At the height of Romeās period of anarchy
during the third century, with the empire on the very brink of total collapse, a group
of tough soldier emperors took the throne for themselves and set about restoring what
had been lost. One of these formidable men, Aurelian, took
the Roman Empire with an iron grip, glued together its crumbling domain, and set the
stage for another two centuries of dominance. Welcome to our video on the Restorer of the
World. We are not saying that the Roman Empire fell
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and Save 70% nordvpn.com/KingsandGenerals or the link in the description! Donāt forget to use the coupon code KingsAndGenerals! One evening in early September of the year
268, Emperor Gallienus ate supper in his armyās camp near Mediolanum, which was under siege. He was there to deal with a treacherous general
named Aureolus, but that would not have been all on his mind. Rome was in total crisis. Almost a decade earlier, the empire had been
ripped into three pieces by Postumusā revolt in the west, and a withering Sassanian assault
in the east. Moreover, barbarian attacks from across the
northern frontier were steadily getting worse. In the midst of his meal, Cecropius - one
of Gallienusā commanders - brought word that their besieged enemy was readying a sortie. The emperor immediately got to his feet and
rushed off to deal with them. Suspecting nothing, Gallienus departed without
his personal guard and was quickly beset and killed by assassins from within his own ranks,
Cecropius among them. The perpetrators were a group of military
commanders from Illyria who had seen considerable advancement under the now-dead emperor and
his father Valerian. One of them was raised to the throne as Claudius
II. Also among the conspirators was the subject
of our video - Lucius Domitius Aurelianus. He had been born near Serdica on September
9th of either 214 or 215. After joining the army at about the age of
20, he rose through the ranks with astounding success. By 268 Aurelian was in his early fifties and
had risen to be a high ranking officer who was incredibly popular with the troops. He had earned so much renown for bravery and
talent that the nickname of manu ad ferrum - āhand on swordā - became his. Upon taking the Roman throne, Claudius immediately
granted Aurelian a high cavalry command and effectively made him his right hand man. Together, they took up where Gallienus left
off. After quickly executing Aureolus, Claudius
II, with manu ad ferrum at his side, marched to Northern Italy and smashed an Alamanni
invasion at Lake Garda. The Romans then turned southeast and advanced
into the Balkans, where they managed to defeat a Gothic incursion into the Balkans at Naissus
in 269. In both of these triumphs and whilst mopping
up afterwards, Aurelian is said to have played a decisive role. Before Claudius Gothicus Maximus had a chance
to celebrate these victories, he died of plague in early 270, triggering yet another power
struggle. Quintilius - the late emperorās brother
and commander of the troops in Italy - claimed the throne. However Aurelian, by far the most respected
and feared figure in the empire, was simultaneously acclaimed emperor by the legions who were
with him. Though Quintilius marshalled his forces at
Aquileia, it was not enough. By the time Aurelian and his legions neared
Italy, Quintiliusā troops had faltered, killed their commander, and confirmed the
ascension of Aurelian in September of 270. After deifying his short-lived predecessor,
Aurelian marched back to Pannonia, which was being threatened by a Vandal horde. The emperor first waged a war of attrition
against them, denying them food and supplies, then smashed the weakened barbarians in battle. As soon as Aurelian had repelled that Vandal
threat, he received word that a united Juthungi-Alamanni army had cut through Raetia and was making
a beeline for Italy. Rushing to protect the home province, Aurelianās
forces caught up with the Germans near Placentia. However, the emperor had not been careful
enough, and his exhausted forces were ambushed near the city, resulting in a terrible defeat. Rumours of the humiliation sent Rome itself
into a panic, but Aurelian continued on as though nothing had happened, recovering from
a setback that would have been the end of lesser leaders. The emperor regrouped his army, pursued the
invaders south for a second time, and managed to defeat them by pinning their army against
the Metaurus river. Despite its losses, the Juthungi-Alamanni
coalition was still strong, but Aurelian was not willing to allow the enemy to retreat
with any Roman spoils. After hard, uncompromising negotiations, and
without any further fighting, the barbarians eventually departed empty-handed. Having dealt with all of this external pressure
in a mere nine months, Aurelian was also keen to deal with corruption at home. When the corrupt rationalis - or chief financial
minister of the Roman mint - was confronted about his own underhanded operations, he incited
his workers, who feared Aurelianās retribution, to riot. Quintilius-sympathising senators, disruption
of the grain supply from now Palmyrene-controlled Egypt and the prior monthsā invasion scare
