0:05

Aveii, and welcome to emperors

0:07

of Rome a Roman History podcast

0:09

from Latrobe University. I'm your

0:11

host, Matt Smith, and with me today,

0:13

is associate professor, Caillan Davenport,

0:16

Head of the Center for CLASSICAL Studies at the

0:18

Australian National University. This

0:21

is episode CCVI,

0:24

Rome Crumbles. When the

0:26

emperor Valerian was captured by the enemy,

0:29

what the empire needed was a trusted

0:31

Crumbles set of hands to

0:33

take on the imperial mantle. In

0:35

retrospect, that probably wasn't

0:37

his son, Gallianis. For

0:39

the next eight years, Gallianis would rule

0:42

a sole emperor and proceed to lose

0:44

two thirds of the empire, leaving

0:46

Rome at its weakest position in centuries.

0:49

Here's Caillan Davenport.

0:51

Let's begin this episode with a quick

0:53

catch up on what the lay of

0:55

the empire is. We finished the last

0:57

episode of the third

1:00

century emperors of emperors of Rome

1:03

with the capture of Valerian,

1:05

and this is the mid two sixties.

1:08

So what is the state of the empire

1:10

at that time? Yeah. So middle of

1:12

the year at two

1:13

sixty. Valerian

1:15

has been captured by the Persians,

1:18

his son and and Carl

1:20

Gustus, Gallianis, is is

1:22

off in the west, and his grandson

1:25

Saladinhois, the Caesar is also

1:27

based in the western empire as

1:29

well. But the shock of

1:32

an emperor actually being captured

1:35

in battle is about to

1:37

reverberate throughout the empire.

1:40

Valerian went off to fight Shippur

1:42

of the Sasanid Empire --

1:43

Mhmm. -- of the Persians out in the east, and he got

1:46

captured during this battle now. Shippur

1:48

has been a long time foe of

1:50

the Roman Empire at this point and

1:52

him capturing Valerian

1:55

kinda caps off a great career against

1:57

Roman Emperors, I think, because he's also

1:59

claiming that he's killed Gordon the

2:01

third. That's right. Gordon the third has been

2:03

trampled underfoot. Philip has negotiated

2:06

and paid a huge ransom for

2:08

peace. Yes. And now the

2:10

larynx has been led off into captivity.

2:13

And this is immortalized in Schippel's

2:16

monumental reliefs. And,

2:18

of course, in his account of his

2:20

achievements, which we call in Latin,

2:23

but it's not written

2:24

Latin, his Rezger style,

2:26

his achievement Mhmm. So he completes

2:28

his trifecta, but he essentially stays

2:30

in the east. And what this leaves is

2:33

his son slash co emperor, Gallianus

2:36

on the throne, and he's the sole

2:38

ruler. Mhmm. Really? He's got his

2:40

own two sons who he promotes to Caesar.

2:42

But essentially, Gallianis is ruling

2:44

for the next stretch of the Roman Empire's history.

2:47

So what sort of emperor

2:50

is Gallianis at this

2:51

time? Yep. So Galileo says

2:53

in his early forties. He's

2:56

been ruling with his father together

2:58

since two fifty three, and they've

3:00

been dividing up the hide between

3:02

them across multiple fronts because,

3:04

of course, we've not only had the Persian walls,

3:07

we've had Gothic invasions, we've had

3:09

incursions on the Danube, and

3:11

the Rhine, so he is an experienced

3:14

emperor by this point in time. There's

3:16

a family dynasty to carry on

3:18

the Rhine, so he did have his eldest

3:21

Fileri, the second, who, as we heard,

3:23

died in somewhat mysterious circumstances

3:25

a couple of years before, but he has

3:28

Salanidas, his Elberson and

3:30

Caesar, and he and his

3:32

wife, Salanina, probably

3:35

have a younger son Meridianus.

