I find “Crisis of the Third Century” history to be fascinating, and especially enjoy learning what there is to know about the Gallic and Palmyrene Empires that splintered away from Rome for a time in the 260 and 270s. I’d been fond of the idea of fleshing out a complete collection of bust coins for the players over this period, but had somewhat resigned myself to not ever obtaining coins for Zenobia and Laelianus. Well, the two became available in a recent auction, I threw caution to the wind, and landed both! (Not going to be buying coins for a while ) Now that I have the major players covered (not seeking out the few usurpers I’m missing), I thought I’d tell the story in coins… so here we go! The story starts with Valerian becoming emperor in 253. He appointed his son Gallienus as co-emperor and had his recently deceased wife Mariniana deified. Valerian and Mariniana Valerian spent most of his 7-year-reign with the military in the east battling Persians and Barbarians. His plague ravaged forces were defeated by the army of the Sasanian King Shapur I in 270 and Valerian was taken prisoner by the foreigners, a first for Roman emperors. Valerian supposedly spent his years in captivity performing degrading tasks (like being used as a human foot stool) while serving as Shapur’s personal slave. Shapur eventually tired of the begging to be released for ransom, and killed Valerian by poring molten gold down his throat. His body was skinned, stuffed, and hung outside of a Persian temple. Valerian’s capture made Gallienus and his wife Salonina sole emperor and Augusta. Gallienus and Solonina Unfortunately for Gallienus, the already unstable Empire had went from bad to worse when his father was captured (Usurpers, Barbarians, and Persians having a field day!). He named his oldest son (but still a boy) Valerian II as his Caesar, left him in the care of Pannonian Governor Ingenuus, and headed west to put down a revolt. But, he soon heard that Valerian II was dead, headed back to Pannonia to kill the governor, named his next oldest son Saloninus as Caesar, and put him under the protection of his Praetorian Prefect Sivanus in Colonia. Valerian II and Soloninus Gallienus was then faced with a number of huge, coordinated invasions of allied Barbarian tribes that kept him more than busy. The Persians took this opportunity to wreak havoc in the east, sacking a total of 36 cities by their count! The citizenry had lost faith in Rome’s ability to properly defend them, which allowed a fiscal officer named Fulvius Macrianus to gain support in declaring his sons Macrianus II and Quietus as emperors (couldn’t declare himself because of a leg deformity). He formed an alliance with King Odaenathus of Palmyra, and their combined forces pushed Shapur out of the region. Macrianus and his junior then marched toward Rome to claim their ultimate prize, but were cuttoff and defeated by Gallienus’ general Aureolus. The Macrinuses were killed, and upon hearing about the failure, King Odaenathus had Quietus killed. A revolt also occurred in the North around this time, where a man named Regalianus and his wife Dryantilla were declared emperor and Augusta. Coins of Macianus II, Quietus, Regalianus, and Dryantilla (Not my coins) Postumus was the Imperial Legate of Germania Inferior while all of this was happening, and defeated a Barbarian army that had avoided Gallienus and was returning north from the interior with their loot. Postumus decided to reward his soldiers by letting them divvy it up amongst themselves, which posed a problem when the Praetorian Prefect Savinus (guy overseeing Saloninus) ordered that the booty be delivered to his residence. Postumus assembled his troops, poked fun at the order by pretending to reluctantly enforce it, and jokingly suggesting that they throw off their allegiance to Gallienus in favor of himself. The men found this amusing and that’s exactly what they did. Instead of delivering loot, Postumus marched his troops to the said residence and assassinated Gallienus’ son and heir, Saloninus. Postumus Postumus was immediately recognized as emperor in Gaul, Germania Superior and Inferior, and Raetia, and was soon recognized in Britannia, Gallia Narbonensis, and Hispania as well. He made his new capital in Gaul and quickly set up legislative and executive structures that mimicked those of Rome, including a Senate and Praetorian Guard. Postumus maintained the support of his people by effectively defending them against Barbarian incursions. This Empire that had splintered from Rome has become known by historians as the “Gallic Empire”. Postumus tried to make it clear to Gallienus that he posed no further threat, but Gallienus proceeded to make two failed attempts at overthrowing