ratcheted up the tension to the point that the riot turned into small-scale pitched battles. Up to 7,000 were dead by the time Aurelian
subdued the city with an iron fist. Ringleaders, including senators, were summarily
rounded up and executed. However, along with this punitive solution,
the emperor also took measures to prevent future unrest. Beginning in 271 and continuing throughout
the rest of his reign, Aurelian attempted to stabilise the coinage and harshly deal
with corruption. Most notable of his financial reforms however,
was the strategic relocation of mints away from Rome, instead favouring strategic locations,
such as Milan and Siscia, where pay could more easily be transported to the armies. It was also clear to Aurelian that Romeās
legions and age-old frontier defences were no longer sufficient to protect the empireās
heartland; individual cities now needed their own fortifications. So, the construction of a series of practical,
non-aesthetic defensive walls began around Rome, which still remain in the modern day
- the Aurelian walls. Having done this, Aurelian marshaled the legions
and moved to meet a Gothic raid in the Balkans. He arrived during the autumn of 271 and quickly
pushed them back across the river Danube. Not content to let the barbarians off so easily,
the emperor crossed the river into enemy territory, defeated the Goths decisively, and killed
their king - Cannabaudes. It is possible that this Gothic ruler was
the same individual as Cniva, the raider who had defeated Decius at Abritus two decades
earlier. In the wake of this last conflict, Aurelian
acknowledged that the province of Dacia, which was beyond the Danube frontier, was a pointless
exertion of imperial resources and a vulnerable gateway into the empire. To remedy this, Aurelian ordered that all
legionary forces and citizens withdraw from the region, effectively abandoning the province. The border was consolidated and shortened
on the near side of the river, and a deal was negotiated with a tribe of friendly Germans
to settle in the abandoned area as a buffer. It must have been a big step for the conservative
Romans to voluntarily and pragmatically admit to this, and it is a sign of Aurelianās
adaptable and charismatic nature. With his central section of the empire safe
for the time being, Aurelian set about mustering one of the greatest armies of the third century
throughout the winter months of 271. It was made up of some of the most veteran
military units in the empire, including a core of legions from Pannonia, Raetia, Noricum
and Moesia. To supplement that, Aurelian also brought
along some loyal, elite vexillationes which had been with him since the beginning, along
with contingents of Dalmatian and Mauritanian cavalry who had proven their worth in the
Gothic war. When spring of 272 was near, the emperor ferried
his great invading force across the Hellespont and began a steady march across Asia Minor. His ultimate aim was an ambitious one - to
reclaim the eastern empire from the de facto Palmyrene ruler, Zenobia, who ruled on behalf
of her young son Vaballathus. As Aurelian rode at the head of the main field
army, he also sent a naval taskforce to reclaim Egypt in May. It was possibly, but not certainly, under
the command of future emperor Probus. Very little detail is known of the campaign,
but the recently captured Palmyrene possession was weakly held, and the Romans recaptured
it by midsummer. Meanwhile to the north, Aurelianās advance
was almost totally unopposed until he reached the Cappadocian city of Tyana, which refused
to admit the emperor. He was so infuriated by this defiance that
he pledged not to leave even a dog alive once the city fell to his armies. However, the relatively short siege cooled
Aurelianās temper and he came to realise that leniency would be a more prudent course
of action in the long term. To that end, he ordered that his triumphant
army spare the citizens rather than slaying them. He was to be a liberator of these Roman lands,
rather than a vicious foreign conqueror. News of this angered the soldiers, who were
denied their opportunity to sack Tyana. They reminded Aurelian of the pledge he had
made, but the emperor was not intimidated, replying that āI did indeed decree that
no dog should be allowed to live. Well then, kill all the dogs!ā The angry soldiers were pleased with the joke
and set about carrying out their rulerās orders with calmed tempers. Such clemency proved to be a wise strategy. After Tyana no city in Asia Minor resisted
Aurelianās march, and he emerged from the Cilician gates into Syria, ready to confront
the Palmyrenes in their home territory. Zenobiaās greatest general Zabdas placed
his army in between Aurelian and Antioch. Instead of attacking the great city from the
north, where the tactical incentive lay with Zabdas, Aurelian instead shifted his forces
to outflank him from the east. Worrying that this would move the clash into
unfavourable terrain and onto his own line of retreat, the Palmyrene general sent most
of his cavalry to intercept Aurelian on the eastern shores of Lake Antioch. Rather than risking his infantry against Zabdasā
