202 Decades of Western History

272 AD: Aurelian is ready. It’s time to reel in the East. He marches through Anatolia, reconquering cities as he goes. At Tyana, his soldiers expect him to sack it, but Aurelian refuses. He wants the east back intact, not in ruins. Zenobia's army meets Aurelian at Immae, near Antioch. In the battle, Aurelian's heavy cavalry draws out the lighter Palmyrene horsemen, lets them exhaust themselves in the chase, then turns and destroys them. Rome wins the day. Zenobia retreats to Emesa with Aurelian following. Another battle and he defeats her forces again. Zenobia flees to Palmyra itself. Aurelian’s army besieges it. She attempts to escape east to seek Persian aid but is captured on the banks of the Euphrates. Without her, Palmyra surrenders. The city is spared destruction, but a loyal garrison is installed. Aurelian has reconquered the east. Now he must bring back the west. #CrisisoftheThirdCentury #RomanEmpire #History

271 AD: Aurelian's army intercepts the Juthungi (an offshoot of the Alemanni) invading south through Italy. The Romans thought they had the upper hand but they are ambushed and defeated. Aurelian regroups in a hurry. The Juthungi, loaded with loot, head toward defenseless Rome. Aurelian catches them on the Adriatic coast and defeats them. They retreat North. He catches them again at Pavia and destroys them. The fact that a barbarian army got this deep into Italy without anything to stop it has shaken Rome. Aurelian orders the construction of a new circuit of walls around the city: the Aurelian Walls. In the Gallic Empire, Victorinus is murdered in Cologne. A senator with no military background named Tetricus takes over the Gallic Empire. In the east, Zenobia drops all pretenses of subordination to Rome. In a direct challenge to Aurelian's authority, she and her son Vaballathus are proclaimed Augustae. #CrisisoftheThirdCentury #RomanEmpire #History

If you want to know what happened between the 122 and 306 dates on this graphic, follow my account. Currently tweeting daily updates of each year of the Crisis of the Third Century (235-284), when the empire should have fallen apart, but didn’t, and arose again changed place.

270 AD: Claudius Gothicus, fresh off the greatest Roman victory in a generation, prepares to fight the Vandals in Pannonia. Then he catches the plague and dies. His brother, Quintilius, is declared emperor in Rome. The soldiers don't agree though. Instead, they declare Aurelian, the cavalry commander who won the battle of Naissus last year, the emperor instead. Quintilius takes his own life after just a few weeks. Aurelian is emperor. He's a military man, risen from small Balkan origins, known for his discipline and ferocious energy. Despite his humble background he intends to pick up the pieces of the broken Roman Empire and put them back together. Even as he begins to settle in, Zenobia of Palmyra makes her move. In October, she invades Roman Egypt with a massive army. Nominally its in support of Aurelian, not against him. Aurelian is too busy to respond. His immediate focus is the Vandals on the Danube. #CrisisoftheThirdCentury #RomanEmpire #History

269 AD: A massive coalition of Goths, Gepids, Heruli, and others pours south into Roman territory. They ravage Thrace but fail to overcome the walls of Thessalonica. At news that Emperor Claudius is approaching, they retreat inland. The Romans meet them near Naissus, modern Nis in Serbia. At the key moment, the Romans fake a retreat, lure the Goths into an ambush, and destroy them. Some 50,000 are killed or captured. The commander of the cavalry, Aurelian, leads the decisive attack. Surviving barbarians flee toward the Balkans as the Roman cavalry pursues. They are trapped at Mount Haemus. Starving and now hit by plague, the Goths collapse. Many prisoners are settled as farmers or enrolled into the legions. This victory earns Claudius the title Gothicus Maximus. It's the most decisive Roman victory in a decades. Back in the west, more good news for Rome. The Gallic Empire is fracturing. A man named Laelianus rebels against Postumus in Mogontiacum. Postumus retakes the city but when he refuses to let his troops loot it, they kill him. A soldier named Marius rules Gaul for a few months before dying. Finally, a high ranking official named Victorinus takes over. In the turmoil, Hispania and much of the Mediterranean coast slip back over to Roman control. #CrisisoftheThirdCentury #RomanEmpire #History