him. Gallienus had the upper-hand in the second attempt, but the campaign failed due to a revolt from within his own ranks. After leaving his tent without his bodyguards, Gallienus was struck in the head by conspirators. On his deathbed, Gallienus named Claudius Gothicus as his successor. The conspirators tried to surrender but were executed by Gothicus. After hearing of the emperor’s demise, the Senate back in Rome hastily ordered the entirety of Gallienus’s remaining family executed. They realized their mistake when a message from Gothicus arrived demanding that Gallienus be deified and that his family be protected! Claudius Gothicus and Quintillus Gothicus (honorific title received later) focused on taking back the Gallic Empire, and did manage to take back the Province of Hispania. But Gothicus caught the plague in 270 and died, at which point the troops that were present elected his brother Quintillus as emperor. Quintillus’ reign did not last long however, as the remainder of the army preferred the cavalry commander Aurelian. Quintillus was killed or committed suicide within a few months. Aurelian became emperor while his wife Severina become Augusta. Aurelian and Severina The previously mentioned Client King Odaenathus of Palmyra was assassinated by his own cousin, who was then executed on orders of Odaenathus’ widow Zenobia. Zenobia then made herself the effective ruler of Palmyra by assuming regency of the new king, her 10-year-old son Vaballathus. Zenobia initially followed in the footsteps of her husband by demonstrating fealty to Rome, even having coins minted with her son as king on one side and Aurelian as emperor on the other. Roman (Red), Gallic (Green), and Palmyrene (Orange) Empires in 271 Zenobia then initiated campaigns intended to conquer the provinces surrounding Palmyra, often times with Zenobia herself commanding in the field. This was done while claiming subordination to Rome, but after managing to take Egypt, Zenobia was confident enough to proclaim herself and Vaballathus as Emperors. She created the Palmyrene Empire by annexing the provinces of Syria, Arabia, Egypt, and large parts of Asia Minor. Aurelian marched immediately! Zenobia (rough, but I’ll take what I can get!) and Vaballathus/Aurelian Continued Here: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/splintered-empire-cont.403894/
Sorry about the two-parter, I didn't realize that there was an "object" limit that could be exceeded in a post. I was going to wrap it up here, but then I learned that the limit must apply on a per thread basis. What a mess! Oh well, lesson learned. I guess they don't want people making obnoxiously long posts eh . But hey, it's a long story!
You're allowed 10 images per post. What I do when I create extra-long write-ups is start a thread, post half of the write up, then immediately reply to the thread with 'Stay tuned for part 2." That way I've got the second post reserved. Then I edit that post with the remainder of the write-up.
That's exactly what I did, created a "Hold" post in this thread after posting so that I could finish it up. But when I attempted to paste additional pictures, nothing would happen. This led me to believe that the 10 image limit applied to the thread as a whole. While I didn't check it at the time, I'm guessing that my previous 10 photos might have still been clogging up "uploads" from the previous post. Oh well, while the 2 threads approach is a bit messy, it works well enough. Thanks for the tip though. But, I'm guessing that I probably won't do anything quite this ambitious again in the future. While I enjoy this kind of thing, it seems as though the percentage of people that are willing to spend 10 minutes on reading something like this is pretty small. Lessons learned all around
I used to post five or six posts (whatever I thought I needed, being aware of the 10 images/post limit), and then go back and fill them in with editing later. (And your friendly moderators can extend your editing time on a post if your time runs out- simply request it by using the "report" button.) But I saw you had a serial with the two threads, and actually found that kind of refreshing. It worked.
Well, it's the sort of thing you do ultimately for yourself, to refine and cement your knowledge. I can only speak for myself, but I read as many long posts as I can. It's a great education.
Good to know that this is an option, I've been timed out a few times before and it's pretty annoying. I seem to remember that one time I lost quite a bit of work The approach that I use now works pretty well for me. When I know that I'm going to spend a lot of time creating a post, I build it out in Word first and then paste everything into the post editor.
