Aurelian - Roman Emperor: 270-275 A.D. -
Silvered Bronze Antoninianus 21mm (3.17 grams) Struck circa 270-275 A.D.
Reference: Possibly Unpublished
IMP AVRELIANVS AVG, radiate, cuirassed bust right
 ORIENS AVG, Sol standing right, head turned back, holding right hand  raised & a globe,
bound captive a feet left, S in ex.

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Royal/Imperial  symbols of power

Ruling dynasties often exploit pomp and ceremony with the use of regalia : crowns , robes, orb (globe) and sceptres , some of which are reflections  of formerly practical objects. The use of language mechanisms also support this  differentiation with subjects talking of "the crown" and/or of "the throne " rather than referring directly to  personal names and items.

Monarchies provide the most explicit  demonstration of tools to strengthen the elevation of leaders. Thrones sit high  on daises leading to subjects lifting their gaze  (if they have permission) to contemplate the ruler. Architecture in general can  set leaders apart: note the symbolism inherent in the very name of the Chinese  imperial Forbidden City .

Sol Invictus ("Unconquered Sun") was the official sun god of the later Roman Empire and a patron of soldiers. In 274  the Roman emperor Aurelian made it an official cult alongside the traditional Roman cults. Scholars disagree whether  the new deity was a refoundation of the ancient Latin cult of Sol , a revival of the cult of Elagabalus or completely new.The god was  favored by emperors after Aurelian and appeared on their coins until Constantine .The last inscription referring to Sol Invictus dates to 387 AD  and there were enough devotees in the 5th century that Augustine found it necessary to preach against  them. It is commonly claimed that the date of 25 December for Christmas was selected in order to correspond  with the Roman festival of Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, or "Birthday of  the Unconquered Sun", but this view is challenged

Invictus as  epithet

Invictus ("Unconquered, Invincible") was an epithet for several deities of classical Roman religion , including the supreme  deity Jupiter , the war god Mars , Hercules , Apollo and Silvanus .^[8] Invictus was in use from the 3rd century BC,  and was well-established as a cult title when applied to Mithras from the 2nd century onwards. It has a  clear association^[vague]  with solar deities and solar monism; as such, it became the preferred epithet of  Rome's traditional Sol and the novel, short-lived Roman state cult  to Elagabalus , an Emesan solar deity who headed Rome's official  pantheon under his namesake emperor .

The earliest dated use of Sol invictus is in a dedication from Rome,  AD 158.  Another, stylistically dated to the 2nd century AD, is inscribed on a Roman phalera : "inventori lucis soli invicto  augusto" (to the contriver of light, sol invictus augustus ).  Here "augustus" is most likely a further epithet of Sol as "august" (an elevated  being, divine or close to divinity), though the association of Sol with the  Imperial house would have been unmistakable and was already established in  iconography and stoic monism.  These are the earliest attested examples of Sol as invictus, but in AD  102 a certain Anicetus restored a shrine of Sol; Hijmans  (2009, 486, n. 22) is tempted "to link Anicetus' predilection for Sol with his  name, the Latinized form of the Greek word ἀνίκητος,  which means invictus".

Elagabalus

The first sun god consistently termed invictus was the provincial Syrian god Elagabalus . According to the Historia Augusta , the teenaged Severan heir adopted the name of his  deity and brought his cult image from Emesa to Rome. Once installed as emperor,  he neglected Rome's traditional State deities and promoted his own as Rome's  most powerful deity. This ended with his murder in 222.

The Historia Augusta refers to the deity Elagabalus as "also called  Jupiter and Sol" (fuit autem Heliogabali vel Iovis vel Solis).This has been seen as an abortive attempt to impose the Syrian sun god on  Rome; but because it is now clear that the Roman cult of Sol remained firmly  established in Rome throughout the Roman period,this Syrian Sol Elagabalus has become no more relevant to  our understanding of the Roman Sol than, for example, the Syrian Jupiter Dolichenus is for our understanding of  the Roman Jupiter.

