Danubian and Balkan Emperors

Author(s): Ronald Syme

Source: Historia: Zeitschrift fr Alte Geschichte, Bd. 22, H. 2 (2nd Qtr., 1973), pp. 310-316
Published by: Franz Steiner Verlag
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DANUBIAN

AND BALKAN EMPERORS

I. The great military emperors who came out of Illyricum are often called
"Illyrian"; and some may even be assigned "Illyrian blood." The term is
vicious and misleading. It is also too vague, and too narrow. As concerns the
territories once inhabited by peoples that spoke Illyrian dialects, Dalmatia can
show only one Roman emperor, namely Diocletian, and none is attested for
Dardania. Constantine was born at Naissus in that region, it is true, but that
is not enough to establish the "patria" of his family.'
The epoch of Constantine had little precise knowledge about the age of
tribulation embracing the fifty years from the end of Severus Alexander to
the accession of Diocletian. Such at least is the clear impression conveyed by
three scrappy products of the Fourth Century, namely the Caesares of Aurelius Victor (written in 360), the Breviarium of Eutropius (370) and the Epitome of Pseudo-Victor (not long after 395). As their concordances show,
they derive from a common source. That source, it may be contended, took
the story of the emperors down to the decease of Constantine (337), and was
composed in the near sequel.2
That is to say, the "Kaisergeschichte" postulated by Enmann in 1884. Enmann, however, put his KG not long after 284. He was influenced by the ostensible date of the Historia Augusta, not yet doubted or impugned. The decisive intervention of Dessau in 1889 has entailed many changes, not all of
them at once recognised.
As recovered from the three epitomators, the KG (which was also drawn
upon by Jerome in his Chronicle and by Festus) furnishes valuable indications, through its very defects. It betrays plain ignorance, blatant errors and
grave misconceptions. For example, starting from the notion that the brief
reign of Tacitus was a kind of "interregnum" between Aurelian and Probus,
the KG produced the erroneous consequence of six or seven months intervening before Tacitus was installed as emperor.3 Aurelius Victor enlarged
on this theme, with dire effects, as revealed in the Historia Augusta.
However, the KG supplied the "patria" of the Emperor Decius, namely Sirmium, with notable precision, giving the "vicus" Budalia as his place of
For Naissus, Anon. Val. 2. 2; also (carlier) Firmicus MIaternus,Math. I 10. 13.
That date for the Ignotus, assumed by Seeck long ago, is reaffirmed by T. D. Barnes, LIAC,
3 Victor 35. 12; Epit. 35. 10. Not, however, in Eutropius.
Bonn 1968/1969 (1970), 13 f.
I

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Danubian and Balkan Emperors

311

birth.4 Also Sirmium for Probus - a detail perhaps owing preservation to the
fact that this emperor was assassinated while superintending drainage operations in the vicinity.6 Further, it certified Sirmium as the origin of one of the
Tetrarchs, namely Maximianus.6 But there is no sign that it said anything
about the "patria" of Claudius.
Nor was it able to transmit accurate information about the nomenclature
of certain rulers. For example L. Domitius Aurelianus, M. Clauclius Tactus,
M. Annius Florianus.
The selection of items by the three epitomators can be variously instructive (emphasis or omissions), likewise their idiosyncrasies. Eutropius is curt
(but allocating more space to Aurelian than to any emperor since Trajan),
Victor is prone to develop themes he likes and indulge in moral and political
reflections, whereas the Epitome carries several dubious items that appear
fictitious.7 Which, in its way, happens to be important. It is useful to register
inventions about emperors antecedent to the Historia Augusta, or contemporaneous. That work, which also used the KG from time to time, will not
often be cited in the present paper, for obvious reasons.

II. Sirmium lays claim to three Roman emperors. This place made an early
entrance into history, in the narration of the great rebellion of Pannonians
and Dalmatians in A. D. 6. At that time Sirmium, a town of the Amantuni,
housed a Roman garrison. Made a colony of veterans by Domitian, Sirmium
went on to acquire an enhanced role in war and government. Occupying a
strong position among the marshes beside the Save, Sirmium was on the
high road of empire that linked Aquileia to Byzantium: in fact about halfway
between Aquileia and Serdica, and thus destined for the residence of emperors and even the rank of a capital city. In a narrower strategic sense, Sirmium was in close proximity to an important section of the frontier of Pannonia Inferior. As one of the Latin panegyrists states, in allusion to the "patria"
of Maximianus, his infancy and early years were passed "in illo limite, illa
fortissimarum sede legionum, inter discursus strenuae iuventutis et armorum sonitus."8
Eutropius IX. 4; Epit. 29. 1, cf. Victor 29. 1: "Sirmiensium vico ortus."
' Victor 37. 4; Eutropius IX. 17. 3; Epit. 37. 4.
6 Epit. 40. 10.
1 Thus presumably "Gallonius Basilius" who by order of the dying Gallienus brought the "regia indumenta" to Claudius at Ticinum (Epit. 34. 32): the episode is a fiction. Also "Dalmatius",
the horticultural parent of Probus (37. 1). For these items (and others) see further R. Syme, Emperors and Biography (1971), 232 f. "Gallonius Basilius" is registcrcd without dubitation in the new
Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, Vol. I (1971). That work also conflates "Dalmatius"
with "Maximus", the centurion whom the Historia Augusta invented as the Emperor's father
8 Pan. lat. X. 2. 2.
(Prob. 3. 2).
'

