Gallienus

Biography

The emperor who held the crumbling centre together through the very worst years of the Crisis, Gallienus reigned for fifteen embattled years — including seven after the capture of his father Valerian left him to face catastrophe alone. Beset on every side by invasions and by a swarm of usurpers (the 'Thirty Tyrants'), and with the Gallic and Palmyrene empires breaking away, he fought ceaselessly to preserve the core of the Roman state around Italy and the Balkans. He was a genuine military reformer, creating a powerful mobile cavalry reserve and promoting able Illyrian officers — the very men, like Claudius and Aurelian, who would go on to save the empire. A cultured man, patron of the philosopher Plotinus, he was caricatured by hostile senatorial writers as a frivolous incompetent, but modern historians credit his grim endurance with keeping Rome alive long enough to recover. He was assassinated in 268 by his own generals while besieging a usurper.

Key Battles