cataphracts, the Roman emperor sent out his horsemen to bait the enemy into a trap. When the Palmyrene heavy cavalry charged,
the lighter armoured and armed Roman units fled at the first contact, fleeing several
kilometres towards the town of Immae. When the overburdened cataphracts and their
horses began to slow down from exhaustion, Aurelianās cavalry turned and countercharged
them, scattering the Palmyrene forces, winning a decisive victory and allowing the emperor
to sit on the enemyās line of retreat. Zenobia and Zabdasā defeat led them to abandon
Antioch and retreat south to Emesa, where it is said that 60,000 of Aurelianās men
faced 70,000 of Zenobia and Zabdas. Aurelian once again tried to lure the Palmyrene
cataphractarii into a similar trap. But this time the maneuver went wrong and
the emperorās cavalry caught the brunt of the enemyās charge, resulting in massive
losses and a near-rout. The veteran legions of Aurelian were still
fighting however, and they managed to break the Palmyrene infantry in front of them. On the flanks, Zenobiaās cataphracts charged
too far, and were themselves cut to pieces when the Roman infantry pivoted to the wings
and smashed into them. The queen fled Emesa to Palmyra, leaving so
quickly that there was not even enough time to transport the treasury away from danger. As the sweltering high summer approached,
Aurelian wasted no time and embarked on a grueling march east through the desert, putting
the enemy capital under siege whilst also securing a deal with local bedouins to receive
food. Realising that her only hope for aid now was
a personal appeal to the Sassanian king, Zenobia snuck through the Roman siege lines and attempted
to flee into Persian territory on a camel. However when the alarm was quickly raised,
the Palmyrene ruler was captured by Aurelianās outriders and brought to the emperor. The besieged oasisā population was divided,
but the emperor ended any uncertainty by ordering those who wished for peace to come out and
surrender. At first people were slow to do so, but when
they witnessed Aurelianās mercy to the initial few, more and more came and submitted, giving
him gifts and tribute in return for pardon. Without any further shedding of blood, Aurelian
entered the city of Palmyra in total victory. Whilst present there, he trialed and executed
some of the main enemy leaders, including Zabdas, imposed a garrison upon the city,
and distributed much of its wealth to the soldiers. He also received an ambassador from the Sassanian
Empire who brought the shahās congratulations on the great victory. His own realm was riven by internal strife
and could not risk a war against Aurelianās power, even if the prize was such a great
one as Palmyra. The emperorās most treasured prize was Zenobia
herself. She was spared, but suffered the indignity
of being paraded through Syriaās cities chained to a camel. This, and rumours of her cowardice in the
face of defeat, were designed to snuff out any lingering support the queen may have had. As he marched back to the city of Byzantium,
Aurelian assumed the title for which he is most well-known, restitutor orbis - ārestorer
of the worldā. Still, he had much to do. Upon his arrival in Europe, Aurelian crushed
yet another barbarian incursion into Moesia, but was then forced to return to Palmyra in
early 273 upon receiving intelligence from a loyal subordinate in the area that the cityās
leaders intended to betray him. For the second time in less than a year, the
presumably furious emperor approached Palmyra after a lightning quick march which took the
rebel leaders totally by surprise. There was no time to prepare proper defences,
and Aurelian took the city swiftly. Again he showed remarkable restraint in his
vengeance. The ringleaders were immediately slain, but
the citizens were permitted to leave. The city of Palmyra itself was not so lucky. Aurelian allowed his troops to ravage the
troublesome enemy capital; much of its wealth was plundered and many of its great structures
razed. After this second siege, Palmyra never again
regained its once-held importance and grandeur, becoming yet another irrelevant provincial
town on the Roman frontier. Before he returned to the west, Aurelian had
to march on Egypt and subdue a revolt there, securing Romeās grain supplies. With all business in the east taken care of,
the emperor and his field army returned to the capital and set about preparing an expedition
to finally put an end to the Gallic Empire, which was at that point under the control
of Tetricus. By the time campaigning of 274 began, all
preparations were complete. Aurelian marched across the Alps to his foothold
in Gallia Narbonensis, then quickly took Lugdunum. The Gallic Empire was weak, but Tetricus nevertheless
rallied his Rhine legions and met Aurelian near Chalons in late February. Historians debate what truly happened, but
the contest was decided before the first pila was thrown. Either Aurelianās superior generalship quickly
gained him mastery of the battlefield, or Tetricus made a deal with the emperor to submit
before any fighting was necessary. Whatever the case, the splinter empire in
Gaul and Britannia was extinguished, its military units were reintegrated into the Roman army,