3:38

Quite a shadowy figure who we know

3:40

little about, but might

3:42

be a boy consul of two sixty

3:44

eight. So The dynasty is

3:46

well set up to continue. Valerian

3:49

and Gallianas have been instituting army

3:51

reforms. They brought together this

3:53

corps of protectors that

3:56

is officers and the rank of

3:58

Centurion or above who served

4:00

in their mobile field armies They

4:03

commanded that are made up of detachments from

4:05

various legions. And so, you know,

4:07

if you served in one of, you know, the Emperor's own

4:09

field armies, you would get the title of

4:11

protector. And that's a way of

4:14

binding these senior officers

4:17

to the emperors. So theoretically, they're

4:20

in a a very good

4:21

position. But practically, it's

4:23

going to be an empire under siege for most of

4:25

his reign, so he's going to have eight

4:27

years as emperor. Mhmm. And

4:29

all of that time, he's going to be

4:31

running across the Roman Empire confronting

4:35

barbarians or usurpers of one

4:37

sort or another or at least he'll

4:39

be directing the confrontations from

4:41

a safe place in Rome. And Assoc

4:43

he's going to have a tarnished reputation

4:46

because he never

4:48

He never really addresses his father being

4:50

captured. Does he? No. It's actually

4:52

remarkable that Galeena survives for

4:54

eight years as emperor. I don't think we

4:56

often give him enough credit for that. Because there

4:58

are significant numbers

5:01

of revolts throughout the empire

5:03

and the east on the Danube and

5:06

we'll see the fracturing of the

5:08

Gallic Spanish and British provinces

5:10

into what we call the Gallic Empire

5:12

under separate rulers. We'll

5:15

see his son killed and

5:17

Galenas has this reputation forever

5:20

more afterwards, but he spends

5:22

time in Rome engaging in

5:24

debauchery while the Empire

5:27

falls apart at the seams. So

5:30

I have this quotation from Aurelius Victor's

5:32

book on the Caesar's chapter

5:35

thirty three, and Aurelius Victor's

5:37

writing in the mid to late fourth century.

5:40

And I quote, he ship ripped the Roman

5:42

state, so to speak, to such degree,

5:45

that the Goth's freely penetrated Thrace

5:47

and occupied Macedonia, Assoc and

5:49

the border regions of Asia. The

5:52

Pertheon seized Mesopotamia and

5:54

bandits or more accurately a woman

5:57

controlled the east. At

5:59

that time too, a force of Alhamani took

6:01

possession of Italy, while tribes

6:03

of Frank's political and occupied and

6:06

some after conveniently acquiring ships

6:08

penetrated as far as Africa. Even

6:11

the territories across the Danube, which

6:13

trade in had secured, were lost.

6:16

Now, this is a

6:18

bit of an exaggeration. There are

6:20

problems on all the frontiers. Certainly,

6:23

but the territories across the Danube are

6:25

not given up to Caillan reign, for

6:27

example, so several years afterwards. And

6:29

Iranian is the man who normally gets the credit

6:32

for a storing the empire. The

6:34

woman who control the east of Tanubia

6:37

and her ascendancy really doesn't begin

6:39

until after GaleiAnis' Mhmm,

6:41

death. Yeah. Yeah. So all

6:43

the problems of sort of the mid late third

6:45

century here are attributed essentially

6:48

to

6:48

Galeenus. And one reason

6:50

we'll see for this and

6:52

the

6:52

hostility of the senatorial sources

6:55

are his army reforms, and it's during

6:57

his reign that senators essentially

7:00

CCVI to command the legions in battle.

7:02

This is a pivotal change in

7:04

the Roman empire. It's subject

7:06

to actually work my PhD thesis on.

7:09

Yes. So I can talk for hours. About

7:12

this. But yes, we do have

7:14

a very, very negative reputation,

7:18

a star Augusta, other Latin sources,

7:20

you know, tried out all the cliches associated

7:23

with Coligula and a neuro in their

7:25

past about the excess and debauchery.

7:28

If we look at some of the military reforms

7:30

and the tactics that Gallianis

7:33

employed, we see he actually made

7:35

a a good goal of it and again,

7:37

did survive for eight

7:38

years. A good girl of it. Okay. It's

7:41

funny you should say that you you wrote your PhD on

7:43

this kind of stuff. Every now and then, I was going, oh, let's

7:45

see if I can find out about this topic when I'm

7:47

researching the next batch of podcasts that we're

7:49

recording. And it's

7:50

gone, oh, okay. The papers by Kayla with Davenport.

7:53

Let's see what happens.

7:55

An emperor being captured is a big deal.

7:58

It's never happened before. It's very rare that they

8:00

even die in battle to an enemy.

8:03

Mhmm. So what did the sources say

8:05

about the reaction -- Mhmm. -- both

8:07

from Gallianis

8:08

and, I guess, historians in antiquity.

