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Roman Emperor (Crisis of the Third Century)

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The Crisis of the Third Century marked the end of the Principate, the early phase of Imperial Roman government. A series of soldiers, the Barracks Emperors, assumed the highest office, leading to the breakdown of the previous system of Imperial government, in which the Emperor had functioned within the fiction of a preservation of the old republican forms of government. The crisis came to a close with Diocletian, who reformed the Imperial office and initiated the period known as the Dominate. 



Contents





The crisis begins


The accession to the purple of Gaius Julius Verus Maximinus "Thrax" ("the Thracian") marks the rise of the first "Barracks Emperor" par excellence. Whereas the previous military Emperors (Vespasian, Septimius Severus) had come from noble or middle-class plebeian families, Maximinus was born a commoner of a low-class family in a disreputable part of the Empire, and had begun his career as an enlisted soldier (miles). Remarkably, Maximinus never visited Rome while Emperor. Furthermore, his reign represents one of the last sallies of the increasingly impotent Senate's attempts to control the Empire; the Senate backed two pairs of co-Emperors from its own number against Maximinus.




Maximinus "Thrax" was commander of new recruits on the Rhine frontier when Alexander Severus was murdered by mutineers; he was acclaimed Emperor by his troops in March 235, and in January 238 put down a rebellion by the governor of Africa Proconsularis (i.e., modern Tunisia) and his son, Gordian I and Gordian II; Gordian was a consular of distinguished family and reigned 20 days with his son as co-Emperor. Immediately afterward the Senate backed a second pair of co-Emperors, the patrician consulars Pupienus and Balbinus, and Maximinus was murdered by his own troops in April that year. The senatorial co-Emperors were murdered by the Praetorian Guard a month later in May 238, having reigned 99 days.



Gordianan dynasty


The accession to the purple of Gordian III retroactively created a dynasty out of the ill-fated African uprising of the Gordiani; as they did not successfully overthrow Maximinus, the preceding Gordiani are more properly regarded as failed usurpers than as Emperors, but Gordian's accession makes the family a quasi-dynasty, which may or may not be regarded as having been restored to the purple à la Severi.



Gordianan emperors





Dynastic relationships


Gordian I's wife Fabia Orestilla bore him two sons (Gordian II and a son of unknown name) and a daughter (Maecia Faustina); that daughter was mother of Gordian III, who was therefore grandson of Gordian I and nephew of Gordian II.



More instability


The accession to the purple of Philip the Arab marks the second time that a praetorian prefect supplanted his Emperor (the first being Macrinus); this Syrian soldier (once erroneously thought to have been a Christian) was succeeded by  the first Emperor from the former Illyria, Decius (a noble senator of distinguished career), who was also the first Emperor to have been killed in battle with a foreign enemy (the Goths).  Another African, Aemilianus from Jerba off the coast of southern Tunisia, donned the purple.




Philip the Arab was praetorian prefect under the late Gordian III, whose own soldiers mutinied against him. He installed his son Marcus Julius Philippus as co-Emperor, but both were killed in 249 by partisans of Philippus's rebellious governor of Moesia and Pannonia, the consular Decius. Decius's younger son, Hostilian, was subsequently adopted by and proclaimed co-Emperor with Trebonianus Gallus in June 251 (and promptly died of plague in July); Trebonianus Gallus replaced Decius's son with his own, Volusianus, but father and son co-Emperors were murdered in August 253 by partisans of Trebonianus Gallus's own rebellious governor of Moesia Superior, the consular Aemilianus, who was murdered by his own soldiers after a reign of 88 days.



Valerianan dynasty


The founder of the short-lived Valerianan dynasty, Valerian, was of a particularly distinguished patrician, Etrurian family, the Licinii. For his efforts at retrieving the badly deteriorating situation in the East, the Senate awarded him the titles Restitutor Orientis ("Restorer of the East"), Restitutor Generis Humanis ("Restorer of the Human Race") and finally Restitutor Orbis ("Restorer of the World"), but these honours fail to overcome the ignominy wherewith his reign ended: Valerian was the first Emperor to be captured by a foreign enemy, and was used as a footstool by the Great King Shapur I of Persia, who after Valerian's death had his skin stuffed and put on display (the only other Emperor to have been so humiliated was Rhomanos IV eight hundred years later in 1071).


Further major developments troubled the reign of P. Licinius Egnatius Gallienus: several significant rebellions arose against Gallienus's rule, including the establishment of the independent, so-called Gallic Empire (composed of Gallia, Britannia, and Hispania) in 261 by Postumus, and Gallienus erected a co-Emperor in all but name in Septimius Odenathus, king of Palmyra (Gallienus gave Odenathus the titles Dux Romanorum, "Leader of the Romans", and Corrector Totius Orientis, "Corrector of the Whole East").


Valerianan emperors:





Dynastic relationships


Valerian's wife Egnatia Mariniana bore him two sons (Egnatius Gallienus and Valerianus). Gallienus himself had by his wife Julia Cornelia Salonina three sons (Valerianus, Saloninus, and Egnatius Marinianus).



The crisis at its height


The murder of Gallienus left his Dalmatian cavalry commander, Marcus Aurelius Claudius "Gothicus" ("conqueror of the Goths"), to don the purple. The Emperor from Illyricum recovered Hispania from the Gallic Empire, but Septimius Odenathus's widow, Zenobia, broke with him and began to seize power in the East for herself (in 272 she began styling herself "Zenobia Augusta"). Lucius Domitius Aurelianus built the first new wall around Rome, defeated Zenobia and recovered the lands of the Empire claimed by Palmyra, and reclaimed the remainder of the Gallic Empire; for his efforts at reunifying the Empire he was titled Restitutor Orbis ("Restorer of the World"). Aurelianus's successor Marcus Claudius Tacitus received a similar title, Restitutor Rei Publicae ("Restorer of the Republic").




Claudius II "Gothicus" died of plague in August 270, and was briefly succeeded by his brother, Quintillus, who committed suicide in September and allowed the purple to pass to his own cavalry commander, Aurelianus, who was himself murdered by his Praetorian Guard (again). Tacitus was an elderly senator and probably a general brought out of retirement when it was realised that no-one stood ready to don the purple after Aurelianus's death, and was murdered after six months and succeeded for 88 days by his praetorian prefect, Florianus, who promptly became the third Emperor murdered in 276. Probus, a formidable general of unknown family from the Danube frontier, next donned the purple, only to be murdered at the instigation of his praetorian prefect, Carus (see below).



Caran dynasty


The Caran dynasty was a Gallic family from Narbo on the Mediterranean coast. It was another family which came to power through treachery; Marcus Aurelius Carus, the founder of the extremely short-lived dynasty, had been his predecessor's praetorian prefect. He is particularly noted for his spectacular death: Carus is the only Emperor to have been struck by lightning.



Caran emperors





Dynastic relationships


Carus's wife (name unknown) bore him two sons (Numerianus and Carinus) and a daughter (Aurelia Paulina).



See also



Roman Emperors by Epoch


see also: List of Roman Emperors · Concise List of Roman Emperors · Roman Empire





Principate
Crisis of the
3rd Century
Dominate
Late Empire











 Gallic
Emperors





Tetrarchies







 Britannic
Emperors


 Theodosian
dynasty


Emperors of the
Western Empire


Byzantine
Emperors


 

 → (In Italy:)


Barbarian kings


 → (Much later in Western Europe:)


Holy Roman Emperors


 → (Continuing in Eastern Europe:)


Byzantine Emperors













 





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