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312

RONALIDSYME

Clearly a dynamic territory. Another martial zone is not far to seek. It is

the old "Moesia et Treballia", extending along the Danube from a point below the Iron Gates as far as the beginning of the Ripa Thraciae, not far short
of Novae. The Roman military occupation began with the establishment of
auxiliary regiments along the Danube, and before long a legion came to Oescus in the Treballian land.9 Further, Radiariamay also have been a legionary
camp at some time or other. Evidence is lacking so far, but the position was
strategic, at the point where a road from Naissus reached the Danube. Both
Ratiaria and Oescus were made military colonies by Trajan. Roman and native elements thus blended in a fruitful symbiosis.10
After Domitian split the province of Moesia, with the boundary at or near
the river Ciabrus, Ratiaria belonged to Moesia Superior, Oescus to Moesia
Inferior. But the old entity, namely Moesia and Treballia, was restored by
Aurelian as a result of his evacuation of Trajan's Dacia in 271. His own Nova
Dacia was divided, comprising two well defined portions, perhaps at once.
Dacia Ripensis is the frontier zone along the Danube, and the two legions
were now stationed at Ratiaria and at Oescus. To constitute Dacia Mediterranea, the Dardariian land (Naissus, Ulpianum and Scupi) was severed from
Moesia Superior and joined to two regions taken from the province of
Thrace (the territories of Serdica and Pautalia).'1

III. And now, to develop the parallel with Sirmium, several emperors derive their origin from Dacia Ripensis. Brevity and convenience commend
the use of that term, although the zone was still Moesian when those rulers
saw the light of day.
The sequence of soldier emperors from Illyricum that leads on to the Tetrarchs began with Claudius and took its origin from the conspiracy which
was contrived against Gallienus by the generals in 268. Both Claudius and
Aurelian were prominent in that affair.12
Precursors might be looked for. What of Decius, who came from Sirmium? But Decius in one respect is anomalous, for he was a senator and a
senior ex-consul when he seized the power. Better, the high equestrian officer Maximinus, in command of Danubian levies and proclaimed emperor by
the army after the assassination of Severus Alexander.
What the Historia Augusta asserts about the antecedents of Maximinus
will be dismissed as pure fiction.13 There remains the testimony of Herodi9 For the earliest military posts see B. Gerov, Act. Ant. Ac. Sc. Hung. XV (1967), 85 if.
10 For the high civilization of Ratiaria, V. Velkov, Eirene V (1966), 155 if.
11 For the territories of Dacia Nova, H. Vetters, Dacia Ripensis (1950), 6 ff.
12 Victor 33. 21, cf. Zosimus I. 40. 2; Zonaras XII. 25.
13 For the contrary view, A. Bellezza, Massimino il Trace (1964).

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Danubian and Balkan Emperors

