Husband of Severina
Aurelian (Latin: Lucius Domitius Aurelianus Augustus;
9 September 214 or 215 - September or October 275) was Roman Emperor
from 270 to 275. Born in humble circumstances, he rose through the
military ranks to become emperor. During his reign, he defeated the
Alamanni after a devastating war. He also defeated the Goths, Vandals,
Juthungi, Sarmatians, and Carpi. Aurelian restored the Empire's eastern
provinces after his conquest of the Palmyrene Empire in 273. The
following year he conquered the Gallic Empire in the west, reuniting the
Empire in its entirety. He was also responsible for the construction of
the Aurelian Walls in Rome, and the abandonment of the province of
Dacia.His successes were instrumental in ending the Roman Empire's Crisis of the Third Century, earning him the title Restitutor Orbis or 'Restorer of the World'. Although Domitian was the first emperor who had demanded to be officially hailed as dominus et deus (master and god), these titles never occurred in written form on official documents until the reign of Aurelian.
Early life
Aurelian
was born on 9 September, most likely in 214 AD, although 215 AD is also
possible. The ancient sources are not agreed on his place of birth,
although he was generally accepted as being a native of Illyricum.
Sirmium in Pannonia Inferior (now Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia) is the
preferred location, which was created by Aurelian as Emperor when he
abandoned the old trans-Danubian territory of Dacia. The academic
consensus is that he was of humble birth and that his father was a
peasant-farmer who took his Roman nomen from his landlord, a
senator of the clan Aurelius. Saunders suggests that his family might in
fact have been of Roman settler origin and of much higher social
status; however, his suggestion has not been taken up by his more recent
academic colleagues such as Southern and Watson.
Using the
evidence of the ancient sources, it was at one time suggested that
Aurelian's mother was a freedwoman of a member of the clan Aurelius and
that she herself was a priestess of the Sun-God in her native village.
These two propositions, together with the tradition that the clan
Aurelius had been entrusted with the maintenance of that deity's cult in
Rome, inspired the notion that this could explain the devotion to the
sun-god that Aurelian was to manifest as Emperor - see below. However,
it seems that this pleasant extrapolation of dubious facts is now
generally accepted as being no more than just that.
Military career
It
is commonly accepted that Aurelian probably joined the army in 235 AD
at around age twenty. It is also generally assumed that, as a member of
the lowest rank of society - albeit a citizen - he would have enlisted
in the ranks of the legions. Idiosyncratically, Saunders suggests that
his career is more easily understood if it is assumed that his family
was of Roman settler origins with a tradition of military service and
that he enlisted as an equestrian. This would have opened up for him the
tres militia - the three steps of the equestrian military career
- one of the routes to higher equestrian office in the Imperial
Service. This could be a more expeditious route to senior military and
procuratorial offices than that pursued by ex-rankers, although not
necessarily less laborious. However, Saunders's conjecture as to
Aurelian's early career is not supported by any evidence other than his nomen
which could indicate Italian settler ancestry - although even this is
contested - and his rise to the highest ranks which is more easily
understood if he did not have to start from the bottom. His suggestion
has not been taken up by other academic authorities.
Whatever his
origins, Aurelian certainly must have built up a very solid reputation
for military competence during the tumultuous mid-decades of the
century. To be sure, the exploits detailed in the Historia Augusta vita Divi Aureliani,
while not always impossible, are not supported by any independent
evidence and one at least is demonstrably an invention typical of that
author. However, he was probably associated with Gallienus's cavalry
army and shone as an officer of that corps d'élite because, when
he finally emerged in a historically reliable context in the early part
of the reign of Claudius II, he seems to have been its commander.
Service under Gallienus
His
successes as a cavalry commander ultimately made him a member of
emperor Gallienus' entourage. In 268, Aurelian and his cavalry
participated in general Claudius' victory over the Goths at the Battle
of Naissus. Later that year Gallienus traveled to Italy and fought
Aureolus, his former general and now usurper for the throne. Driving
Aureolus back into Mediolanum, Gallienus promptly besieged his adversary
in the city. However, while the siege was ongoing the Emperor was
assassinated. One source says Aurelian, who was present at the siege,
participated and supported general Claudius for the purple - which is
plausible.