8:11

Mhmm. Yes. I mean, it's very

8:13

difficult to tell. There's plenty of stories about

8:15

what happens to Valerian himself

8:18

in captivity -- Mhmm. -- which we

8:20

talked about, you know, the fact, you know, who's turned into

8:22

a footstool. He was fatal live. He was

8:24

put to work, you know, with the other captured soldiers

8:27

building the dam. But we

8:29

know very little about what actually

8:31

happened on the scene. So

8:34

one of his petroleum prefix is captured

8:36

with him as well as many senatorial generals.

8:39

We know that from shippers. Inscription.

8:42

So there's one other petroleum prefect

8:44

blister who survives, as well

8:46

as Galyenus' chief financial officer

8:49

forvious Macriana's, but they

8:51

don't seem to be engaged in

8:53

a serious attempt to negotiate for

8:55

his release. Alista tries

8:58

to battle the Persians as they're

9:00

retreating, but the sources

9:02

don't provide any any firm details

9:04

about any other sort of diplomatic

9:07

initiative. As for Galeenus

9:09

himself, again, the sources

9:12

are problematic. I can

9:14

talk about a a fun anecdote from the historical

9:17

gaster, which is probably apocryphal,

9:19

but does have Galeenus to

9:21

discussing his reaction to Valerian's

9:25

capture. So this is in

9:27

the life of Gallianna seventeen.

9:30

And I quote, when he learned

9:32

that his father valerian was captured

9:35

just as that best of philosophers, this

9:38

is and Agzegris, it is said,

9:40

exclaimed on the loss of his I

9:43

knew that I had forgotten a mortal. So

9:47

Gallianas exclaimed, I knew

9:49

that my father was mortal. It's

9:51

a nice, witty statement reflection

9:53

that, you know, even an emperor is fallible

9:56

and can be captured. But

9:59

in reality, we don't have any contemporary

10:01

sources about what Galeena

10:04

actually said at the time. So he's in

10:06

the west, in North Italy.

10:08

There's been an incursion by

10:11

the Alhamani, on the Rhine,

10:13

they've come down as far as Caillan. Galliannis

10:16

defeats them battle, though some of them

10:18

make it as far down as Rome

10:20

with the Senate arms the city

10:23

according to Zolgimus. So

10:25

Galileo is occupied in

10:27

the west at the

10:28

moment. So I can imagine he would

10:31

have found the news quite distressing, but

10:33

that is all we know. And the reality

10:35

is shippur being the enemy that he is.

10:38

If you're practical, you kinda

10:39

go, well, I'm just not going to see my father

10:41

again. Exactly because, you know,

10:44

you need the armies on the Western

10:46

frontier. We even know

10:48

that one incursion across

10:50

the Rhine, which occurs in the

10:52

middle of two sixty, and this is

10:54

of the SemNones and the Yuffungi.

10:57

Which is recorded on prescription. There's

10:59

the acting governor of the province

11:02

of Rizia because we think the governor

11:04

was actually fighting the east as part

11:06

Valerians Army. So the acting governor

11:09

has to get together a local militia

11:11

to beat them back. We're seeing

11:13

here that even, you know, the

11:15

peoples of the empire, you know, this

11:17

is in North Italy theoretically one of

11:19

the safest regions of the

11:22

empire that local peoples are having

11:24

to arm themselves and

11:25

fight. So if a gallianist knew,

11:27

to leave at this point would be a major

11:30

loss of confidence in the region.

11:32

But the fact that Valerian has

11:34

been captured

11:36

changes quite a lot for Rome, very

11:38

much so. The loss

11:39

of an emperor being down to

11:41

the co rule and now the co emperor, the less senior

11:43

of the two, if I can put it that way as

11:45

well. So that

11:46

must prompt Galyenus to

11:48

make some changes. Yes.

11:50

So what we see is an unprecedented

11:53

series of revolts throughout

11:55

the empire. And we're going to be looking

11:58

at these geographically

11:59

over the next few weeks because that's best way to

12:01

divide them. In the east where

12:04

Macriana's sets up his sons

12:06

as emperors, the revolts on

12:09

the danube from the senatorial governors

12:11

there. And there's a

12:13

revolt along the Rhine frontier during

12:16

which Gallianis' son, Sala

12:18

Minus, is killed. Mhmm. So

12:20

we can imagine these flash points all

12:23

along the Rhine, the Danube, the

12:25

euphrates, And so,

12:27

Galeenus has to react to

12:29

what's going on. First

12:32

thing he does is

12:34

he ends the persecution of Christians. And

12:37

this had been one of the most prominent

12:39

policies of the last years of

12:41

the joint reign of development in Galeenus.

