Claudius Silvanus

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

Claudius Silvanus

Claudius Silvanus (died 7 September 355

355

Events...
) was a Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
general of Frankish

Franks

The Franks or Frankish people were a West Germanic ethnic group first identified in the 3rd century as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River....
descent, usurper

Roman usurper

Usurpers are individuals or groups of individuals who obtain and maintain the power or rights of another by force and without legal authority. Usurpers were a common feature of the late Roman Empire, especially from the crisis of the third century onwards, when political instability became the rule....
in Gaul

Gaul

Gaul is the name used for the region of Western Europe comprising part of present day northern Italy, France, Belgium, western Switzerland and the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of the River Rhine....
against Emperor Constantius II

Constantius II

Flavius Iulius Constantius, known in English as Constantius II was a Roman Emperor of the Constantinian dynasty....
for 28 days in 355.

Trial and usurpation
Some of the courtiers of the Emperor Constantius managed to persuade him that Silvanus was planning to seize power.

Discussion

Ask a question about 'Claudius Silvanus'

Start a new discussion about 'Claudius Silvanus'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Encyclopedia

Claudius Silvanus (died 7 September 355

355

Events...
) was a Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
general of Frankish

Franks

The Franks or Frankish people were a West Germanic ethnic group first identified in the 3rd century as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River....
descent, usurper

Roman usurper

Gaul

Constantius II

Flavius Iulius Constantius, known in English as Constantius II was a Roman Emperor of the Constantinian dynasty....
for 28 days in 355.

Origin and career

Silvanus was born in Gaul

Gaul

Bonitus (magister militum)

Bonitus was a Salian Frank of Laetic origin. He was the first ever Franks to be made magister militum, in 324. He fought beside Constantine against Licinius and was the father of the general Claudius Silvanus....
, a Frankish general who had supported Constantine I

Constantine I

Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus , commonly known in English_language as Constantine I, Constantine the Great, or Saint Constantine , was Roman Emperor from 306, and the undisputed holder of that office from 324 until his death in 337....
against Licinius

Licinius

Valerius Licinianus Licinius was Roman emperor from 308 to 324.Of Dacian peasant origin, born in Moesia Superior, Licinius accompanied his close childhood friend, the Emperor Galerius, on the Persian expedition in 297....
. In 351, he held the rank of tribune

Tribune

Tribune was a title shared by 10 elected officials in the Roman Republic. Tribunes had the power to convene the Plebeian Council and to act as its president, which also gave them the exclusive right to propose legislation before it....
and was recorded as having defected to Emperor Constantius II

Constantius II

Flavius Iulius Constantius, known in English as Constantius II was a Roman Emperor of the Constantinian dynasty....
at the Battle of Mursa Major

Battle of Mursa Major

The Battle of Mursa Major was fought in 351 between the Eastern Roman army led by Constantius II and the western forces supporting the usurper Magnentius....
, after initially supporting usurper Magnentius

Magnentius

Flavius Magnus Magnentius was a Roman usurper .Born in Samarobriva , Gaul, Magnentius was the commander of the Herculians and Iovians, the imperial guard units ....
. Silvanus eventually rose to the rank of Magister militum
Magister militum

Magister militum was a top-level military command used in the later Roman Empire, dating from the reign of Constantine I . Used alone, the term referred to the senior military officer of the Empire....
: in 352-353, Constantius entrusted him with the task of driving the Germanic tribes attacking Gaul back beyond the Rhine, a task Silvanus fulfilled bribing the Germans with the taxes he had collected.

Trial and usurpation

Some of the courtiers of the Emperor Constantius managed to persuade him that Silvanus was planning to seize power. According to Ammianus, the praetorian prefect Lampadius and the ex-treasurer of the privy purse, Eusebius, used a sponge to alter a letter sent by Silvanus to his friends in Rome. The fake letter suggested that Silvanus was attempting to win support within the city for a coup. Constantius' camarilla, with the exception of the Frankish generals Malarich and Mallobaudes, was uniformly against Silvanus. Courtiers Apodemius

Apodemius

Apodemius was an officer of the Roman Empire, a courtier of Emperor Constantius II, involved in the deaths of Constantius Gallus and Claudius Silvanus....
and Dynamius composed further fake letters. Constantius held a trial where Silvanus' allies were successful in defeating the spurious charges against the general. Silvanus, unaware of the success of his supporters, responded to the threat of condemnation and execution by actually proclaiming himself emperor on 11 August 355

355

Events...
in Colonia Agrippina (modern Cologne

Cologne

Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants....
). Late Roman historian Michael Kulikowski has argued that the entire episode was a later invention, created as an excuse to rid Constantius II of Silvanus before he became a threat. His primary basis of this argument is the fact that no coins minted with Silvanus' image have been found to date, since virtually every usurper minted coins as an attempt to legitimate his authority.

Death of Silvanus

Constantius, who was in Milan

Milan

Milan is the second largest city of Italy, located in the plains of Lombardy. It is the capital in the Province of Milan, as well as the Regions of Italy capital of Lombardy....
, ordered Silvanus to come to him, and named Ursicinus

Ursicinus (Roman general)

Ursicinus was the "master of cavalry" in the Eastern Roman Empire c. 349-359.In 353, Ammianus Marcellinus was attached to the command of Ursicinus at his headquarters in Nisibis....
to take over Silvanus' post. Ursicinus was himself at odds with Constatius' camarilla and Silvanus no doubt trusted the veteran general. The letter that Ursicinus gave to Silvanus did not indicate that Constantius already knew of Silvanus' bid for power, so Silvanus considered himself safe. However Ursicinus arranged the murder of Silvanus by co-opting some of the rebel soldiers. These men killed the usurper's guard and dragged Silvanus from the Christian church where he was worshipping and hacked him to death.

Ammianus's report of Silvanus's death

It has been suggested by at least one scholar that Ammianus invented the entire coup attempt to gloss over the role played by his patron, Ursicinus, in the murder of a fellow general. This theory suggests that Constantius had grown suspicious of the popular Frankish general and so offered his post to Ursicinus, who then murdered his peer in the course of a botched change of command. It has been noted that Silvanus did not mint any coinage (which would have been a clear indication of a usurpation attempt), unlike other equally-short lived usurpers of the era, such as Poemenius. However, the thesis of a concocted coup attempt is generally rejected by scholars. The lack of numismatic evidence is not determinative, because Trier, the nearest minting centre to Colonia Agrippina, closed its gates to Silvanus.

Ammianus thus concludes his treatment of the Silvanus episode: "Such was the end of a commander of no small merit, who was driven by fear of the slanders in which a hostile clique had ensnared him in his absence to adopt extreme measures in self-defence" (15.5.29).