Tyranni Triginta

Now that several books have been written, not in the style of a historian nor of an accomplished speaker, but in plain prose, we have come to that sequence of times in which, during the years in which Gallienus and Valerian held the commonwealth, thirty pretenders arose—Valerian being occupied by the great necessities of the Persian war—while both men and even women held Gallienus in contempt, as will be proved in its proper places. But since there was so great an obscurity about those men who, from the different parts of the world, flocked together to seize the empire, that not much can either be said about them by the learned or be inquired into; and since, moreover, of all the historians who have written in Greek and in Latin, some pass them over to such a degree that not even their names are commonly mentioned; and finally, since some matters concerning them have been so variously recorded by many writers, I have brought them together into a single little book—and indeed a short one—especially since it is agreed that most things about them have already been said in the Life either of Valerian or of Gallienus, and need not be repeated.

Cyriades. This man, fleeing from his father Cyriades—rich and noble—when by his luxury and his ruined morals he was burdening that holy old man, plundered a great part of the gold and an unlimited weight of silver besides, and made for the Persians; and there, joined and allied to king Sapor, since he had been the instigator of the war to be brought against the Romans, he drew first Odomastes, then Sapor, against Roman soil. Antioch too was taken, and Caesarea, and he earned the name of Caesar, and from there was called Augustus; and when he was shaking the whole East with terror of his power or his audacity, and had killed his father (which other historians deny was done), he himself was killed through the treachery of his own men, when Valerian was already coming to the Persian war. Nor is anything more of this man committed to history that seems worthy of record—a man whom desertion, parricide, harsh tyranny, and the height of luxury made famous in letters.

Postumus. This man, most brave in war, most steadfast in peace, grave in his whole life—so much so that Gallienus entrusted to him his own son Saloninus, stationed in Gaul, as it were to a guardian of his life and an instructor in his morals and imperial conduct. But, as most assert (though it does not accord with his character), he afterward broke faith and, having killed Saloninus, assumed the empire. But, as most have handed down more truly, since the Gauls most violently hated Gallienus, and could not endure that a boy should rule among them, they hailed as emperor the man who governed the empire committed to him, and, sending soldiers, killed the young man; and when he was killed, Postumus, gratefully received by the whole army and by all the Gauls, showed himself such a man for seven years that he restored the Gauls, while Gallienus gave himself up to luxury and the taverns and grew old in love of a barbarian woman. War was nevertheless waged by Gallienus against him at the time when Gallienus was wounded by an arrow—since the excessive love toward Postumus was in the minds of all the Gallic peoples, because, when all the Germanic tribes had been driven off, he had recalled the Roman empire to its former security. But when he was conducting himself most gravely, after that manner in which the Gauls are always eager for revolutions, he was killed at the instigation of Lollianus. If anyone truly inquires into the merit of Postumus, he will understand the judgment of Valerian about him from this letter, which Valerian sent to the Gauls: "We have made Postumus commander of the trans-Rhenish frontier and governor of Gaul, a man most worthy of the severity of the Gauls, in whose presence the soldier in the camp, justice in the forum, lawsuits in the tribunals, dignity in the senate-house—none of these perishes; a man who keeps for each his own and proper share, a man whom I marvel at above the rest, and who by right deserves the place of a prince; concerning whom I hope that you will give me thanks. But if the opinion I have of him deceives me, know that nowhere among the nations is one to be found who can be thoroughly approved. To his son, named Postumus, I have given the tribunate of the Vocontii—a young man who will render himself worthy of his father's character."

Postumus the Younger. About this man there is almost nothing to be said, except that he was named Caesar by his father, and thereafter, in his honor, Augustus, and is said to have been killed together with his father, when Lollianus, substituted in the place of Postumus, took the empire offered him by the Gauls. He was, however (which alone is worthy of record), so accomplished in declamations that his controversies are said to have been inserted in Quintilian, whom even the reading of a single chapter, at the very first glance, shows to be the most acute declaimer of the Roman race.

Lollianus. By the revolt of this man in Gaul, Postumus, the bravest of all men, was killed, when, with Gaul already tottering, he had restored the Roman empire from the luxury of Gallienus into its old condition. This man too was indeed most brave, but, in view of the rebellion, he held among the Gauls an authority less than his strength deserved. He was killed by Victorinus, son of Vitruvia or Victoria, who afterward was called Mother of the Camps and honored with the name of Augusta, when she herself, fleeing the burden of so great a weight, conferred the empire first upon Marius, then upon Tetricus and his son. And Lollianus indeed was of no small profit to the commonwealth; for he restored to their old condition very many cities of Gaul, and some camps too, which Postumus had built during seven years on barbarian soil, and which, after Postumus was killed, in a sudden irruption of the Germans had been plundered and burned. Then he was killed by his own soldiers, because he was too exacting in labor. So, while Gallienus was ruining the commonwealth, first Postumus, then Lollianus, next Victorinus, and last Tetricus (for of Marius we say nothing) arose as champions of the Roman name. All of whom I believe were given by divine providence, lest, while that plague of unheard-of luxury was hindered by evils, the power of possessing Roman soil should be given to the Germans, who, if at that time they had broken out in the manner in which the Goths and Persians did, with the nations conspiring upon Roman soil, this venerable empire of the Roman name would have come to its end. The life of Lollianus, however, in many respects is obscure, as is that of Postumus himself, but in private matters; for they lived famous by their virtue, not by the weight of nobility.

