Heraclianus
Encyclopedia
Marcus Aurelius Heraclianus (died 268) was a Roman soldier who rose to the rank of Praetorian Prefect in the latter part of the reign of the Emperor Gallienus
Gallienus
Gallienus was Roman Emperor with his father Valerian from 253 to 260, and alone from 260 to 268. He took control of the Empire at a time when it was undergoing great crisis...

. He was a member of the cabal of senior commanders of the Imperial field army that plotted and achieved the assassionation of the Emperor Gallienus
Gallienus
Gallienus was Roman Emperor with his father Valerian from 253 to 260, and alone from 260 to 268. He took control of the Empire at a time when it was undergoing great crisis...

. His subsequent fate is uncertain. The only ancient reference has him committing suicide - presumably in the upheaval that followed the murder of Gallienus - but it has been suggested that he survived this episode only to come to grief in the service of the Emperor Claudius II
Claudius II
Claudius II , commonly known as Claudius Gothicus, was Roman Emperor from 268 to 270. During his reign he fought successfully against the Alamanni and scored a crushing victory against the Goths at the Battle of Naissus. He died after succumbing to a smallpox plague that ravaged the provinces of...

.

Origins

His praenomen
Praenomen
The praenomen was a personal name chosen by the parents of a Roman child. It was first bestowed on the dies lustricus , the eighth day after the birth of a girl, or the ninth day after the birth of a boy...

 is not cited in the sources, but his nomen
Roman naming conventions
By the Republican era and throughout the Imperial era, a name in ancient Rome for a male citizen consisted of three parts : praenomen , nomen and cognomen...

 (i.e. 'Aurelius') suggests that it could have been M. - i.e. 'Marcus'. The Aurelius gentilicum was often adopted by families admitted to Roman citizenship by Caracalla
Caracalla
Caracalla , was Roman emperor from 198 to 217. The eldest son of Septimius Severus, he ruled jointly with his younger brother Geta until he murdered the latter in 211...

 under the provisions of that Emperor's law known as the Constitutio Antoniniana
Constitutio Antoniniana
The Constitutio Antoniniana was an edict issued in 212 AD, by the Roman Emperor Caracalla...

 of 213 - i.e. probably the time around which Heraclianus was born. The nomenclature therefore supports the notion that Heraclianus's father or grandfather would have been a non-citizen of provincial or even servile origin. However, this is far from conclusive. He could equally well have been descended from an ancestor of his branch of the Aurelii clan that settled in the Balkans in the early days of Roman expansion into these regions.If this was in fact his origin he would have been a member of the select group of Illyricani who had a very personal interest in ensuring that the ruling Emperor was always wholly committed to the maintenance of Roman control over the Balkan regions with the heavy expenditure that that policy implied.

The place where Heraclianus was born isnot known for certain. However, an inscription dedicated to him by a fellow-soldier, Trajanus Mucianus, at Mucianus's hometown of Augusta Traiana (Stara Zagora, Bulgaria) lends colour to the supposition that he was a Moesia
Moesia
Moesia was an ancient region and later Roman province situated in the Balkans, along the south bank of the Danube River. It included territories of modern-day Southern Serbia , Northern Republic of Macedonia, Northern Bulgaria, Romanian Dobrudja, Southern Moldova, and Budjak .-History:In ancient...

n or, at least, that he hailed from one of the Danubian provinces
Danubian provinces
Danubian provinces to refer to the Roman provinces of the Lower Danube: Dacia , Moesia and Scythia Minor, as well as Pannonia Inferior....

, though this is not a conclusive evidence. Heraclianus's later association with Claudius Gothicus and Aurelian
Aurelian
Aurelian , was Roman Emperor from 270 to 275. During his reign, he defeated the Alamanni after a devastating war. He also defeated the Goths, Vandals, Juthungi, Sarmatians, and Carpi. Aurelian restored the Empire's eastern provinces after his conquest of the Palmyrene Empire in 273. The following...

 in the coup against Gallienus
Gallienus
Gallienus was Roman Emperor with his father Valerian from 253 to 260, and alone from 260 to 268. He took control of the Empire at a time when it was undergoing great crisis...

 also suggests that he had connections with the Illyrian clans
Illyrians
The Illyrians were a group of tribes who inhabited part of the western Balkans in antiquity and the south-eastern coasts of the Italian peninsula...

 that dominated the officer cadres of the Balkan garrisons in the 3rd century as the two chief conspirators would, no doubt, have preferred to work with a fellow countryman. A second dedication from Stara Zagora to Heraclianus, by Mucianus's brother, Marcus Aurelius Apollinarius, who was an equestrian governor of Thrace, reinforces the notion that Heraclianus had strong family connections in the eastern regions of the Balkans.

Career

Heraclianus rose to prominence during the troubled reign of the Emperor Gallienus
Gallienus
Gallienus was Roman Emperor with his father Valerian from 253 to 260, and alone from 260 to 268. He took control of the Empire at a time when it was undergoing great crisis...

 becoming Praetorian Prefect
Praetorian prefect
Praetorian prefect was the title of a high office in the Roman Empire. Originating as the commander of the Praetorian Guard, the office gradually acquired extensive legal and administrative functions, with its holders becoming the Emperor's chief aides...

