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Information about Thirty Tyrants (roman)

The Thirty Tyrants, or Thirty Pretenders (Latin: Tyranni Triginta) were a group of thirty men (some of whom were children) and two women listed by Trebellius Pollio in the Historia Augusta as having ostensibly been pretenders to the throne of the Roman Empire during the reign of the emperor Gallienus. Given the notorious unreliability of the Historia Augusta, the veracity of this list is debatable; there is a scholarly consensus that the author deliberately inflated the number of pretenders in order to parallel the Thirty Tyrants of Athens.

The Thirty Tyrants listed by the Historia Augusta were: Cyriades, Postumus, Postumus Junior, Laelianus, Victorinus, Victorinus Junior, Marius, Ingenuus, Regalianus, Aureolus, Macrianus, Macrianus Junior, Quietus, Odaenathus, Herodes, Maeonius, Balista, Valens, Valens Superior, Piso, Aemilianus, Saturninus, Tetricus Senior, Tetricus Junior, Trebellianus, Herennianus, Timolaus, Celsus, Zenobia, Victoria (or Vitruvia), Titus, and Censorinus. Notwithstanding the author's pretensions regarding the time during which these persons aspired to the throne, this list includes
  • nine pretenders roughly contemporary with Gallienus;
  • one pretender contemporary with Decius;
  • two pretenders contemporary with Claudius II and Aurelian;
  • two other persons of uncertain date;
  • three men who probably never held the imperial power;
  • four men who certainly never held the imperial power;
  • two women and six children who never held the imperial power;
  • three almost certainly fictitious names.
According to David Magie (the editor of the Loeb Classical Library edition of the Historia Augusta), the nine pretenders contemporary with Gallienus were: Postumus, Laelianus, Marius, Ingenuus, Regalianus, Aureolus, and Macrianus and his two sons, Macrianus Minor and Quietus. At least some of these men issued coins.

See also

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Roman Emperors by Epoch
see also: List of Roman Emperors · Concise list of Roman Emperors · Roman Empire
Principate Crisis of the 3rd century Dominate Division Successors
  • Britannic Emperors
The Augustan History (Lat. Historia Augusta) is a late Roman collection of biographies, in Latin, of the Roman Emperors, their junior colleagues and usurpers of the period 117 to 284.
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The Augustan History (Lat. Historia Augusta) is a late Roman collection of biographies, in Latin, of the Roman Emperors, their junior colleagues and usurpers of the period 117 to 284.
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The Roman Empire is the name given to both the imperial domain developed by the city-state of Rome and also the corresponding phase of that civilization, characterized by an autocratic form of government. This article however is about the latter.
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Gallienus
Emperor of the Roman Empire

Bust of Gallienus
Reign 253-260 with Valerian;
260-268 alone
Full name Publius Licinius Egnatius Gallienus
Born c.
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Thirty Tyrants (Greek: 30 τύραννοι) were a pro-Spartan oligarchy installed in Athens after its defeat in the Peloponnesian War in April 404 BC. Its two leading members were Critias and Theramenes.
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Cyriades stands first in the list of the Thirty Tyrants enumerated by Trebellius Pollio, from whose brief, indistinct, and apparently inaccurate narrative we gather that, after having robbed his father, whose old age he had embittered by dissipation and vice, he fled to the
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Postumus
Emperor of the Gallic Empire

Coin featuring Postumus.
Reign 260 - 268
Full name Marcus Cassianius Latinius Postumus
Born Gaul
Died 268
Buried
Predecessor None
Successor
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Postumus Iunior (d. 268) was an usurper against Roman Emperor Gallienus, according to the Historia Augusta. He is included in the list of the Thirty Tyrants.

According to the often unreliable list of Thirty Tyrants
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Laelianus
Usurper within the Gallic Empire

Laelianus on an aureus. The figure on the reverse might be a reference to Hispania
Reign February / March 268 (against Postumus)
Full name Ulpius Cornelius Laelianus
Born Gaul

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Victorinus
Emperor of the Gallic Empire

Ancient coin featuring Victorinus.
Reign 268 - 270 / early 271
Full name Marcus Piav(v)onius Victorinus
Died 270 / early 271
Buried
Predecessor
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Victorinus iunior (d. 271) was an usurper against Roman Emperor Aurelian, according to the Historia Augusta. He is included in the list of the Thirty Tyrants.

