Volusianus was a Roman general and senior official of the mid-Third Century AD who distinguished himself in both the military and the civil spheres of public life. (In the period of the early Empire – i.e. from the accession of Augustus to that of Diocletian - most officials of the highest rank served in both capacities at different times in their careers). Although Volusianus may have begun his career under the aegis of Valerian (or even earlier) he rose to prominence in the reign of Gallienus and was obviously one of that Emperor’s most trusted (and trustworthy) aides at a time when the Licinnian dynasty was in urgent need of such support.
It may not be without significance that Volusianus seems to have been an Etruscan or, at least, had strong connections with that region of Italy like the Emperors Valerian and Gallienus who advanced his career. He may even have been related to the Imperial family. At a time when Illyrian and other officers of Balkans origin were so prominent in the military leadership of the Imperial forces - or at least those units available to Gallienus as defender of the European provinces - yet their loyalty to the regime was so problematical it is easy to believe that that Volusianus' origin was a factor in his extraordinary advance to the highest offices.
It is a pity that the paucity of our records of this era renders any attempt to assess the political and military significance of his career purely speculative. Nevertheless his career illustrates yet again the opportunities for advancement enjoyed by young soldiers of relatively humble backgrounds during the troubled reign of Gallienus.
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Almost all of what we know of Volusianus is derived from an inscription dedicated to him by the Town Council Ordo of the municipium of Arretium (Arezzo) of which he was a patron.[1] The inscription is helpfully interpreted by Jones et al.. in their prospography[2] and also by Bray.[3] As a Consul and Urban Prefect he is mentioned in the Fasti Romani, i.e. the record of Roman office-holders.[2]
Volusianus was the son of a Roman citizen also with the praenomen 'Lucius' of the Petronii clan. His Roman Voting Tribe was the Sabatinae. Sabatina was a district in Etruria and it is likely that the family was of Etruscan origin. Volusianus’s patronage of Arezzo in later life (see above) does not necessarily mean that he was born there, but it does indicate some strong regional connection.[4] It is possible that the clan Petronii Volusianii was related to the Licinii dynasty, also of Etruscan provenance, of which Valerian and Gallienus were the most distinguished members.[3] His Etruscan origins and relationship to the Imperial family could in part explain the rapidity of Volusianus’s rise in the 250-60s.
When his recorded career began he was already of equestrian rank – see below - but we do not know if he was born into that level of society or achieved it as a result of his career. He would probably have become a senator when he was appointed Consul in 261 - see below.
Volusianus's name 'Taurus' – i.e. ‘Bull’ - may be an agnomen or nickname conferred on him because he had a massive physique. The careers of such third century soldiers as the Thracian Maximinus I and the Moesian Claudius II who rose from lowly origins to Imperial status suggests that unusual physical prowess was a positive advantage in securing advancement in the army at this time. However, this suggestion is purely conjectural. We do not know enough about Volusianus to determine whether 'Taurus' was a true nickname specific to him alone in his family or whether it was an hereditary cognomen conferred at birth whether or not justified by any personal attribute.
The Arretium Inscription lists Volusianus’s appointments in reverse chronological order according to the usual Roman practice. In chronological order they are:
- LAVRENS LAVINAS – This signifies the holding of a minor priesthood. The holders had to be of equestrian status;
- EX V DECVRIIS – Signifies membership of one of the equestrian panels of five judges available to decide issues of fact;
- EQVO PVBLICO – Indicates that he had taken part in the annual parade of the equestrian order in Rome;
- CENTVRIO DEPVTATVS – One of the commanders of the troops detached from the provincial armies for special service about the Emperor. When the Emperors were in Rome these were quartered at the Castra Peregrina Peregrina on the Caelian Hill. If his family was of equestrian origin Volusianus is likely to have enlisted in the army at the rank of centurion or, perhaps, optio ad spem ordinis (centurion’s adjutant awaiting a promotion) thus obviating long years of service in the ranks;
- PRIMVS PILVS (see Pilus) LEGIONIS XXX VLPIAE – Senior ranking centurion of this legion which was normally stationed at Castra Vetera Xanten in Germania Inferior. It is likely that he held this appointment when Gallienus was campaigning against the Franks early in his reign. However, he is likely first to have come to Gallienus’s attention when he was Centurio Deputatus – unless, of course, he already had some family/Etruscan regional connection to the Imperial family (see above);
- PRAEPOSITVS EQVITVM SINGVLIARORVM AVGG NN - Commander of a troop of 'household' cavalry serving directly under the Emperor. The form Augg NN (i.e. Augusti Nostri– i.e. 'of Our (Lords) the Augustuses)’ indicates that there were two Emperors when Volusianus held this office – i.e. Valerian and Gallienus. This appointment would have been made by Gallienus directly – perhaps with the final approval of Valerian;