12:44

Mhmm. We had seen, for example,

12:46

how this led to the martyrdom of bishop

12:48

supreme of Carthage and

12:50

that, you know, the emperors had decreed

12:53

that every one of the empires should practice

12:55

Roman rights for the the safety of

12:58

the Roman State. And we

13:00

know Galenus then resins

13:03

his father's edicts, Eusebius,

13:05

our church historian of the early

13:08

Fourth Century says, and I quote

13:10

from book seven chapter thirteen.

13:13

But not long afterwards, Valerian underwent

13:15

slavery at the hands of the barbarians. And

13:18

his son succeeding to the soul

13:20

power conducted the government with

13:22

greater prudence. And immediately by

13:25

means of edicts put an end to

13:27

the persecution against

13:28

us.

13:29

Yeah. So that's slight praise.

13:30

As well as I can

13:31

take a very different tone from that to how

13:33

the religious sources in particular spoke about

13:35

Valerian, for example. Yeah. Definitely. And

13:37

this is actually referred to as the peace

13:40

of Gileadus. We talk about the peace of Gileadus

13:42

that then continued really until

13:44

the great persecution under the TETRAX

13:46

in 303. So the

13:48

bishops in Egypt wrote to Galenas

13:51

for clarification on the policies, and

13:53

we have part of Galenas' rescript

13:55

his letter in return to them, which is quoted

13:58

by UCBius, their full rights

14:00

to assemble in, you know, house churches

14:02

again -- Yeah. -- church. They can

14:04

occupy their cementries again and that

14:06

people who take them over had to

14:08

leave those areas. So

14:10

Galileo has actually remembered very

14:12

positive fleet by the Christians. And we

14:14

also have later letters from Dionysus when

14:16

he talks about Valerian's persecution. And

14:19

you know, said he was he did a stray by

14:21

Macriana's, his financial officer

14:23

who was a wicked sorcerer and, you know,

14:25

encouraged him to look at the entrails

14:27

of babies and all these other horrible

14:30

things. So -- Yeah. -- the anise is remembered very

14:33

positively in contrast. Okay?

14:35

That's interesting. You maybe have kind

14:37

of a divide between those who wanna look

14:39

at him from a standpoint of

14:41

the success of the Roman Empire --

14:43

Mhmm. -- and those who want to record

14:45

the Christian priority, I guess. Exactly.

14:49

And the later Latin sources

14:51

are are what we might call the senatorial tradition

14:53

who have another beef against Gallianus.

14:56

Mhmm. Mhmm. The other different approach

14:58

that Gallianis had that

15:00

comes up at this point is how

15:02

he approaches the military and the reforms that

15:05

he did

15:05

there. So --

15:06

Yes. -- he

15:06

take me through that a bit.

15:07

Yes. So this is quite complicated and

15:09

much debated. But we'll start with

15:11

a quotation from Aurelia's victors

15:14

on the Caesar's chapter thirty

15:16

three. And Victor

15:18

says, and indeed, in addition

15:20

to the general malaise of the Roman world,

15:23

the abuse of their own order

15:25

provoked the senators because

15:27

Galeenus fearing that the imperial

15:30

power would be transferred to

15:32

the best of the nobility through his

15:34

sloth. Was the first to

15:36

prohibit senators from undertaking

15:39

a military career or entering

15:41

the army. This is

15:43

a major change which Victor

15:45

specifically links to fear

15:49

that senators command

15:51

of armies would then revolt,

15:54

and yes, exactly. And then

15:56

they would seize power. Later

15:59

on, in Victor's work, he specifically

16:01

calls this the edictome Galiani,

16:04

the edict of Galianus. And

16:06

so scholars have

16:09

discussed whether this actually happened

16:11

and in war form that had happened.

16:14

Firstly, it couldn't be in Edich because

16:16

an emperor isn't going to issue an Edich

16:18

to himself about his policies,

16:20

but it could be a policy change.

16:24

So we have to turn to inscriptions

16:26

evidence, epigraphy, that records

16:29

the careers of senators

16:31

as well as equestrians during this period.

