Valerian (emperor)

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Valerian on a coin celebrating goddess Fortuna, associated with health and wealth.

Publius Licinius ValerianusValerian full title was IMPERATOR CAESAR PVBLIVS LICINIVS VALERIANVS PIVS FELIX INVICTVS AVGVSTVS, "Emperor Caesar Publius Licinus Valerianus Pious Lucky Undefeated Augustus". (c. 200 - after 260), known in English as Valerian, was Roman Emperor from 253 to 260.

Life

Origins and rise to power

Coin of Egnatia Marininiana, wife of Valerian and mother of Gallienus.

Unlike the majority of the pretenders to the of the Crisis of the Third Century, Valerian was of a noble and traditional senatorial family. Details of his early life are elusive, but his marriage to Egnatia Mariniana, who gave him two sons: later emperor Publius Licinius Egnatius Gallienus and Valerianus Minor.

In 238 he was princeps senatus, and Gordian I negotiated through him for Senatorial acknowledgement for his claim as emperor. In 251, when Decius revived the censorship with legislative and executive powers so extensive that it practically embraced the civil authority of the emperor, Valerian was chosen censor by the Senate. Under Decius he was nominated governor of the Rhine provinces of Noricum and Raetia and retained the confidence of his successor, Trebonianus Gallus, who asked him for reinforcements to quell the rebellion of Aemilianus in 253. Valerian headed south, but was too late: Gallus' own troops had killed him and joined Aemilianus before his arrival. The Raetian soldiers then proclaimed Valerian emperor and continued their march towards Rome. At the time of his arrival in September, Aemilianus' legions defected, killing him and proclaiming Valerian emperor. In Rome, the Senate quickly acknowledged him, not only for fear of reprisals, but also because he was one of their own.

Rule and fall

Valerian's first act as emperor was to make his son Gallienus his colleague. In the beginning of his reign the affairs in Europe went from bad to worse and the whole West fell into disorder. In the East, Antioch had fallen into the hands of a Sassanid vassal, Armenia was occupied by Shapur I (Sapor). Valerian and Gallienus split the problems of the empire between the two, with the son taking the West and the father heading East to face the Persian threat.

By 257, Valerian had already recovered Antioch and returned the province of Syria to Roman control but in the following year, the Goths ravaged Asia Minor. Later in 259, he moved to Edessa, but an outbreak of plague killed a critical number of legionaries, weakening the Roman position. Valerian was then forced to seek terms with Shapur I. Sometime towards the end of 259, or at the beginning of 260, Valerian was defeated in the Battle of Edessa and threacherously made prisoner by the Persians, making him the only Roman Emperor taken captive.

Death

Some modern scholars say that Shapur sent Valerian and some of his army to the city of Bishapur where they lived in relatively good condition. Shapur used the remaining soldiers in engineering and development plans. Band-e Kaisar (Caesar's dam) is one of the remnants of Roman engineering located near the ancient city of Susa.Abdolhossein Zarinkoob "Ruzgaran : tarikh-i Iran az aghz ta saqut saltnat Pahlvi" pp. 195 In all the stone carvings on Naghshe-Rostam, in Iran, Valerian is respected by holding hands with Shapur I.

Ancient sources, as Lactantius, say that Valerian was subjected to the greatest insults by his captors, such as being used as a human stepladder by Shapur when mounting his horse. After a long period of treatment and humiliation of this sort, he offered Shapur a huge ransom for his release. In reply, Shapur was said to have molten gold poured down his throat and then had the unfortunate Valerian skinned and his skin stuffed with straw and preserved as a trophy in the main Persian temple. Only after Persia's defeat in their last war with Rome three and a half centuries later was his skin given a cremation and burial.Lactantius, De Mortibus Persecutorum, v; Wickert, L., "Licinius (Egnatius) 84" in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopädie 13.1 (1926), 488-495; Parker, H., A History of the Roman World A.D. 138 to 337 (London, 1958), 170. From [link].. The role of a Chinese prince held hostage by Shapur I, in the events following the death of Valerian has been frequently debated by historians, without any definitive conclusion been reached.

Valerian and Gallienus' joint rule was threatened several times by usurpers. Despite several usurpation attempts, Gallienus secured the throne until his own assassination in 268.

Owing to imperfect and often contradictory sources, the chronology and details of this reign are very uncertain.

See also

• Gallienus usurpers for all the usurpers of Valerian and Gallienus reign.

Notes