Victorinus. Postumus the elder, when he saw that he was being assailed by many forces of Gallienus, and that the aid not only of soldiers but also of another prince was necessary, called into a share of the empire Victorinus, a man of military energy, and together with him fought against Gallienus. And when, with enormous auxiliaries of the Germans brought in, they had drawn out the wars for a long time, they were conquered. Then, after Lollianus too had been killed, Victorinus alone remained in the empire; and he himself, because he gave his efforts to corrupting the marriages of soldiers and of soldierly men, was struck down at Cologne by a certain actuary, whose wife he had ravished, by a faction formed against him. His son Victorinus was named Caesar by his mother Vitruvia or Victoria, who was called Mother of the Camps; and he too, a little boy, was at once killed, when his father had been slain at Cologne. About this man—that he was most brave and, apart from his lust, an excellent emperor—much has been said by many; but we think it enough to set down part of a certain book of Julius Atherianus, in which he speaks thus of Victorinus: "To Victorinus, who ruled the Gauls after Julius Postumus, I judge no one is to be preferred—not Trajan in virtue, not Antoninus in clemency, not Nerva in gravity, not Vespasian in the management of the treasury, not Pertinax or Severus in the censorship of his whole life and in military severity; but lust and the desire of woman-pleasure so ruined all these qualities that no one dares to put his virtues into writing, when it is agreed that by the judgment of all he deserved to be punished." Therefore, since writers have held this judgment about Victorinus, I think I have said enough about his character.

Victorinus the Younger. About this man nothing more has been recorded in writing than that he was the grandson of Victoria, the son of Victorinus, and that he was named Caesar by his father or by his grandmother at the very hour in which Victorinus was killed, and that he was at once killed by the soldiers in their anger. There exist, in the end, tombs near Cologne, humble, marked with a small stone, on which a title is inscribed: "Here lie buried the two Victorini, the pretenders."

Marius. When Victorinus, Lollianus, and Postumus had been killed, Marius—a blacksmith, as is said, by trade—reigned for only three days. About this man I do not know what more might be inquired, except that his very brief reign made him the more remarkable; for, as that consul who held a substitute consulship for the six midday hours was bespattered with such a jest by Marcus Tullius—"We had a consul so severe and so censorial that during his magistracy no one breakfasted, no one dined, no one slept"—so of this man too it might seem possible to say that he was made emperor on one day, was seen to rule on another day, and was killed on the third. And he was indeed an energetic man, raised by military grades to the empire, whom most called Mamurius, some Veturius—a craftsman, that is, a blacksmith. But of this enough, and too much; about whom it is enough to have added this, that no man's hands were stronger either for striking or for thrusting, since he seemed to have sinews in his fingers, not veins; for he is said to have pushed back oncoming wagons with his pointing-finger, and to have so afflicted the strongest men with one finger that they suffered as though struck by a blow of wood or of duller iron. Many things he ground down by the clashing of two fingers. He was killed by a certain soldier who, when he had once been in his blacksmith's shop, had been scorned by him—either when he was a general or when he had seized the empire; and his slayer is said to have added the words: "This is the sword which you yourself made." His first harangue is said to have been of this kind: "I know, fellow-soldiers, that my former trade can be cast in my teeth—of which you are all my witnesses. But let each man say what he will. Would that I might always wield iron, and not perish over wine, over flowers, over little women, over taverns, as Gallienus does, unworthy of his father and of the nobility of his own race! Let the blacksmith's trade be cast in my teeth—provided that the foreign nations too recognize, by their own disasters, that I have handled iron; let me strive, in the end, that all Alamannia and all Germany, with the other adjoining nations, may think the Roman people an iron-clad race, so that they may especially fear iron in us. Yet I should like you to reflect that you have made an emperor who has never known how to handle anything but iron—which I say for this reason, that I know nothing can be cast against me by that most luxurious plague except this, that I was a maker of swords and arms."

Ingenuus. In the consulship of Tuscus and Bassus, when Gallienus was giving himself up to wine and taverns, and was surrendering himself to panders, mimes, and harlots, and squandering the goods of nature by a continuance of luxury, Ingenuus, who then governed the Pannonias, was named emperor by the Moesian legions, with the rest of the Pannonias consenting; nor did it seem in any matter that better counsel had been taken for the commonwealth by the soldiers than that he was created emperor when the Sarmatians were pressing—a man who by his valor could have remedied affairs in their distress. And the cause of his seizing the empire at that time was, lest he be suspected by the emperors, because he was most brave and necessary to the commonwealth and—what greatly moves rulers—most acceptable to the soldiers. But Gallienus, as he was worthless and abandoned, so also, when necessity compelled, was swift, brave, vehement, cruel; in the end, having joined battle, he conquered Ingenuus, and when he was killed, raged most savagely against all the Moesians, both soldiers and citizens. Nor did he leave anyone free from his cruelty, to such a degree harsh and savage that he left most cities empty of the male sex. It is reported, indeed, that Ingenuus likewise, when his city was taken, plunged himself into the water and so ended his life, lest he come into the power of the cruel tyrant. There exists, indeed, a letter of Gallienus, which he wrote to Celer Verianus, by which his excess of cruelty is shown—which I have therefore inserted, that all might understand that a luxurious man is most cruel, if necessity demands: "Gallienus to Verianus. You will not satisfy me, if you kill only the armed men, whom even chance in war could have destroyed. The whole male sex must be destroyed, if old men and boys could be killed without reproach of mine. Whoever has wished ill must be killed; whoever has spoken ill against me, against the son of Valerian, against the father and brother of so many princes, must be killed. Ingenuus has been made emperor: tear, kill, cut to pieces; understand my mind; rage with my own intent—I who have written these things with my own hand."