 

Sol Invictus

Aurelian

The Roman gens Aurelian was associated with the cult  of Sol.  After his victories in the East, the Emperor Aurelian thoroughly reformed the Roman cult of  Sol, elevating the sun-god to one of the premier divinities of the Empire. Where  previously priests of Sol had been simply sacerdotes and tended to belong to lower  ranks of Roman society,  they were now pontifices and members of the new college of pontifices instituted by  Aurelian.  Every pontifex of Sol was a member of the senatorial elite, indicating  that the  priesthood of Sol was now highly prestigious. Almost all these senators  held  other priesthoods as well, however, and some of these other priesthoods  take  precedence in the inscriptions in which they are listed, suggesting that they  were considered more prestigious than the priesthood of Sol.Aurelian  also built a new temple for Sol, bringing the total number of temples  for the god in Rome to (at least) four^[21]  He also instituted games in honor of the sun god, held every four years from AD  274 onwards.

The identity of Aurelian's Sol Invictus has long been a subject of scholarly  debate. Based on the Historia Augusta , some scholars have argued  that it was based on Sol Elagablus (or Elagabla) of Emesa . Others, basing their argument on Zosimus , suggest that it was based on the Helios , the solar god of Palmyra on the grounds that Aurelian placed and  consecrated a cult statue of Helios looted from Palmyra in the temple of Sol  Invictus. Professor Gary Forsythe discusses these arguments and add a third more  recent one based on the work of Steven Hijmans. Hijmans argues that Aurelian's  solar deity was simply the traditional Greco-Roman Sol Invictus.

Constantine

Emperors portrayed Sol Invictus on their official coinage, with a wide range  of legends, only a few of which incorporated the epithet invictus, such  as the legend SOLI INVICTO COMITI, claiming the Unconquered Sun  as a companion to the Emperor, used with particular frequency by Constantine. Statuettes of Sol Invictus, carried by the standard-bearers, appear in three  places in reliefs on the Arch of Constantine . Constantine's official  coinage continues to bear images of Sol until 325/6. A solidus of Constantine as well as a gold  medallion from his reign depict the Emperor's bust in profile twinned ("jugate")  with Sol Invictus, with the legend INVICTUS CONSTANTINUS

Constantine decreed (March 7, 321) dies Solis-day of the sun, "Sunday"-as  the Roman day of rest [CJ3.12.2]:

Constantine's triumphal arch was carefully positioned to align with the colossal statue of Sol by the Colosseum , so that Sol formed the dominant  backdrop when seen from the direction of the main approach towards the arch.^[26]

Sol and the  other Roman Emperors

Berrens deals with coin-evidence of Imperial connection to the Solar cult. Sol is  depicted sporadically on imperial coins in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, then  more frequently from Septimius Severus onwards until AD 325/6. Sol invictus appears on coin legends from AD 261, well before the reign of  Aurelian. Connections between the imperial radiate crown and the cult of Sol are  postulated. Augustus was posthumously depicted with radiate  crown, as were living emperors from Nero (after AD 65) to Constantine . Some modern scholarship interprets  the imperial radiate crown as a divine, solar association rather than an overt  symbol of Sol; Bergmann calls it a pseudo-object designed to disguise the divine  and solar connotations that would otherwise be politically controversial  but there is broad agreement that coin-images showing the imperial radiate crown  are stylistically distinct from those of the solar crown of rays; the imperial  radiate crown is depicted as a real object rather than as symbolic light.  Hijmans argues that the Imperial radiate crown represents the honorary wreath  awarded to Augustus , perhaps posthumously, to commemorate  his victory at the battle of Actium ; he points out that  henceforth, living emperors were depicted with radiate crowns, but state divi  were not. To Hijmans this implies the radiate crown of living emperors as a link  to Augustus. His successors automatically inherited (or sometimes acquired) the  same offices and honours due to Octavian as "saviour of the Republic" through  his victory at Actium, piously attributed to Apollo-Helios. Wreaths awarded to  victors at the Actian Games were radiate.