 – an office of state that combined the command of the Emperor's Praetorian Guard
Praetorian Guard
The Praetorian Guard was a force of bodyguards used by Roman Emperors. The title was already used during the Roman Republic for the guards of Roman generals, at least since the rise to prominence of the Scipio family around 275 BC...

 and principle ministry. Heraclianus probably became Praetorian Prefect in 267 following the appointment of Lucius Petronius Taurus Volusianus, the former Praetorian Prefect, to the Urban Prefecture in that year.

Heraclianus was thus likely to have been a highly competent soldier who was either born into the Illyrian military elite or earned a place in their ranks by his behaviour in Gallienus's many wars against barbarian invaders and would-be usurpers. Either way he served in a hard school and would have deserved his advancement.

The Vita Gallieni also asserts 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, but was defeated and his army destroyed - presumably by [Zenobia]]. This is the only ancient reference to such an attempt being made in Gallienus's reign and the usual caveat regarding the reliability of the Historia Augusta as a historical record must apply. However, Alfoldi suggests 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 Historia Augusta suggests. Bray is inclined to dismiss any notion of an expedition in 267-8.

This is also the conclusion of David Potter. However, Prof. Potter does make the interesting suggestion that Heraclianus might have made an expedition to the East to reassert Roman authority in the Asian provinces not in 267 - when he was almost certainly engaged in the Gothic war - but at the behest of Gallienus's murderer and successor, the Emperor Claudius Gothicus, in 270. This effort might either have been undertaken in response to aggression of Zenobia
Zenobia
Zenobia was a 3rd-century Queen of the Palmyrene Empire in Roman Syria. She led a famous revolt against the Roman Empire. The second wife of King Septimius Odaenathus, Zenobia became queen of the Palmyrene Empire following Odaenathus' death in 267...

 of Palmyra in Arabia and Egypt in that year or have been the cause of that aggression. Potter's thesis is not wholly persuasive. To be sure, given his capacity for shameless invention, it would certainly not have been beyond the author of the Vita Gallieni to attribute to his bete noire, Gallienus, a disaster that actually occurred under his hero, Claudius, some two years after the murder of Gallienus. On the other hand, it is odd that Zozimus
Zozimus
Michael J. Moran , popularly known as Zozimus, was an Irish street rhymer. He was a resident of Dublin and also known as the "Blind Bard of the Liberties" and the "Last of the Gleemen".-Biography:...

 who was, after all, an easterner, should have had no knowledge of a calamity to Roman arms on the scale suggested. Zosimus is generally much cooler towards Claudius than the Historia Augusta - no doubt because, as a pagan, he disapproved of Claudius's self-proclaimed descendant (i.e. Constantine the Great's) conversion of the Roman state to Christianity - and it seems unlikely that he would have hesitated to record anything so substantially to Claudius's discredit had he been aware of it. However, the Potter thesis seems more plausible if it is postulated that Heraclianus' failed mission was diplomatic rather than military in its nature.

Downfall

Whether or not he was in Asia in 267, it is likely that Heraclianus returned to Europe in time to take part in Gallienus's campaign against the Goths
Goths
The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....

 and Heruls in 267-8. He was certainly with Gallienus's comitatus (Imperial field army) when it moved from the Balkans to Italy against Aureolus
Aureolus
For the Frankish ruler of Aragon, see Aureolus of Aragon.Manius Acilius Aureolus was a Roman military commander and would-be usurper. He was one of the so-called Thirty Tyrants who populated the reign of the Emperor Gallienus...

 when he came out for the Gallic Emperor Postumus
Postumus
Marcus Cassianius Latinius Postumus was a Roman emperor of Batavian origin. He usurped power from Gallienus in 260 and formed the so-called Gallic Empire...

 in Mediolanium and was a ring-leader of the so-called Equestrian Marshals' Plot 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 rule. However, Heraclianus appears to have been discarded by the main plotters, Claudius Gothicus and Aurelian
Aurelian
Aurelian , was Roman Emperor from 270 to 275. During his reign, he defeated the Alamanni after a devastating war. He also defeated the Goths, Vandals, Juthungi, Sarmatians, and Carpi. Aurelian restored the Empire's eastern provinces after his conquest of the Palmyrene Empire in 273. The following...

, after the coup succeeded. This would be consistent with the tradition that he committed suicide. (However, if he did remain a major player into Claudius's reign, possibly even as Praetorian Prefect, and then failed his new master in some spectacular way in Asia in 270 this would have been a much greater reason for self-destruction in the Roman tradition than desertion by his comrades-in-crime). In short, the circumstances of Heraclianus' end are likely to remain a mystery.

Sources

Heraclianus appears in the Vita Gallieni of the Historia Augusta, Zonaras
Joannes Zonaras
Ioannes Zonaras was a Byzantine chronicler and theologian, who lived at Constantinople.Under Emperor Alexios I Komnenos he held the offices of head justice and private secretary to the emperor, but after Alexios' death, he retired to the monastery of St Glykeria, where he spent the rest of his...

 and Zosimus
Zosimus
Zosimus was a Byzantine historian, who lived in Constantinople during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Anastasius I . According to Photius, he was a comes, and held the office of "advocate" of the imperial treasury.- Historia Nova :...

, 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 3rd century Praetorian Prefect:

The best recent summary of the available information on Heraclianus is to be found in John Bray's biography of Gallienus:

See also:
  • David S. Potter, The Roman Empire at Bay, Routledge, London & New York, 2004 and The Transformation of the Empire: 236-337 CE, Part II,8 p 164 of A Companion to the Roman Empire. Ed. D.S. Potter, Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2006.
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