- GALLIENUS’ INHERITANCE
- Claudius II
- Lack of coherent logic in politics; why are particular emperors chosen at particular points?
- Obvious candidates passed over for less capable individuals; less easily to explain why/what is going on
- Gallienus declared to be usurper
- Historia Augusta: usurpation against Gallienus, new regime paid off soldiers and claimed Gallienus himself was a usurper (despite following on from his father)
- Flexibility of memory; how easy is it to rewrite the legacy of previous emperors?
- Claudius Gothicus comes to the throne
- Numerous accounts of his accession
- Remembered positively; coins with symbol of peace;
- Claudius appears to be one of the better emperors of 3rd century, always with reference to Constantine’s father
- Constantine plucks Claudius Gothicus from obscurity to legitimise his reintroduction of the principate and removal of tetrarchy
- Only reason Claudius Gothicus is of interest?
- Name suggests from family with recent citizenship (Caracalla’s edict) - Marcus Aurelius Claudicus
- Deifies Gallienus - again, reversal of memory
- Doesn’t reach all provinces - some areas where he receives damnatio memoriae and others where he is deified
- Why deify? Difficult to get idea of Gallienus as usurper to stick, so change of motive?
- Focuses on Danubian frontier - not unusual, being am military emperor
- Ignores east; epigraphy of military officials from this year showing many come from Danubian frontier suggests this is why he was put in power and Gallienus was removed
- Suggested Gallienus abandoned Danubian frontier to deal with other usurper, angering Danubian military officials and so LOCAL INTEREST put in an emperor who was willing to pay attention
- Claims victory over the Goths
- Death from plague - only soldier emperor to die in bed
2. Quintillus and Aurelian
- Succession plan in place for Claudius’ brother (Marcus Aurelius Quintullus) to succeed
- Quintillus minor figure; procurator in Sardinia
- Only emperor for 17 days
- Has time to mint coins
- Army in Sirmium acclaim another individual, Marcus Aurelius Aurelianus, emperor (270-275)
- Claudius’ own army support Aurelian, rather than Claudius’ brother Quintillus
- Quintillus dies; murder or suicide unclear
- 270/271- Aurelian cleans up northern frontier
- Gothic invasion stemmed and seems to happen muchness in this period
- Why? Aurelian more competent emperor? Building on success of his predecessor, Claudius Gothicus? Were the Goths themselves less interested in raiding in Rome if resistance was stronger?
- Abandons Transdanubian Dacia,and creates a new province called Dacia to mask the lost of the first area
- Fortification of cities, including Rome
- Aurelian Wall increases territory of city of Rome
- Why? Raiding groups getting further into Roman territory
- Roman refortifying suggest Rome itself was at threat; violent of frontier crept ever closer and the heartland of empire was at threat
- Augustan period; conflict getting further and further from Rome
- Reversal of this; conflict getting closer, city of Rome at threat
- Fragmentation of empire - Gallic and Palymrene empires
II. THE GALLIC EMPIRE (260-274)
- Postumus’ empire
- Postumus established new state beyond Alps
- Ten year reign, unchallenged and without conflict
- Resources of central government had been spread to thin; local elites were able to provide for citizens that which central government could no longer
- Roman ideology - titulature, coins, etc
- No desire for independence?
- Usurper can’t be put down, Gallienus just has to live with him
- At what point does a continuous usurper become an emperor?
- Seen as being so established that someone else wants to be in his place, and is usurped
- Ulpius Cornelianus Laelianus (288) defeated in battle
- This story rhetorical trope? Reign begins and ends with stories of military blunder
- Central government was still unable to do anything, so we see succession the Gallic empire
- Authority passes from one individual to another, thus becoming an empire in itself
- Victorinus defeats Marius and becomes emperor in Gallic empire, who is then defeated by Tetricus
- At point at which there is civil war, a number of regions declare authority to central Roman authority, Claudius Gothicus
- Suggests it was precisely the political stability offered by Postumus that made him an attractive ruler to these regions
- Postumus rules at a time where instability is centrla, some emperors reigning for only 17 days
- Clear why this might be attractive to local magistrates; allows individuals to get on with local life, trading, etc without constant political disturbance
- To what extent are individuals aware of central recognition?
- What are the mechanisms by which individuals can check who has legitimately claimed power?
- If nobody challenges Postumus for 10 years, what reason would one have for viewing him as illegitimate?
- To what extent do individuals pay attention to the close details of central authority?
III. THE PALYMRENE KINGDOM
- Odaenathus’ role
- De-facto control over Western side of empire
- Claiming other titles
- King of kings in; corrector totes Orients
- Odaenathus’ accepted overture from Gallienus
- A working relationship… that stopped working
- Moments of succession which mean the basis of power and legitimacy are brought into light and questioned
- Odaenathus dies
2. Zenobia’s empire
- Wife of Odaenathus viewed his position as one which should be inherited, by his son Vaballathus, aged >10
- Zenobia engineers succession of her son
- Inscriptions indicate her own agency; claiming position that was given to the father; ‘mother of the king’
- Attempt to claim magistracy for the son
- Zenobia’s ambitions exceeded those of her husband; he was happy with bounds of power given to him in the position of corrector totius orientis
- Envisages Palmyrene empire
- Begins minting coins - something Odaenathus had never done
- Coins claim authority over the Romans; claiming Vaballathus and Aurelian as co-emperors, uses language of emperors
- Uses central imperial imagery - crowned and in style of Augustus
- Coins of Vaballathus dressed as Hercules; cf. Commodus
- Coinage also produced for Zenobia - indication for her own ambition?
- Starts as king of kings, already disputed by central government, and then claims more and more, co-emperor with Aurelian
- Backdating of Vaballathus 3 years; claiming he is the senior emperor with Aurelian - changing of memory
- Instability creates space for individuals to push boundaries
III. AURELIAN’S RESTORATION
- Defeat of the Palmyrene Empire
- 273: Aurelian advances towards Palmyra
- 2 quick defeats
- Besieges Palmyra, Zenobia captured and taken as a prisoner to Rome
2. Defeat of Gallic Empire
- 274 Aurelian approaches
- Tetricus negotiates own surrender
- Sacrifices army to need for a victory
- Both victorie anti climactic
- Discovering problems of original empire
- Once they have to place the problem of succession -THE FUNDAMDENTLA PROBLEM OF TH E ROMAN EMPIRE WHICH IS NEVER FACE/RESOLVED - those empires themselves become too weak to continue
3. The image of victory
- Double triumph; first in many years
- Aurelian presenting as victory over foreign barbarians, rather than reclaiming of territories; cf. Flavian attitudes to Jewish War
- Zenobia marries senator; Tetricus becomes senator
- Interesting because you can see the distinction between reality of events and the image Aurelian attempts to present
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