According to the often unreliable list of Thirty Tyrants
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Marius
Emperor of the Gallic Empire

Coin featuring Marius
Reign 268
Died 268
Buried
Predecessor Postumus
Successor Victorinus Marcus Aurelius Marius was emperor of the Gallic Empire in 268.
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Ingenuus is a term in the civil law derived from the term ingenui which is a class of freemen, distinguished from the liberti, (or sometimes libertini - those who, born slaves, had afterwards legally obtained their freedom).
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Regalianus
Usurper of the Roman Empire

Antoninianus issued by Regilianus' wife, Sulpicia Dryantilla, who is shown here as Augusta.[1]
Reign 260
Full name P. C.
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Aureolus
Usurper of the Roman Empire
Reign 268 (against Gallienus)
Full name Manius Acilius Aureolus
Born 220-230(?)
Dacia
Died 268
Milan
Buried

General

Manius Acilius Aureolus (d.
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Macrianus
Usurper of the Roman Empire
Reign 260
Full name Fulvius Macrianus
Died 261
Thrace
Buried
Predecessor Gallienus
Successor Macrianus Minor, Quietus
Wife/wives ? (of noble birth)

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Macrianus Minor
Usurper of the Roman Empire

Macrianus on a coin
celebrating Eternal Rome. [1]
Reign 260-1 (with Quietus)
Died 261
Buried
Predecessor Gallienus
Successor Gallienus

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Quietus
Usurper of the Roman Empire

Quietus on a coin
celebrating Eternal Rome. [1]
Reign 260-1 (with
Macrianus Minor)
Full name Titus Fulvius Iunius Quietus
Died 261
Buried

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Septimius Odaenathus, or Odenatus (Greek: Οδαίναθος (Hodainathos), (Arabic: أذينة = little ear Othayna), the Latinized form of Odainath
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Maeonius (d. 266/267), or Maconius, was a short-lived Roman usurper. He is also known with the names of Odaenathus (Syncellus I p717) and Rufinus (Continuator of Cassius Dio frg. 166).

He was the nephew (according to Zonaras xii.
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Balista (d. c. 264), also known in the sources with the probably wrong name of "Callistus", was one of the Thirty Tyrants of Trebellius Pollio, and supported the rebellion of the Macriani against Emperor Gallienus.
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Valens Thessalonicus (d. ca. 261) was a Roman usurper against Roman Emperor Gallienus.

Valens was the proconsul of Achaea under Gallienus. When Macrianus rebelled to Gallienus, he met the opposition of Valens, so he sent Piso to put him to death.
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Valens (d. 250) is one of the Thirty Tyrants, a list of Roman usurpers compiled by the author(s) of the Historia Augusta.

According to Historia, this Valens was the uncle or great-uncle of another usurper, Valens Thessalonicus, who revolted against Emperor
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Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi (d. 261) was a Roman usurper, whose existence is questionable, as based only on the unreliable Historia Augusta.

His name was Piso, and is said to be descendant of the gens Calpurnia and that he received the title Frugi
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Mussius Aemilianus
Usurper of the Roman Empire
Reign 260 or 260-261
Full name Lucius Mussius Aemilianus
Died 261 or 262
Buried
Father Italian

Lucius Mussius Aemilianus (d.
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Saturninus is mentioned in the Historia Augusta as a Roman usurper during the reign of emperor Gallienus (253-268). It is very probably a fictional construction by the author of the Historia Augusta.
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Tetricus I
Emperor of the Gallic Empire

Coin featuring Tetricus I
Reign 270 / 271 - 273 / 274
(with Tetricus II)
Full name Caius Pius Esuvius Tetricus
Buried
Predecessor Victorinus / Domitian II
Successor
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Tetricus II
Caesar of the Gallic Empire

Antoninianus of Tetricus
Reign 273-274 (as Caesar)
Full name Caius Pius Esuvius Tetricus
Buried

Caius Pius Esuvius Tetricus, better known in English as
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Trebellianus (d. 260-268), also Trebatius Priscus or Trebatius Testa, was a Roman usurper listed among the thirty tyrants in the Historia Augusta. Modern historians consider this figure a character invented by the author of Historia
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Titus Cornelius Celsus, Roman usurper under Gallienus, one of the Thirty Ty­rants enumerated by Trebellius Pollio.

In the twelfth year of Gallienus' reign (265), when usurpers were springing up in every quarter of the Roman world, a certain Celsus, who had never risen higher
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