Valerian is known as the first Roman emperor to have been taken captive in battle, captured by thePersian emperorShapur I after theBattle of Edessa, causing shock and instability throughout theRoman Empire. The unprecedented event and rumors of his humiliation at the hands of the Persian emperor generated a variety of different reactions and "new narratives about the Roman Empire in diverse contexts".[5]
Valerian wasconsul for the first time either before AD 238 as aSuffectus or in 238 as anOrdinarius. In 238 he wasprinceps senatus, andGordian I negotiated through him for senatorial acknowledgement for his claim as emperor. In 251 AD, whenDecius revived the censorship with legislative and executive powers so extensive that it practically embraced the civil authority of the emperor, Valerian was chosencensor by the Senate,[7] though he declined to accept the post. During the reign of Decius he was left in charge of affairs in Rome when that prince left for his ill-fated last campaign inIllyricum.[8] UnderTrebonianus Gallus, Valerian was appointeddux of an army probably drawn from the garrisons of the German provinces which seems to have been ultimately intended for use in a war against the Persians.[9]
However, when Trebonianus Gallus had to deal with the rebellion ofAemilianus in 253 AD, he turned to Valerian for assistance in crushing the attempted usurpation. Valerian headed south but was too late: Gallus was killed by his own troops, who joined Aemilianus before Valerian arrived. TheRaetian soldiers then proclaimed Valerian emperor and continued their march towards Rome. Upon his arrival in September, Aemilianus's legions defected, killed him and proclaimed Valerian emperor. In Rome, the Senate quickly acknowledged Valerian.[10]
Valerian's first act as emperor was to appoint his son Gallienusaugustus, thus making him co-emperor. Early in his reign, affairs in Europe went from bad to worse, and the whole West fell into disorder. In the East,Antioch had fallen into the hands of aSassanid vassal andArmenia was occupied byShapur I (Sapor).[7] Valerian and Gallienus split the problems of the empire between them, with the son taking the West, and the father heading East to face thePersian threat.
In 254, 255, and 257, Valerian again becameConsul Ordinarius. By 257, he had recovered Antioch and returned the province ofSyria to Roman control. The following year, theGoths ravagedAsia Minor. In 259, Valerian moved on toEdessa, but an outbreak ofplague killed a critical number oflegionaries, weakening the Roman position, and the town was besieged by the Persians. In 260, probably in June,[10] Valerian was decisively defeated in theBattle of Edessa and held prisoner for the remainder of his life. Valerian's capture was a tremendous defeat for the Romans.[14]
While fighting the Persians, Valerian sent two letters to the Senate ordering that firm steps be taken againstChristians. The first, sent in 257, commanded Christian clergy to perform sacrifices to theRoman gods or face banishment. The second, the following year, ordered the execution of Christian leaders. It also required Christian senators andequites to perform acts of worship to the Roman gods or lose their titles and property, and directed that they be executed if they continued to refuse. It also decreed that Roman matrons who would notapostatize should lose their property and be banished, and that civil servants and members of the Imperial household who would not worship the Roman gods should be reduced to slavery and sent to work on the Imperial estates.[15] This indicates that Christians were well-established at that time, some in very high positions.[16]
Eutropius, writing between 364 and 378 AD, stated that Valerian "was overthrown by Shapur king of Persia, and being soon after made prisoner, grew old in ignominious slavery among the Parthians."[18] An early Christian source,Lactantius (thought to be virulently anti-Persian due to the occasional persecution of Christians by some Sasanian monarchs)[19] maintained that, for some time prior to his death, Valerian was subjected to the greatest insults by his captors, like being used as a human footstool by Shapur when mounting his horse. According to this version of events, after a long period of such treatment, Valerian offered Shapur a huge ransom for his release.[7]
In reply (according to one version), Shapur was said to have forced Valerian to swallow molten gold (the other version of his death is almost the same but it says that Valerian was killed by beingflayed alive) and then had Valerian skinned and his skin stuffed with straw and preserved as a trophy in the main Persian temple.[7] It was further alleged that it was only after a later Persian defeat against Rome that his skin was given a cremation and burial.[20] The captivity and death of Valerian has been frequently debated by historians without any definitive conclusion.[19]
According to the modern scholarTouraj Daryaee,[19] contrary to the account of Lactantius,Shapur I sent Valerian and some of his army to the city ofBishapur orGundishapur where they lived in relatively good conditions. Shapur used the remaining soldiers in engineering and development plans.Band-e Kaisar (Caesar's dam) is one of the remnants of Roman engineering located near the ancient city ofSusa.[21] In all the stone carvings on Naghshe-Rostam, in Iran, Valerian is represented holding hands with Shapur I, a sign of submission. According to the early Persian Muslim scholarAbu Hanifa Dinawari, Shapur settled the prisoners of war in Gundishapur and released Valerian, as promised, after the construction of Band-e Kaisar.[22]
It has been alleged that the account of Lactantius is coloured by his desire to establish that persecutors of the Christians died fitting deaths;[23] the story was repeated then and later by authors in the Roman Near East fiercely hostile to Persia.[24]
The joint rule of Valerian and Gallienus was threatened several times byusurpers. Nevertheless, Gallienus held the throne until his own assassination in 268 AD.[25]
Licinius Valerianus was another son of Valerian I. Consul in 265, he was probably killed by usurpers, some time between the capture of his father in 260 and the assassination of his brother Gallienus in 268.