Aurelian was married to Ulpia Severina, about whom
little is known. Like Aurelian she was from Dacia. They are known to
have had a daughter together.
Service under Claudius
Claudius
was acclaimed Emperor by the soldiers outside Mediolanum. The new
Emperor immediately ordered the senate to deify Gallienus. Next, he
began to distance himself from those responsible for his predecessor's
assassination, ordering the execution of those directly involved.
Aureolus was still besieged in Mediolanum and sought reconciliation with
the new emperor, but Claudius had no sympathy for a potential rival.
The emperor had Aureolus killed and one source implicates Aurelian in
the deed, perhaps even signing the warrant for his death himself.
During
the reign of Claudius, Aurelian was promoted rapidly: he was given
command of the elite Dalmatian cavalry, and was soon promoted to overall
Magister equitum, effectively the head of the army after the
Emperor - the Emperor's position before his acclamation. The war against
Aureolus and the concentration of forces in Italy allowed the Alamanni
to break through the Rhaetian limes along the upper Danube. Marching
through Raetia and the Alps unhindered, they entered northern Italy and
began pillaging the area. In early 269, emperor Claudius and Aurelian
marched north to meet the Alamanni, defeating them decisively at the
Battle of Lake Benacus.
While still dealing with the defeated
enemy, news came from the Balkans reporting large-scale attacks from the
Heruli, Goths, Gepids, and Bastarnae. Claudius immediately dispatched
Aurelian to the Balkans to contain the invasion as best he could until
Claudius could arrive with his main army. The Goths were besieging
Thessalonica when they heard of emperor Claudius' approach, causing them
to abandon the siege and pillage north-eastern Macedonia. Aurelian
intercepted the Goths with his Dalmatian cavalry and defeated them in a
series of minor skirmishes, killing as many as three thousand of the
enemy. Aurelian continued to harass the enemy, driving them northward
into Upper Moesia where emperor Claudius had assembled his main army.
The ensuing battle was indecisive: the northward advance of the Goths
was halted but Roman losses were heavy.
Claudius could not afford
another pitched battle, so he instead laid a successful ambush, killing
thousands. However, the majority of the Goths escaped and began
retreating south the way they had come. For the rest of year, Aurelian
harassed the enemy with his Dalmatian cavalry.
Now stranded in
Roman territory, the Goths' lack of provisions began to take its toll.
Aurelian, sensing his enemies' desperation, attacked them with the full
force of his cavalry, killing many and driving the remainder westward
into Thrace. As winter set in, the Goths retreated into the Haemus
Mountains, only to find themselves trapped and surrounded. The harsh
conditions now exacerbated their shortage of food. However, the Romans
underestimated the Goths and let their guard down, allowing the enemy to
break through their lines and escape. Apparently emperor Claudius
ignored advice, perhaps from Aurelian, and withheld the cavalry and sent
in only the infantry to stop their break-out.
The determined
Goths killed many of the oncoming infantry and were only prevented from
slaughtering them all when Aurelian finally charged in with his
Dalmatian cavalry. The Goths still managed to escape and continued their
march through Thrace. The Roman army continued to follow the Goths
during the spring and summer of 270. Meanwhile, a devastating plague
swept through the Balkans, killing many soldiers in both armies.
Emperor
Claudius fell ill on the march to the battle and returned to his
regional headquarters in Sirmium, leaving Aurelian in charge of
operations against the Goths. Aurelian used his cavalry to great effect,
breaking the Goths into smaller groups which were easier to deal with.
By late summer the Goths were defeated: any survivors were stripped of
their animals and booty and were levied into the army or settled as
farmers in frontier regions. Aurelian had no time to relish his
victories; in late August news arrived from Sirmium that emperor
Claudius was dead.
Opposition to Quintillus
When Claudius
died, his brother Quintillus seized power with support of the Senate.
With an act typical of the Crisis of the Third Century, the army refused
to recognize the new Emperor, preferring to support one of its own
commanders: Aurelian was proclaimed emperor in September 270 by the
legions in Sirmium. Aurelian defeated Quintillus' troops, and was
recognized as Emperor by the Senate after Quintillus' death. The claim
that Aurelian was chosen by Claudius on his death bed can be dismissed
as propaganda; later, probably in 272, Aurelian put his own dies imperii the day of Claudius' death, thus implicitly considering Quintillus a usurper.
