How Aurelian restored the Roman Empire (Part 1)

 

Amidst the rugged mountains on the dry, arid stretch of the Syrian steppe, lay a wealthy city in a lush fertile oasis.

 Adorned with sumptuous colonnaded streets, tetrapylons, majestic temples, spacious agoras, theatres and baths, elaborate stone reliefs, monumental Valley of the Tombs, and administrative government buildings, the city of Palmyra was the jewel of the Middle East and a melting pot at the crossroads of cultures, with Roman, Greek, Aramean, Arabian and Persian influences all on display.

 For over thirty years this was the place that Queen Zenobia called home, where she wove together the obligations of kinship, patronage and civic solidarity that Palmyra demanded of its notables.

 But… in the scorching sunlight of the late summer of 272 AD, the queen stood on the steps of the Temple of Bel with a troubled brow, her troops posted on the outskirts of the city.

 She firmly grasped her cloak in her hand as the smoke and fragrance of lingering incense filled the air and the sounds of solemn hymns, sung to flutes, drums and tambourines, reverberated in the majestic hall.

 With a camel at her side, carrying a shrine in which a sacred stone was shrouded, Zenobia intoned prayers and made offerings of oil and wine, asking her god Bel for protection against those she perceived to be the invaders of her empire.

 However, the Emperor Aurelian deemed Zenobia’s authority to be illegitimate and her bid for power unsanctioned, and he came to Palmyra at the head of an army to settle the matter once and for all…

 Located in  the semi-desert steppe of eastern Syria, Palmyra was a powerful city on the eastern edge of the Roman Empire.

 It derived the majority of its wealth from its location on the caravan trade routes of the Middle East.

 The city’s merchants were renowned for their ability to secure safe passage of goods through treacherous country, from one water source to another, especially during the dry season.

 Palmyrene traders operated throughout the Empire and, more crucially, played a major role in connecting Roman Syria to the Middle Euphrates, and from there the Persian Gulf.

 Since the times of Emperor Caracalla, Palmyra enjoyed the status of a colonia.

 However, in the middle decades of the third century AD, when the Sassanids fought Rome for control of Armenia and Upper Mesopotamia, Palmyra attained a heightened political and strategic significance under the leadership of a prominent local aristocrat, Septimius Odaenathus.

 The instability of warfare in the region threatened Palmyrene trade, and Rome expected the Palmyrenes to provide for their own secrurity.

 This inadvertently helped the city to create a martial tradition of its own, and in the 240s and 250s Odaenathus used the reputation he had built up through his successful protection of the caravan routes from raiders, and his position as commander of Palmyra’s cavalry and dromedary archers, to secure his dominance over the city and its civic council.

 By 251 AD , he and his eldest son Herodian Hairan were being honoured in Palmyra as ‘resh’, or Leader, an unprecedented title among the Palmyrene elite.

 The two continued to amass power, claiming consular rank by 258, and in 259 Odaenathus campaigned against the Persians, sacking the city of Nehardea on the Euphrates.

 Odaenathus’ greatest opportunity then came in spring 260 when Emperor Valerian was captured by the Persians at the battle of Edessa.

 Valerian’s son Gallienus was left as sole ruler of Rome, but the disaster of an emperor falling captive in battle sparked a crisis of loyalties.

 A cascade of usurpers sprung up across the empire.

 In the unstable frontier regions, ambitious men seized power, usually elected by the troops or the local aristocracy, greatly contributing to the erosion of Imperial authority and the decline of its internal structures.

 The populace suffered against incursions that were becoming increasingly difficult to check, most notably an Alemannic invasion of Italy that had already begun even before Valerian’s capture and which Gallienus eventually crushed outside Milan, as well as Herulian and Gothic raid s that saw the sacking of numerous cities in Greece, Macedonia, Thrace, and Asia Minor, including Byzantium, Argos, Corinth, Sparta, Olympia, and Athens, as well as the destruction of one of the wonders of the Ancient World, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus.

 In the West, general Postumus, his Rhine army, and the governors loyal to him broke away from central authority, forging a Romano-Gallic regime with Postumus as emperor, further rocking an empire seemingly on the brink of disintegration.

