Herennius Etruscus was
Roman emperorThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
in 251, in a joint rule with his father
DeciusTrajan Decius , was Roman Emperor from 249 to 251. In the last year of his reign, he co-ruled with his son Herennius Etruscus until they were both killed in the Battle of Abrittus.-Early life and rise to power:...
. Emperor
HostilianHostilian was Roman emperor in 251. Hostilian was born in Sirmium in Illyricum sometime after 230, as the son of the future emperor Decius by his wife Herennia Cupressenia Etruscilla...
was his younger brother.
Herennius was born in near
SirmiumSirmium was a city in ancient Roman Pannonia. Firstly mentioned in the 4th century BC and originally inhabited by the Illyrians and Celts, it was conquered by the Romans in the 1st century BC and subsequently became the capital of the Roman province of Lower Pannonia. In 294 AD, Sirmium was...
in
PannoniaPannonia was an ancient province of the Roman Empire bounded north and east by the Danube, coterminous westward with Noricum and upper Italy, and southward with Dalmatia and upper Moesia....
(now
Sremska MitrovicaSremska Mitrovica is a city and municipality located in the Vojvodina province of Serbia, on the left bank of the Sava river. As of 2002 the town had a total population of 39,041, while Sremska Mitrovica municipality had a population of 85,605...
,
SerbiaSerbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
), during one of his father's military postings. His mother was
Herennia Cupressenia EtruscillaAnnia Cupressenia Herennia Etruscilla was Augusta of the Roman Empire, wife of Emperor Decius, and mother of Emperors Herennius Etruscus and Hostilian.As with most third century Roman Empresses, very little is known about her...
, a Roman lady of an important
senatorialThe Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...
family. Herennius was very close to his father and accompanied him in 248, as a military tribune, when Decius was appointed by
Philip the ArabPhilip the Arab , also known as Philip or Philippus Arabs, was Roman Emperor from 244 to 249. He came from Syria, and rose to become a major figure in the Roman Empire. He achieved power after the death of Gordian III, quickly negotiating peace with the Sassanid Empire...
to deal with the revolt of
PacatianusTiberius Claudius Marinus Pacatianus was an usurper in the Danube area of the Roman Empire during the time of Philip the Arab....
in the
DanubeThe Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
frontier. Decius was successful on defeating this
usurperUsurpers are individuals or groups of individuals who obtain and maintain the power or rights of another by force and without legal authority. Usurpation was endemic during roman imperial era, especially from the crisis of the third century onwards, when political instability became the rule.The...
and felt confident to begin a rebellion of his own in the following year. Acclaimed emperor by his own troops, Decius marched into Italy and defeated Philip near modern
VeronaVerona ; German Bern, Dietrichsbern or Welschbern) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy, with approx. 265,000 inhabitants and one of the seven chef-lieus of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third of North-Eastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona...
. In Rome, Herennius was declared heir to the throne and received the title of
princeps iuventutis (prince of youth).
From the beginning of Herennius' accession,
GothicThe 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....
tribes raided across the Danube frontier and the provinces of
MoesiaMoesia 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...
and
DaciaIn ancient geography, especially in Roman sources, Dacia was the land inhabited by the Dacians or Getae as they were known by the Greeks—the branch of the Thracians north of the Haemus range...
. At the beginning of 251, Decius elevated Herennius to the title of
Augustus making him his co-emperor. Moreover, Herennius was chosen to be one of the year's
consulConsul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Empire. The title was also used in other city states and also revived in modern states, notably in the First French Republic...
s. The father and son, now joint rulers, then embarked in an expedition against king
CnivaCniva was the Gothic chieftain who invaded the Roman Empire in the third century CE. He successfully conquered the city of Philippopolis, now present day Bulgarian city Plovdiv, and killed the emperor Decius and his son Herennius Etruscus at the Battle of Abrittus as he was attempting to leave...
of the Goths to punish the invaders for the raids. Hostilian remained in Rome and the empress Herennia Etruscilla was named
regentA regent, from the Latin regens "one who reigns", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Currently there are only two ruling Regencies in the world, sovereign Liechtenstein and the Malaysian constitutive state of Terengganu...
. Cniva and his men were returning to their lands with the booty, when the Roman army encountered them. Showing a very sophisticated military tactic, Cniva divided his army in smaller, more manageable groups and started to push back the Romans into a marshy swamp. Sometime during the first two weeks of June, both armies engaged in the
battle of AbrittusThe Battle of Abritus, also known as the Battle of Forum Terebronii, occurred in the Roman province of Moesia Inferior probably in July, 251, between the Roman Empire and a federation of Scythian tribesmen under the Goth king Cniva. The Romans were soundly defeated, and Roman emperors Decius and...
. Herennius died in battle, struck by an enemy arrow. Decius survived the initial confrontation, only to be slain with the rest of the army before the end of the day. Herennius and Decius were the first two emperors to be killed by a foreign army in battle.
With the news of the death of the emperors, the army proclaimed
Trebonianus GallusTrebonianus Gallus , also known as Gallus, was Roman Emperor from 251 to 253, in a joint rule with his son Volusianus.-Early life:Gallus was born in Italy, in a family with respected ancestry of Etruscan senatorial background. He had two children in his marriage with Afinia Gemina Baebiana: Gaius...
emperor, but in Rome they were succeeded by Hostilian, who would die shortly afterwards in an outbreak of
plaguePlague is a deadly infectious disease that is caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis, named after the French-Swiss bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin. Primarily carried by rodents and spread to humans via fleas, the disease is notorious throughout history, due to the unrivaled scale of death...
.
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