With
his base of power secure, he now turned his attention to Rome's
greatest problems - recovering the vast territories lost over the
previous two decades, and reforming the res publica.
Emperor
The Roman Empire in the 270s
In
248, Emperor Philip the Arab had celebrated the millennium of the city
of Rome with great and expensive ceremonies and games, and the Empire
had given a tremendous proof of self-confidence. In the following years,
however, the Empire had to face a huge pressure from external enemies,
while, at the same time, dangerous civil wars threatened the empire from
within, with usurpers weakening the strength of the state. Also, the
economic substrate of the state, agriculture and commerce, suffered from
the disruption caused by the instability. On top of this an epidemic
swept through the Empire around 250, greatly diminishing manpower both
for the army and for agriculture.
The end result was that the
Empire could not endure the blow of the capture of Emperor Valerian in
260. The eastern provinces found their protectors in the rulers of the
city of Palmyra, in Syria, whose autonomy grew until the formation of
the Palmyrene Empire, which was more successful against the Persian
threat. The western provinces, those facing the limes of the
Rhine, seceded to form a third, autonomous state within the territories
of the Roman Empire, which is now known as the Gallic Empire.
In
Rome, the Emperor was occupied with the internal menaces to his power
and with the defense of Italia and the Balkans. This was the situation
faced by Gallienus and Claudius, and the problems Aurelian had to deal
with at the beginning of his rule.
Reunification of the empire
The
first actions of the new Emperor were aimed at strengthening his own
position in his territories. Late in 270, Aurelian campaigned in
northern Italia against the Vandals, Juthungi, and Sarmatians, expelling
them from Roman territory. To celebrate these victories, Aurelian was
granted the title of Germanicus Maximus. The authority of the
Emperor was challenged by several usurpers - Septimius, Urbanus,
Domitianus, and the rebellion of Felicissimus - who tried to exploit the
sense of insecurity of the empire and the overwhelming influence of the
armies in Roman politics. Aurelian, being an experienced commander, was
aware of the importance of the army, and his propaganda, known through
his coinage, shows he wanted the support of the legions.
Defending Italy Against the Iuthungi
The
burden of the northern barbarians was not yet over, however. In 271,
the Alamanni moved towards Italia, entering the Po plain and sacking the
villages; they passed the Po River, occupied Placentia and moved
towards Fano. Aurelian, who was in Pannonia to control the Vandals'
withdrawal, quickly entered Italia, but his army was defeated in an
ambush near Placentia (January 271). When the news of the defeat arrived
in Rome, it caused great fear for the arrival of the barbarians. But
Aurelian attacked the Alamanni camping near the Metaurus River,
defeating them in the Battle of Fano, and forcing them to re-cross the
Po river; Aurelian finally routed them at Pavia. For this, he received
the title Germanicus Maximus. However, the menace of the Germanic
people remained high as perceived by the Romans, so Aurelian resolved
to build the walls that became known as the Aurelian Walls around Rome.
Defeat of the Goths and abandonment of Dacia
The
emperor led his legions to the Balkans, where he defeated and routed
the Goths beyond the Danube, killing the Gothic leader Cannabaudes, and
assuming the title of Gothicus Maximus. However, he decided to
abandon the province of Dacia, on the exposed north bank of the Danube,
as too difficult and expensive to defend. He reorganized a new province
of Dacia south of the Danube, inside the former Moesia, called Dacia Aureliana, with Serdica as the capital.
Conquest of the Palmyrene Empire
In
272, Aurelian turned his attention to the lost eastern provinces of the
empire, the so-called "Palmyrene Empire" ruled by Queen Zenobia from
the city of Palmyra. Zenobia had carved out her own empire, encompassing
Syria, Palestine, Egypt and large parts of Asia Minor. The Syrian queen
cut off Rome's shipments of grain, and in a matter of weeks, the Romans
started running low on bread. In the beginning, Aurelian had been
recognized as Emperor, while Vaballathus, the son of Zenobia, held the
title of rex and imperator ("king" and "supreme military
commander"), but Aurelian decided to invade the eastern provinces as
soon as he felt his army to be strong enough.