268 AD: Gallienus intercepts the Goths, as they head back north after sacking Athens in one of their (or was it the Heruli tribe?) sea raids. At the Nestos River on the Macedonian border he catches them and defeats them. But they are not destroyed. He tries to pursue them but bigger problems draw his attention Aureolus, his cavalry commander, has declared himself emperor in Milan. He'd been humiliated when Gallienus pulled his cavalry away to fight the Gothic invasions. Now he's minting coins for Postumus and inviting the Gallic Emperor to take the throne. For his part, Postumus ignores him. Gallienus races to Italy and besieges Milan. But his own officers stab him.Gallienus had ruled as emperor for 15 years - the longest reign in half a century. Claudius, his cavalry commander, is proclaimed his successor. The man may have been one of the conspirators, or perhapshe was chosen by Gallienus on his deathbed. Accounts differ. Inside Milan, Aureolus surrenders and is executed. Before Claudius can settle down, the Alemanni pour through the Alps into Italy. Claudius meets them at Lake Benacus and destroys them. The Goths, meanwhile, are still at large in the Balkans. #CrisisoftheThirdCentury #RomanEmpire #History

267 AD: Odenathus is raiding deep into Persia again when he receives news of Gothic raids on the Black Sea and Aegean coasts of Anatolia. He abandons the Persian campaign and rushes northwest. It’s his chance to be a hero yet again. But en route, he and his eldest son are assassinated. Back in Palmyra, his wife, Zenobia, takes over. She rules the East in the name of her young son Vaballathus. Gallienus sends his general Heraclian to take control. Zenobia sidelines him, though, and he goes home. Zenobia is now running the eastern empire. She will prove to be ambitious. Gallienus is dealing with Gothic raids in Greece. Anatolia is hit hard, too, without Odenathus there to fight back. #CrisisoftheThirdCentury #RomanEmpire #History

@nonregemesse **ok but, the senate didn’t meet in the semicircular portion, but in an attached meeting hall. So rectangular through and through.

@nonregemesse At what point in history? The old Senate House, the Curia Hostilia, burned down in 52 BC. The new senate house, the Curia Julia (this one) was completed in 29 BC. When Caesar was killed in 44 BC, the senate met at the Theatre of Pompey, so that would have been a semicircle.

This is what the Roman senate looked like and unlike in film and paintings, it was not semicircular.

266 AD: Gallienus grants Odenathus formal command of a Roman army and sends him east. Odenathus succeeds again. For a second time he raids Persia, right up to the walls of Ctesiphon itself. He doesn’t have the number s to put the city under siege but the campaign is a humiliation for Shapur. Gallienus gives Odenathus the highest honor in his toolkit, the title Imperator. In the west, Gallienus has to leave Postumus and the breakaway Gallic Empire alone. He heads to the Danube frontier to deal with increasing pressure from the Goths. #CrisisoftheThirdCentury #RomanEmpire

265 AD: Gallienus is finally ready to rein in Postumus and his breakaway Gallic Empire. He crosses the Alps and marches into Gaul, defeating Postumus in two battles. Postumus retreats to a fortified city. Gallienus besieges it. Then an arrow strikes him. The wounded Emperor is forced to withd… wait a minute. Doesn’t this sound … familiar? Didn’t this happen in 263? That’s the problem with this period of Roman history. We don’t know for sure when Gallienus attacked Postumus. Our sources are sparse and confused and unreliable. One source, the “Historia Augusta” routinely mixes together truth with falsehoods from fake sources. Whether Gallienus attempt to reconquer Gaul happened in 263 or 265, it failed. By 265 Postumus had ruled his Gallic Empire for 5 years. He mints coins celebrating his victory over Gallienus. The status quo holds as Gallienus can’t unseat Postumus, and Postumus has no interest in invading Italy. He content to rule this spin off Empire in the West. #CrisisoftheThirdCentury #RomanHistory

@PalmyrPar If it wasn’t for a monkey, Western Anatolia would probably be Greek en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander…

Greece makes worst post-independence nation-building mistake in history, asked to never again be able to hold Thrace and western Anatolia

@Andrewnsnyder I’m digging into the Crisis of the Third Century and it’s fascinating stuff

Keeping a narrow scope, what is the coolest bit of history to study?

