FIVE GOOD EMPERORS ruled and revived somewhat the shattered strength of the Roman Empire in the later Third Century A.D.: CLAUDIUS (268-270); AURELIAN (270-275); TACITUS (275-276); PROBUS (276-282); and CARUS (282-283). Aurelian undertook a campaign against the famous ZENOBIA, Queen of PALMÝRA. In her he found a worthy foe, one whose political ability was rendered more brilliant by her justice and courage. Defeated in the field, she fortified herself in Palmýra, which was taken after a siege and destroyed. Zenobia was carried to Rome, where she graced the triumph of her conqueror, but was afterwards permitted to live in retirement. Aurelian was the first who built the walls of Rome in their present position.

CLAUDIUS II GOTHICUS (Marcus Aurelius Valerius Claudius) (c. 214-270 A.D.) Emperor from 268 to 270 A.D.; probably from Upper Moesia. Claudius’ career proved successful early on; he served as a tribune under Trajanus Decius and Valerian, becoming for the latter the chief of the legions in the troublesome province of Illyricum. Details reported in the Scriptores Historiae Augustae are unreliable.

In 268, Claudius joined the army of Gallienus, as one of his generals, helping to besiege the rebel Aureolus in Mediolanum (Milan). Gallienus died at the hands of assassins during the siege, and the army faced with the task of finding a successor. They chose Claudius over Aurelian. He immediately put down a mutiny in the troops, promising a donativum (a money-grant to each soldier). He then continued the siege, worked out a cease-fire with Aureolus and had him put to death. The emperor moved quickly to push back an Alamanni invasion and turned his attention to the dangerous Goths along the Danube frontiers and in the Balkans. In a series of smashing victories the barbarians were routed, earning him the title “Gothicus.”

More invasions followed, this time by the Juthungi, who crossed the Danube in 270. Aurelian was given charge of finishing off the Goths while Claudius marched to Sirmium, where he succumbed to the plague. Claudius II Gothicus left behind him a number of crises. Postumus and Victorinus, usurpers in Gaul, and Zenobia of Palmyra were yet to be subdued. The Juthungi, Vandals and Goths still threatened the frontiers, and Aurelian, unloved by his legions, took over an uncertain Empire. Claudius supposedly founded the family of Constantine the Great.

AURELIAN (Lucius Domitius Aurelianus) (c. 215 A.D.-275 A.D.) Roman emperor from 270 to 275 A.D.; as a general in the field, one of the most successful of 3rd-cen-tury rulers, allowing a military recovery for the Empire. He probably came from Sirmium, or perhaps Moesia, although his roots were obscure. He did become a leading officer during the reign of Emperor Gallienus, and in 268, when the general Aureolus revolted, he assumed that officer’s command of the cavalry corps at Mediolanum (Milan). During the reduction of the city, Aurelian became embroiled with Marcus Claudius (Claudius Gothicus) in an imperial intrigue. Gallienus was murdered, and Claudius became emperor, with Aurelian serving as Master of the Horse.

A series of campaigns against the Goths followed, but in January 270, Claudius died of the plague in Sirmium. His brother Quintillus aspired to the throne, but Aurelian gained support of the army and was elevated to the throne. Quintillus killed himself.

The state of imperial affairs was pitiful when Aurelian came to power. Barbarians threatened the frontiers while usurpers divided the Roman world. General Tetricus was on the Rhine, and Zenobia, the queen of Palmyra, stood with various generals and pretenders in her camp. Aurelian took the only course of action open to him. The Empire had to be strengthened and unified. With the nickname Manu ad ferrum, “Hand-on-Hilt,” this burly, coarse but gifted soldier aspired to the title Restitutor Orbis, the “Restorer of the World.”

He marched first against the Germanic Juthungi, who had invaded the province of Raetia and thus threatened Italy. Aurelian forced the barbarians into a retreat and routed them on the Danube. The Juthungi sued for peace, and Aurelian allowed them to return home. Journeying to Rome, Aurelian received the imperial powers begrudgingly. He could not enjoy them in peace for long. An urgent request came from Pannonia, where the Vandals were on the attack. Aurelian crushed them in 270-271 but had to face the Juthungi again in Italy, this time allied with the Alamanni and the Marcomanni. The tribes ambushed Aurelian near Placentia, defeating him and forcing a retreat into northern Italy. However, the Germans were too disorganized to follow up on their victory, and Aurelian used the time to bolster the defenses of the north. He marched against them a second time and exterminated them at Metaurus, Fanum Fortuna and Ticinum, winning the so-called JUTHUNGINE WAR.

Returning to Rome in 271, Aurelian had to pacify a terrified city. He halted the rioting and put up new defense walls (the Aurelian Walls). The minters of Rome had also revolted, and Aurelian was forced to trap and execute them and their allies, some of senatorial rank, in a terrible battle on the Caelian Hills. Thrace was reconquered and freed of the Goths, who were pursued over the Danube. But imperial frontiers had proven impossible to defend, and the province of Dacia was abandoned entirely. A battle near the Orontes River ended the revolt of Palmyra in the East, as Aurelian defeated General Zabdas and his forces.

In 274, Aurelian marched into Gaul to attack the usurper Tetricus and his Gallic Empire. At the battle of Gampi Catalaunii, near Chalons, Tetricus abandoned his troops and surrendered. The Empire had been pacified, and a triumphant return to Rome ended senatorial resistance to Au-relian’s claims.