Asia Minor was
recovered easily; every city but Byzantium and Tyana surrendered to him
with little resistance. The fall of Tyana lent itself to a legend:
Aurelian to that point had destroyed every city that resisted him, but
he spared Tyana after having a vision of the great 1st-century
philosopher Apollonius of Tyana, whom he respected greatly, in a dream.
Apollonius
implored him, stating, "Aurelian, if you desire to rule, abstain from
the blood of the innocent! Aurelian, if you will conquer, be merciful!"
Whatever the reason, Aurelian spared Tyana. It paid off; many more
cities submitted to him upon seeing that the Emperor would not exact
revenge upon them. Within six months, his armies stood at the gates of
Palmyra, which surrendered when Zenobia tried to flee to the Sassanid
Empire. The "Palmyrene Empire" was no more.
Eventually Zenobia and
her son were captured and made to walk on the streets of Rome in his
triumph, the woman in golden chains. With the grain stores once again
shipped to Rome, Aurelian's soldiers handed out free bread to the
citizens of the city, and the Emperor was hailed a hero by his subjects.
After a brief clash with the Persians and another in Egypt against the
usurper Firmus, Aurelian was obliged to return to Palmyra in 273 when
that city rebelled once more. This time, Aurelian allowed his soldiers
to sack the city, and Palmyra never recovered. More honors came his way;
he was now known as Parthicus Maximus and Restitutor Orientis ("Restorer of the East").
The
rich province of Egypt was also recovered by Aurelian. The Brucheion
(Royal Quarter) in Alexandria was burned to the ground. This section of
the city once contained the Library of Alexandria, although the extent
of the surviving Library in Aurelian's time is uncertain.
Conquest of the Gallic Empire
In
274, the victorious emperor turned his attention to the west, and the
"Gallic Empire" which had already been reduced in size by Claudius II.
Aurelian won this campaign largely through diplomacy; the "Gallic
Emperor" Tetricus was willing to abandon his throne and allow Gaul and
Britain to return to the Empire, but could not openly submit to
Aurelian. Instead, the two seem to have conspired so that when the
armies met at Châlons-en-Champagne that autumn, Tetricus simply deserted
to the Roman camp and Aurelian easily defeated the Gallic army facing
him.[citation needed] Tetricus was rewarded for his part in the conspiracy with a high-ranking position in Italy itself.
Aurelian returned to Rome and won his last honorific from the Senate - Restitutor Orbis
("Restorer of the World"). This title was first assumed by Aurelian in
late summer of 272, and had been carried previously by both Valerian and
Gallienus. In four years, Aurelian had secured the frontiers of the
Empire and reunified it, effectively giving the Empire a new lease on
life that lasted 200 years.
Reforms
Aurelian was a
reformer, and settled many important functions of the imperial
apparatus, dealing with the economy and religion. He restored many
public buildings, re-organized the management of the food reserves, set
fixed prices for the most important goods, and prosecuted misconduct by
the public officers.
Religious reformAurelian strengthened the
position of the Sun god Sol Invictus as the main divinity of the Roman
pantheon. His intention was to give to all the peoples of the Empire,
civilian or soldiers, easterners or westerners, a single god they could
believe in without betraying their own gods. The center of the cult was a
new temple, built in 274 and dedicated on December 25 of that year in
the Campus Agrippae in Rome, with great decorations financed by the spoils of the Palmyrene Empire.
During
his short rule, Aurelian seemed to follow the principle of "one faith,
one empire", which would not be made official until the Edict of
Thessalonica. He appears with the title deus et dominus natus
("God and born ruler") on some of his coins, a style also later adopted
by Diocletian. Lactantius argued that Aurelian would have outlawed all
the other gods if he had had enough time. He was recorded by Christian
historians as having organized persecutions.
Felicissimus' rebellion and coinage reformAurelian's reign records the only uprising of mint workers. The rationalis
Felicissimus, a senior public financial official whose responsibilities
included supervision of the mint at Rome, revolted against Aurelian.