16:34

Yeah. The key military

16:36

officers which senators held were

16:38

those of Tibunus laticlar

16:41

wheels, so that's the Tribune with the broad

16:43

stripe that they would hold when they were

16:45

young men, you know, late teens, early

16:47

twenties. They were notionally

16:49

second in command of the legion.

16:52

Then there's the Lagardis LEGionis, the

16:54

Legionary Legate, who is the commander of

16:57

the legion you had to have been prior

16:59

to to hold this office. And then

17:02

there were the Pretorian or consular

17:04

governors of provinces. Who

17:06

sometimes were also legionary leggots

17:09

or commanded two or

17:11

sometimes three legions in

17:14

battle. Now we know

17:16

up to this period that the

17:18

legion itself as a fighting

17:20

unit had been downgraded in

17:23

favor of the use of vexiletions. This

17:25

is subunits of

17:27

legions that's named after the the wixela

17:29

flag. If we look at

17:31

the inscriptions evidence, we

17:34

find that senators do

17:37

cease to be appointed Tribune

17:40

after the late two fifties

17:42

and the last

17:45

legendary leggett is attested in

17:47

two sixty two. Right.

17:50

After this point, legions

17:52

are commanded by equestrian

17:55

prefix. And it's

17:57

important not to think of these as

17:59

the snooty rich equestrians who

18:02

are landholders in Italy that,

18:04

you know, have been serving in the upper

18:06

echelons of the administration, composing

18:08

the empress letters and, you know, things

18:10

like that. These are equestrians who

18:13

have risen their way up through the

18:15

ranks and gained equestrian

18:17

rank during their service. Okay.

18:20

Yeah. So they're men with greater

18:22

military experience. Many

18:25

of them had also been protectors serving

18:27

in the field army. So

18:30

what happens in Gallianis' reign

18:32

is that we find the field

18:34

armies now being commanded by

18:37

equestrians with the rank of

18:40

primepositives, which is essentially means

18:42

placed in charge of or ducks.

18:45

So a term which simply means general.

18:48

The UX, not quite quite

18:49

Yes. Yeah.

18:50

Yes. Exactly dead dead. Do you expander?

18:53

Not not quite quick. Yes. So, you

18:55

know, you'd be the ducks soul of a unit

18:57

of exhalation. Yeah. And

19:00

these are the men that are commanding

19:02

these expeditionary forces who

19:04

will hear about, like, Aurelius Marciana, who

19:07

are the heroes of this period.

19:09

Now senators did continue to

19:12

govern consular provinces, but

19:14

there's no record of them leading troops

19:17

into battle --

19:18

Okay. -- anymore. So a

19:20

change did happen and

19:23

it is supported by the

19:25

epigraphic evidence a few things

19:27

are kind of bubbling through my head at the moment. One

19:29

is indirectly, unintentionally, well

19:32

done gallium is because you're promoting based on

19:34

merit, which I'm always like always like

19:36

to hear not based on your position

19:38

in society --

19:39

Yeah. -- being given command, but, you know, men

19:41

who are capable Two is that he's

19:44

getting men who are loyal to him who know their

19:46

position to him in charge

19:48

of the military. Probably

19:51

good when there's so much usurping going on.

19:53

Exactly. But three, ultimately,

19:55

it it backfires if I can give a

19:57

spoiler.

19:58

Yes. It does. Yes. Yeah. So it

20:00

doesn't work, but good try.

20:03

Yes. And I I think if we look at what

20:05

Aurelia's Victor is saying and also

20:07

the Revolts, across the empire. I

20:09

do think this was a catalyst.

20:12

Plus, we know that large

20:14

numbers of senatorial commanders died

20:18

in Valerian's campaigns all

20:20

were captured -- Yeah. -- by Sapua.

20:22

And so it's very plausible that

20:24

he would choose to fill vacancies by

20:26

just promoting to officers on

20:28

the scene, like Simplia Scenialis.

20:31

Who leads the local

20:33

militia in writing of when the governor

20:36

isn't there. You're completely right.

20:38

It does backfire on him. And I think

20:40

This is because the third century is such

20:42

an exciting transitional moment

20:45

in the ideology of the imperial

20:47

office. Is that we have had

20:49

men like the Christus and

20:52

Philip come from the top echelons

20:54

of equestrian order from the Victorian prefect.

