Gallienus, Third Century Reformer

 Born into a wealthy and traditional senatorial family, Gallienus was the son of Valerian and Mariniana. Valerian became Emperor on 22 October 253 CE and had the Roman senate elevate Gallienus to the ranks of Caesar and Augustus. Valerian divided the empire between him and his son, with Valerian ruling the east and his son the west. Gallienus defeated the usurper Ingenuus in 258 CE and destroyed an Alemanni army at Mediolanum in 259 CE.

The defeat and capture of Valerian at Edessa in 260 CE by the Sasanian Empire threw the Roman Empire into the chaos of civil war. Control of the whole empire passed to Gallienus. He defeated the eastern usurpers Macrianus Major and Mussius Aemilianus in 261–262 CE but failed to stop the formation of the breakaway Gallic Empire under general Postumus. Aureolus, another usurper, proclaimed himself emperor in Mediolanum in 268 CE but was defeated outside the city by Gallienus and besieged inside. While the siege was ongoing, Gallienus was stabbed to death by the officer Cecropius as part of a conspiracy.

Although ancient historians did not treat Gallienus favorably, he was actually responsible for several useful reforms. He was the first emperor to commission the Comitatenses, military cavalry units that could be quickly dispatched anywhere in the empire.  The formation of these units created a precedent for the future emperors Diocletian and Constantine I.  Gallienus also prioritized more reliable equestrian commanders over senators. Classicist Pat Southern, author of "The Roman Empire from Severus to Constantine", observed that, although this policy undermined senatorial power, these reforms and the decline in senatorial influence not only helped the later emperor Aurelian to salvage the Empire, but they also make Gallienus one of the emperors most responsible for the creation of the Dominate, along with Septimius Severus, Diocletian, and Constantine I.

Dionysus (Bacchus), of course, represents the god of wine and the grape harvest, but the Romans also associated him with freedom, at times calling him Liber (meaning free).  As Eleutherios ("the liberator"), his wine, music and ecstatic dance freed his followers from self-conscious fear and care, and subverted the oppressive restraints of the powerful.  The cult of Dionysus is also a "cult of the souls." His maenads feed the dead through blood-offerings, and he acts as a divine communicant between the living and the dead.  It is probably these more somber symbols Gallienus sought to invoke with this portrait since the chaos of the Third Century was  anything but carefree.

Image: Roman portrait dated to 260 CE thought to be possibly the emperor Gallienus (253-268 CE) in the guise of Dionysus, the Greek god of wine that I photographed at the Art Institute of Chicago.

If you enjoyed this post, never miss out on future posts by following me by email!

Lictors: Symbols of order in the Roman world

A lictor (possibly from Latin: ligare, "to bind") was a Roman civil servant who was an attendant and bodyguard to a magistrate who held imperium. Lictors are documented since the Roman Kingdom, and may have originated with the Etruscans. Lictors were instituted by Rome's first king, Romulus, who appointed 12 lictors to attend him. Livy refers to two competing traditions for the reason that Romulus chose that number of lictors. The first version is that 12 was the number of birds that appeared in the augury, which had portended the kingdom to Romulus. The second version, favoured by Livy, is that the number of lictors was borrowed from the Etruscan kings, who had one lictor appointed from each of their 12 states. 

Originally, lictors were chosen from the plebs, but through most of Roman history, they seemed to have been freedmen. Centurions from the legions were also automatically eligible to become lictors on retirement from the army.  Lictors were exempted from military service, received a fixed salary (of 600 sesterces, in the beginning of the Empire), and were organized in a corporation. Usually, they were personally chosen by the magistrate they were supposed to serve, but it is also possible that they were drawn by lots.  Lictors were associated with Comitia Curiata and, probably, one was originally selected from each curia, since there were originally 30 curiae and 30 lictors (24 for the two consuls and six for the sole praetor).  

A Vestal Virgin was accorded a lictor when her presence was required at a public ceremony.  These lictors, however, were known as lictor curiatus.  They did not carry rods or fasces as their main tasks were religious.  There were approximately 30 of them, serving at the command of the Pontifex Maximus, the high priest of Rome. They were present at sacrifices where they carried or guided sacrificial animals to the altars. During the Imperial Period, women of the royal family were usually followed by two of these lictors.  They were also tasked with summoning the Comitia Curiata (the Public Assembly) and to maintain order during its procedures.

Image: Statuette of a Roman lictor , Bronze, 1st century CE that I photographed at the Art Institute of Chicago in 2009.

If you enjoyed this post, never miss out on future posts by following me by email!