The Reign of Emperor Gallienus by Ilkka Syvanne

Author:Ilkka Syvanne [Ilkka Syvanne]
Language: eng
Format: epub

6.4The War against the Macriani 260/261–262

²³

The reasons why the Macriani and Ballista rose in revolt are shrouded in mystery. One possible reason could be that Gallienus refused to negotiate with the Persians and a second is the tolerance of Christians shown by Gallienus, but at the same time it is likely that at least one of the reasons was racist. It is probable that Ballista and some of the Roman soldiers (i.e. the officers of Valerian posted in the East) resented the fact that the Arab sheik Odaenathus had been given command of the campaign against the Persians together with Roman legions. Peter the Patrician (f.185) gives us a good example of this. According to him, Cyrinus (probably Aurelius Quirinus, an official from Egypt), detested the fact that a foreigner had taken command of the war with the result that Odaenathus ordered Cyrinus executed. It is quite possible that this incident took place at this time and was one of the reasons for the revolt.

The disgruntled Romans, led by Ballista, asked the a rationibus Fulvius Macrianus to become emperor. He refused on the grounds of age and infirmity. Therefore the ‘soldiers’ nominated Macrianus’ sons Fulvius Macrianus and T. Fulvius Iunius Quietus as emperors. Ballista was nominated as Magister Equitum. The usurpers and Ballista decided to exploit the absence of Odaenathus in the east and the absence of Gallienus from the Balkans by invading the Balkans with an army of 30,000 soldiers in 260 or 261. Father and son Macriani took charge of the campaign while Quietus and Ballista remained behind to secure the east against Odaenathus. When the news was brought to Gallienus, his orders to Odaenathus were naturally to turn back and suppress the revolt.²⁴

As noted, the invading army was led by Macrianus the elder and his son, while Ballista together with Quietus remained behind to rule the east. Elsewhere, the Historia Augusta (Gall. 2.6 vs. Macr. 12.12) claims that the Macriani had 45,000 men. This probably implies that the Macriani had added 15,000 Pannonian soldiers to their original 30,000-strong force. There is no doubt that they hated Gallienus.

According to the HA, the Macriani first sent a certain Piso against Valens, proconsul of Achaea, who had also revolted against Gallienus. But then, Piso in turn proclaimed himself emperor, and withdrew into Thessaly, where he was then supposedly killed by the assassins sent by Valens. This series of events does not strike true to me because there is a glaring discrepancy in the HA. According to the HA, the Senate, with the approval of Gallienus, voted divine honours to Piso after he had been assassinated by Valens’ henchmen. This actually makes it quite likely that Piso had in fact revolted against the Macriani and sided with Gallienus at the time of his murder.

Valens’ success proved only temporary, because he was slain by his own soldiers. This suggests that Gallienus’ frumentarii had killed Valens at the first opportunity. However, if both Piso and Valens were indeed usurpers, as claimed by the

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