Aurelian and Probus: The Soldier Emperors Who Saved Rome

Description

This is a narrative military history of the emperors Lucius Domitius Aurelianus ( Aurelian', reigned 270-275) and Marcus Aurelius Probus (276-282) which also includes the other reigns between the years 268 and 285. It shows how these two remarkable emperors were chiefly responsible for the Empire surviving and emerging largely intact from a period of intense crisis. It was Aurelian who first united the breakaway regions, including Zenobia's Palmyra, and it was Probus who then secured his achievements. The reigns of Aurelian and Probus have been subjected to many studies, but none of these have approached the extant material purely from the point of view of military analysis. Most importantly, the previous historians have not exploited the analytical opportunities provided by the military treatises that describe the strategy and tactics of the period Roman army. It is thanks to this new methodology that Ilkka Syvanne has been able to reconstruct the military campaigns of these two soldier emperors and their other contemporaries in far greater detail than has been possible before. Acknowledgements List of Plates List of Maps Introduction Abbreviations Chapter 1. Sources and Analysis Chapter 2. The Roman Empire in 268 Chapter 3. Youth and Career of Aurelian and Probus until 268 Chapter 4. The Reign of Claudius II ‘Gothicus’ in 268–270 Chapter 5. Aurelian (Aurelianus) The Beginning of the Reign in 270–71 Chapter 6. Aurelian vs. Zenobia 271–272 Chapter 7. The Wars against the Palmyrene Rebels, Carpi and Firmus of Egypt in 272–3 Chapter 8. Aurelian in the West 274–5 Chapter 9. Aurelian, the Man with Perfect Ability in War Chapter 10. Tacitus 275–6 Chapter 11. The Struggle for Dominance: Probus vs. Florianus Chapter 12. Probus the Fireman Chapter 13. Probus. The Military Intellectual Chapter 14. The Reigns of Carus (282–3), Carinus (282–5) and Numerianus (282–4) Appendix I: Modestus, Vegetius, and the Late Third Century Army Appendix II: The Problem of Third Century Drungus/Droungos as a Military Unit Notes Bibliography