20:57

To become emperor. But

21:00

the other who are you serving

21:02

the throne during this period, traad

21:04

CCVI, Valerian himself.

21:07

You know, they're coming from the top aristocracy.

21:10

So the empire hasn't yet made

21:12

that mental transition to

21:15

yes, these other people, these men

21:17

from the ranks who've worked their way up,

21:20

are real threats, and they can become

21:22

emperors just like the senators

21:24

and the top equestriens. But what we

21:27

find is that Gallianis is essentially murdered

21:29

by men who he's promoted And

21:32

then, thereafter, with one exception, the

21:34

imprecise, the other

21:37

emperor's henceforth emerge

21:40

from the ranks of the

21:42

army or military dynasties.

21:44

So their father has been in the army

21:47

then became emperor and then his son succeeded

21:49

him. It's really not

21:51

then again until the fifth century

21:53

that we actually get emperors again

21:56

from what we might call blue blood senatorial families.

21:58

Wow. Wow. So we've got we've got two hundred

22:00

years of this. This is the most seismic

22:02

change in the nature

22:04

of people who become Roman extras. Yeah.

22:07

And so many of them come

22:09

from military families in the

22:11

Danubeen and Balkan regions.

22:13

This is going to be the way forward. You know, the family

22:16

of constantine comes from there. The family

22:18

of the Valentinians come from there,

22:20

for example. So this is going

22:22

to be the the way forward. Mhmm. I know that

22:24

the Empire realizes

22:26

that actually these men can

22:28

become emperor.

22:30

Yeah. Yeah. guess on paper, those

22:32

are the men you maybe

22:34

need to be emperor, the men who have the loyalty

22:36

of the army or at least the army who's winning.

22:38

Exactly. Exactly. And decisions

22:41

are being made in the

22:43

the Mobile Combinatus, that is the

22:45

Mobile Imperial Court. So

22:47

if decisions are being made there,

22:50

you have to have senators on the scene

22:52

if they then want to be made emperor. Yeah.

22:54

If they're back in Rome or off governing other provinces,

22:57

then, you know, they're not going to be

22:59

seen as eligible candidates. Yeah.

23:02

There was one sort of blip with tacitus

23:04

at two seventy five where this is this negotiation.

23:06

With the Senate, but there afterwards,

23:09

you know, the military dynasties all the way.

23:11

Yeah. Yeah. It's amazing how much things have changed

23:13

from the Senate being so important. From Rome

23:15

being so important to the

23:16

empire. Exactly. Exactly.

23:18

Yeah. All becoming decentralized. Very

23:21

much. So in the fourth century, Impress hardly visited

23:23

Rome. That's something to talk about

23:25

later.

23:26

Alright. So shall we talk about these new servers?

23:29

Yes.

23:29

III should just emphasize at this point

23:31

that as always a usurper is just an emperor

23:34

who was not successful.

23:35

That's that's the perfect definition. Yes.

23:38

Yes.

23:38

You're only a usurper if you lost That's

23:41

exactly right. Okay.

23:43

How turbulent was the reign of Galyardus when

23:45

it comes to usurpus? We have a big

23:47

selection of usurpers here that we are not

23:49

going to go through all of them during the course

23:52

of this episode.

23:52

Yes. Yes. But at any one time,

23:54

he's dealing with 345E

23:57

servers at different corners of the empire?

23:59

Very much so. So there is an entire

24:01

book of historic Augusta called The Thirty

24:04

Tyrant where they are all from.

24:06

Well, most of them are attributed to

24:08

the reign of Galliannon saw emerged

24:10

during his reign. But it is supposed

24:12

to be symptomatic of the

24:15

number of use of patients taking place.

24:17

And some of them are only known by

24:19

couple of lines. Some of them are

24:22

confirmed by a stray reference in a

24:24

later source like Ami Arnos, for example,

24:26

there's one or two that you know, but only note from

24:29

coins. So it is a

24:31

turbulent

24:31

period, so we can't put figure on the numbers.

24:33

Yeah. Yeah. We're going to do the major use servers.

24:37

Alright. First one we've got here most prominently

24:39

is

24:39

ingenuous, ingenuous. So yes, we

24:41

only know of him by his cog

24:43

nomen. According to Aurelius

24:45

Victor, chapter thirty three, he

24:48

had conceived a desire to be emperor

24:50

after learning of Valerian's disaster.

