Claudius Gothicus

Claudius Gothicus (* around 214; † 270 ) was Roman Emperor from 268 to 270 . His full name is given in the vast majority of inscriptions and coins as Marcus Aurelius Claudius , but there are also isolated references to Marcus Aurelius Valerius Claudius . He was probably born on May 10, 214 in the Illyricum . In September or October 268 he ascended the throne after participating in the assassination of his predecessor Gallienus .

Despite the short period of his reign, he achieved great success (for the background, see Imperial Crisis of the 3rd Century ). In 268 the Alamanni invaded Italy from the north , but Claudius was able to defeat them in November 268 in the battle of Lacus Benacus , today's Lake Garda . From then on he was allowed to bear the honorary title Germanicus Maximus . In 269 he also drove the Goths , who had invaded Illyricum and Pannonia and occupied the Peloponnese , in the battle of Naissus (today Niš ) together with the later emperor Aurelian for a whole century and pushed them behind the Danube . This battle earned him his nickname Gothicus .

After relinquishing command of the Gothic War to Aurelian, he set out again for Pannonia at the end of 269 to defeat the Vandals . But he fell ill with the plague and died in August 270 at the age of about 56. His successor was his brother Quintillus - ostensibly against his will .

When Senate Claudius was in contrast to its predecessor, it is believed the later sources, popular because Gallienus had refused to senators any military command. However, Claudius did not withdraw these measures either. Due to his great services to the Roman Empire (and under pressure from Quintillus), the Senate divinized him after his death as " Divus Claudius" ("Divine Claudius").

The historian Dexippos treated the time of Claudius in two historical works: in a chronicle based on universal history and in a history of the Roman Gothic Wars ( Scythica ); however, only a few fragments of both works have survived. It is possible that the anonymous author of the Historia Augusta (which was very unreliable at the time) used Dexippus as a source for his Vita of Claudius.

In the early 4th century, Claudius Gothicus constructed a fictitious descent of his family to legitimize the Constantine Empire . This makes it difficult to assess the brief reign of the emperor, since the relevant sources all date from a time that had an interest in idealizing the supposed ancestor of Constantine.

literature

Arnold Hugh Martin Jones , John Robert Martindale, John Morris : M. Aurelius Valerius Claudius ('Gothicus') 11. In: The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire (PLRE). Volume 1, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1971, ISBN 0-521-07233-6 , p. 209.
Udo Hartmann : Claudius Gothicus and Aurelianus . In: The time of the soldier emperors. Crisis and Transformation of the Roman Empire in the 3rd Century AD , ed. v. Klaus-Peter Johne , Berlin 2008, pp. 297–323.

Web links

Commons : Claudius Gothicus - collection of images, videos and audio files

Richard D. Weigel: Short biography (English) at De Imperatoribus Romanis (with references).
Biography from the Historia Augusta (English)
Walter Henze : Aurelius 82 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume II, 2, Stuttgart 1896, Sp. 2458-2462.

Remarks

↑ The evidence for the name is named and discussed by Arthur Stein in: Prosopographia Imperii Romani , Part 1, 2nd edition, Berlin 1933, p. 331 (No. A 1626); Robin George Collingwood , Richard P. Wright: The Roman Inscriptions of Britain , Vol. 1, Oxford 1965, p. 702 (No. 2246); Michael Peachin: Roman Imperial Titulature and Chronology, AD 235-284 , Amsterdam 1990, pp. 370-379.
↑ Udo Hartmann: Claudius Gothicus and Aurelianus . In: Klaus-Peter Johne (Ed.): The time of the soldiers' emperors. Crisis and transformation of the Roman Empire in the 3rd century AD , Berlin 2008, p. 297f.
↑ On the date of the accession to government (between August 28 and October 16) see Richard Goulet: Le système chronologique de la Vie de Plotin . In: Luc Brisson et al. (Ed.): Porphyre: La Vie de Plotin , Volume 1, Paris 1982, pp. 187–227, here: 197 and note 1, 201.
↑ In some places in Egypt it was still assumed that Claudius would reign on October 20, 270, since the news of his death had not yet become known everywhere there. For the dating see Goulet (1982) p. 197 and note 2; Timothy D. Barnes: The Chronology of Plotinus' Life . In: Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 17, 1976, pp. 65–70, here: 66f.
↑ Cf. Thomas Grünewald: Constantinus Maximus Augustus. Propaganda of rule in contemporary tradition (Historia individual writings, issue 64) . Stuttgart 1990, p. 46ff.

predecessor	Office	successor
Gallienus	Roman emperor 268–270	Quintillus

personal data
SURNAME	Claudius Gothicus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Claudius, Marcus Aurelius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	roman emperor
DATE OF BIRTH	214 or 219
PLACE OF BIRTH	uncertain: Sirmium
DATE OF DEATH	270

[1] The evidence for the name is named and discussed by Arthur Stein in: Prosopographia Imperii Romani , Part 1, 2nd edition, Berlin 1933, p. 331 (No. A 1626); Robin George Collingwood , Richard P. Wright: The Roman Inscriptions of Britain , Vol. 1, Oxford 1965, p. 702 (No. 2246); Michael Peachin: Roman Imperial Titulature and Chronology, AD 235-284 , Amsterdam 1990, pp. 370-379.

[2] Udo Hartmann: Claudius Gothicus and Aurelianus . In: Klaus-Peter Johne (Ed.): The time of the soldiers' emperors. Crisis and transformation of the Roman Empire in the 3rd century AD , Berlin 2008, p. 297f.

[3] On the date of the accession to government (between August 28 and October 16) see Richard Goulet: Le système chronologique de la Vie de Plotin . In: Luc Brisson et al. (Ed.): Porphyre: La Vie de Plotin , Volume 1, Paris 1982, pp. 187–227, here: 197 and note 1, 201.

[4] In some places in Egypt it was still assumed that Claudius would reign on October 20, 270, since the news of his death had not yet become known everywhere there. For the dating see Goulet (1982) p. 197 and note 2; Timothy D. Barnes: The Chronology of Plotinus' Life . In: Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 17, 1976, pp. 65–70, here: 66f.

[5] Cf. Thomas Grünewald: Constantinus Maximus Augustus. Propaganda of rule in contemporary tradition (Historia individual writings, issue 64) . Stuttgart 1990, p. 46ff.