 The Roman East was just as turbulent.

 Macrianus, one of the main fiscal officers of the Empire grabbed the opportunity, using his influence as Valerian's treasurer, to march on Rome.

 Planning to seize the capital, he took with him his eldest son Macrianus Minor, intending to elevate him to the throne in the West.

 He left his younger son Quietus in charge of the Eastern provinces, supported by the Praetorian Prefect Ballista, who was instrumental in propping up Macrianus' sons to the Imperial throne.

 The momentum to usurp the throne gathered behind Macrianus, but his army was intercepted and defeated in Thrace, with both he and his eldest son killed in the encounter . Meanwhile, Quietus and Ballista lost control over the Eastern provinces.

 In a calculated show of loyalty to Emperor Gallienus, Odaenathus marched on Emesa and overthrew what remained of the usurper regime.

 It was a clever move.

 Gallienus recognized Odaenathus’ de-facto authority, who was subsequently honoured as Restorer of all the East, essentially becoming the viceroy of Rome’s most eastern provinces.

 This gave him authority over Roman governors and military forces in Syria and Upper Mesopotamia, which Odaenathus used to great effect to help push the Persians out of the eastern provinces, recapturing Roman fortresses of Carrhae and Nisibis .

 In a brazen move showing his ambitions he had declared himself King of Kings, a challenge to the imperial claims of Shapur I of Persia.

 In 262 and 266 he twice invaded Persian-held Lower Mesopotamia, reaching as far as the Persian capital Ctesiphon on both occasions, but was unable to take the city.

 In 267 , on the Emperor’s orders, he also campaigned against Gothic and Herulian raiders in Asia Minor.

 By now, Odaenathus had reached the apex of his power.

 However, members of Gallienus’ court and Palmyra’s elite were viewing his and his family’s growing ambition with increasing concern.

 Although the details vary between the sources, it appears that, in 267 or 268, Odaenathus and his son Herodian were assassinated in a joint Gallienic-Palmyrene conspiracy.

 The plan backfired.

 Far from destroying the power of his dynasty, his widow Septimia Zenobia took matters into her own hands.

 She propped up her young son Vaballathus as the new Restorer of the Entire East, thereby treating her husband’s viceroy position as hereditary, with herself taking the title of Queen and ruling as regent.

 She wisely chose not to break ties with the imperial court, as she was not yet ready for war, but no one was left in doubt of the influence she possessed in the East.

 Gallienus did not accept that Odaenathus’ position as viceroy, which he himself granted in the first place, could be passed on to Zenobia’s son.

 However, the establishment of Palmyra in the East, coupled with the failure to defeat the Gallic Empire in the West and the usurpation of his best general Aureolus in northern Italy, seriously weakened Gallienus.

 The stability of the Roman Empire deteriorated further still when he too was assassinated in September 268.

 Different accounts of the incident are recorded, but they agree that senior officials wanted Gallienus dead.

 The new emperor Claudius managed to bring some stability.

 He stopped the Alemmanic invasion of Raetia and Italy at Lake Benacus .

 He then marched east to meet a major Gothic invasion in the Balkans.

 At the battle of Naissus, he achieved a major victory over the barbarians.

 However, the continuation of the war was less conclusive due to the outbreak of the plague, which affected the Romans, but savaged the Goths even worse.

 Many Goths who survived were either admitted into the Roman legions, or had lands assigned for them to cultivate.

 Preoccupied with matters in the Balkans, Claudius sent an expedition against Zenobia under Heraclianus, a former Praetorian Prefect, to reassert control over the east.

 The details are unknown, but the campaign was a disastrous failure for the central government .

 This was the point of no return.

 Recognizing weakness in the empire’s central authority, in the spring of 270 Zenobia sent an expedition of her own to conquer the Roman province of Arabia.

 This campaign, commanded by her general Zabdas, defeated the Cyrenean Third Legion, killed its commander and subdued its troops.

 Later that summer, the queen launched an invasion of Egypt, with an army consisting of Palmyrenes, Syrian legionaries, mercenaries and ‘barbarians’.

 It was a grueling, hard fought campaign, but Zenobia’s forces successfully took Egypt.