24:52

So now we've got this key link here

24:54

between Valerian's capture

24:57

and wanting to be emperor. He

24:59

was a senatorial governor of one of the Panonian

25:01

provinces. And there are

25:04

some stories about him,

25:06

one of which survives in a fragmentary

25:09

Greek source. These sources are quite

25:11

exciting. Because we

25:13

know that the later Greek

25:16

authors, Sosimus and Cenarius, preserve

25:19

earlier traditions, some taken

25:21

from next hippas, but we

25:23

have another source called the anonymous continuation

25:26

of Cassius Diodes, a modern name

25:28

obviously, but he seems to have written

25:30

a history of Greek that picks up basically

25:32

after severance period after Cassius dying.

25:36

The point to this, Galyenus' wife,

25:38

Salanina, had been concerned about

25:40

Ingenuous's ambitions even

25:43

before this period. The

25:45

historical history in the lives of the thirty tyrants

25:47

chapter nine says that Ingenuous

25:50

himself had been concerned he was

25:52

too popular with the soldiers, which would

25:54

mean the emperor would be jealous of him

25:56

and want to remove him. And of

25:58

course, some of these usurpers were in a bit of a bind.

26:00

If the soldiers declared their emperor

26:03

and they refused, then

26:05

they would likely be killed. As well. We

26:07

must also take into account the views of

26:09

the soldiers that they might think that the emperor

26:12

is not doing a good job. So

26:14

all we know is that Ingenuous was

26:16

defeated in battle at MRSA, which

26:19

is in modern day Croatia. And

26:21

he was defeated by one of

26:23

Galeenus' generals. And this

26:25

is a man named areolas. Who's

26:28

going to feature prominently, but we

26:30

know virtually nothing about his

26:32

background. Mhmm. He's often referred

26:34

to as a cavalry commander So

26:37

he may have been in charge of

26:39

one of Gallium's strike forces,

26:42

but he's clearly a senior general promoted

26:44

from the ranks by Valerian and

26:47

Galliinas. Yeah. Yeah. There

26:50

was also a second usurper So

26:52

he's called Regalliana's in our

26:54

sources, but we know thanks

26:57

to inscriptions evidence. He was

26:59

a son of a senator of the

27:01

severin period called Publius

27:03

Cassius Regalius, and

27:06

he has the initials CCVI on his coinage.

27:08

We think he was also Publius. Cascias

27:10

Regalialis. He's from senatorial

27:13

family. We even know the name of his wife,

27:15

coincident for her as well. This is

27:18

Suppicchio, Try and Tiller. He

27:21

lasted long enough to mint coins

27:23

of not very good quality, clearly

27:25

part of his attempt to pay the troops.

27:28

He was governor of Petonia's superior,

27:31

and Aurelia's Victor chapter thirty three

27:33

says, and I quote, he had

27:35

renewed the war after rallying

27:38

the soldiers who had survived the

27:40

disaster at MRSA, the troops

27:42

of Ingenuous. Now

27:45

we don't quite know how this revolt ends.

27:47

Aurelio's Victor implies that he

27:49

is defeated in battle, but the

27:51

historical gastro in the lives of the thirty

27:53

tyrants has a story about

27:55

the barbarian Roxalani getting involved

27:58

after invading Panonia and Regalia

28:00

has been killed in battle against them.

28:04

But it's clear that both these

28:06

revolts by senatorial

28:08

governors on the Danubeian

28:10

frontier were shocked cut to

28:13

gallianus, and I think these revolts

28:15

would have played on his mind when he

28:17

was thinking about the long term command

28:20

of the armies. Yeah. And then you

28:22

got Pizzo who I didn't even find reference

28:24

to. Yes. So

28:27

there are two individuals here who have

28:29

seen to have launched Revolts

28:33

in Kia. So this is

28:34

Greece. The province of Greece, you know, which

28:36

doesn't even have any legions in it. It has

28:38

auxiliary forces. So, you know, it's

28:40

normally quite peaceful. There's been

28:42

debate about whether they are actually two separate

28:45

people or they're the same person

28:47

who goes under different names. So

28:50

we do know from Ami

28:52

Arnos, who's writing in the fourth

28:54

century, and his

28:55

history originally covered the

28:57

period from Nerva all the way up

28:59

the late fourth century, but the

29:01

books before the reigns of Constantinople, the second

29:04

are lost. And here alludes

29:06

to a revolt in Greece

29:08

by a valence with

29:10

the coch nomen thessalonicus. And

29:13

according to the

29:16

a certain sanitical pizo

29:18

or sent suppressed valances revolt

29:21

only to be declared emperor himself.

