From Philip the Arab to Claudius II

That's right, folks!  It's time for some more Roman history!!!  When last we spoke, we ended things with the death of Gordian III in Anno Domini 244.  Which means we'll pick things back up with...

Philip the Arab 244-249

...may or may not have been behind a plot to assassinate Gordian III, who was either assassinated or killed in battle (depending on which sources you choose to believe).  Philip was from Syria (hence the nickname "the Arab") and is said to have been sympathetic to Christianity, celebrating Easter and receiving letters from an early Christian theologian named Origen.  Philip became emperor during a time when the empire was on the verge of collapse.  Germanic tribes were invading in the north as were Goths, and the situation in the east was equally dire.  Philip made the situation worse by overspending on the reconstruction of Philippopolis (formerly Shabba, his birth city) and on the Millenial Games, a spectacle of violence meant to celebrate the 1,000 birthday of Rome.  To make up for the money he'd spent, Philip increased taxes and stopped paying tribute to the northern tribes, which led to an immediate revolt.  Overwhelmed, Philip offered to resign, but was encouraged to stay by a cohort of senators led by a man named Decius.  Heartened, Philip the Arab gave Decius command of the Danube and tasked him with suppressing the revolt.  After he'd successfully carried out Philip's orders, Decius was declared emperor by his troops, who subsequently followed him back to Italy where he killed Philip in battle and officially took the seat of power in Rome.

Decius  249-251

Decius had it in mind to restore Rome to her former glory.  He encouraged the celebration of "good emperors" of the past and issued an edict that required all citizens to offer sacrifices to the gods on behalf of Rome (which was a problem for Christians.  Many were tortured and killed when they refused to comply.  Pope Fabian, for example, died in 250).  The most pressing issue, however, was the invasion and rebellion in the north and in the east.  Decius decided to head north to deal with the Goths and, in 251, he was killed at the Battle of Abrittus.

GALLUS 251-253

Decius' son was also killed in the Battle of Abrittus so a man named Gallus (latin for "rooster"), governor of a Danubian province, became emperor.  He'd already spent a great deal of time fighting against the Goths and decided that the best thing to do was to arrange a peace.  Gallus allowed them to keep their plunder, so long as they agreed to leave Roman territory.  Meanwhile, Persians led by Shapur I rose up in the east and sacked Antioch in Syria, Balkan fighters took to the sea to raid cities (such as Ephesus) along the coast of Turkey, and Scythians took up where the Goths left off along the Danube.  Several Roman legions were destroyed and/or defeated during Gallus' reign and he began to look weak.  Aemilianus, another Danubian general, saw an opening and decided to attack Gallus.  Gallus was either killed in battle or killed by his own men before battle.  Either way, the throne went to Aemilianus.

AEMILIANUS Aug253-Sep253

But his reign would be as brief as it would be insignificant.  Gallus had called on Valerian, a general stationed along the Rhine, for reinforcement against Aemilianus.  Valerian arrived too late to prevent Gallus' death, but he arrived in plenty of time to end the emperorship of Aemilianus.  When Aemilianus' men heard that Valerian was coming with a large army, they killed Aemilianus and joined Valerian.

VALERIAN 253-260

Valerian was a noble from a family of senators and he, like Decius, was a traditionalist.  He wanted Rome whole and intact and saw it as his duty to rid the empire of those who did not fully embrace her customs.  In 257, Valerian ordered the first nation-wide persecution of Christians.  Many were stripped of lands and titles and executed or enslaved (Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, was among the beheaded).  Valerian understood that he could not handle all of Rome's enemies alone, so he declared his son Gallienus co-emperor and sent him to restore empire in the west.  Meanwhile, Valerian headed east to face Shapur I, the devout Zoroastrian king of Persia.  His armies weakened with an outbreak of disease, Valerian was defeated at the Battle of Edessa and captured alive.  The sources do not agree on what exactly happened to Valerian after he was captured.  Some say he lived out the rest of his days as a human footstool for Shapur.  Others say he was forced to swallow molten gold (which was also said of Crassus about 50 years before the beginning of the Common Era) or that he was flayed alive and his skin was kept around as a trophy.  How exactly he died is unclear, but what is clear is that his defeat was a serious crisis for the Empire of Rome.

GALLIENUS 260-268

Okay, so Gallienus was Valerian's son and he was declared co-emperor back in 253.  Upon his father's defeat, Gallienus became the sole emperor of Rome.  But several generals did not recognize his authority and declared themselves emperors.  One of the men, Postumus, was particularly successful and took over a great deal of territory in present-day France and called it "The Empire Of The Gauls".  He held on to it for nearly a decade.  Gallienus, like all of the 3rd century Roman emperors, spent much of his time and energy trying to keep Rome from falling apart completely.  One Germanic tribe, the Alamanni, managed to march all the way to Rome (a feat which hadn't been accomplished by a foreign army since the Punic Wars) before being turned back by a Roman army cobbled together by the senators and the Praetorian Guard.  Gallienus collected a number of military successes (such as destroying the retreating Alamanni army) and rescinded his father's religious intolerance (going so far as to restore some Christian property that had been seized) but during his reign, Rome lost Britian, most of Spain, Germany, and Gaul.  He was killed in 268 by a group of senior officials who'd been plotting against him.

CLAUDIUS II  268-270

Claudius "Gothicus" II was a career military man.  He was from Illyria and so, like the foreign born Maximinus Thrax, was one of those emperors considered to be a barbarian by much of Roman society.  When these guys show up in Roman history, wild tales are told of them to accentuate their barbarity.  Thrax was described as being a colossus who could wear his wife's bracelet as a thumb ring.  Claudius II is said to have been so strong that he once punched out a horse's teeth with his fist.  He was with the imperial army under Gallienus as they beseiged a usurper named Aureolus at Milan in 268.  When Gallienus was murdered (and no one could definitively tie Claudius to the conspiracy) the army declared Claudius II emperor of Rome.  During his brief reign, he defeated the Goths in Pannonia at the famous Battle of Naissus, regained Spain, and took back part of Gaul.  He died of smallpox (the Cyprian Plague) in 270 and the emperorship, after some confusion, passed to another fighter from the Balkans, Aurelian.

Hang in there, folks!  We're not quite done with the Crisis of the Third Century, but up next is a spate of emperors who rise and fall in such rapid succession that no one really remembers (or cares) much about them.  We'll go from Aurelian to Galerius.  You've been warned...

Cheers.