313

an, which calls for a careful assessment. According to Herodian, Maximinus

began as a shepherd, a village boy from the "Thracians of the furthest interior."14 In a Greek writer the phrase should indicate the tract along the Danube. Making allowance for prejudice and defamation, it can be argued that
C. Julius Verus Maximinus (for such is his full style) was not a native Thracian but a Roman citizen by birth, deriving from a zone that included two
Roman colonies, Ratiaria and Oescus.15
To proceed therefore to Claudius and Aurelian. About the local origin of
Claudius, the Historia Augusta (so it appears) found no information in its
sources. Instead, it toys with fancies about either Dalmatia or Dardania
(Claud. 11. 9), and the matter is further complicated by intrusion of the fabricated ancestry of Constantine (13. 2, see below).
As for Aurelian, the author of the Historia Augusta imports confusion
through his predilection for variant versions, genuine or invented: that is,
Sirmium, "ut plures loquuntur," or "Dacia Ripensis, ut nonnulli." But he
recalls reading an author who furnished Moesia (Aur. 3. 1 f.).
However that may be, Dacia Ripensis and Moesia are not irreconcilable,
and Eutropius in fact has Dacia Ripensis (IX. 13. 1). By contrast, the Epitome is both vague and suspect. It states that Aurelian was born "inter Daciam et Macedoniam" and it alleges that his parent had been the colonus of
an eminent senator called "Aurelius" (35. 1).16
Next, Galerius. According to Eutropius, he was born "in Dacia haud
longe a Serdica" (IX. 22. 1). That is to say, presumably in Dacia Mediterranea. The Epitome, however, has Dacia Ripensis, with Romulianum on the
Danube (so named by Galerius in honour of his mother) as the place where
he was both born and buried (40. 16). The discrepancy is serious (the testimony of Eutropius would normally be given the preference), and one might
well be loath to discard Romulianum. Romula, the mother of Galerius, was a
refugee to Dacia Nova, driven out of Transdanubian Dacia by an incursion
of the Carpi, perhaps about the year 250.17 Galerius himself, made a Caesar
by Diocletian in 293, can hardly have been born later than 255. At that time
the territory of Serdica (it will be recalled) was still a part of Thrace, a Greekspeaking province. Further to the question, it is unfortunate that nothing is
on precise record about the origin of Galerius' later associates, Maximinus
Daia (the son of his sister), the Caesar Severus and the Augustus Licinius,
save that Licinius came from Nova Dacia (which does not help much).18
" Herodian VI. 8. 1.
15 The case is argued in Emperors and Biography (1971), Ch. Xl.
1" The passage is cited in PLRE 1 (1971), as conveying Moesia Superior. Eutropius is preferable
17 Iactantius, De mort. persec. 9. 2.
if only because more precise.
18 Anon. Val. 5. 13. Yet "Nova Dacia" might connote Ripensis in the first instance rather
than Mediterranea, as does "Dacia Nova" in the passage of Lactantius cited in the previous
footnote.

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314

RONALD SYME

Finally, Constantius. An excellent source, the Anonymous Valesianus, was

not able to supply either the name of his father or the region of his provenience. One must therefore turn to Julian, the grandson of Constantius. Julian
twice refers to himself as a "Thracian".19 That is in wilful deprecation, to
sharpen the contrast with the frivolous and effeminate inhabitants of Antioch. None the less, it excludes both Dardania and Moesia Superior. Not,
however, Dacia Ripensis. And he supplies a precise piece of testimony: the
family derives from the Moesians, on the bank of the Danube, between the
Pannonians and the Thracians.20

IV. That should seem good enough.21 But a doubt might arise. Julian's
name was "Flavius Claudius Julianus". Is he perhaps adopting the standard
and consecrated ancestry of his line?
In the year 310 the son of Constantius, discarding his father-in-law Maximianus, stood in urgent need of a new source of legitimation. It was duly discovered and published. As the panegyrist pro claimed, disclosing a secret
known to close friends of the ruler: "ab illo enim divo Claudio manat in te
avita cognatio." Constantine, he proceeds, is the third emperor in the line, by
birth he deserved the power.22
The descent from Claudius was duly incorporated in the titulature. Otherwise (so it appears), the particulars were left vague, and variants thus arose
more easily.23For example, if Constantius was not very plausible as a son of
Claudius, or as a son-in-law, another connection might be conjectured. Thus
the Anon. Val., which states that Constantius was a grand-nephew.24
This version appealed to the author of the Historia Augusta. He proceeded to make it plausible by inventing names and a stemma. As follows. Apart
from Quintillus, Claudius in fact had another brother, called "Crispus".
Now "Claudia", the daughter of this "Crispus" was married to "Eutropio,
nobilissimo gentis Dardanae viro". Constantius Caesar is the son of this pair
(Claud. 13. 2).
Such is the final efflorescence of the fiction devised for the benefit of Constantine in the year 310. The Dardanian nobleman "Eutropius", who keeps a
place in some reputable works of history, must be thrown out, and with him
goes the "evidence" for the Dardanian origin of Constantius.
How then does the matter stand? The dilemma can be briefly stated. If
Julian when registering the local origin of his family (and clearly indicating
20 Julian, Misopogon 348d.
Julian, Misopogon 350d; 367c.
Accepted in Emperors and Biography (1971), 209. However, see further "The Ancestry of
22 Pan. lat. VI. 2. 1 ff.
Constantine," HAC, Bonn 1971, forthcoming.
23 For the variants, H. Dessau, Hermes XXIV (1889), 343 f.; J. Moreau, JAC II (1959), 159.
24 Anon. Val. 1. 2. For its approximate date see J. MIoreauin his Edition (Teubner, 1961), p.V f.
19

