Everything about Thirty Tyrants Roman totally explained
The
Thirty Tyrants (Latin:
Tyranni Triginta) were a series of thirty rulers that appear in the 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's a scholarly consensus that the author deliberately inflated the number of pretenders in order to parallel the
Thirty Tyrants of Athens.
The source actually gives 32 names but as the author, writing under the name of one
Trebellius Pollio, places the last two under the reign of
Maximinus Thrax and
Claudius II respectively, this leaves thirty pretenders supposedely under the reign of Gallienus.
The following list gives the Thirty Tyrants as depicted by the
Historia Augusta, along with notes contrasting the Historia Augusta's claims with their actual historical position:
Chapter in Historia Augusta |
Name |
Notes about historicity |
| 2 |
Cyriades |
never claimed Imperial dignity |
| 3 |
Postumus |
accurate placement |
| 4 |
Postumus Junior |
youth |
| 5 |
Laelianus |
accurate placement |
| 6 |
Victorinus |
contemporary not with Gallienus but Claudius II and Aurelian |
| 7 |
Victorinus Junior |
youth, contemporary not with Gallienus but Claudius II and Aurelian |
| 8 |
Marius |
accurate placement |
| 9 |
Ingenuus |
accurate placement |
| 10 |
Regalianus |
accurate placement |
| 11 |
Aureolus |
accurate placement |
| 12 |
Macrianus |
accurate placement |
| 13 |
Macrianus Junior |
accurate placement |
| 14 |
Quietus |
accurate placement |
| 15 |
Odaenathus |
never claimed Imperial dignity |
| 16 |
Herodes |
youth, never claimed Imperial dignity |
| 17 |
Maeonius |
never claimed Imperial dignity |
| 18 |
Balista |
never claimed Imperial dignity |
| 19 |
Valens |
probably never claimed Imperial dignity |
| 20 |
Valens Superior |
contemporary of Decius, not Valerianus |
| 21 |
Piso |
probably never claimed Imperial dignity |
| 22 |
Aemilianus |
probably never claimed Imperial dignity |
| 23 |
Saturninus |
probably fictitious |
| 24 |
Tetricus Senior |
contemporary not with Gallienus but Claudius II and Aurelian |
| 25 |
Tetricus Junior |
youth, contemporary not with Gallienus but Claudius II and Aurelian |
| 26 |
Trebellianus |
probably fictitious |
| 27 |
Herennianus |
youth, never claimed Imperial dignity, possibly fictious |
| 28 |
Timolaus |
youth, never claimed Imperial dignity, possibly fictious |
| 29 |
Celsus |
probably fictitious |
| 30 |
Zenobia |
female, never claimed Imperial dignity, |
| 31 |
Victoria (or Vitruvia) |
female, never claimed Imperial dignity, |
| 32 |
Titus |
admittedly not contemporary with Gallienus but Maximinus Thrax |
| 33 |
Censorinus. |
admittedly not contemporary with Gallienus but Claudius II |
Notwithstanding the author's pretensions regarding the time during which these persons aspired to the throne, this list includes:
- two women and six youths who never claimed imperial dignity
- seven men who either certainly or probably never claimed imperial dignity
- three probably and two possibly fictitious persons
- two pretenders admittedly not contemporary with Gallienus
- three pretenders not contemporary with Gallienus
Leaving nine pretenders roughly contemporary with Gallienus. According to David Magie (the editor of the Loeb Classical Library edition of the
Historia Augusta), at least some of these men issued coins.
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