry legions commanded by Aureolus.
When Shapur captured Valerian in 260, the Palmyrenes, led by 04Septimius Odaenathus (47; fl.260-267), on the behalf of Gallienus drove back the Persians. Now, in 261, Odaenathus besieged Quietus in the city of Emesa. In the autumn, the inhabitants of the city turned on Quietus and killed him.
When the Macriani marched westwards in 161 they had to deal with governors loyal to Gallienus. The sources are unreliable but it seems that Macrianus (Senior?) sent 19Calpurnius Piso to deal with Valens (3) Thessalonicus (d.c.261), the governor of Achaea. Thessalonicus’ troops reacted by proclaiming their governor emperor. When Piso reached Thessaly he tried to become emperor himself. He was killed by soldiers sent by Valens, who later shared the same fate.
Mussius Aemilianus, the prefect of Egypt (269-261) had supported the Macriani and after their deaths he was himself elected emperor. Gallienus sent troops and a fleet under his general 15Aurelius Theodotus to remove him. In 262, Theodotus defeated Aemilianus, put him to death and took his place as praefectus Aegypti. Theodotus’ soldiers also killed Memor (d.262), responsible for the grain supply from Egypt, who is said to have prepared a rebellion. Reports that Trebellianus, Celsus and 45Julius Saturninus were usurpers are false.
In 262 Odaenathus crossed the Euphrates and recovered Carrhae and Nisibis. By 263 he was in effective control of the Syrian provinces, Mesopotamia and Asia Minor’s eastern region. On his return to Antioch he declared himself King of Kings and conferred the same rank on his son Hairan (r.263-267). Gallienus subsequently recognized him as ‘Imperator’, i.e. as a military commander and not as a full sovereign.
In 265 Gallienus crossed the Alps and invaded southeast Gaul. After an initial setback, Gallienus’ cavalry commander Aureolus (fl.258-268) defeated Postumus but failed to pursue him quickly enough and the usurper was able to rally his forces. He returned to the attack and suffered a second defeat but escaped to a nearby town (unknown) where he was besieged. When a defender shot Gallienus in the back with an arrow, the campaign was abandoned, leaving Postumus the undisputed ruler of the Gallic Empire.
In 264 Odaenathus marched through Mesopotamia as far as Ctesiphon. The war ended in 265 with victory by Odaenathus and the retreat of the Persians to the positions they had started from twelve years earlier. In 267 he attacked the Goths, who had launched another attack across the Black Sea into Asia Minor. During this campaign both he and his son Hairan were assassinated by Odaenathus’ cousin Maeonius. The twelfth century Byzantine chronicler Zonaras says that he murdered them over a long-standing grudge he held against Odenathus.
Odenathus’ wife Zenobia (c.35; r.272) lost no time in bringing Maeonius and his associates to trial and execution. Her and Odaenathus’ son, 44Julius Aurelius Septimius Vabalathus (14; r.267-272) became the lawful king of Palmyra, but the strong-willed Zenobia ruled through him as regent.
Gallienus’ Gothic War (268-269) [3/6]
In spring 268 the seaborne Heruli supplied a fleet which carried vast armies of Goths down the coast of the Black Sea and through the Turkish Straits, where they divided into three groups. One group landed at Thessalonica in the north, a second at Attica, and the third went on to attack the islands of Crete and Rhodes respectively. The central group, despite a strong defence by the Greek historian Herennius Dexippus (c.63; fl.269-273), took and plundered Athens before moving off towards Epirus. Gallienus and his Dalmatian cavalry came upon the northern group near the Nestos River on the Macedonian-Thracian border and won a decisive victory.
Gallienus, however, was unable to pursue and defeat the remaining Gothic forces. He had to rush home to deal with yet another usurper. This time, his general Aureolus, who had been left at Milan to guard against an attack from Postumus, appeared to try to join with Postumus. After suffering a defeat at Pontirolo, on the Adda a few miles east of Milan, Aureolus withdrew to this city and possibly declared himself emperor. While Gallienus was besieging the enemy, his senior commanders conspired against him. Among these officers were the future emperors 16Aurelius Valerius Claudius (64; fl.268-270), who had risen through the army ranks during the reigns of Decius and Valerian, and 13Domitius Aurelianus (60/1; fl.268-275). At night in September 268 Gallienus was struck down as he emerged from his tent and the army outside Mediolanum proclaimed Claudius emperor.
Leave a Reply