The currency of the Empire had been reduced in value, causing inflation, and Aurelian reformed the system using the sestertii. Informers were punished, debts cancelled, bread and corn rationed fairly, and religious devotion to the sun god, Sol Invictus, encouraged. Aurelian attempted by these means to develop a universal deity to unite the pagan world. In the process he started persecution of the Christians again.

With his internal reforms accomplished, Aurelian returned to the East in the summer of 275 with ambitions toward Mesopotamia. A harsh disciplinarian, he caught his secretary, Eros, in a lie during the campaign and promised dire punishment. Eros, expecting to die, went to the Praetorian Guards and said that Aurelian planned to kill them too. A plot sprang up immediately, resulting in the assassination of Aurelian a short time later.

TACITUS, MARCUS CLAUDIUS (d. 276 A.D.) Tacitus is one of the least known emperors because of the large amount of wholly unreliable information about him. His brief reign (from November 275 to around June 276) was detailed in the writings of the SCRIPTORES HISTORIAE AUGUSTAE, EUTROPIUS (1) and others, who describe him as an old senator, chosen by the SENATE to succeed AURELIAN and to recreate the constitutional government of former days, but such accounts were probably inaccurate. Tacitus was most likely a senator elected by the army in 275 to follow Aurelian. The Senate naturally agreed, while Tacitus humbly accepted power. The new emperor asked that Aurelian be deified and then declared his half-brother Florian his Prefect of the PRAETORIAN GUARD. The pair then set out against the GOTHS, who threatened to ravage ASIA MINOR once more. Tacitus won a major victory, taking the title Gothicus Maximus, but he died soon after, in June 276, either at the hands of the army or of natural causes.

PROBUS, MARCUS AURELIUS (c. 232-282 A.D.) Emperor from 276 to 282 and one of the rulers of the late 3rd century who played a part in the recovery of the Roman Empire. Born at Sirmium, Probus achieved great success as a general in the service of Emperor AURELIAN. Details of his early career, including his position as tribune under Valerian, are related by the Historia Augusta (see SCRIPTORES HISTORIAE AUGUSTAE) and thus present serious problems of reliability and accuracy.

After working for Aurelian along the German frontier, Probus held the post of commander in Syria and Egypt. This office apparently continued through the reign of TACITUS (2) and in 276, upon the emperor’s death, Probus refused to recognize the claim of FLORIANUS. Proclaimed as emperor by his own troops, Probus avoided an actual battle with Florianus, causing instead mass defections in his opponent’s army. Florianus was murdered by his own troops as Probus became master of the Roman world. Proceeding immediately to Rome he gained confirmation from the Senate, although his supposedly good relations with the senatorial elements in government had recently fallen under suspicion. Crises along the Rhine and Danubian frontiers called for immediate attention. The Franks were defeated, followed by the Vandals and Burgundians. Two years of fighting culminated in 278 with the final repulse of the Vandals and Probus’ laying claim to the title of Restorer of Illyricum (“RESTITVTOR ILLVRICI”). Marching to the East, he crushed a number of local uprisings and a usurpation by one of his lieutenants, Julius Saturninus. After negotiating a truce with Persia, Probus returned to the West to put down two more rebels, Proculus and Bonosus. This accomplished, he made preparations in Rome for a long-awaited campaign against Persia. Unfortunately he announced that in the future the legions would be disbanded as there would be peace in the Empire. Word soon arrived that the troops in Raetia and Noricum had elevated CARUS to the purple. Probus sent a detachment to murder him, but they defected, and the emperor himself was slain by his own mutinous legionaries in 282.

Probus, despite his fatal error with the army, had proven himself a gifted ruler. He was able to defeat the barbarians repeatedly, celebrated a rare triumph in Rome, had the political power necessary to retain the support of the Roman government and did much to restore the provinces economically. He thus had a major part in the revival of the Roman Empire that would be completed by Diocletian.

CARUS, MARCUS AURELIUS (d. 283 A.D.) Roman emperor from 282 to 283; probably from Narbo in Gaul, he rose through the ranks until 276, when he was elevated to PREFECT OF THE PRAETORIAN GUARD by Emperor PROBUS. Carus remained loyal to his imperial master in 282, even when the troops mutinied against protracted and harsh service conditions. Commanding the legions in the province of Raetia, while Probus was away preparing for another campaign, Carus tried to prevent his own elevation to the throne by the disgruntled legions. When even the detachment sent to him by Probus defected to his cause, Carus had little choice in the matter. Mercifully, Probus died at the hands of his own men, sparing the nation a civil war. The SENATE was informed but not asked for its blessing, as the days of such influence were long past. Carus accepted the throne and arranged for the deification of Probus.

A dynasty seemed to be developing with the accession of Carus, as he had two able sons, CARINUS and NUMERIAN. Both received the title of Caesar; Carinus ruled the West, and Numerian campaigned with his father. The SARMATIANS and QUADI were pushing across the Danube into Pannonia, and Carus crushed them in the field, slaughtering thousands. Early in 283, he and Numerian, along with the prefect of the Guard Arrius APER, marched east against the Persians. Seleucia fell and then Ctesiphon, that nation’s capital. Mesopotamia was recovered and restored to the Romans, and Carus assumed the title of Parthicus Maximus. At the behest of Aper, another war in the East was planned.

Mysteriously, the night following a violent storm near Ctesiphon, Carus was found dead in his bed. Accounts vary as to the nature of his demise. Disease may have taken its toll, though lightning was blamed by others. Aper, who already called himself Numerian’s father-in-law, may have had something to do with Carus’ passing. Numerian did not long survive his father.