- LEGIONIS X ET XIII GEMINAE PROVINCIAE PANNONIAE ITIM (ITEM?) LEGIONIS DACIAE – Indicates that he was commander (dux) of a legionary detachment made up of units from 2 twinned legions, X which had its main base at Vindobana in Upper Pannonia (modern Vienna, Austria)and XIII from Apulum, Dacia(modern Alba Julia, Romania). This detachment is likely to have been part of Gallienus's Imperial Field Army Comitatus and have been quartered in districts near the Imperial HQ. (The willingness of Gallienus to reduce the forces available for frontier defence in Dacia and Pannonia in order to supplement the forces under his direct command does much to explain the resentment felt against him by the garrisons of those provinces and their willingness to support Ingenuus, Regalianus and Macrianus;
- TRIBVNVS COHORTIS III VIGILUM; XI VRBANAE; III PRAETORIAE – Indicates he was successively commander of cohorts of the Vigiles (Roman Watch) (255?), the Urban cohorts(256?), and the Praetorian Guard (257?). He may have been posted to Rome to serve his time in the Watch and the Urban Cohorts, but given that Gallienus was very active in Germany and the Balkans in these years and that Volusianus was obviously one of his most trusted commanders it is quite possible that his command of these units was only titular and that his duties in Rome were carried out by deputies while Volusianus himself continued to serve 'In the Imperial Presence'. See also discussion below regarding his later appointment as Prefect of the City Watch. An alternative explanation is the exigencies of defending the northern frontiers had encouraged Gallienus to cut the garrison of Rome to the bone and that these units were serving with the Imperial field army at this time, possibly as a composite force.
It is likely in any case that Cohort III, Praetorian Guard, was a part of Gallienus’s Imperial Field Army or Comitatus in the late 250s;[5]
- TRIBVNVS COHORTIS I PRAETORIAE PROTECTOR AVGG NN – This appointment is placed by Jones in 259 - the Augg NN format indicates that it was still in the joint reign of Valerian and Galllienus. The cohort was almost certainly a part of the Imperial Field Army. This is the first known reference to the new order of Protectores Augusti Nostri (Defenders of Our August Lords);
- PRAEFECTVS VIGILVM PERFECTISSIMVS VIR – Volusianus is now Prefect of the Watch (probably 259). Again he could well have remained with Gallienus's military entourage peripatetic on the northern frontiers while a deputy carried out his duties in Rome. This was the year of a major invasion of Italy by the Alamanni/Juthingi (and possibly the Marcomanni as well) and it seems remarkable that Gallienus should have sent one of his most favoured commanders to Rome when his Comitatus was so heavily engaged[6] However, whether or not this applied in the case of Volusianus is, at least, questionable. As will be noted below, despite his rapid rise through the military hierarchy, there is reason to suspect that he was not a particularly effective commander and Gallienus may have thought that he would be more usefully employed steadying morale in Rome than in hunting down the Alaman intruders in the field. Perfectissimus Vir was an honorific reserved for equestrian office-holders of the second grade;
- PRAEFECTVUS PRAETORIO EMINENTISSIVS VIR – About 260(?). Praetorian Prefect was the highest office in the Empire below the Emperor himself. It had both military and civil responsibilities. The office was usually served ‘in the Imperial Presence’. Eminentissimus Vir (lit 'Most Eminent Man') was the highest equestrian honorific – perhaps equivalent to ‘His Excellency’. It is not known who Volusianus succeeded in this office. However, most authorities seem agreed that his predecessor was Silvanus (or Albanus).
If, as seems likely, Volusianus was an Etruscan and an associate of the Imperial dynasty - see above - his appointment as Praetorian Prefect at this time could have had great political significance. Gallienus certainly needed somebody who could act as a counterweight to the Illyrian cadres who seem to have dominated the officer corps of the comitatus and the Danube garrisons alike and whose loyalty to the regime was so manifestly febrile. The rebellion of Ingenuus was still a recent memory in 260 when Volusianus was made Praetorian Prefect; in that very year a significant proportion of the Pannonian garrison was to declare for Regalianus; and in the following year Macrianus's bid for the Empire also found significant support among the troops in the Illyrian provinces.[7]
Given this situation it is particularly frustrating that our records have nothing to say of Volusianus' activities in his key office. He is not recorded as being involved in the campaigns that the Gallienus regime was forced to wage against the Illyrian usurpers and Postumus when Aureolus seems to have been the Emperor's right-hand man. It is possible that Volusianus owed his glittering career more to his closeness to Gallienus than to any particular military genius. Gallienus's appointments seem always to have had soem basis in merit, but Volusianus could well have been an effective military administrator without being an outstanding soldier in an age of outstanding soldiers. There is no way of knowing;
- VIR CONSULARIS – According to the fasti Volusianus was consul ordinarius with Gallienus in 261. The alternative interpretations to be put on this appointment must influence the assessment of Volusianus as a military man and as a close companion comes of the Emperor.