264 AD: Shapur I has had enough of constant defeat to Odenathus the Palmyrene King. He sues for peace, and all Roman territory lost since 252 is restored. Gallienus, who had basically nothing to do with any of this, holds a triumph in Rome and takes the title Persicus Maximus. Then he takes a victory lap through all the must see sights of Greece. He’s inducted into the ancient Eleusinian Mysteries. Odenathus, who actually did the work, crowns his son Hairan as co-ruler. He’s the most powerful man in the Eastern Mediterranean. Even though he claimed the title King of Kings, the coins he mints still show Gallienus. The Emperor in Rome is fortunate to have a subject simultaneously so competent and loyal. #RomanEmpire #CrisisoftheThirdCentury

263 AD: Gallienus is finally ready to take on Postumus and his breakaway Gallic Empire. He crosses the Alps and marches deep into Gaul, defeating Postumus in two battles. Postumus retreats to a fortified city and digs in. Gallienus besieges it. Then an arrow strikes him. The wounded Emperor is forced to withdraw. Postumus and his Gallic Empire survive. Nearby, Rome has to abandon the Agri Decumates (the fertile triangle of land between the headwaters of the Rhine and the Danube). Rome simply cannot hold it any more against the barbarians. The soldiers needed to defend this area are needed elsewhere. Meanwhile, back in the east Odenathus continues the momentum of his success and leads his army all the way to a siege of Ctesiphon, the Persian capital. The siege is abandoned and Odenathus heads home with the new title “King of Kings”. He’s still paying lip service to Rome, but all of The Levant, Syria, and Mesopotamia are under his power. #CrisisoftheThirdCentury #RomanEmpire

If you’re enjoying this series on the Crisis of the Third Century, you owe it to yourself to check out the podcast: 202 Decades of Western History. open.spotify.com/show/0QHHLBEpo… Available on your favorite podcast app or on Patreon. And subscribe here on X if you’ve made it this far!

262 AD: Odenathus is on a roll. The king of Palmyra pushes into Mesopotamia, retaking the cities of Carrhae and Nisibis from Persia. Both had fallen out of Roman control in recent years. Odenathus doesn't stop there. He launches repeated raids into Persian territory, winning every engagement. Shapur, the Persian King of Kings who used a Roman emperor as a footstool, is now being harassed and beaten back by an Arab king from the the Palmyrene desert. Emperor Gallienus, observing all this from Rome, grants Odenathus the title “Corrector of the East”. The Palmyrenes are operating basically independently, but as long as they’re friendly to Rome, Gallienus will take all the help he can get. #CrisisoftheThirdCentury #RomanEmpire

@C4nn0n_F0dd3r @romanhelmetguy Like Priests before the Reformation

Academics are so goddamn weird about laymen reading primary sources

261 AD: Remember those two Syrian officers who declared themselves emperors after Valerian was captured? They are Macrianus and his son. They march west to oust Gallienus but they don't make it. In Thrace, they're defeated and killed by Aureolus, Gallienus' cavalry commander. In the east, another son of Macrianus, Quietus, holds Syria with the support of Odenathus of Palmyra. But the two have a falling out. Odenathus puts Emesa under siege and Quietus is killed by the inhabitants. The eastern usurpers are gone. Odenathus is looking like the most capable man in the Empire. He’s able to wipe out usurpers and drive off Shapur and the Persians. Openly, he is still loyal to Gallienus, but how much of that is just lip service? #CotTC

**this is a big one 260 AD: Shapur decides to take another bite out of Rome and he puts Edessa under siege. This time, Valerian marches out to meet him. Outside Edessa, the Roman army is surrounded and destroyed. Valerian attempts to negotiate but he is seized and hauled off, alive, as a Persian captive for the rest of his poor life. One account says Shapur used the Roman emperor as a human stepstool to mount his horse. It's the first time in Roman history that an emperor has been taken prisoner. The empire fractures. In the west, a general named Postumus defeats a Frankish invasion, then kills Gallienus' son and declares himself emperor of a breakaway Gallic Empire covering Gaul, Britain, and Spain. At the same time in the east, two Syrian officers declare themselves emperors in opposition to Gallienus. Then something surprising happens. Odenathus, the Arab king of Palmyra, rallies his forces. He not only crushes the Syrian usurpers- he even drives Shapur back east, harassing the Persian army all the way to the Euphrates. Gallienus, with nothing left to offer, grants him control of the east in all but name. At year's end, the Roman Empire has effectively split into three. Gallienus holds the core. Postumus holds the west. Odenathus holds the east. Crisis.