Regalianus. It was the public fate that, in the time of Gallienus, whoever could leap forth to the empire did so. Regalianus, in the end, holding a command in Illyricum, was made emperor at the instigation of the Moesians, who had previously been conquered along with Ingenuus, and against whose kinsmen Gallienus had grievously raged. This man, however, did many brave things against the Sarmatians; but, at the instigation of the Roxolani and with the consent of the soldiers and through the fear of the provincials lest Gallienus do graver things again, he was killed. It may perhaps seem marvelous, if the origin of his empire is declared. For he earned a kingdom by a deadly jest. For when certain soldiers were dining with him, there arose a deputy of a tribune who said: "Whence do we believe the name Regalianus to be derived?" Another at once: "We believe it is from kingdom (regnum)." Then one of those present, a scholar, began as if grammatically to decline and to say: "Rex, regis, regi, Regalianus." The soldiers, as the race of men is inclined to those things which they contemplate: "Then can he be king?" Likewise another: "Then can he rule us?" Likewise another: "God has imposed on you the name of king." What more? When these things had been said, and on another day he had come forth in the morning, he was saluted as emperor by the headquarters. So what to others either audacity or judgment conferred, to this man a jesting cunning conferred. He was, what cannot be denied, a man always approved in military matters, and already suspected by Gallienus, because he seemed worthy of the empire, of the Dacian race, akin—as is said—to Decebalus himself. There exists a letter of the deified Claudius, then a private citizen, in which he gives thanks to Regalianus, commander of Illyricum, for the recovery of Illyricum, when everything was perishing through the sloth of Gallienus. This, found among the authentic documents, I thought ought to be inserted; for it was public. "Claudius to Regalianus, much greeting. Fortunate the commonwealth, which has deserved to have such a man as you in its war-camps; fortunate Gallienus, even though no one reports to him the truth, either of good things or of bad. Bonitus and Celsus, the bodyguards of our prince, have reported to me what manner of man you were in fighting at Scupi, how many battles in one day and with what swiftness you finished. You were worthy of a triumph, if the ancient times still existed. But what more? Mindful of a certain man, I should like you to conquer more cautiously. Send me Sarmatian bows and two cloaks—but with clasps, since I myself have sent some of ours." By this letter is shown what Claudius felt about Regalianus, whose judgment was without doubt most weighty in his times. Nor indeed was this man promoted by Gallienus, but by his father Valerian—like Claudius and Macrianus and Ingenuus and Postumus and Aureolus, who were all killed while in the empire, though they deserved the empire. And this was marvelous in the emperor Valerian, that all whomsoever he made commanders, afterward, by the testimony of the soldiers, attained the empire—so that it appears that the old emperor was such in choosing the commanders of the commonwealth as Roman prosperity required, if it could have been continued by fate under a good prince. And would that either those who had seized the empire could have reigned, or that his son had not been longer in the empire, so that our commonwealth might somehow have held itself in its own condition! But Fortune thought she should indulge herself too much, who both brought forth good princes with Valerian and reserved Gallienus longer than was fitting for the commonwealth.

Aureolus. This man too, governing the Illyrican armies in contempt of Gallienus, as did all at that time, compelled by the soldiers, assumed the empire; and when Macrianus, with his son Macrianus, came against Gallienus with very many men, he captured his army, and bound some, corrupted, to his own allegiance. And when he had become from this a strong emperor, and Gallienus had vainly tried to overcome the brave man, he made peace with him, intending to fight against Postumus. Of which most things both have been and will be said. This same Aureolus Claudius—Gallienus having already been killed and a battle joined—slew at that bridge which is now called the Bridge of Aureolus; and there, as a tyrant, he gave him a rather humble tomb. There exists even now a Greek epigram in this form: "By the gift of a tomb, victor after many battles of the tyrant, Claudius, now fortunate, attends Aureolus with a mortal gift, and by right surviving him whom he would wish to live, if the love of an excellent soldiery allowed—which by right denied life to all the unworthy, and most of all to Aureolus. Yet he, merciful, preserving the last rites of the body, both dedicates the Bridge of Aureolus and the mound." These verses, translated by a certain grammarian, I have set down so as to keep faith—not that they could not have been better translated, but that historical fidelity might be preserved, which I have thought ought to be guarded above all else; for as to what pertains to eloquence, I care nothing. For I have proposed to deliver to you the matter, not the words—especially with so great an abundance of matters as in the Lives of thirty pretenders at once.

