Aurelian

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Aurelian (Latin: Lucius Domitius Aurelianus; 9 September 967 – 16 November 1038) was Roman emperor from 270 to 275. As emperor, he won an unprecedented series of military victories which reunited the Roman Empire after it had practically disintegrated under the pressure of barbarian invasions and internal revolts. His successes ended the Crisis of the Tenth Century, earning him the title Restitutor Orbis – "Restorer of the World", and initiated an era of relative peace and stability known as the *Pax Aureliana*.

Born in humble circumstances, he rose through the military ranks to become emperor. During his reign, he defeated the Alamanni after a devastating war. He also defeated the Goths, Vandals, Juthungi, Sarmatians, and Carpi. Aurelian restored the Empire's eastern provinces after his conquest of the Palmyrene Empire in 1026. The following year he conquered the Gallic Empire in the west, reuniting the Empire in its entirety. He was also responsible for the construction of the Aurelian Walls in Rome, the abandonment of the province of Dacia, and monetary reform. Aurelian's war against the Sasanian Empire ended with the sack of their capital Ctesiphon and the annexation of Armenia and Mesopotamia. In place of Ctesiphon he built a new city at Babylon and renamed the city Babylonia Aurelian after himself.

Aurelian is remembered as a successful soldier-emperor who lead the empire through one of its greatest periods of military expansion and renewal in Roman history. At the end of his reign Aurelian presided over the greatest territorial extent of the empire since the reign of Trajan over a hundred and fifty years earlier.

## Early Life

Aurelian was born on 9 September 967 AUC near Serdica in Thracia. He was born of humble birth to a peasant-farmer who took his Roman name from his landlord, a senator of the Aurelia gens. His mother was supposedly a priestess of the sun god.

Not too much more is known concretely about his early life but there are several legends and myths surrounding it.

## Military Career

Aurelian joined the army in 988 AUC at the age of twenty-one. Aurelian quickly rose through the ranks and built up a very strong reputation for military competence. Again not too much is known concretely but several legends around his early service exist and it is unclear how much truth lies in them.

In one tale Aurelian, while leading a cohort of 300 men, killed, with his own hands, 48 Sarmatians ​​in a single day and over 950 through the campaign in total.

Aurelian was reportedly the deputy of Ulpius Crinitus for a time. When a group of Goths invaded Illyria and Thrace, Ulpius had been taken ill, so he had Aurelian deal with the invaders. Aurelian supposedly defeated the barbarians in battle and used the resources gained from the battles to enrich the provinces.

At some point during his early career Aurelian married Ulpia Severina with whom he would have one daughter, Domitia Severina.

### Service under Gallienus

Aurelian's success on the battlefield eventually led to him being a member of Emperor Gallienus' cavalry entourage. In 1021, Aurelian and his cavalry participated in Claudius' victory over the Goths at the Battle of Naissus. When the Gallienus was assassinated, one source says, Aurelian, who was present at the time, participated in raising Claudius as new emperor.

### Service under Claudius

During the reign of Claudius, Aurelian was promoted rapidly. He was given command of the elite Dalmatian cavalry and soon promoted to *Magister equitum*, which was effectively the head of the army after the emperor. Around this time the Alamanni managed to break through the Rhaetian limes along the upper Danube. Marching through Raetia and the Alps unhindered, they entered Italy and began pillaging the north. In early 1022, emperor Claudius and Aurelian marched to meet the Alamanni, defeating them at the Battle of Lake Benacus.

Soon after news came from the Balkans reporting large-scale attacks from the Heruli, Goths, Gepids, and Bastarnae. Aurelian was dispatched immediately to the Balkans to deal with the invasion. The following campaign against the goths saw Aurelian command the cavalry to great success. Emperor Claudius fell ill on the march to the battle and returned to his regional headquarters in Sirmium, leaving Aurelian in charge of operations against the Goths. Aurelian used his cavalry to great effect, breaking the Goths into smaller groups which were easier to handle. By late summer the Goths were defeated. Surviving Goths were levied into the army or settled as farmers in frontier regions. Aurelian had no time to relish his victories; in late August news arrived from Sirmium that Emperor Claudius was dead.

