Clodius Albinus

Aureus of Clodius Albinus as Caesar . He is depicted with bare skin, neither with a laurel wreath nor with a crown of rays, i.e. without imperial insignia .

Decimus Clodius Septimius Albinus ( Clodius Albinus for short ; * November 25 (?) Probably around 148; † February 19, 197 near Lugdunum, today's Lyon ) was Roman Caesar from 193 to 195 and anti -emperor against Septimius Severus from late 195 to his Death. He is often referred to as one of the emperors of the second year of the four emperors in 193, but this goes back to a late tradition that is considered untrustworthy.

Origin and career

Clodius Albinus was born in North Africa, probably around the middle of the 2nd century. He probably came from Hadrumetum (today Sousse in Tunisia). His family were senatorial and perhaps distantly related to the Severi . Since his biography in the Late Antique Historia Augusta contains a lot of invented information, nothing reliable is known about the beginning of his career. His father is said to have been Ceionius Postumus, but this too is uncertain.

Under Emperor Commodus , he distinguished himself in fighting in Dacia in the early 180s ; he was probably legionary there . Around 187 he became a suffect consul and thus qualified for the highest offices. In 189 he became governor in Lower Germany , and around 191 governor of the province of Britain .

Role as heir to the throne of Septimius Severus

After the assassination of Emperor Pertinax on March 28, 193, a power vacuum arose in Rome because the successor, the "auction emperor " Didius Julianus , who had been raised by the Praetorians , could not gain respect, was rejected by the city population and was not recognized anywhere else. Probably several troop leaders had planned usurpations during the short reign of the Pertinax.

As early as the beginning of April the governor Septimius Severus was proclaimed emperor by his troops in Upper Pannonia , a few days later the governor of the province of Syria , Pescennius Niger , in Antioch . Niger took control of the east of the empire while Severus entered Rome. As the commander of a strong army, Albinus was also a candidate for imperial dignity. At that time, however, as the Historia Augusta reports later, he probably did not allow himself to be proclaimed Augustus by his troops , but apparently let himself be persuaded by Septimius Severus to be satisfied with the title of Caesar and thus with the prospect of succession to the throne. So Septimius Severus won a free hand for his victorious campaign against Pescennius Niger (193-194). Albinus stayed in Britain. In 194 he was consul ordinarius together with Septimius Severus . From him he took the name Septimius .

Elevation to emperor, civil war and death

After the removal of the counter-emperor Niger, it turned out that the agreement between Emperor Septimius Severus and Albinus did not have a stable basis. The now generally recognized emperor had two sons whom he wanted to secure the succession to the throne, and after winning the East saw no more reason to be considerate of Albinus. For his part, he had to recognize the untenability of his position.

Albinus left Britain, went to Gaul and had his troops proclaim him Augustus . Severus appointed his older, only eight year old son Caracalla to Caesar and was therefore to realize that he wanted to grant Albinus not entitled to succeed more. The chronology of these events and thus the question of which side provoked and triggered the conflict first is unclear. It is possible that Albinus used Caracalla's rebellion as an opportunity to rise, or it was Albinus who took the initiative towards the end of 195 and asserted his claim to power; Caracalla probably only became Caesar at the beginning of 196 , and Albinus was probably only declared an enemy of the state in Rome towards the end of 196 after the beginning of the military conflict. The reconstruction of the events is made more difficult by the fact that the sources that have been preserved mainly reflect the position of the later victor, Severus.

Albinus achieved initial successes in Gaul and defeated the opposing commander Virius Lupus in one battle. But then he took a defensive position; apparently he wanted to wait until the spring of 197 in order to advance over the Alpine passes to northern Italy. Severus, who controlled Raetia and Upper Germany, got ahead of him and advanced to southern Gaul in winter. The decisive battle took place on February 19, 197 near Lugdunum , today's Lyon; apparently it was one of the greatest battles in Roman history. Albinus was successful at first and Severus had to flee. In the end, however, a surprising counterattack by the cavalry of Severus, who had already fled, brought about the decision. Albinus was defeated and died. As is customary in such cases, the damnatio memoriae was imposed on him . Many of his supporters were executed, including (according to the Historia Augusta ) 29 high-ranking senators. A total of 64 senators had been indicted, which shows the popularity of Albinus in the Senate. The merciless crackdown on Albinus and his aristocratic followers was later accused by senatorial historians of Septimius Severus.

swell

The most important sources are the works of the contemporary historians Cassius Dio (73.8; 74.14 f .; 75.6; 76.4–8) and Herodian (2.15; 3.5–7), although his report is strong depends on Dio. Both sources are strongly influenced by the victor's point of view. The information in the much more recent Albinus vita in the Historia Augusta , which was only created around 400, is considered largely unreliable in research today.

literature

• Géza Alföldy : Origin and career of Clodius Albinus in the Historia Augusta . In: Johannes Straub (Ed.): Bonner Historia-Augusta-Colloquium 1966/1967 (= Antiquitas . Series 4: Contributions to Historia-Augusta-Research. Volume 4). Habelt, Bonn 1968, pp. 19-38.
• Karl Christ : History of the Roman Empire . 5th edition, CH Beck, Munich 2002, p. 605 ff.
• Matthäus Heil : Clodius Albinus and the Civil War of 197 . In: Hans-Ulrich Wiemer (Ed.): Statehood and political action in the Roman Empire , de Gruyter, Berlin 2006, pp. 55–85 (with maps of the course of the war, pp. 83–85).
• Ursula Schachinger: Clodius Albinus. Programmatic peace under the “Providentia Augusti” . In: Rivista storica dell'antichità. Volume 26, 1996, pp. 95-122.
• Leonhard Schumacher : The political position of D. Clodius Albinus (193-197 AD) . In: Yearbook of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum Mainz . Volume 50, 2003, pp. 355-369 ( online ).
• Martin Zimmermann : Emperor and Event. Studies on the historical work of Herodian (= Vestigia . Volume 52). CH Beck, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-406-45162-4 , pp. 189-193.

Web links

Commons : Clodius Albinus  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Michael L. Meckler: Short biography (English) at De Imperatoribus Romanis (with references).
• Biography from the Historia Augusta (English)
• Jonah Lendering: Decimus Clodius Albinus . In: Livius.org (English)