Javascript must be enabled to continue!

Who Murdered Gallienus?

View through CrossRef

There are several ancient and Byzantine accounts of the assassination of the emperor Gallienus (253-68), who was murdered while besieging a rebellious general, Aureolus, at Milan in early September 268. But few of these accounts agree fully on those who were responsible for the killing, and some are openly contradictory. Modern scholars, in turn, have not been in accord on the members of the conspiracy. A close examination of these sources demonstrates that only three men are reliably attested to have been involved: Heraclianus, Gallienus’ praetorian prefect; Claudius II Gothicus, emperor in 268-70; and Aurelian, emperor in 270-75. In addition, the investigation provides further insights into the development of the historical traditions pertaining to this period of Roman history.

Cambridge University Press (CUP)

Randall T. Saunders

Title: Who Murdered Gallienus?

Description:

There are several ancient and Byzantine accounts of the assassination of the emperor Gallienus (253-68), who was murdered while besieging a rebellious general, Aureolus, at Milan in early September 268.

But few of these accounts agree fully on those who were responsible for the killing, and some are openly contradictory.

Modern scholars, in turn, have not been in accord on the members of the conspiracy.

A close examination of these sources demonstrates that only three men are reliably attested to have been involved: Heraclianus, Gallienus’ praetorian prefect; Claudius II Gothicus, emperor in 268-70; and Aurelian, emperor in 270-75.

In addition, the investigation provides further insights into the development of the historical traditions pertaining to this period of Roman history.

Related Results

Autour des travaux d’Hercule : Postume et Gallien

After first attempting to eliminate Postumus in AD 261, Gallienus reopened war with him in AD 266. But the Gothic invasion forced Gallienus to the Balkans in AD 267, and he was not...

Media and Murder in Military Barracks: Sociological Analysis of the Murder of Isaah Mobila in the Northern Region of Ghana.

Purpose: Military brutalities continue to occur in Africa notwithstanding a momentous drop in military coups. Military-civilian relations are still problematic and complex since in...

The Reckoning by the Regnal Years and Victories of Valerian and Gallienus

The statement of L. Wickert that the numbers of the tribuniciae potestates of Gallienus (and of Valerian) are contradictory and also in part evidently wrong can also be applied to ...

Vietnam and the Sixties: A Personal History

In early 1970, Vice President Spiro Agnew had this to say about the so-called '60s Generation: "As for these deserters, malcontents, radicals, incendiaries, the civil and the unciv...

Yellow journalism and Manhattan murders

The headline screams “You’re 45% more likely to be murdered in de Blasio’s Manhattan”. The evidence? Sixteen people have been killed so far this year in Manhattan, against only el...

U.S. Guns Kill U.S. Nuns

This chapter examines the murders of the churchwomen and how Reagan officials' critiques, which revealed that intra-Catholic conflict had become an integral part of United States–C...

EN ENSOM NORSK GRAV I POZNAŃ. ET POSTSKRIPTUM TIL THE GREAT ESCAPE

Abstract The article is an account of the life and death of Halldor Espelid, a young Norwegian RAF pilot born in Bergen, trained at “Little Norway” in Canada, shot d...

The one multiple murderer whose name will for ever be linked to thallium is that of Graham Young. As we saw in the previous chapter, victims of thallium poisoning were generally th...