 Despite the setback in the East, in the empire’s west, the Gallic Empire was similarly unstable, and the assassination of Postumus in 269 had prompted a series of defections.

 Claudius’ trusted general Placidianus seized the moment and took control of southern Gaul after several victories.

 Hispania followed suit, breaking their allegiance to the new Gallic Emperor Victorinus and declared their loyalty to Claudius.

 But the emperor would not live long enough to reunite the lost territories.

 In the summer of 270 he journeyed to Sirmium, where he prepared for a campaign against the Vandals who were raiding Pannonia.

 On the way he fell victim to a pestilence , likely the Plague of Cyprian - a form of smallpox - and he died in August 270.

 His younger brother Quintilius , currently stationed at Aquileia, was declared emperor by the Senate.

 But… in an act typical of the Crisis of the Third Century, the new Emperor was not recognized by the legions that served under Claudius, who instead threw their support behind his right hand man, the talented Illyrian cavalry general Lucius Domitius Aurelianus, more commonly known as Aurelian .

 It looked like more war and turmoil would engulf what remained of the Roman Empire.

 But the reign of Quintilius proved extraordinarily brief, possibly lasting as few as 17 days.

 He committed suicide, realizing he had little hope against the army of Aurelian.

 The Senate now recognized Aurelian as the new emperor.

 But he inherited a state in a dismal condition, that had been disintegrating for the past twenty years.

 Vast territories remained outside of central imperial control, some for nearly a generation . Internal turmoil encouraged pressure from external enemies, and renewed incursions by the tribes north of the Danube spread devastation deep into the interior.

 And, with yet another emperor seizing power the threat of civil wars again grew as new usurpers arose, exploiting the imperial insecurities and the influence of armies on Roman politics.

 The spiraling political and economic crisis impacted agriculture and commerce the most, which was compounded by the pestilence that had first swept through the empire around the year 250, greatly diminishing manpower for the armies and taxation .

 Nonetheless, the new Emperor steeled himself for the difficult road ahead.

 In the East, seeking to strengthen the image and power of her regime, Queen Zenobia skillfully played the political game.

 She exploited the turmoil in Rome, but was careful not to provoke a war with the new emperor.

 Her mints at Antioch and Alexandria recognized Aurelian as emperor, producing coins in his name.

 But she also now struck coins bearing the face of her son Vaballathus, honoring him as Imperator, a military title of Republican origins that was now associated with emperors.

 In this way, Zenobia gave him imperial status whilst cleverly avoiding the title of Augustus, which would’ve unambiguously designated him as emperor, blatantly challenging Aurelian’s authority .

 Roman mints were spread widely across the empire, and emperors used them to make political statements to their subjects.

 The populace often learned of a new Roman Emperor when coins appeared with his portrait.

 Thus, the circulation of coins bearing Vaballathus’ face undoubtedly solidified his authority over the Palmyrene domain, but it was also an encroachment on Aurelian’s authority.

 Zenobia’s powerplay extended further.

 Her coins bore inscriptions that recorded the number of years that Vaballathus had ruled the east, thereby showing that he had been in power longer than the emperor, as if to suggest her son’s seniority over Aurelian.

 Coupled with this web of political intrigue, Zenobia began the expansion of her army and moved into Asia Minor.

 She captured Tyana in Cappadocia and Ancyra in Galatia, and attempted to seize Chalcedon in Bithynia, which resisted and remained loyal to Aurelian.

 With this show of force, the queen wanted to hinder any offensive by the emperor, while she also played the long game, slowly building up the power of her realm.

 But despite the Palmyrene expansion further hindering the empire’s reunification, the Gothic problem in the Balkans remained unresolved and Aurelian’s own position was far from stable.

 The first order of business for the emperor was to strengthen his rule in the territories that were still under central control.

 Aurelian was an exceptional leader of armies and he campaigned with unmatched energy .

 In 270 he stopped a Iuthungian invasion of northern Italy, fighting a series of actions before defeating them in a decisive battle on the Danube.

 He caught them in the middle of crossing the river, weighed down with plunder and prisoners.