Sol  Invictus and Christianity and Judaism

Mosaic of Christ as Sol or Apollo-Helios in Mausoleum M in the  pre-4th-century necropolis beneath^[33] St. Peter's in the Vatican , which  many interpret as representing Christ

The Philocalian calendar of AD 354 gives a festival  of "Natalis Invicti" on 25 December. There is limited evidence that this  festival was celebrated before the mid-4th century.
The idea that Christians chose to celebrate the birth of Jesus on 25 December  because this was the date of an already existing festival of the Sol Invictus  was expressed in an annotation to a manuscript of a work by 12th-century Syrian  bishop Jacob Bar-Salibi . The scribe who added it  wrote: "It was a custom of the Pagans to celebrate on the same 25 December the  birthday of the Sun, at which they kindled lights in token of festivity. In  these solemnities and revelries the Christians also took part. Accordingly when  the doctors of the Church perceived that the Christians had a leaning to this  festival, they took counsel and resolved that the true Nativity should be  solemnised on that day."

This idea became popular especially in the 18th and 19th centuries  and is still widely accepted.

In the judgement of the Church of England Liturgical Commission, this view  has been seriously challenged  by a view based on an old tradition, according to which the date of Christmas  was fixed at nine months after 25 March, the date of the vernal equinox, on  which the Annunciation was celebrated.  The Jewish calendar date of 14 Nisan was believed to be that of the beginning of  creation, as well as of the Exodus and so of Passover, and Christians held that  the new creation, both the death of Jesus and the beginning of his human life,  occurred on the same date, which some put at 25 March in the Julian calendar.^[40][42][43]  It was a traditional Jewish belief that great men lived a whole number of years,  without fractions, so that Jesus was considered to have been conceived on 25  March, as he died on 25 March, which was calculated to have coincided with 14  Nisan.^[44] Sextus Julius Africanus (c.160 - c.240) gave 25  March as the day of creation and of the conception of Jesus.  The tractate De solstitia et aequinoctia conceptionis et nativitatis Domini  nostri Iesu Christi et Iohannis Baptistae falsely attributed to John Chrysostom also argued that Jesus was  conceived and crucified on the same day of the year and calculated this as 25  March. A passage of the Commentary on the prophet Daniel by Hippolytus of Rome , written in about 204, has  also been appealed to.

Among those who have put forward this view are Louis Duchesne,Thomas J. Talley,  David J. Rothenberg,  J. Neil Alexander, and Hugh Wybrew.

Not all scholars who view the celebration of the birth of Jesus on 25  December as motivated by the choice of the winter solstice rather than  calculated on the basis of the belief that he was conceived and died on 25 March  agree that it constituted a deliberate Christianization of a festival of the  Birthday of the Unconquered Sun. Michael Alan Anderson writes:

Both the sun and Christ were said to be born anew on December 25. But  while the solar associations with the birth of Christ created powerful  metaphors, the surviving evidence does not support such a direct association  with the Roman solar festivals. The earliest documentary evidence for the  feast of Christmas makes no mention of the coincidence with the winter  solstice. Thomas Talley has shown that, although the Emperor Aurelian's  dedication of a temple to the sun god in the Campus Martius (C.E. 274)  probably took place on the 'Birthday of the Invincible Sun' on December 25,  the cult of the sun in pagan Rome ironically did not celebrate the winter  solstice nor any of the other quarter-tense days, as one might expect. The  origins of Christmas, then, may not be expressly rooted in the Roman  festival.

The same point is made by Hijmans: "It is cosmic symbolism...which inspired  the Church leadership in Rome to elect the southern solstice, December 25, as  the birthday of Christ ... While they were aware that pagans called this day the  'birthday' of Sol Invictus, this did not concern them and it did not play any  role in their choice of date for Christmas."  He also states that, "while the winter solstice on or around December 25 was  well established in the Roman imperial calendar, there is no evidence that a  religious celebration of Sol on that day antedated the celebration of  Christmas".

The Oxford Companion to Christian Thought also remarks on the  uncertainty about the order of precedence between the celebrations of the  Birthday of the Unconquered Sun and the birthday of Jesus: "This 'calculations'  hypothesis potentially establishes 25 December as a Christian festival before  Aurelian's decree, which, when promulgated, might have provided for the  Christian feast both opportunity and challenge."

