In 260 CE the fortunes of the Roman Empire are at the worst they could ever be. In a matter of months the Empire has shrunk to a third the size, the senior Emperor Valerian is a prisoner of the Persians, and most of the treasury has been lost during Valerian’s defeat and the subsequent declaration of one of Valerian’s generals (Macrianus) of his own candidacy as new Emperor.

Macrianus raises the Roman eastern provinces into revolt, securing the regions of modern day Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Israel, only to be usurped by Odenathus, and local non-citizen Palmyran.

In the west the governor of Gaul (Postumus) fearing that Emperor Gallienus will pull legions away from Gaul to retake the eastern provinces and attack the Persians to free Valerian instead opts to declare himself as Emperor and vows to defend Rhine frontiers against the near constant raiding of the Franks, Alemanni and various Germanic tribes. Britannia and Spain declare for Postumus setting up a rival Roman Empire in the west centered in Gaul.

Gallienus, the now senior Emperor is forced to radically transform what was left of the Roman Empire in order to ensure his survival. The loyalty of what legions he had left to him was paramount, and his reforms transformed what was left of Rome into an empire that was entirely subordinated to the legions.

Left with a motley crew of legionaries who had been fighting with Gallienus for a decade, he’s also forced to radically reimagine what it means to be a legionary, how the army should fight. Under Gallienus the core of Rome is transformed back into the apex predator it had been under the likes Pompey and Vespasian.

Setting the state of a nobody Roman plebian named Aurelian to eventually take the reigns and perform what must have at the time seemed the unthinkable, and that was to crush Postumus, retaking Gaul, Britannia, and Spain and then to retake the vasty wealth of the eastern provinces by now under the control of one of history’s most badass women, Zenobia.

Sources Used in this episode

Roman Empire from Severus to Constantine - Patricia Southern

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