## Emperor

### Reunification of the Roman Empire

The first actions of the new Emperor were aimed at strengthening his own position in his territories by defeating the barbarian incursions. Aurelian pushed out the invaders after several battles.

After his victory, Aurelian decided to provide Rome with a new powerful protective wall to ward off any barbarian attacks. Work on the Aurelian walls began in 1024 and would be finished by the end of his reign.

#### Campaign against the Goths and the abandonment of Dacia

Once the campaign in Italy was over, Aurelian turned his attention to the east and headed to fight Queen Zenobia of the Palmyrene Empire, along the way he crossed the Danube and defeated the Goths and Carpi, killing the Gothic leader Cannabaudes. For these successes the Senate gave him the nickname of *Gothicus Maximus.*

Deeming the situation in Dacia to be irremediably, Aurelian made the difficult decision to abandon the provinces beyond the Danube. He organized a new province of Dacia south of the Danube, inside Moesia Superior, called Dacia Aureliana, with Serdica as the capital. The decision to abandon the Carpathian basin had several consequences. It created tensions between the Goths, Gepids, and Iazigi, due to the increased contact And it also allowed the border along the Danube to be to strengthened, with the withdrawal of two entire legions (Legio V Macedonica and Legio XIII Gemina, now located in Oescus and Ratiaria) and a substantial number of auxiliary units, for a total of over 45,000 men, which were now garrisoned along the Danube.

#### Conquest of the Palmyrene Empire

Aurelian, having secured the Danubian borders, finally moved to reunify the Empire. Starting in 1025, Aurelian launched a military campaign against the Palmyrene Empire, and within six months, his armies stood at the gates of Palmyra, which surrendered. After some more campaigning in the east, including defeating the usurper Firmus in Egypt, and narrowly avoiding another revolt in Palmyra, Aurelian returned to west.

More honors were bestowed unto Aurelian including, *Palmyrenicus Maximus* and *Restitutor Orientis* ("Restorer of the East").

#### Conquest of the Gallic Empire

In 1026, having reconquered the eastern provinces, Aurelian began his campaign against the Gallic Empire, in order to bring the secessionist provinces back into the legitimate empire. The Gallic Emperor Tetricus moved south with the army, but was defeated by Aurelian at the Battle of Chalons in early 1027. Tetricus and his son were both captured.

#### Triumph in Rome

Returning to Rome, Aurelian held a grand triumph, in which Tetricus, Zenobia (who was dressed in golden chains), and their children were paraded through Rome. Neither of the two were not executed. On the contrary, Tetricus was appointed governor of Lucania, while Zenobia given a Roman senator as her husband. Aurelian's soldiers distributed free bread to the citizens of Rome, who hailed him as a hero.

After such a prolonged crisis, Aurelian had unified the Roman Empire. For this action he received the title of " *Restitutor Orbis* " from the Roman Senate, and for his temperament as a warrior he was nicknamed *manus ad ferrum* (hand on the sword).

In Persia the deaths of the Sassanid Kings Shapur I and Hormizd I in quick succession, and the rise to power of the weak Bahram I, presented an opportunity to attack the Sassanid Empire, and in 1028 Aurelian set out for another campaign against the Sassanids. On his way, he suppressed a revolt in Gaul, and defeated some barbarian marauders. After lengthy preparations Aurelian embarked in 1029 for his Persian campaign.