Susan K. Roll also calls "most extreme" the unproven hypothesis that "would  call Christmas point-blank a 'christianization' of Natalis Solis Invicti, a  direct conscious appropriation of the pre-Christian feast, arbitrarily placed on  the same calendar date, assimilating and adapting some of its cosmic symbolism  and abruptly usurping any lingering habitual loyalty that newly-converted  Christians might feel to the feasts of the state gods". The comparison of Christ with the astronomical Sun  is common in ancient Christian writings.  In the 5th century, Pope Leo I (the Great) spoke in several sermons  on the Feast of the Nativity of how the celebration of Christ's birth coincided  with increase of the sun's position in the sky. An example is: "But this  Nativity which is to be adored in heaven and on earth is suggested to us by no  day more than this when, with the early light still shedding its rays on nature,  there is borne in upon our senses the brightness of this wondrous mystery.

Mosaic in the Beth Alpha synagogue, with the sun  in the centre, surrounded by the twelve zodiac constellations and  with the four seasons associated inaccurately with the  constellations

A study of Augustine of Hippo remarks that his exhortation  in a Christmas sermon, "Let us celebrate this day as a feast not for the sake of  this sun, which is beheld by believers as much as by ourselves, but for the sake  of him who created the sun", shows that he was aware of the coincidence of the  celebration of Christmas and the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun, although this  pagan festival was celebrated at only a few places and was originally a  peculiarity of the Roman city calendar. It adds: "He also believes, however,  that there is a reliable tradition which gives 25 December as the actual date of  the birth of our Lord." By "the sun of righteousness" in Malachi 4:2 "the fathers , from Justin downward, and nearly all the earlier  commentators understand Christ, who is supposed to be described as the  rising sun".  The New Testament itself contains a hymn fragment:  "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." Clement of Alexandria wrote of "the Sun of the  Resurrection, he who was born before the dawn, whose beams give light".

Christians adopted the image of the Sun (Helios  or Sol Invictus) to represent Christ. In this portrayal he is a beardless figure  with a flowing cloak in a chariot drawn by four white horses, as in the mosaic  in Mausoleum M discovered under Saint Peter's Basilica and in an  early-4th-century catacomb fresco.  Clement of Alexandria had spoken of Christ driving his chariot in this way  across the sky.  The nimbus of the figure under Saint Peter's Basilica is described by some as rayed, as in traditional pre-Christian representations, but another has said: "Only the cross-shaped nimbus makes the Christian significance apparent" (emphasis  added).  Yet another has interpreted the figure as a representation of the sun with no  explicit religious reference whatever, pagan or Christian.

The traditional image of the sun is used also in Jewish art. A mosaic floor  in Hamat Tiberias presents David as Helios surrounded by a ring with the  signs of the zodiac .As well as in Hamat Tiberias, figures of Helios or Sol Invictus also appear in  several of the very few surviving schemes of decoration surviving from Late  Antique synagogues , including Beth Alpha , Husefah (Husefa) and Naaran , all now in Israel . He is shown in floor mosaics, with the  usual radiate halo, and sometimes in a quadriga , in the central roundel of a circular  representation of the zodiac or the seasons. These combinations "may have  represented to an agricultural Jewish community the perpetuation of the annual  cycle of the universe or ... the central part of a calendar".

Lucius Domitius Aurelianus  (September  9, 214   or 215 -September or October 275), known in English as Aurelian, Roman  Emperorr (270-275), was the second of several highly successful  "soldier-emperors" who helped the Roman  Empire regain its power during the latter part of the third century and the  beginning of the fourth.

During his reign, the Empire was reunited in its  entirety, following fifteen years of rebellion, the loss of two-thirds of its  territory to break-away empires (the Palmyrene Empire in the east and the Gallic Empire in the west) and devastating barbarian invasions. His  successes started the end of the empire's Crisis of the Third Century . // Aurelian was an upwardly-mobile soldier who was eventually appointed  commander of the cavalry by Claudius II. With the aid of a sympathetic army he  revolted against the accession of Quintillus and a civil war was avoided when  the latter committed suicide following the growing popularity of his rival.  Aurelian was then hailed as emperor by the Senate and the rest of the legions  alike. His first mission was to strengthen the army by the introduction of the  strictest reforms and discipline as well as quelling the various uprisings that  had broken out over the last two decades. He thus spent the next five years  until cut down by his own Praetorian Guard at the height of his glory. It seems  Aurelian's personal secretary, after being reprimanded by the emperor for  attempted extortion, felt an execution would follow. To guard against this  possibility, he concocted a story about Aurelian intending to execute his  personal guard and then rushed to share with them this manufactured evidence.  Naturally, afraid for their lives, they entered the emperor's quarters and  effected a preemptive strike. Somehow or other it was soon afterward found out  that the formerly beloved emperor had no such motives and his secretary himself  was swiftly executed for treason. When news reached Rome of what had happened  Aurelian's wife seems to have actually been left nominally in power while a new  emperor was selected, a period that may have lasted several months. Although  history is a little hazy in this matter, it would mark the first and only time a  Roman empress explicitly ruled the empire.