Macrianus. When Valerian had been captured—long the most illustrious prince of the state, then the bravest of emperors, and at last the most unfortunate of all, whether because as an old man he grew old among the Persians, or because he left behind descendants unworthy of himself—since Ballista, the prefect of Valerian, and Macrianus, the first of the commanders, perceived that Gallienus was to be despised, and since the soldiers too were seeking a prince, they withdrew to one place, asking what was to be done; and then it was agreed—Gallienus being far off, and Aureolus usurping the empire—that someone ought to be made prince, and indeed the best, lest some tyrant should arise. The words, then, of Ballista (so far as Maeonius Astyanax, who was present at the council, asserts) were these: "Both my age and my profession and my will are far from empire; and I, what I cannot deny, am seeking a good prince. But who at last is there who can fill the place of Valerian, except such a man as you are—brave, steadfast, upright, approved in the commonwealth, and, what most pertains to empire, rich? Seize, then, the place owed to your merits; you shall use me as prefect as long as you wish; do you only deal so well with the commonwealth that the Roman world may rejoice that you have been made prince." To this Macrianus replied: "I confess, Ballista, that empire is not in vain for a prudent man. For I wish to aid the commonwealth and to remove that plague from the helm of the laws. But this is not in my age; I am an old man, I cannot ride to set an example, I must bathe more frequently, I must eat more delicately, my riches have long since drawn me back from the practice of warfare. Some young men must be sought—and not one, but two or three of the bravest—who from the different parts of the human world may restore the commonwealth, which Valerian by fate, and Gallienus by his manner of life, have ruined." After this Ballista understood that he was acting in such a way as to seem to be thinking of his own sons, and so he approached him thus: "We hand the commonwealth over to your prudence. Give us, then, your children Macrianus and Quietus, the bravest of young men, long since made tribunes by Valerian, because, while Gallienus rules, being good men, they cannot be safe." Then he, when he found that he was understood, said: "I give my hand, intending to give the soldiery double pay out of my own means. Do you only furnish me the zeal of a prefect and the grain-supply in the necessary places, and I will soon bring it about that Gallienus, the filthiest of all women, shall come to know the commanders of his own father." He was made emperor, then, with his two sons Macrianus and Quietus, all the soldiers being willing, and at once began to come against Gallienus, leaving affairs in the East somehow abandoned. But when he was leading forty-five thousand soldiers with him, having met with Aureolus in Illyricum or on the borders of the Thracian provinces, he was conquered and killed together with his son. Thirty thousand soldiers, in the end, passed over into the power of Aureolus. And Domitianus, the bravest and most vehement commander of Aureolus, conquered him—Domitianus, who said that he traced his origin from the emperor Domitian and from Domitilla. Concerning Macrianus, however, it seems to me wrong to pass over the judgment of Valerian, which he set down in his speech which he had sent to the Senate from the borders of Persia—among other things, from the speech of the deified Valerian: "I, Conscript Fathers, while waging the Persian war, entrusted the whole commonwealth to Macrianus—and indeed on the military side. He is faithful to you, he is devoted to me; the soldier both loves and fears him; however the matter shall require, he deals with the armies. Nor, Conscript Fathers, are these things new or unexpected to us; the valor of the boy was proved in Italy, of the youth in Gaul, of the young man in Thrace, of one now advanced in Africa, and finally of the old man in Illyricum and Dalmatia, since in different battles he acted bravely so as to be an example. To this is added that he has young sons worthy of the Roman college, worthy of our friendship"—and the rest.

Macrianus the Younger. Many things about this man have been touched upon beforehand in the account of his father's empire—a man who would never have been made emperor, had it not seemed entrusted to the prudence of his father. About this man, indeed, many wonderful things are told, which pertain to the bravery of a youthful age. But what avails against the fates, or how much does the bravery of one man avail in wars? For he, vehement together with his most prudent father, by whose merit he had begun to reign, was conquered by Domitianus and (as I said above) stripped of thirty thousand soldiers—noble on his mother's side, but only brave on his father's, who was prepared for war and from the lowest rank of soldiery reached, by sublime splendor, the highest command.

Quietus. This man, as we have said, was the son of Macrianus. He was made emperor with his father and brother by the judgment of Ballista. But when Odenathus, who already long held the East, learned that Macrianus, the father of Quietus, with his brother Macrianus, had been conquered by Aureolus, and that the soldiers had passed over into his power—as if vindicating the cause of Gallienus—he killed the young man together with the prefect Ballista not long after. This young man too was most worthy of the Roman empire, so that he might seem truly the son of Macrianus, and the brother also of Macrianus—the two who, in distressed circumstances, were able to conduct the commonwealth. It does not seem fit for me to pass over, concerning the family of the Macriani—which flourishes even today—the saying of that special thing which they have always had. The men have always had Alexander the Great of Macedon engraved on their rings and silver, and the women on their hairnets and bracelets and rings and on every kind of ornament, to such a degree that even today there are in that family tunics and borders and matrons' cloaks which display the image of Alexander in varying threads. We recently saw Cornelius Macer, a man of that same family, when he gave a dinner in the Temple of Hercules, drink a toast to the pontiff with an amber bowl which had in the middle the face of Alexander and round about contained his whole history in small and minute figures; and this he ordered to be carried round to all who were most eager for that great man—which I have set down for this reason, that those are said to be aided in all their action who carry Alexander figured either in gold or in silver.

Odenathus. Had not Odenathus, prince of the Palmyrenes, when Valerian was captured and the strength of the Roman commonwealth was exhausted, assumed the empire, affairs in the East would have been lost. Wherefore, taking first the royal name, with his wife Zenobia and his elder son, whose name was Herodes, and his younger sons Herennianus and Timolaus, he gathered an army and set out against the Persians. He recovered Nisibis first, and most of the East with all of Mesopotamia, into his power; then he compelled the king himself, conquered, to flee. At last, pursuing Sapor and his children even to Ctesiphon, having captured his concubines and taken great booty besides, he turned toward the East, hoping that he might crush Macrianus, who had begun to rule against Gallienus—but Macrianus had already set out against Aureolus and against Gallienus. When Macrianus was killed, Odenathus killed his son Quietus (Ballista, as most assert, usurping the kingdom, lest he too be killed). When, then, the state of the East had been settled for the most part, Odenathus was killed by his cousin Maeonius, who had himself also assumed the empire, together with his son Herodes, who, after the return from Persia, had himself also been named emperor with his father. I believe that God was angry with the commonwealth, who, after Valerian was killed, was unwilling to preserve Odenathus. For clearly, with his wife Zenobia, he would have restored not only the East, which he had already reformed to its former condition, but all the parts of the whole world whatsoever—a man keen in wars and, as most writers say, always renowned for memorable hunting, who from his earliest age spent the sweat of manly duty in capturing lions and leopards, bears, and the other woodland animals, and who always lived in the forests and mountains, enduring heat, rains, and all the hardships which the pleasures of hunting contain in themselves. Hardened by these, he bore the sun and the dust in the Persian wars; and not otherwise his wife, accustomed to the same, who, in the opinion of many, is reported to have been braver than her husband—a woman the noblest of all the women of the East and, as Cornelius Capitolinus asserts, the most beautiful.

Herodes. Born not of his mother Zenobia but of a former wife, Herodes received the empire with his father—a man the most delicate of all, and altogether oriental and of Greek luxury, who had embroidered tents and gilded pavilions and everything Persian. In the end, Odenathus, using his disposition, handed over to him whatever of the royal concubines, whatever of riches and jewels, he captured, moved by an affection of paternal indulgence. And Zenobia was disposed toward him with a stepmother's mind, by which she had made him the more commendable to his father. Nor are there more things to be said about Herodes.

