Heraclianus

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[edit] Origins

Marcus(?) Aurelius Heraclianus (d. 268) was a Roman military commander. His praenomen is not cited in the sources, but his nomen (i.e. 'Aurelius') suggests that it would be M. - i.e. 'Marcus'. The Aurelius gentilicum was often adopted by families admitted to Roman citizenship by The Emperor Caracalla in his Constitutio Antoniniana of 213 - i.e. probably about the time Heraclianus was born. The nomenclature therefor supports the notion that Heraclianus's father or grandfather would have been of provincial or even servile origin. Heraclianus's later association with Claudius Gothicus and Aurelian in the coup against Gallienus (see below) suggests that he was probably born in one of the Balkan provinces on the grounds that the two chief conspirators would, no doubt, have preferred to work with a fellow citizen.

[edit] Career

Heraclianus rose to prominence during the troubled reign of the Emperor Gallienus becoming Praetorian Prefect[1] – i.e. commander of the Emperor’s Praetorian Guard. He probably became Prefect in 267 following the promotion of L. Petronius Taurus Volusianus to the Urban Prefecture in that year. Heraclianus was thus likely to have been a highly competent soldier who performed well in Gallienus’s many wars against barbarian invaders and would-be usurpers and earned advancement in a hard school[2].

The Vita Gallieni [3] states that he was the leader (Dux) of a force sent by Gallienus to the East to reassert Imperial authority in the region after the death (assassination?)of Odenathus of Palmyra in 267. This is the only ancient reference to such an attempt and the usual caveats regarding the SHA must apply[4]. However, Alfoldi [5] believes that Gallienus did attempt to assert himself in Asia if not in Syria and Mesopotamia at that time (vis-a-vis Palmyra not Persia), but the effort was negated by the barbarian invasions of the eastern Balkans of the final year of Gallienus's reign. However, Alfoldi does not believe that Rome and Palmyra actually engaged in hostilities as the SHA suggests. Bray also agrees with this[6].

[edit] Downfall

Whatever happened to him in Asia, it is likely that Heraclianus returned to Europe in time to take part in Gallienus's campaign against the Goths and Heruls in 268 AD. He was certainly with the Imperial field army when it moved from the Balkans to Italy against Aureolus in Mediolanium and was a ring-leader of the so-called Marshals' Plot[7] which finally accomplished by treachery what so many overt rebels and barbarian invaders had failed to achieve by open opposition - the destruction of Gallienus and the end of his regime. However, he appears to have been discarded by the main plotters – i.e.Claudius Gothicus and Aurelian after the coup succeeded. This would be consistent with the tradition that he committed suicide.

[edit] Sources

Heraclianus appears in the Vita Gallieni of the Scriptores Historiae Augustae, Zonaras and Zozimus, but it is impossible to develop any sustained narrative of his life from the ancient sources. The references are usefully listed by L.L. Howe in his book on the Third Century Praetorian Prefect[8]. The best recent summary of the available information on Heraclianus is to be found in John Bray’s biography of Gallienus[9].

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Both Zonaras and Zozimus give him this title. It is omitted in the Vita Gallieni in the Augustan History. See Zosimus i. 40; Zonaras xxii. 25; and Vita Gall. 14.
  2. ^ John of Antioch states that Heraclianus was Master of the Dalmatian Horse at the time of Gallienus's assassination. The other sources are to be preferred regarding his status then, but he might well have held this post earlier in his career. If so it would strengthen the presumption that he was of Balkan origin.
  3. ^ Vita Gall. 13.4
  4. ^ The Vita Gall. says that he was sent to deal with the Persians rather than Palmyra, but by SHA standards this is only a mild confusion
  5. ^ Alfoldi, A.. The Crisis of the Empire. 
  6. ^ See footnote 9 below.
  7. ^ This usage is suggested by Sir Ronald Syme in his study of the Historia Augusta
  8. ^ Howe, Laurence Lee (1942). The Pretorian Prefect from Commodus to Diocletian (AD 180-305). Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press Press. 
  9. ^ Bray, John (1997). Gallienus - A study in Reformist and Sexual Politics. Adelaide: Wakefield Press.