and the empire was whole once again for the first time in fourteen years. With his victory now total, Aurelian went
back to the capital with his spoils in tow and hosted what might have been one of the
greatest triumphs in all of Roman history. Coming up first in the procession were vast
eastern treasures gained from the conquest of Palmyra, most prominent among the hoard
being three ornate royal chariots arrayed one behind the other. First among them was a fabulously crafted
vehicle, ordained with silver, gold, and jewels which had belonged to Odenathus before his
own death years before. The second was an equally masterful creation
- a Persian chariot which had been granted to Aurelian as a gift from the Sassanian king. Finally came the true prize, the Palmyrene
queen Zenobia herself, riding in a grand chariot that it is said she herself constructed. After this glorious display, vast amounts
of exotic animals were exhibited before the awestruck population of Rome, such as elephants,
tigers, giraffes, and elks. After them came rank upon rank of bound prisoners,
prominent men from Palmyra and barbarian tribes in the region - including representations
of the mythical amazons, who had been captured during the campaign. From his western conquest Aurelianās highlight
was Tetricus, self proclaimed āemperorā, clad in a scarlet imperial cloak, yellow tunic
and Gallic trousers. Along with the western usurper was his son
whom the former had acclaimed co-emperor the year before his defeat. When the grand procession came to an end,
vast entertainments were held for days afterwards, including theatrical plays, chariot races
in the circus, wild beast hunts, gladiator fights, and even a naval battle reenactment. After all of the celebrations were over, Aurelian
still could not or would not rest on his laurels. As the fifth year of his reign dawned, the
emperor went west to deal with a minor Alamanni invasion, and then marched east into Thrace
in the summer. Because third century sources can be somewhat
unreliable, it is not agreed as to why Aurelian moved east. However, most historians either believe that
the emperor was in the Balkans to deal with a barbarian invasion, or to prepare for a
great offensive against the civil war-ridden Sassanian Empire, whose capture and humiliation
of Valerian had not been forgotten. Whatever the case, at some point in the middle
of 275 Aurelian encamped at a waystation on the road to Byzantium called Caenophurium,
which was next to the Sea of Marmara. It was to be his final resting place. While he was there, one of Aurelianās administrators
of secretaries - a slave or freedman known as Eros - did an unknown deed which would
both be inevitably discovered and would inevitably bring the emperorās notorious wrath upon
him when it was discovered. To save himself, Eros came up with a desperate
solution. Since the bureaucrat was able to imitate Aurelianās
writing style, he forged a series of documents accusing many senior army officers of crimes
and misdeeds, and condemning those same men to death. When Eros showed the men this list, they were
terrified and reacted too quickly, without thought. A group of desperate conspirators, led by
a general known as Mucapor, waited until Aurelian dismissed his bodyguard, and then stabbed
their emperor to death. Yet, the assassination was not a crime of
hatred. When the reality of Erosā deceit came to
light, the officers who had murdered the emperor were filled with a combination of guilt, grief,
and fury. It was all directed at the desperate secretary,
who the Historia Augusta tells us was tied to a stake and savaged by ravenous wild beasts. Just like that, with a crude act of deception,
the life of Aurelian came to an end in the middle of 275, only five years after he took
the throne. Grief struck the entire empire when it learned
of their great emperorās passing. To indicate just what a significant occasion
it really was, the senate and the army did not jostle to install the new emperor. Conversely, they even bestowed that right
on the other party, aiming to push away the accusation of guilt. Eventually, Aurelianās second in command
Probus came to the throne, and after a few more tentative years, Diocletian inherited
the Roman Empire and ended the crisis years. We will talk about Roman history more in the
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we will catch you on the next one.
If I have a critique, it's that the Kings and Generals channel typically just uses one source for it's narrative, and only sometimes offers alternatives.
A pretty good synopsis, but why spend minutes describing 3 different triumph chariots while there is totally no mention of the cult of Sol Invictus?
Probably because the source.
Aurelian restituted the hell out of the orbis. Shame he died so soon.
Just bought one of his denarii, prob one of my favorite coins and emperors.
Seen it today it was good
Kings and generals make dat fine shit.
I really like K&G and was glad they gave a spotlight on a really underrated emperor but I typically use them as well as others like Invicta and historia civillis and all combined give a better picture of any historical event as they often use different soruces
One of my most favorite channels around.