Valerian is
one of the lesser known Roman Emperors but he has a special claim to fame in
that he was the only one who was captured by a foreign enemy and died in exile
as a result. This puts him quite high on the list of failed Emperors, of which
the later Roman Empire , in particular, had a
large number.
Publius
Licinius Valerianus was born in around the year 200 (possibly a few years
earlier). Little is known about his early life except that he was a consul at
some time in the 230s and a high-ranking member of the Senate who held the
position of “princeps senatus” in 238, a year of civil war during which seven
men claimed office as Emperor at various times.
It is known
that Valerian was married to Egnatia Maririana, by whom he had two sons.
He was a
trusted ally of both Emperors Decius and Trebonianus Gallus. The latter had
been declared Emperor in 251 when Decius was killed by the Goths at the Battle
of Abrittus (in modern Bulgaria
Two years
later Gallus was in turn threatened by a usurper, Aemilianus, and he called
upon Valerian, who was commanding the legions on the Rhine ,
to come to his aid. However, Valerian was too late and Gallus had been
overthrown and killed (possibly by his own troops) before he arrived.
The reign of
Aemilianus was even briefer than that of Gallus, and his fate was similar in
that his army mutinied and killed him before battle could be joined with the
approaching army headed by Valerian, who was then acknowledged as Emperor. He
was probably aged about 55 at the time (September 253).
One of
Valerian’s first acts as Emperor was to elevate his son Gallienus to the rank
of Augustus which signified his status as co-Emperor.
As Emperor,
Valerian showed himself to be a deeply committed traditionalist, in that he was
content to make the same mistakes that his predecessors had done in refusing to
adapt to changing times. This meant that the borders of the Empire were to be
defended at all costs and no concessions were to be made to the cultural
diversity of the peoples who lived within those borders.
This thinking
was behind Valerian’s edict in 257 that sanctioned persecution of Christians
throughout the Empire. This included seizure of property and the execution of
Christians who would not recant their beliefs.
On the
military side, Roman armies failed to learn from their defeats against enemies
such as the Goths and the Persians, in that Roman battle strategies were
ineffective against the hit-and-run tactics of their opponents. The aim of
these invaders was not so much to conquer territory as to raid and pillage and
then retreat before the Romans could muster an army to confront them.
In 259 a new
invasion threatened the Empire from the east. This was launched by Shapur, the leader
of the Sassanid Empire that covered the whole of modern Iran , Iraq
and Afghanistan and reached
as far as India
Valerian
offered to sue for peace and a meeting was arranged between the two rulers.
However, this was a trick and Valerian fell into the trap. He was captured by
Shapur and taken back to Persia
Various
stories have arisen about what happened to Valerian, many of them put about by
later writers who had a reason for denigrating the former Emperor. One story
was that Shapur used Valerian as a footstool when mounting his horse, and
another was that, when he died, his body was stuffed with straw and exhibited
in a Persian temple. All that can be known for certain is that Valerian died in
captivity, leaving his son Gallienus to rule as sole Emperor.
Shapur was
clearly proud of his triumphs against the might of Rome ,
having the events preserved in the form of reliefs carved at Naqsh-i-Rustam,
near Persepolis
© John
Welford
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