The revolt seems to have been caused by the fact that the mint workers,
and Felicissimus first, were accustomed to stealing the silver for the
coins and producing coins of inferior quality. Aurelian wanted to
eliminate this, and put Felicissimus on trial. The rationalis
incited the mintworkers to revolt: the rebellion spread in the streets,
even if it seems that Felicissimus was killed immediately, presumably
executed.
The Palmyrene rebellion in Egypt had probably reduced
the grain supply to Rome, thus disaffecting the population to the
emperor. This rebellion also had the support of some senators, probably
those who had supported the election of Quintillus, and thus had
something to fear from Aurelian.
Aurelian ordered the urban
cohorts, reinforced by some regular troops of the imperial army, to
attack the rebelling mob: the resulting battle, fought on the Caelian
hill, marked the end of the revolt, even if at a high price (some
sources give the figure, probably exaggerated, of 7,000 casualties).
Many of the rebels were executed; also some of the supporting senators
were put to death. The mint of Rome was closed temporarily, and the
institution of several other mints caused the main mint of the empire to
lose its hegemony.
His monetary reformation included the introduction of antoniniani
containing 5% silver. They bore the mark XXI (or its Greek numerals
form KA), which meant that twenty of such coins would contain the same
silver quantity of an old silver denarius. Considering that this
was an improvement over the previous situation gives an idea of the
severity of the economic situation Aurelian faced. The Emperor struggled
to introduce the new "good" coin by recalling all the old "bad" coins
prior to their introduction.
Death
In 275, Aurelian
marched towards Asia Minor, preparing another campaign against the
Sassanids: the deaths of Kings Shapur I (272) and Hormizd I (273) in
quick succession, and the rise to power of a weakened ruler (Bahram I),
set the possibility to attack the Sassanid Empire.
On his way, the
Emperor suppressed a revolt in Gaul - possibly against Faustinus, an
officer or usurper of Tetricus - and defeated barbarian marauders in
Vindelicia (Germany).
However, Aurelian never reached Persia, as
he was murdered while waiting in Thrace to cross into Asia Minor. As an
administrator, Aurelian had been very strict and handed out severe
punishments to corrupt officials or soldiers. A secretary of Aurelian
(called Eros by Zosimus) had told a lie on a minor issue. In fear of
what the Emperor might do, he forged a document listing the names of
high officials marked by the emperor for execution and showed it to
collaborators. The notarius Mucapor and other high-ranking
officers of the Praetorian Guard, fearing punishment from the Emperor,
murdered him in September 275, in Caenophrurium, Thrace (modern Turkey).
Aurelian's enemies in the Senate briefly succeeded in passing damnatio memoriae
on the Emperor, but this was reversed before the end of the year and
Aurelian, like his predecessor Claudius II, was deified as Divus Aurelianus.
There is substantial evidence that Aurelian's wife Ulpia Severina, who had been declared Augusta
in 274, may have ruled the Empire by her own power for some time after
his death. The sources indicate that there was an interregnum between
Aurelian's death and the election of Marcus Claudius Tacitus as his
successor. Additionally, some of Ulpia's coins appear to have been
minted after Aurelian's death.
Legacy
Aurelian's short
reign reunited a fragmented Empire while saving Rome from barbarian
invasions that had reached Italy itself. His death prevented a full
restoration of political stability and a lasting dynasty that could end
the cycle of assassination of emperors and civil war that marked this
period. Even so, he brought the Empire through a very critical period in
its history, and without Aurelian it never would have survived the
invasions and fragmentation of the decade in which he reigned. Much hard
fighting remained for his successors before the Empire finally regained
the initiative against the Persians and the northern barbarian peoples,
and it would be another twenty years or more before Diocletian fully
restored stability and ended the Crisis of the third century. However,
after that the Western half of the Empire would survive another two
hundred years, while the East would last another millennium, and for
that Aurelian must be allowed much of the credit.
The city of Orléans in France is named after Aurelian. Originally named Cenabum, Aurelian rebuilt and named it Aurelianum or Aureliana Civitas ("city of Aurelian", cité d'Aurélien), which evolved into Orléans. The city of New Orleans (in French, La Nouvelle-Orléans), in Louisiana, United States is named after the commune of Orléans, and therefore by extension, Aurelian.