29:24

And then they both had to be put down.

29:27

We don't know what's going on here, but there's

29:29

clearly much more than our

29:31

sources of telling us. But what they

29:33

show is that even senators in Greece

29:36

are rebelling against the emperor shows

29:39

the extent to which the capture

29:41

of the leering that signals an opportunity

29:43

to try and seize the throne.

29:45

So these are all happening really quickly

29:47

within a year or so of the capture

29:49

of Valerian.

29:50

He's all in two sixty. So as as a response

29:52

directly to that -- Exactly. -- and

29:54

is Gallianis confronting these?

29:57

Or is there too many to handle? Or

29:59

I I feel like he'd almost

30:02

one hope that they deal with Bob Arians

30:04

on their border regardless. Because they're going to

30:06

have to or to burn each other out.

30:08

Mhmm. Galileo's movements

30:11

are difficult to disentangle. It's

30:13

very possible that he was there in

30:15

the campaign against Ingenius at

30:17

Mercer, but Iranianus led

30:19

the army. Most of the

30:21

other revolts are put

30:23

down or tackled by

30:26

his generals. Yeah. So he seems

30:28

to have spent most of the early years

30:30

of his reign at actually in Italy and

30:32

Rome.

30:32

As I'd say, he could be bombing it in Rome

30:35

like the historic guster is keen to

30:37

emphasize. Exactly. He's not quite

30:39

as stationary as the says. But

30:41

as we'll see in future episodes, for example,

30:43

the Revolts in the east, you sort of

30:45

outsources their suppression to

30:48

other generals.

30:49

Yeah. Okay. The next one

30:51

that we're going to come to, which will be the very

30:53

next episode, is a very serious

30:55

revolt, but also the

30:58

person who is revolt he doesn't want to take over

31:00

the empire. He's quite happy

31:02

to carve out his little slash

31:05

quite large bit of territory

31:07

and be left to his own devices. That's

31:09

right. This is posthumous, one of the governor

31:12

of the German provinces who staged

31:14

as revolt and all

31:16

of Gaul, Spain, and Britain joins

31:18

him in this. And this is what we know as

31:20

the so called Gallic Empire. Yeah.

31:22

And that in itself will

31:25

have an effect of shrinking the Roman empire.

31:27

Mhmm. And

31:27

I feel that it will even in the next

31:30

decade when it is spoil alert, reuniting

31:32

-- Mhmm. -- under Caillan? That's

31:34

right.

31:34

Yeah. That it will never really have

31:37

the same cohesion again. Well,

31:39

yes. So the the Gallic Empire lasts

31:41

until two seventy four when it's

31:43

finally suppressed by Caillan

31:46

but what we see is

31:48

the rise of

31:50

Gaul and the Gallic elites as

31:52

a region that needs to be

31:55

placated and patronized by

31:58

Emperors. So certainly from the late

32:00

third century, from Eximian, really

32:03

up to the late fourth century and

32:05

to the time of Magnus MAXIMUS, at

32:07

least one emperor is based in Trier, controlling

32:10

this region. And there's a fourth

32:12

century source, which says

32:15

Gaul always needs its own emperor.

32:18

So this is real sense that

32:20

this is part of the empire that needs to be placated

32:23

and it needs to be helped fast

32:25

by an emperor on the

32:26

scene. That was associate

32:28

professor Caillan Davenport headed the

32:30

center for classical studies at the Australian

32:32

National University, and you have been

32:34

listening to Emperors of Rome. If

32:36

you like this podcast, please subscribe and leave

32:39

a review. You can like him whereas of Rome on

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Facebook and you can follow us on Twitter.

32:43

Caillan is at doctor c Davenport. I

32:46

am at night light guy, and the podcast

32:48

is at Rome Podcast. This

32:51

podcast has been produced at Latrobe University

32:53

in Melbourne, Australia on the traditional

32:55

lands of the war I'm doing people. In

32:58

the next episode, the Rise of the Gallic

33:00

Empire. So until then, I'm Matt

33:02

Smith. You've been fantastic and

33:04

thanks for listening.