21

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315

Dacia Ripensis) alluded to the official extraction from Claudius, it has to be

supposed that he knew where Claudius came from: a detail not in any extant
and credible source. Otherwise, he had Constantius in mind; and he should
have been in a better position to know about his grandfather than about the
remote (and fictitious) ancestor.25
To be sure, both Claudius and Constantius may have come from the same
territory. That might have been among the reasons (several admit surmise)
which dictated the choice of Claudius rather than some other emperor to
furnish a dynastic legitimation.
*

V. When praising the concord of the four rulers who issued from the martial lands of Illyricum, Aurelius Victor states that they had been formed in
the school of Aurelian and Probus (39. 26). Various ties of alliance no longer
recoverable (blood, friendship and regional propinquity) may have existed
among the generals, contributing to produce the sequence from Claudius to
Aurelian and from Aurelian to Probus (after the brief interlude of Tacitus
and Florianus). Analogy recommends the notion - and facts were supplemented through lavish and ingenious fiction by the author of the Historia
Augusta.26

The "Virtus Illyrici" as demonstrated by the persons of emperors is on

high show for Sirmium and for Ripensis, two zones of energy. Sirmium is
the "patria" of Decius, Probus, Maximianus. Ripensis, after the early precursor
Maximinus, produced Aurelian, Constantius (if preference be given to the
interpretation suggested above), and perhaps Galerius.27
The origin and family of the great Claudius must be reconsigned to obscurity.28But there is something else. In the romantic exposition of the Historia
Augusta (which took up and developed erroneous notions of Aurelius Victor) the Emperor Tacitus, chosen as well as elected by the Roman Senate in
the sequel of long negotiation with the army, was a civilian of scholarly habits - and the author of a restoration of privilege and power to the Senate.
Not in any way plausible. There is room and need for rational conjecture:
M. Claudius Tacitus may himself be a senior member of the Danubian military.29The same might hold for his praefectus praetorio and brief successor,
25

As argued in HAC, Bonn 1971, forthcoming.

Emperors and Biography (1971), Ch. XIII.
27
Not only Galerius (cf. above), but perhaps also Licinius (from Nova Dacia, Anon. Val. 5. 13),
and possibly Maximinus Daia and Severus Caesar.
2A Not but that the Historia Augusta still commands credit. Thus Der Kleine Pauly, Lief. 4
(1963): "Dalmatiner, vit. Claud. 11. 9"; PLRE 1 (1971): "he was an Illyrian from Dalmatia,
V. Claud. 11. 9, 14. 2."
29 As suggested in Emperors and Biography (1971), Ch. XV.
20

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316

RONALD SYME,

Danubian and Balkan Emperors

namely M. Annius Florianus, whom the Historia Augusta styles his brother.30
From Maximinus and Decius, the two forerunners, down to the Tetrarchs, Sirmium and Ripensis exhibit a heavy preponderance. The other
frontier zones are absent. No emperor from Pannonia Superior, though at an
early date Poetovio (a military colony of Trajan) produced a great soldier,
M. Valerius Maximianus, who became consul c. 186.31 Nor any from the
frontier of Pannonia Inferior, from Brigetio by Aquincum down to Mursa.
Nor is Moesia Superior (Singidunum and Viminacium) on the list, or Moesia
Inferior from Novae down to the Danube mouth. As for the large hinterland, Dalmatia can claim only Diocletian. And there is none from the interior tract of Aurelian's Nova Dacia (that is to say, Dardania and the region
severed from Thrace), unless Eutropius be followed, who puts the birthplace of Galerius not far from Serdica.

To conclude with brief reflections suggested by the primacy of Sirmium

and Ripensis. If regard be paid to ethnic antecedents, Ripensis was ancient
Getic and Thracian territory, with a Celtic infusion (as witness a place name
like Bononia); and, if in the neighborhood of Sirmium the substratum had
been Illyrian, the Pannonian natives spoke a Celtic dialect when the historical
period opened. The term "Danubian" is safer. In these zones of the frontier
emphasis should go to the mixture of strains, to the early military occupation
by heterogeneous troops, to the presence of veteran colonies. Out of the
amalgam, inspired by the service of Rome and sharpened by stress of warfare, arose an imperial patriotism that transcended local or regional affinities
throughout the wide and diverse lands of Illyricum.
Ronald Syme

Oxford

30 Wrongly, cf. PIR2, A 649. One passage in the Vita imports a refinement: the maternal ghost
made an apparition before both, "nam diversis patribus nati ferebantur" (17. 4). It is cited in
PLRE as evidence that Tacitus and Florianus were in fact half-brothers.
31 Ann. ep. 1956, 124 (Diana Veteranorum).

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