Rise to power

Aurelian was born in Dacia ripensis or  Sirmium (now Sremska Mitrovica , Serbia ),  to an obscure provincial family; his father was tenant to a senator named  Aurelius, who gave his name to the family.  Aurelian served as a general in several wars, and his success ultimately made  him the right-hand man and dux equitum (cavalry commander) of the army of  Emperor Gallienus . In 268, his cavalry routed the powerful cavalry force of the Goths at the Battle of Naissus and broke the back of the most fearsome invasion of Roman  territory since Hannibal . According to one source, Aurelian participated in the  assassination of Gallienus (268), and supported Claudius II for the purple.

Two years later, 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 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.

Conqueror and reformer

In 248, Emperor  Philipp 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 a large number of usurpers weakening the  strength of the state. Also the economical substrate of the state, the  agriculture and the 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 Palmyrene Empire , a separate entity from the Roman Empire, successful  against the Persian threat; the western provinces, those facing the limes of the Rhine seceded,  forming a third, autonomous state within the territories of the Roman Empire,  which is now known as Gallic Empire ; the emperor, in Rome, was occupied with the internal menaces  to his power and with the defence 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.

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 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 German people remained high as perceived by the Romans, so  Aurelian resolved to build the walls that became known as the Aurelian Walls around  Rome.<="" a="">

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<="" a="">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 reorganised a new province of Dacia south of the Danube, inside the  former Moesia ,  called Dacia Ripensis, with Serdica as the capital.

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 . In the beginning, Aurelian had been recognized as emperor, while Vaballathus , the son of Zenobia, hold the title of rex and imperator ("king" and "supreme military commander"), but Aurelian decided to  invade the eastern provinces as soon as he felt strong enough.

Asia Minor was recovered easily; every city but  Byzantium 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 forced to walk on the streets of Rome in his triumph.  After a brief clash with the Persians and another in Egypt against usurper Firmus , he was  forced 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 from  this. More honors came his way; he was now known as Parthicus Maximus and Restitutor Orientis ("Restorer of the East").

In 274, the victorious emperor turned his attention to the west, and the "Gallic  EmpireeTetricus  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. 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"). In four years, he had secured  the frontiers of the empire and reunified it, effectively giving the empire a  new lease on life that lasted 200 years.

Reformations

Aurelian was a reformer, and settled many important functions of the imperial  apparatus, including the economy and the religion. He also 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.

Aurelian strengthened the position of the Sun god, Sol (invictus)  or Oriens, 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 271 in Campus Agrippae in Rome, with great decorations financed by the spoils  of the Palmyrene Empire. Aurelian did not persecute other religions. However,  during his short rule, he seemed to follow the principle of "one god, one  empire", that was later adopted to a full extent by Constantine . On some coins, he appears with the title deus et dominus  natus ("God and born ruler"), also later adopted by Diocletian. Lactantius argued that Aurelian would have outlawed all the other gods if he had had enough  time.

Aurelian's reign records the only uprising of mint workers. The rationalis Felicissimus , mintmaster 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 used for the coins and producing  coins of inferior quality. Aurelian wanted to erase this practice, and put  Felicissimus under trial. The rationalis incited the mintworkers to  revolt: the rebellion spread in the streets, even if it seems that Felicissimus  was killed immediately, possibly executed. The Palmirene rebellion in Egypt had  probably reduced the grain supply to Rome , thus disaffecting the population with respect 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 rebelling  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.

antoninianii 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  at 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 y 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 officiers of the Praetorian Guard , fearing punishment from the Emperor, murdered him in  September of 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.

Ulpia Severina, wife of Aurelian and Augusta since 274, is said to have held the imperial role during the  short interregnum before the election of Marcus Claudius Tacitus to the purple.