The Thirty Tyrants (
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
: ''Tyranni Triginta'') were a series of thirty rulers who appear in the ''
Historia Augusta
The ''Historia Augusta'' (English: ''Augustan History'') is a late Roman collection of biographies, written in Latin, of the Roman emperors, their junior colleagues, designated heirs and usurpers from 117 to 284. Supposedly modeled on the si ...
'' as having ostensibly been
pretender
A pretender is someone who claims to be the rightful ruler of a country although not recognized as such by the current government. The term is often used to suggest that a claim is not legitimate.Curley Jr., Walter J. P. ''Monarchs-in-Waiting'' ...
s to the throne of the
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...
during the reign of the emperor
Gallienus
Publius Licinius Egnatius Gallienus (; c. 218 – September 268) was Roman emperor with his father Valerian from 253 to 260 and alone from 260 to 268. He ruled during the Crisis of the Third Century that nearly caused the collapse of the empi ...
.
Given the notorious unreliability of the ''Historia Augusta'', the veracity of this list is debatable; there is a scholarly consensus that the author deliberately inflated the number of pretenders in order to parallel the
Thirty Tyrants of Athens.
The ''Historia'' actually gives 32 names; however, because the author (who wrote under the name of
Trebellius Pollio) places the last two during the reigns of
Maximinus Thrax
Gaius Julius Verus Maximinus "Thrax" ("the Thracian"; – 238) was Roman emperor from 235 to 238.
His father was an accountant in the governor's office and sprang from ancestors who were Carpi (a Dacian tribe), a people whom Diocleti ...
and
Claudius II
Marcus Aurelius Claudius "Gothicus" (10 May 214 – January/April 270), also known as Claudius II, was Roman emperor from 268 to 270. During his reign he fought successfully against the Alemanni and decisively defeated the Goths at the Battle ...
respectively, this leaves thirty alleged pretenders during the reign of Gallienus.
The following list gives the Thirty Tyrants as depicted by the ''Historia Augusta'', along with notes contrasting the Historia Augusta's claims with their actual historical positions:
Table
Notwithstanding the author's pretensions regarding the time during which these persons aspired to the throne, this list includes:
*two women and six youths who never claimed imperial dignity
*seven men who either certainly or probably never claimed imperial dignity
*three probably and two possibly fictitious persons
*two pretenders admittedly not contemporary with Gallienus
*three pretenders not contemporary with Gallienus
Leaving nine pretenders roughly contemporary with Gallienus. According to David Magie (the editor of the Loeb Classical Library edition of the ''Historia Augusta''), at least some of these men issued coins.
See also
*
Crisis of the Third Century
The Crisis of the Third Century, also known as the Military Anarchy or the Imperial Crisis (AD 235–284), was a period in which the Roman Empire nearly collapsed. The crisis ended due to the military victories of Aurelian and with the ascensio ...
*
List of Roman usurpers
The following is a list of usurpers in the Roman Empire. For an overview of the problem and consequences of usurpation, see Roman usurpers. In the Eastern Roman Empire (395–1453), rebellion and usurpation were so notoriously frequent (in the vis ...
*
Gallienus usurpers
The Gallienus usurpers were the usurpers who claimed imperial power during the reign of Gallienus (253–268, the first part of which he shared with his father Valerian). The existence of usurpers during the Crisis of the Third Century was very c ...
*
Augustan History
The ''Historia Augusta'' (English: ''Augustan History'') is a late Roman collection of biographies, written in Latin, of the Roman emperors, their junior colleagues, designated heirs and usurpers from 117 to 284. Supposedly modeled on the si ...
*
Enmannsche Kaisergeschichte
The ('Enmann's History of the Emperors') is a modern term for a hypothesized Latin historical work, written in the 4th century but now lost.
The German scholar Alexander Enmann made in 1884 a comparison of several late Roman historical works and ...
References
External links
''Historia Augusta: the Thirty Tyrants''(Latin text and
English
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* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ...
translation)
{{Epochs of Roman Emperors
Thirty
30 (thirty) is the natural number following 29 and preceding 31.
In mathematics
30 is an even, composite, pronic number. With 2, 3, and 5 as its prime factors, it is a regular number and the first sphenic number, the smallest of the form ...
*
Thirty
30 (thirty) is the natural number following 29 and preceding 31.
In mathematics
30 is an even, composite, pronic number. With 2, 3, and 5 as its prime factors, it is a regular number and the first sphenic number, the smallest of the form ...