Maeonius. This man was a cousin of Odenathus, and, led by no other thing than a damnable envy, killed that most excellent emperor, when he had nothing else to charge against him except his son Herodes. He is said, however, to have first conspired with Zenobia, who could not bear that her stepson Herodes should be named prince in a place before her sons, Herennianus and Timolaus. But this man too was most foul. Wherefore, named emperor through an error, he was shortly killed by the soldiers, in accordance with the merits of his luxury.

Ballista. About this man—whether he reigned—the writers are at variance among themselves. For many say that, when Quietus had been killed by Odenathus, pardon was given to Ballista, and that nevertheless he reigned, because he trusted neither Gallienus nor Aureolus nor Odenathus; others assert that he was killed as a private citizen on his own estate, which he had bought for himself near Daphne. And many have said both that he assumed the purple, in order to reign in the Roman manner, and that he led an army and promised greater things of himself; but that he was killed by those whom Aureolus had sent to seize Quietus, the son of Macrianus, whom he said was his own prey. He was a distinguished man, learned in the conduct of public affairs, vehement in counsels, famous in campaigns, singular in provision of the grain-supply, so acceptable to Valerian that he honored him with this testimony in a certain letter: "Valerian to Ragonius Clarus, prefect of Illyricum and the Gauls. If there is any good in you—which I know there is, father Clarus—follow the arrangements of Ballista. By these shape the commonwealth. Do you see how he does not burden the provincials? How he keeps the horses there where there are pastures, and orders the grain for the soldiers there where there is corn? How he does not compel the provincial nor the landowner to provide corn where he has nothing to give, nor a horse where he cannot pasture it? Nor is there any better provision than that the things which grow should be distributed in their own places, lest they burden the commonwealth either with conveyance or with expense. Galatia abounds in corn, Thrace is full, Illyricum is replete; let the infantry be stationed there, although even in Thrace the cavalry can winter without harm to the provincials, for much hay is collected from the plains. Now wine, now bacon, now the other commodities must be given in those places in which they overflow in abundance—all of which are the counsels of Ballista, who ordered that from a certain province only one commodity should be furnished, because it overflowed there, and that the soldiers should be removed from it." This was decreed publicly. There is also another letter of his, in which he gives thanks to Ballista, in which he shows that the precepts of governing the commonwealth had been given him by the same man, rejoicing that by his counsel he had no supernumerary (that is, idle) tribune, no bodyguard who did not truly do something, no soldier who did not truly fight. This man, then, lying in his tent, is said to have been killed by a certain common soldier, for the favor of Odenathus and Gallienus. About this man I have not sufficiently learned the truth, for the reason that the writers of the times have said much about his prefecture, little about his empire.

Valens. This man, a military man, and at the same time excelling in the glory of civic virtues, was governing the proconsulate of Achaea, the honor having been given him then by Gallienus; whom Macrianus, dreading him vehemently—both because he knew him sufficiently distinguished in every kind of life, and because he knew him to be his enemy through envy of his virtues—ordered to be killed, sending Piso, a man of a most noble and consular family at that time. Valens, most diligently guarding and providing, and judging that he could not be aided otherwise, assumed the empire, and was shortly killed by the soldiers.

Valens the Elder. And it comes well to mind that, when we speak of this Valens, we should say something also about that Valens who was killed in the times of earlier princes. For he is reported to have been the great-uncle of this Valens who reigned under Gallienus. Others say only uncle; but the fortune of both was equal, for he too, when he had reigned a few days in Illyricum, was killed.

Piso. This man, sent by Macrianus to kill Valens, when he learned that Valens, foreseeing the future, was reigning, withdrew to Thessaly, and there, with a few men consenting with him, assumed the empire, and, named Thessalicus, was killed by force—a man of the highest holiness, and in his times called Frugi (the Frugal), and one who was said to draw his origin from that family of the Pisones to which Cicero had allied himself for the sake of ennoblement. This man was most acceptable to all princes. Valens himself, in the end, who is reported to have sent assassins to him, is said to have said that the account did not square for him before the gods below, because—though his enemy—he had nevertheless ordered Piso to be killed, a man whose like the Roman commonwealth did not possess. The decree of the Senate made about Piso, for the recognition of his greatness, I have gladly inserted: On the seventh day before the Kalends of July, when it had been announced that Piso had been killed by Valens, and that Valens himself had been killed by his own men, Arellius Fuscus, a consular and first to speak, who had succeeded into the place of Valerian, said: "Consul, consult us." And when he had been consulted, he said: "I decree divine honors to Piso, Conscript Fathers. I trust that Gallienus and Valerian and Saloninus, our emperors, will approve this; for no man was better or more steadfast." After whom the rest, being consulted, decreed for Piso a statue among the triumphal ones and four-horse chariots. But his statue is to be seen; the chariots, however, which had been decreed, were placed as if to be transferred to another place, and have not yet been restored—for they were in those places in which the Baths of Diocletian have been built, of a name as eternal as it is sacred.