Bray conjectures[8] that Volusianus remained Praetorian Praefect despite being appointed Consul. This is possible: the office of consul was by this time largely ceremonial though hugely prestigious and still a pre-requisite of important provincial governorships.
Traditionally it was certainly the case that men of senatorial rank could not be appointed to the Praetorian Prefecture.[9] However, this rule had been abandoned or, at least, relaxed during the reign of Severus Alexander and in the next fifty or so years until the reforms of Diocletian gave the office senatorial status a number of prefects are recorded with the senatorial honorific Clarissimus Vir - i.e. 'Renowned Lord'. There therefore seems to have been no procedural obstacle to Volusianus's continuing to serve as prefect after he was ennobled if Gallienus had wanted this.[10][11].
In order to allow Volusianus to serve as Consul he would almost certainly had to have been ennobled whether or not he remained Praetorian Prefect and would thus have had the honorific Clarissimus Vir However, this is not recorded on the Arretium inscription. Whether this was a deliberate or an accidental oversight is now unknowable.
In 267 Gallienus appointed Volusianus Praefectus Urbis - i.e. Governor of the City of Rome. This was a hugely important and prestigious post and probably ranked first in the hierarchy of the Imperial service when Volusianus held the office - although the Praetorian Prefect probably exercised more raw power and authority in the Imperial System as a whole[12]. Unlike the Praetorian Prefecture, holders of the Urban Prefecture were invariably men of senatorial status. By 267 the Empire had enjoyed a few years of comparative peace and the Emperor may have considered that the chief threat to his regime lay in the hostility of a substantial element of the Roman Senate rather than in an attempted putsch by the commander of a provincial garrison or a major barbarian incursion. if this was, indeed, his reasoning the Gothic invasion in the following year and the rebellion of Aureolus was to prove him very wrong. However, the bloody massacre of the Imperial family members and its adherents at the instance of a large senatorial faction in the wake of Gallienus's murder by his army commanders proved that he had been right to fear enmity from this quarter.
In any case Volusianus was given the Urban Prefecture and it is likely that he remained in Rome when Gallienus went to the Balkans to deal with the invasion of the Goths and Heruls in 268. There is no record of Volusianus taking part in that campaign. Moreover, if he had been in any way associated with the conspiracy that finally brought about the demise of the Emperor our sources would surely have mentioned it. On the contrary, as an Etruscan, Volusianus would have had no interest whatsoever in underwriting the murder of his patron, fellow-countryman and, possibly, blood-relative to bring about the Illyrian takeover of the empire.
It is normally assumed that Volusianus was done to death in the senatorial purge that followed the murder of Gallienus in 268 already referred to. Although he was not an Illyrian and, therefore, almost certainly not of the clique of generals born in the Balkans that removed Gallienus it is likely that he was highly regarded in the lower ranks of the Imperial Field Army in which he had served with such distinction and, as such, he could have been a focus for its discontent at the murder of the Emperor. It is permissible to speculate that Claudius II who was the prime beneficiary of the murder of Gallienus, would not have been unhappy to see so loyal and formidable a ‘Gallienista’ removed without himself incurring the odium of ordering it personally. However, it has to be acknowledged that there is absolutely no reference in the ancient sources to support this speculation.
Authoritative sources consider that Volusianus was the father of Lucius Publius Petronius Volusianus. This man is little known, but he seems to have had who had a distinguished career in a wholly civilian capacity - as a senator he would have been precluded from following his father into the army. He seems to have followed the senatorial cursus honorum finally achieving the consulship. It is not known whether he ever governed a province. .[13]
By any standards Volusianus's was a remarkable career. There is, of course, no indication how he behaved in office - i.e. whether he deserved his various promotions. As indicated, it is possible to speculate that he was not an inspired military commander. Whatever his merits the favour of Gallienus - possibly based on some family and/or Etruscan connection - was certainly crucial at all stages. Given the general quality of the men Gallienus appointed to high military office, it seems unlikely that the Emperor would have advanced Volusianus to such dizzy heights merely because he was a 'home boy'. It is, of course, pleasant to think that one at least one of the men whose careers he significantly advanced did not in the end betray him.