Aurelian

Reece Period attributed: Period 13

Member of the Third Century Emperors dynasty.

Coins for this issuer were issued from 270 until 275.

Lucius Domitius Aurelianus was born ca. 214 in Moesia Inferior (a Danube province). He led a military career and achieved honours under Gallienus; he may have instigated the plot which led to the murder of that emperor. Aurelian did not succeed Gallienus, but allowed the more popular Claudius II to rule.

When Claudius II died of the Plague, Aurelian became the natural choice for a successor. He went to Rome for the winter, but then went back to the Danube to face the threats of various tribes along the border. Recurring invasions by Germanic groups made Aurelian decide that Rome, unwalled since the reign of Augustus, needed a city wall. He accordingly built the Aurelian Wall (finished by Probus).

Probus, Aurelian’s chief general and future successor, reconquered Egypt; Aurelian re-took the separatist Gallic Empire. He celebrated a huge victory in Rome and set off to fight the Persians. On the way, he fell victim to a misunderstanding—his men thought they were sentenced to punishment and revolted, when in reality the rumor was spread by the emperor’s secretary to escape his own punishment. After only five years this beloved and successful emperor died; the Senate immediately deified him and his soldiers gave him a magnificent burial.

Other resources about Aurelian

• Dbpedia: http://dbpedia.org/resource/Aurelian
• Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurelian
• VIAF: http://viaf.org/viaf/77109448

View all coins recorded by the scheme attributed to Aurelian.

Information from Wikipedia

• Preferred label: Aurelian
• Full names:
  • Aurelian
• Title:
• Predecessor: Quintillus
• Successor: Tacitus (emperor)
• Definition: Aurelian (Latin: Lucius Domitius Aurelianus; 9 September 214 – c. October 275) was a Roman emperor, who reigned during the Crisis of the Third Century, from 270 to 275. As emperor, he won an unprecedented series of military victories which reunited the Roman Empire after it had nearly disintegrated under the pressure of barbarian invasions and internal revolts. Born in humble circumstances, near the Danube River, he entered the Roman military in 235, and climbed up the ranks. He went on to lead the cavalry of the emperor Gallienus, until Gallienus' assassination in 268. Following that, Claudius Gothicus became emperor until his own death in 270. Claudius' brother Quintillus ruled the empire for three months, before Aurelian became emperor. During his reign, he defeated the Alamanni after a devastating war. He also defeated the Goths, Vandals, Juthungi, Sarmatians, and Carpi. Aurelian restored the Empire's eastern provinces after his conquest of the Palmyrene Empire in 273. The following year he conquered the Gallic Empire in the west, reuniting the Empire in its entirety. He was also responsible for the construction of the Aurelian Walls in Rome, the abandonment of the province of Dacia, and monetary reform, trying to curb the devaluation of the Roman currency. Although Domitian, two centuries earlier, was the first emperor who had demanded to be officially hailed as dominus et deus ("master and god"), these titles never occurred in written form on official documents until the reign of Aurelian. His successes were instrumental in ending the crisis, earning him the title Restitutor Orbis ("Restorer of the World").
• Parents:
  • Father:
  • Mother:
• Birth place:
• Death place: Thracia, Caenophrurium
• Spouse:
  • Ulpia Severina
• Other title(s):
  • List of Roman emperors
  • List of Roman consuls
  • Roman consul
• Came After:
  • Titus Flavius Postumius Quietus
  • Aemilianus II
  • M. Claudius Tacitus II
  • Junius Veldumnianus
• Came before:
  • Tacitus (emperor)
  • Virius Orfitus
  • Flavius Antiochianus
  • Placidianus
• Subjects on wikipedia:
  • 214 births
  • Gothicus Maximus
  • People from Sirmium
  • 275 deaths
  • Aurelian
  • Domitii
  • 210s births
  • Roman emperors murdered by the Praetorian Guard
  • Assassinated heads of state
  • Roman emperors to suffer posthumous denigration or damnatio memoriae
  • Illyrian people
  • 3rd-century Roman emperors
  • Crisis of the Third Century
  • 3rd-century murdered monarchs
  • Deified Roman emperors
  • 3rd-century Romans
  • Imperial Roman consuls
  • Illyrian emperors