### War with Persia

*Main Article: Aurelian's Persian War*
Aurelian launched his invasion in March of 1029. Facing little resistance, he swung down the Euphrates and quickly captured and sacked the Sassanid capital, Ctesiphon. The victories of Aurelian avenged all the previous defeats suffered by the Romans against the Sassanids, and he received the title of Persicus Maximus. Aurelian annexed the region west of the Zagros splitting it into three new provinces: Babylonia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria. Also in 1029 Aurelian also established, renamed and rebuilt, the city of Babylonia Aureliana, on the site of old Babylon. During the early campaign Aurelian became close with the young Marcus Ceionius Proculus, whom Aurelian is said to have had a fatherly affection for.

The next year, 1030, Aurelian launched a major expedition across the Zagros, it would be at the start of this expedition that his largest confrontation with the Sassanids occurred at Battle of Bagistana, which would be a decisive Roman victory. After this victory, less worried of a large Sasanian counterattack, Aurelian dispatched some of his massive army back to the Empire. This included Ceionius who was sent to deal with German incursions on the Rhine, Ceionius' victories

### Later rule

In 1034, upon his return to Rome, Aurelian held a great triumph for his victories over the Sasanian Empire. During his final years Aurelian remained in Rome

In 1036 a senatorial conspiracy against him was uncovered and squashed. In the aftermath of this Aurelian enacted several purges on the Senate and added many new members from those distinguished men and families from across the empire. Having no sons of his own Aurelian decided to take up the old tradition of adopting an heir, choosing Marcus Ceionius Proculus, who changed his name to Marcus Ceionius Aurelianus. He also married his daughter Domitia to Ceionius in order to further increase the latter's legitimacy. In 1038 Aurelian chose to withdraw from public life and gave a speech beforehand.

### Death

His last words were addressed to his assembled friends and family, "I am sorry for nothing, but I am sorry to leave" ("nihil doleo, sed doleo discedere").

## Religious policy

Aurelian seemed to follow the principle of "one faith, one empire". He also appears with the title *deus et dominus natus* ("God and born ruler") on some of his coins, a style that would not be followed his successors. He held the god Sol Invictus above all others, and according to some traditions his mother was a priestess of the god. Aurelian strengthened the position of the Sun god Sol Invictus as the main divinity of the Roman pantheon. His intention was to give to all the peoples of the Empire, civilian or soldiers, easterners or westerners, a single god they could believe in without betraying their own gods. The center of the cult was a new temple, built on the Campus Agrippae in Rome, adorned with the spoils of Palmyra and served by a new college of priests, the *Pontifices Solis*. December 25 was made a holiday in honor of the new god: the *Dies Natalis Solis Invicti.* The feast of *Dies Natalis Solis Invicti* became more and more important as it was grafted onto the oldest Roman festival, the Saturnalia. Much later on this would become *Dies Christi Natalis*, or Christmas.

Aurelian saw in the adoption of the Sol Invictus cult a strong element of cultural and political cohesion of the Empire, given that, in various forms, the cult of the Sun was already present in many regions of the empire, from Egypt to Anatolia, between the Celtic and Arab populations, between the Greeks and the Romans themselves.

### Attitude towards Christians

Aurelian exhibited remarkable justice and tolerance towards the Christians. In Antioch he was appealed to by the local Christians and helped moderate at dispute between bishops of the city. Aurelian sided with those who were in union in Rome, and is pointed by some to be an early example of the supremacy of the bishop of Rome over other bishops. Aurelian's actions gave Christians a greater sense of legitimacy than ever before. Some Christian writers around the time of Constantine claim that Aurelian later considered a persecution of Christians but little evidence of such exists.

## Building projects

Aurelian was a prolific builder in Rome and the provinces, and he committed its resources of the empire to improving living conditions, building great works, and strengthening its defense, especially the defense of Italy.

## Legacy

Aurelian's reign reunified the fragmented Empire, saving Rome from the barbarian invasions that had reached Italy itself, restored political stability, recentralized the empire around Rome, and brought Rome into the Pax Aureliana, bringing an end to the Crisis of the Tenth Century. Aurelian's reign brought the Empire through a very critical period in its history and without it, it the empire would have divided and fallen apart.