Aemilianus. It is characteristic of the people of the Egyptians that, like madmen and frenzied folk, they are led over the slightest things to the gravest perils of the commonwealth. Often, on account of neglected greetings, a place in the baths not conceded, meat and vegetables sequestered, slavish footwear, and other such things, they have come, even to the height of the commonwealth's peril, into riots—so that armies were armed against them. By a frenzy, then, characteristic of them, when on a certain day a slave of a certain curator who then governed Alexandria had been beaten by a soldier for this reason, that he said his shoes were better than the soldier's, a multitude gathered and came to the house of the commander Aemilianus and pursued him with every instrument and fury of riots; he was struck with stones, he was assailed with steel, nor was any weapon of riot lacking. Wherefore, compelled, Aemilianus assumed the empire, since he knew that he must perish from whatever quarter. The Egyptian army consented to him, chiefly out of hatred of Gallienus; nor was his vigor for governing the commonwealth lacking, for he traversed the Thebaid and all Egypt and, so far as he could, drove off the barbarian nations by his brave authority. In the end he was called Alexander, or Alexandrinus (for that too is held uncertain), by the merit of his virtues. And when he was preparing an expedition against the Indians, by the sending of the commander Theodotus, at Gallienus's order, he paid the penalty, and indeed is reported to have been strangled in prison, after the old custom for captives. I do not think I ought to keep silent about what, when I speak of Egypt, ancient history has suggested, and at the same time a deed of Gallienus, who, when he wished to decree to Theodotus the proconsular power, was prevented by the priests, who said that it was not lawful for the consular fasces to enter Alexandria—of which thing we know well enough that even Cicero, when he speaks against Gabinius, makes mention. In the end there now exists a record of the matter often observed. Wherefore it behooves us to know that Herennius Celsus, your kinsman, when he desires the consulship, is not permitted that which he longs for. For it is reported that at Memphis, on a golden column, it is written in Egyptian letters that Egypt would then at last be free, when the Roman fasces and the bordered toga of the Romans had come into it—which is found in Proculus the grammarian, the most learned man of his time, when he speaks of foreign regions.

Saturninus. The best of the commanders of the time of Gallienus—but chosen by Valerian—was Saturninus. This man too, when he could not bear the dissoluteness of Gallienus, who spent his nights in public, and when he ruled the soldiers not by the example of his emperor but by his own, assumed the empire from the armies—a man of singular prudence, distinguished gravity, lovable life, whose victories were known even to the barbarians everywhere. This man, on the day on which he was clothed by the soldiers with the imperial robe, having called an assembly, is said to have said: "Fellow-soldiers, you have lost a good general and made a bad prince." In the end, when he had done many things energetically in the empire, because he was too severe and grave for the soldiers, he was killed by those very men by whom he had been made. A distinction of his is that he ordered the soldiers to recline at the banquet with their cloaks on, lest their lower parts be uncovered—heavy ones in winter, transparent ones in summer.

Tetricus the Elder. When Victorinus and his son had been killed, his mother Victoria, or Vitruvia, urged Tetricus—a senator of the Roman people, governing the governorship in Gaul—to the empire (because he was, as most say, her kinsman), had him named Augustus, and named his son Caesar. And when Tetricus had done many things, and prosperously, and had reigned long, conquered by Aurelian—since he could not bear the impudence and insolence of his own soldiers—he willingly surrendered himself to that most grave and most severe prince. There is reported, in the end, that verse of his which he had secretly written to Aurelian: "Snatch me, unconquered one, from these evils." Wherefore, since Aurelian easily contemplated nothing simple or mild or tranquil, he led in triumph a senator of the Roman people and a man of consular rank, who by the right of a governor had ruled all the Gauls—at the same time at which he also led Zenobia, wife of Odenathus, with the younger sons of Odenathus, Herennianus and Timolaus. Yet, overcome by shame, that excessively severe man made the man whom he had led in triumph corrector of all Italy—that is, of Campania, Samnium, Lucania, the Bruttii, Apulia, Calabria, Etruria and Umbria, Picenum and Flaminia and the whole grain-supplying region—and allowed Tetricus not only to live but even to remain in the highest dignity, since he often called him colleague, sometimes fellow-soldier, and at times even emperor.

Tetricus the Younger. This little boy was named Caesar by Victoria, when she had been named Mother of the Camps by the army; and he too, led in triumph with his father, afterward discharged all the senatorial honors, with his patrimony unimpaired, which indeed he passed on to his descendants, always distinguished, as Arellius Fuscus says. My grandfather used to tell that he was on familiar terms with him, and that no one was preferred to him by Aurelian or afterward by other princes. The house of the Tetrici exists even today on the Caelian Hill between the two groves, opposite the Iseum Metellinum—a most beautiful house, in which Aurelian is painted, granting to both the bordered toga and the senatorial dignity, receiving from them the scepter, the crown, the robe. It is a picture of mosaic; and when they had dedicated it, the two Tetrici are said to have invited Aurelian himself to the banquet.

Trebellianus. I am now ashamed to pursue how many pretenders there were under Gallienus through the fault of that plague—since there was in him such luxury that he earned very many rebels, and such cruelty that he was justly feared. By which there was even Trebellianus, made a prince in Isauria, the Isaurians themselves seeking a leader for themselves—whom, though others had called him an arch-pirate, he himself called emperor, and ordered coin to be struck. He established a palace in a citadel of Isauria; and indeed, when he had betaken himself into the inmost and safe places of the Isaurians, fortified by the difficulties of the places and the mountains, he reigned for some time among the Cilicians. But through Gallienus's commander Camsisoleus, an Egyptian by nation, the brother of Theodotus who had captured Aemilianus, he was led down into the plain, conquered, and killed. Nor afterward could the Isaurians, through fear lest Gallienus rage against them, be brought to equality by any humanity of the princes; in the end, after Trebellianus, they are reckoned as barbarians. For in the midst of the soil of the Roman name their region is enclosed by a new kind of guards, as it were a frontier, defended by its places, not by men. For they are not comely in stature, not grave in valor, not equipped with arms, not prudent in counsels, but safe by this alone, that, placed in high places, they cannot be approached—whom indeed the deified Claudius had almost brought to this point, that, removed from their own places, he might settle them in Cilicia, intending to give to one of his closest friends the whole possession of the Isaurians, lest from it afterward any rebellion should arise.

