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During Rome’s Crisis of the Third Century, many Emperors ascended solely based on their military prowess. Not so for Valerian (c. 200 – c. 260 AD). Noble born, he held progressively more important political positions, including that of an influential senator. Valerian became a trusted and esteemed administrator, and by 250 AD he earned the trust of Augustus Trajan Decius to govern Rome when the Emperor was away.
During the reign of Augustus Trebonianus Gallus, Valerian was given the assignment to recruit troops at the Rhine frontier. In the middle of that assignment, he received an urgent communication to return and help fight Aemilianus, a usurper who was rapidly marching towards Rome. Valerian was still marching his own troops to the scene when another urgent message arrived. This time, the news was…that it was too late! Aemilianus had defeated Gallus, and the usurper claimed the title of Augustus. Valerian’s troops would not hear of it; instead, they proclaimed Valerian as the rightful Augustus.
Valerian eventually caught up with Aemilianus, whose weary troops presented no match for the fresh and formidable Rhine legions. In a disturbingly routine development, Aemilianus’ troops preferred to murder their leader rather than risk defeat. Valerian finally made it back to Rome, and a relieved Senate promptly approved elevating one of their own. In fact, the Senators were so anxious that they didn’t wait for Valerian’s return to double down by declaring Valerian’s son, Gallienus, as Rome’s Caesar.
Coming from a long-established Roman family, Valerian held conventional Roman views. These included upholding Pagan traditions, and persecuting those intolerant of pagan ways, for example monotheistic Christians. Valerian purged his imperial household of Christian workers and ordered Christian Senators and commoners alike to perform acts worshiping the Roman gods. Those who refused lost their titles, property, and even their lives. Among those paying the price for disobedience were prominent bishops and even the Pope.
Valerian had much more to deal with than Rome’s religious preferences, considering that the Empire had enemies attacking along several borders. Valerian upgraded Gallienus’ role from Caesar to co-Augustus, and tasked his son with defending against German incursions across the Rhine. This allowed Valerian to focus on addressing the threat on the far eastern front, namely the Sasanian Empire.
In the mid 260s AD, Valerian’s nemesis, Sasanian King Shapur I, successfully raided across Asia Minor and sacked several prominent cities, including Antioch (an important mint that was easily recovered, since the enemy quickly looted and left). Later the same decade, Shapur was back at it again for even more war booty, again capturing eastern Roman cities, including, yet again, Antioch.
This billon double-denarius was struck sometime between 256 and 260 AD while Valerian was defending against the Sasanians. The obverse radiate, draped, and cuirassed portrait is typical for the period, contradicting Valerian’s aristocratic, rather than military, upbringing. On the verso stands Orient, a personification of the east reverently handing the Emperor a wreath. The epithet states RESTITVT ORIENTIS, proclaiming that the Emperor represents the “Restorer of the East.”
This numismatic motif anticipating Valerian’s success proved to be one of ancient Rome’s most ironic, and that’s saying something. Although he had accumulated several years of on-the-job battle training, Valerian was far more experienced at political, rather than military strategy. In contrast, Shapur had successfully outmaneuvered and outlasted his Roman enemies for decades. Disparity in military leadership experience was not the only issue. Besides Shapur, the Romans faced an even more insidious enemy, namely the plague. Valerian’s troops suffered horribly, and the Emperor was forced to withdraw to the city of Edessa, which Shapur subsequently besieged.
Having no realistic path to victory at this point, Valerian, ever the politician, attempted to negotiate with the Sasanians. Shapur either did not understand the parley, and/or he chose to interpret Valerian's overture as Rome's surrender. In any case, Valerian had no other choice. He was taken prisoner, and his conquered troops were reportedly deployed in various engineering and development projects across the Sasanian Empire. News of this shocking outcome spread rapidly, plunging an already strained Empire further into chaos.
Ancient sources provide an entertaining range of possibilities for Valerian’s final fate. These accounts, which are subject to anti-Persian and pro-Christian biases, describe how the Augustus met a rather exotic death at his captor’s hands, such as being forced to swallow molten gold or being flayed alive, but only after suffering humiliation, for instance being employed as a footstool to help Shapur mount his horse. Such stories are probably fabrications; historians frequently debate on Valerian’s capture and demise without any consensus being reached. Some modern researchers on the subject conclude that the Augustus and some of his army lived in relatively good conditions after their capture, and one such scholar goes as far as suggesting that Shapur released his prisoners after they completed a major engineering project called
band-e Kaisar (Caesar's dam), whose ruins still stand near the ancient city of Susa, a vibrant political and cultural hub at the time.
Regardless of how things transpired in the end, infamy was secured: Valerian was the only Roman Emperor captured alive by a foreign enemy.
Coin Details: ROMAN EMPIRE, Valerian I, AD 253-260, BI Double-Denarius (19 mm, 3.2 g, 12h), Minted in 256-260 AD at the Samosata mint, 2nd emission, NGC Grade: MS, Strike: 5/5, Surface: 3/5, Obverse: Radiate, draped, and cuirassed bust right, IMP C P LIC VALERIANVS P F AVG, Reverse: Orient standing right, presenting wreath to Emperor standing left, holding spear, RESTITVT ORIENTIS, References: RIC V 287; MIR 36, 1685e; RSC 189.
Image: Sony ɑ 7R Ⅴ camera / Sony FE 90mm f/2.8 Macro G OSS lens.