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Valerian ( ; ; – 260 or 264) was Roman emperor from 253 to spring 260 AD. Valerian rose to power during a particularly unstable period during the Crisis of the Third Century and appointed his son Gallienus as co-emperor.
Valerian is known as the first Roman emperor to have been taken captive in battle, captured by the Sassanid Empire emperor Shapur I after the Battle of Edessa, causing shock and instability throughout the Roman Empire. The unprecedented event and rumors of his humiliation at the hands of the Persian emperor generated a variety of different reactions and "new narratives about the Roman Empire in diverse contexts".
Valerian was Roman consul for the first time either before AD 238 as a Suffectus or in 238 as an Ordinarius. In 238 he was princeps senatus, and Gordian I negotiated through him for senatorial acknowledgement for his claim as emperor. In 251 AD, when Decius revived the censorship with legislative and executive powers so extensive that it practically embraced the civil authority of the emperor, Valerian was chosen Roman censor by the Senate, though he declined to accept the post. During the reign of Decius he was left in charge of affairs in Rome when that prince left for his ill-fated last campaign in Illyricum. Under Trebonianus Gallus, Valerian was appointed dux of an army probably drawn from the garrisons of the German provinces which seems to have been ultimately intended for use in a war against the Persians.
However, when Trebonianus Gallus had to deal with the rebellion of Aemilianus in 253 AD, he turned to Valerian for assistance in crushing the attempted usurpation. Valerian headed south but was too late: Gallus was killed by his own troops, who joined Aemilianus before Valerian arrived. The soldiers then proclaimed Valerian emperor and continued their march towards Rome. Upon his arrival in September, Aemilianus's legions defected, killed him and proclaimed Valerian emperor. In Rome, the Senate quickly acknowledged Valerian.
In 254, 255, and 257, Valerian again became Consul Ordinarius. By 257, he had recovered Antioch and returned the province of Syria to Roman control. The following year, the Goths ravaged Asia Minor. In 259, Valerian moved on to Edessa, but an outbreak of plague killed a critical number of legionary, weakening the Roman position, and the town was besieged by the Persians. In 260, probably in June, Valerian was decisively defeated in the Battle of Edessa and held prisoner for the remainder of his life. Valerian's capture was a tremendous defeat for the Romans. Valerian
The execution of Saint Prudent at Narbonne is taken to have occurred in 257.
Prominent Christians executed in 258 included Pope Sixtus II (6 August), Saint Romanus Ostiarius (9 August) and Saint Lawrence (10 August).
Others executed in 258 included the saints Denis in Paris, Pontius in Cimiez, Cyprian and others in Carthage and Eugenia in Rome.
In 259 Saint Patroclus was executed at Troyes and Saint Fructuosus at Tarragona.
When Valerian's son Gallienus became emperor in 260, the decree was rescinded.
In reply (according to one version), Shapur was said to have forced Valerian to swallow molten gold (the other version of his death is almost the same but it says that Valerian was killed by being flayed alive) and then had Valerian skinned and his skin stuffed with straw and preserved as a trophy in the main Persian temple. It was further alleged that it was only after a later Persian defeat against Rome that his skin was given a cremation and burial.Lactantius, De Mortibus Persecutorum, v; Wickert, L., "Licinius (Egnatius) 84" in Pauly-Wissowa 13.1 (1926), 488–495; Parker, H., A History of the Roman World A.D. 138 to 337 (London, 1958), 170. From [2]. The captivity and death of Valerian has been frequently debated by historians without any definitive conclusion.
According to the modern scholar Touraj Daryaee, contrary to the account of Lactantius, Shapur I sent Valerian and some of his army to the city of Bishapur or Gundishapur where they lived in relatively good conditions. Shapur used the remaining soldiers in engineering and development plans. Band-e Kaisar (Caesar's dam) is one of the remnants of Roman engineering located near the ancient city of Susa.Abdolhossein Zarinkoob " Ruzgaran: tarikh-i Iran az aghz ta saqut saltnat Pahlvi" pp. 195 In all the stone carvings on Naghshe-Rostam, in Iran, Valerian is represented holding hands with Shapur I, a sign of submission. According to the early Persian Muslim scholar Abu Hanifa Dinawari, Shapur settled the prisoners of war in Gundishapur and released Valerian, as promised, after the construction of Band-e Kaisar.
It has been alleged that the account of Lactantius is coloured by his desire to establish that persecutors of the Christians died fitting deaths; the story was repeated then and later by authors in the Roman Near East fiercely hostile to Persia.
The joint rule of Valerian and Gallienus was threatened several times by Roman usurpers. Nevertheless, Gallienus held the throne until his own assassination in 268 AD.
Persecution of Christians
While fighting the Persians, Valerian sent two letters to the Senate ordering that firm steps be taken against Christians. The first, sent in 257, commanded Christian clergy to perform sacrifices to the Roman gods or face banishment. The second, the following year, ordered the execution of Christian leaders. It also required Christian senators and equites to perform acts of worship to the Roman gods or lose their titles and property, and directed that they be executed if they continued to refuse. It also decreed that Roman matrons who would not apostasy should lose their property and be banished, and that civil servants and members of the Imperial household who would not worship the Roman gods should be reduced to slavery and sent to work on the Imperial estates. This indicates that Christians were well-established at that time, some in very high positions.
Death in captivity
Eutropius, writing between 364 and 378 AD, stated that Valerian "was overthrown by Shapur king of Persia, and being soon after made prisoner, grew old in ignominious slavery among the Parthians."Eutropius. Abridgement of Roman History. Translated by the Rev. John Selby Watson.
London: Henry G. Bohn, 1853. (Book 9.7) An early Christian source, Lactantius (thought to be virulently anti-Persian due to the occasional persecution of Christians by some Sasanian monarchs) maintained that, for some time prior to his death, Valerian was subjected to the greatest insults by his captors, like being used as a human footstool by Shapur when mounting his horse. According to this version of events, after a long period of such treatment, Valerian offered Shapur a huge ransom for his release.
Family
In literature and the arts
Valerian appears in Joseph of Anchieta’s 1587 play Auto de São Lourenço as one of the main characters. In Act III, Valerian is killed for being responsible for the persecution and killing of Saint Lawrence, in the year 258 AD. Valerian also appears in Anthony Hecht's poem "Behold the Lilies of the Field" in the collection The Hard Hours, and in Harry Sidebottom's historical fiction series of novels Warrior of Rome.
See also
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Categories: 2nd-century Births, 260s Deaths, 3rd-century Roman Emperors, Valerian Dynasty, Deified Roman Emperors, Heads Of State And Government Who Were Later Imprisoned, 3rd-century Roman Consuls, Licinii, Monarchs Taken Prisoner In Wartime, People Of The Roman–sasanian Wars, Prisoners And Detainees Of The Sasanian Empire, Ancient Roman Prisoners Of War, Roman Pharaohs
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