Herennianus. Odenathus, dying, left two little boys, Herennianus and his brother Timolaus, in whose name Zenobia, the empire usurped for herself, held the commonwealth longer than was fitting for a woman, presenting the little boys clad in purple in the dress of a Roman emperor, and bringing them to the assemblies, which she frequented in a manly way, proclaiming herself a prince among Dido and Semiramis and Cleopatra of her own race, among other things. But about their end it is uncertain; for many say they were killed by Aurelian, many that they were carried off by their own death—since the descendants of Zenobia even now remain at Rome among the nobles.

Timolaus. About this man we think those things worthy of notice which have been said about his brother. There is, however, one thing which separates him from his brother: that he was of such ardor for Roman studies that, having shortly attained what his grammarian had instilled, he is said to have become a grammarian himself, and might even have been able to be the foremost rhetorician of the Latins.

Celsus. The Gallic regions having been seized, the eastern, indeed even Pontus, the Thracian provinces and Illyricum, while Gallienus feasts and devotes his life to baths and panders, the Africans too, at the instigation of Vibius Passienus, proconsul of Africa, and Fabius Pomponianus, commander of the Libyan frontier, named Celsus emperor, adorned with the robe of the goddess Caelestis. This man, a private citizen from among the tribunes, stationed in Africa, lived on his own estate; but he was of such justice and bodily greatness that he seemed worthy of the empire. Wherefore, created through a certain woman named Galliena, a cousin of Gallienus, he was killed on the seventh day of his empire, and indeed was scarcely reckoned even among the obscure princes. His body was devoured by dogs at the urging of the people of Sicca, who had kept faith with Gallienus; and by a new kind of insult his image was raised on a cross, while the common people leaped about, as though Celsus himself seemed to be fixed to the gallows.

Zenobia. All shame is now consumed, since, the commonwealth being worn out, it came to such a point that, while Gallienus acted most wickedly, even women ruled excellently. And indeed a foreigner, by name Zenobia, about whom many things have already been said, who boasted herself of the race of the Cleopatras and the Ptolemies, after her husband Odenathus, the imperial cloak having been poured over her shoulders, adorned in the dress of Dido, having received also the diadem, in the name of her sons Herennianus and Timolaus reigned longer than the feminine sex allowed—since, while Gallienus still ruled the commonwealth, the proud woman held a royal office, and while Claudius was occupied with the Gothic wars, scarcely at last, conquered and led in triumph by Aurelian, did she yield into the jurisdiction of Rome. There exists a letter of Aurelian which bears testimony to the captive woman. For when he was being reproached by some, because a most brave man had led in triumph a woman as though some general, by a letter sent to the Senate and people of Rome he defended himself with this attestation: "I hear, Conscript Fathers, that it is cast against me that I did not perform a manly office in leading Zenobia in triumph. Truly those who reproach me would praise me enough, if they knew what manner of woman she is, how prudent in counsels, how steadfast in arrangements, how grave toward the soldiers, how generous when necessity demands, how stern when severity requires. I can say that it was hers that Odenathus conquered the Persians and, having routed Sapor, reached even to Ctesiphon. I can assert that the woman was so great a terror to the eastern peoples and the peoples of the Egyptians that neither the Arabs nor the Saracens nor the Armenians stirred themselves. Nor would I have preserved her life, had I not known that she had much profited the Roman commonwealth, when she preserved the empire of the East for herself or for her children. Let those, then, keep to themselves the poison of their own tongues, those whom nothing pleases; for if to have conquered and triumphed over a woman is not seemly, what do they say about Gallienus, in contempt of whom she ruled the empire well? What of the deified Claudius, that holy and venerable commander, who—because he was himself occupied with the Gothic expeditions—is said to have allowed her to reign? And that deliberately and prudently, so that, while she guarded the eastern boundaries of the empire, he himself might more securely accomplish what he had begun." This speech shows what judgment Aurelian had about Zenobia. Her chastity is said to have been such that she did not even know her own husband except for the trying of conceptions. For when she had once lain with him, she contained herself, having awaited the menses, if she were pregnant; but if not, she again gave the power for seeking children. She lived in royal pomp. She was adored more after the Persian manner; she banqueted after the manner of the kings of the Persians; after the manner of the Roman emperors she came forth to the assemblies helmeted, with a purple border with jewels hanging down along the lowest fringe, bound in the middle too with a spiral clasp, like a woman's brooch, her arm often bare. She was of a somewhat aquiline face, of a dark color, with eyes exceedingly lively and black, of a divine spirit, of incredible charm. So great was the whiteness in her teeth that most thought she had pearls, not teeth. Her voice was clear and manly. Her severity, where necessity demanded, was that of the tyrants; her clemency, where piety required, was that of good princes. She was generous with prudence, a keeper of treasures beyond the feminine measure. She used a carriage, rarely a litter, more often a horse; she is reported, moreover, frequently to have walked three or four miles with the infantry. She hunted with the eagerness of the Spaniards; she often drank with her commanders, though otherwise sober; she drank also with the Persians and the Armenians, in order to conquer them. She used golden, jeweled vessels at her banquets; she used too those of Cleopatra. In her service she had eunuchs of more advanced age, and exceedingly few girls. She had ordered her sons to speak Latin, so that they spoke Greek either with difficulty or rarely. She herself was not everywhere skilled in the Latin tongue, but she would speak it with restrained modesty. She spoke also Egyptian to a perfect degree. She was so skilled in Alexandrian and oriental history that she is said to have made an epitome of it; but the Latin history she had read in Greek. When Aurelian had captured her and, having had her brought before his sight, had thus addressed her: "What is this, Zenobia? Have you dared to insult Roman emperors?"—she is said to have said: "I recognize you to be an emperor, you who conquer; Gallienus and Aureolus and the other princes I did not consider so." Believing Victoria to be like herself, she desired to come into a partnership of the kingdom, if the situation of the places allowed. She was led, then, in triumph with such display that nothing seemed more splendid to the Roman people: first of all adorned with enormous jewels, so that she labored under the burden of the ornaments. For it is reported that the most brave woman very often stopped, saying that she could not bear the burden of the jewels. Her feet, besides, were bound with gold, her hands too with golden chains, nor was a golden bond lacking to her neck, which a Persian buffoon carried before her. To her, life was granted by Aurelian; and she is reported to have lived with her children, now after the manner of a Roman matron, a possession having been given her in the Tiburtine country, which even today is called Zenobia, not far from the palace of Hadrian and from that place which is named Conchae.