Valerian appears inJoseph of Anchieta’s 1587 playAuto de São Lourenço as one of the main characters. In Act III, Valerian is killed for being responsible for the persecution and killing ofSaint Lawrence, in the year258 AD. Valerian also appears inAnthony Hecht's poem "Behold the Lilies of the Field" in the collectionThe Hard Hours, and inHarry Sidebottom's historical fiction series of novelsWarrior of Rome.
^F. Johansen (1995).Catalogue Roman portraits, vol. III.. p. 122, cat.no. 50.
^RE 13.1 (1926) col. 488, Licinius 173.John Malalas 12.298 gives his age at death as 61 years, but apparently mistakes the emperor for his identically-named son. Weigel says he was born shortly before 200.
^Valerian's full title at his death wasImperator Caesar Pvblivs Licinivs Valerianvs Pivs Felix Invictvs Avgvstvs Germanicvs Maximvs Pontifex Maximvs Tribuniciae Potestatis VII Imperator I Consul IV Pater Patriae, "Emperor Caesar Publius Licinius Valerianus, Patriotic, Favored, Unconquered Augustus, Conqueror of the Germans, Chief Priest, seven times Tribune, once Emperor, four times Consul, Father of the Fatherland".
^abPeachin, Michael (1990).Roman Imperial Titulature and Chronology, A.D. 235–284. Amsterdam: Gieben. pp. 36–38.ISBN90-5063-034-0.
^Overlaet, Bruno (2017)."ŠĀPUR I: ROCK RELIEFS".Encyclopaedia Iranica.The two emperors who are named are shown in the way they are described: Philip the Arab is kneeling, asking for peace, and Valerian is physically taken prisoner by Šāpur. Consequently, the relief must have been made after 260 CE.
^Kia, Mehrdad (2016).The Persian Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia [2 volumes]: A Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 274.ISBN978-1610693912.(...) while another figure, probably Philip the Arab, kneels, and the Sasanian king holds the ill-fated Emperor Valerian by his wrist.
^Corcoran, Simon (2006). "Before Constantine". In Lenski, Noel (ed.).The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Constantine. Cambridge University Press. p. 35.ISBN978-0521521574.He recorded these deeds for posterity in both words and images at Naqsh-i Rustam and on the Ka'aba-i Zardušt near the ancient Achaemenid capital of Persepolis, preserving for us a vivid image of two Roman emperors, one kneeling (probably Philip the Arab, also defeated by Shapur) and the second (Valerian), uncrowned and held captive at the wrist by a gloriously mounted Persian king.
^Lactantius,De Mortibus Persecutorum, v; Wickert, L., "Licinius (Egnatius) 84" inPauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopädie 13.1 (1926), 488–495; Parker, H.,A History of the Roman World A.D. 138 to 337 (London, 1958), 170. From[1].
^Abdolhossein Zarinkoob "Ruzgaran: tarikh-i Iran az aghz ta saqut saltnat Pahlvi" pp. 195
Baudoin, Jacques (2006),"Saint Prudent",Grand livre des saints: culte et iconographie en Occident (in French), EDITIONS CREER,ISBN978-2-84819-041-9, retrieved20 December 2017
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