 However, while he was consolidating his power in Italy, the Pannonian frontier was left vulnerable to attack, and an army of Vandals crossed the river in force, pillaging the region.

 Later that year he tasked Placidianus with defending Italy against a possible attack by the Gallic Empire, before departing east to set up his headquarters in Siscia.

 It was here that he assumed his consulship on New Year’s day 271 AD.

 This office would normally have been assumed at Rome and it was unusual for an emperor to assume the consulship without even setting foot in the old capital.

 This was a further sign of the diminishing role of Rome in imperial pomp at this time.

 By now, the season had advanced, making it difficult for the Vandals to live off the land, and knowing that the enemy was not equipped for siege warfare, Aurelian evacuated the livestock and food supplies into the fortified cities.

 Once he was satisfied that the war of attrition had weakened the barbarians and that his own supply lines were established, he marched to meet the Vandals.

 The campaign was a grueling affair, but after an indecisive first battle the barbarians were subsequently defeated in the Pannonian interior.

 The Vandals sued for peace, handing over hostages and providing 2,000 horsemen for the Roman army, and the Romans provided them with supplies for their journey back to the Danube.

 The emperor, however, had little respite in which to savour his victory, and in early 271 he was forced to march back west.

 The Iuthungi had returned, this time probably with a coalition of other Germanic tribes, launching a major invasion of Italy.

 They destroyed numerous towns and countryside in the Po Valley, before pushing south, threatening Rome itself.

 At first, Aurelian's army suffered an ambush at Placentia, but he managed to regroup his battered army and follow the trail of devastation that marked the enemy’s route down the Adriatic coast.

 Knowing that the Romans were on their heels, the barbarians stayed on the march, aiming to cross the Apennines towards the capital.

 But Aurelian managed to catch up with them.

 On the banks of the Metaurus river, just inland from Fanum, he achieved a major victory in the Battle of Fano.

 Subsequently he pushed the invaders back across the Po River, before dealing a crushing defeat to the Iuthungi in the battle of Ticinum.

 This victory broke the strength of the tribes along the Upper Danube and put an end to Germanic invasions against Italy until the times of Alaric in the 400s, nearly 150 years later.

 Meanwhile, the invasion caused panic in Rome itself, and this, combined with the endemic corruption, had sparked a major rebellion against the emperor.

 Aurelian force-marched his army to the capital, defeated the rebels and executed the conspirators, using the crisis to purge the political landscape of his rivals as well, many of whom had supported Quintillus.

 Usurpers in Dalmatia and southern Gaul, seeking to exploit the chaos, were either defeated in battle or assassinated, and construction began on a massive new system of walls to better protect the capital.

 But again, Aurelian had no time to waste.

 After briefly overseeing work on the new defenses, the emperor marched back east to the Balkans.

 Due to his elevation to the purple and the resulting power struggle in Rome, the Gothic war remained unfinished business.

 And now the ranks of marauding bands had swelled, posing a great menace to Thrace.

 They were led by King Cannabas.

 This Goth was possibly none other than King Cniva, who had famously destroyed the army of the emperor Decius at the battle of Abritus twenty years prior – an event etched in the memory of the Romans.

 By the time Aurelian arrived with his army, the Goths had already inflicted considerable damage.

 But, in a stunning twist, the Roman emperor inflicted on them a crushing defeat.

 However, unlike his predecessors he did not stop there.

 Rather, crossing the Danube, he invaded their homeland and scored a decisive victory over king Cannabas, who was killed in combat.

 The Roman army then proceeded to sack Gothic settlements and lay waste to their lands.

 And in a planned propaganda move, countless captive women were deported to Rome, to be later displayed dressed as Amazons in Aurelian’s triumph.

 This was the most decisive victory a Roman army had in this region throughout the troubled third century.

 Then, in a radical rethinking of regional strategy, the emperor withdrew Rome’s military and administrative presence from Dacia.

 The province had been weakly garrisoned since the reign of Gallienus.

 By abandoning it altogether, Aurelian could rationalize the long and undermanned Danubian frontier from which he collected troops, and repopulate the Balkans, devastated by war, with the people he evacuated from Dacia.

 Now , he was ready to re-take the East.