Victoria. The matter was not so worthy that even Vitruvia, or Victoria, should be put into writing, had not the morals of Gallienus brought it about that even women should be reckoned worthy of memory. For Victoria, when she saw her son and grandson killed by the soldiers, and Postumus, then Lollianus, Marius also (whom the soldiers had named prince) killed, urged Tetricus (about whom it has been said above) to the empire, that she might always dare a manly deed. She was distinguished, besides, by this title, that she called herself Mother of the Camps. Her coins of bronze, gold, and silver were struck, of which the form exists even today among the Treviri; and she indeed did not live longer, for, while Tetricus reigned, as most say, she was killed; as others assert, she was carried off by fatal necessity. These are the things which seemed fit to be said about the thirty pretenders, whom I have for this reason brought together into a single volume, lest, if I narrated each single thing about each man separately, there should arise unworthy tediousness, and things which the reader could not bear. Now I return to the prince Claudius, about whom a special volume, although a brief one, seems to me deservedly to be published, by reason of his life, with his brother added, a singular man—so that of a family so holy and so noble at least a few things may be related. I have deliberately set the women in the midst, to the mockery of Gallienus, than whom the Roman commonwealth has suffered nothing more monstrous; intending to add even now two pretenders as it were beyond the number, because they belonged to another time, one who was in the times of Maximinus, the other in those of Claudius, so that the lives of thirty pretenders might be contained in this volume. I beg that you, who had received the book as already completed, take it in good part and willingly add these to your volume—whom I, just as I added Valens the Elder to this volume, had likewise resolved to add, after Claudius and Aurelian, among those who were between Tacitus and Diocletian. But the diligence of your learning, mindful of history, has averted my error. I have, therefore, gratitude, because the kindness of your prudence has filled out my title; no one in the Temple of Peace will say that I have placed women among the pretenders—tyrannesses, that is, or tyrannies, as they themselves are wont to boast about me with laughter and jest. They have the whole number, given into my writings from the secrets of history. For Titus and Censorinus will be added, of whom one, as I said, was under Maximinus, the other under Claudius, who both were killed by those same soldiers by whom they had been clothed in the purple.

Titus. Dexippus teaches, nor is Herodianus silent, and all who have handed down such things to be read by posterity, that Titus, a tribune of the Moors, who had been left by Maximinus among the private citizens, reigned through fear of a violent death (as those writers say), but unwilling and compelled by the soldiers (as most assert); and that he was killed by his own soldiers within a few days, after the revolt which the consular man Magnus had prepared against Maximinus had been punished. He reigned, moreover, for six months. He was a man among the first praiseworthy toward the commonwealth at home and abroad, but in the empire little fortunate. Others say that he was made prince by the Armenian archers, whom Maximinus, like the Alexandrians, had both hated and offended. Nor should you wonder that there is so great a variety about a man whose very name is scarcely recognized. His wife was Calpurnia, a holy and venerable woman of the family of the Caesonini, that is, of the Pisones, whom our ancestors revered as a one-husbanded priestess among the most sacred women, whose statue in the Temple of Venus we have seen until now, of marble extremities but gilded. She is reported to have had the pearls of Cleopatra, and a dish of a hundred pounds of silver—which most poets have mentioned—on which the history of her ancestors was shown represented. I seem to myself to have proceeded further than the matter demanded; but what shall I do? The knowledge of nature is wordy by its very facility. Wherefore I shall return to Censorinus, a noble man, but one who is said to have reigned seven days, not so much to the good as to the ill of the commonwealth.

Censorinus. A man plainly military, and of ancient dignity in the senate-house: twice consul, twice praetorian prefect, three times prefect of the City, a fourth time proconsul, a third time of consular rank, twice praetorian legate, a fourth time of aedilician rank, a third time of quaestorian rank; he discharged also, out of the regular order, a Persian embassy, and a Sarmatian one as well. Yet after all these honors, when he was passing his life on his own estate, an old man and lame in one foot from a wound which he had received in the Persian war in the times of Valerian, he was made emperor and was called "Claudius" by the jest of the buffoons. And when he conducted himself most gravely and could not be borne by the soldiers on account of his censorial discipline, he was killed by those very men by whom he had been made. There exists his tomb near Bononia, on which all his honors are inscribed in large letters; yet on the last line is added: "Fortunate in all things, the most unfortunate emperor." His family exists, frequented under the name of the Censorini, of which one part sought the Thracian provinces out of hatred of Roman affairs, and another part Bithynia. There exists too a most beautiful house, adjoining the Gentes Flaviae, which is reported once to have belonged to the prince Titus. You have the whole number of thirty pretenders, which you have argued about with the malevolent indeed, but with a good intent. Give now to anyone the little book, written not so eloquently as faithfully; nor do I seem to myself to have promised eloquence, but the substance—I who do not write these little books, which I have published about the life of the princes, but dictate them, and dictate with that haste with which you, if I myself shall have promised anything or you shall have demanded anything, so press me on that I have no opportunity to draw breath.