Parthia
Parthia is a historical region located in north-eastern Iran. It was conquered and subjugated by the empire of the Medes during the 7th century BC, was incorporated into the subsequent Achaemenid Empire under Cyrus the Great in the 6th century BC, formed part of the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire following the 4th-century-BC conquests of Alexander the Great; the region served as the political and cultural base of the Eastern-Iranian Parni people and Arsacid dynasty, rulers of the Parthian Empire. The Sasanian Empire, the last state of pre-Islamic Persia held the region and maintained the Seven Parthian clans as part of their feudal aristocracy; the name "Parthia" is a continuation from Latin Parthia, from Old Persian Parthava, the Parthian language self-designator signifying "of the Parthians" who were an Iranian people. In context to its Hellenistic period, Parthia appears as Parthyaea. Parthia corresponds to a region in northeastern Iran, it was bordered by the Karakum desert in the north, included Kopet Dag mountain range and the Dasht-e-Kavir desert in the south.
It bordered Media on the west, Hyrcania on the north west, Margiana on the north east, Aria on the south east. During Arsacid times, Parthia was united with Hyrcania as one administrative unit, that region is therefore considered a part of Parthia proper; as the region inhabited by Parthians, Parthia first appears as a political entity in Achaemenid lists of governorates under their dominion. Prior to this, the people of the region seem to have been subjects of the Medes, 7th century BC Assyrian texts mention a country named Partakka or Partukka. A year after Cyrus the Great's defeat of the Median Astyages, Parthia became one of the first provinces to acknowledge Cyrus as their ruler, "and this allegiance secured Cyrus' eastern flanks and enabled him to conduct the first of his imperial campaigns – against Sardis." According to Greek sources, following the seizure of the Achaemenid throne by Darius I, the Parthians united with the Median king Phraortes to revolt against him. Hystaspes, the Achaemenid governor of the province, managed to suppress the revolt, which seems to have occurred around 522–521 BC.
The first indigenous Iranian mention of Parthia is in the Behistun inscription of Darius I, where Parthia is listed among the governorates in the vicinity of Drangiana. The inscription dates to c. 520 BC. The center of the administration "may have been at Hecatompylus"; the Parthians appear in Herodotus' list of peoples subject to the Achaemenids. This "has rightly caused disquiet to modern scholars."At the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BC between the forces of Darius III and those of Alexander the Great, one such Parthian unit was commanded by Phrataphernes, at the time Achaemenid governor of Parthia. Following the defeat of Darius III, Phrataphernes surrendered his governorate to Alexander when the Macedonian arrived there in the summer of 330 BC. Phrataphernes was reappointed governor by Alexander. Following the death of Alexander, in the Partition of Babylon in 323 BC, Parthia became a Seleucid governorate under Nicanor. Phrataphernes, the former governor, became governor of Hyrcania. In 320 BC, at the Partition of Triparadisus, Parthia was reassigned to Philip, former governor of Sogdiana.
A few years the province was invaded by Peithon, governor of Media Magna, who attempted to make his brother Eudamus governor. Peithon and Eudamus were driven back, Parthia remained a governorate in its own right. In 316 BC, Stasander, a vassal of Seleucus I Nicator and governor of Bactria was appointed governor of Parthia. For the next 60 years, various Seleucids would be appointed governors of the province. In 247 BC, following the death of Antiochus II, Ptolemy III seized control of the Seleucid capital at Antioch, "so left the future of the Seleucid dynasty for a moment in question." Taking advantage of the uncertain political situation, the Seleucid governor of Parthia, proclaimed his independence and began minting his own coins. Meanwhile, "a man called Arsaces, of Scythian or Bactrian origin, elected leader of the Parni", an eastern-Iranian peoples from the Tajen/Tajend River valley, south-east of the Caspian Sea. Following the secession of Parthia from the Seleucid Empire and the resultant loss of Seleucid military support, Andragoras had difficulty in maintaining his borders, about 238 BC – under the command of "Arsaces and his brother Tiridates" – the Parni invaded Parthia and seized control of Astabene, the northern region of that territory, the administrative capital of, Kabuchan.
A short while the Parni seized the rest of Parthia from Andragoras, killing him in the process. Although an initial punitive expedition by the Seleucids under Seleucus II was not successful, the Seleucids under Antiochus III recaptured Arsacid controlled territory in 209 BC from Arsaces' successor, Arsaces II. Arsaces II sued for peace and accepted vassal status, it was not until Arsaces II's grandson Phraates I, that the Arsacids/Parni would again begin to assert their independence. From their base in Parthia, the Arsacid dynasts extended their dominion to include most of Greater Iran, they quickl
Thrace
Thrace is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe, now split between Bulgaria and Turkey, bounded by the Balkan Mountains to the north, the Aegean Sea to the south and the Black Sea to the east. It comprises northeastern Greece and the European part of Turkey; the word Thrace was established by the Greeks for referring to the Thracian tribes, from ancient Greek Thrake, descending from Thrāix. It referred to the Thracians, an ancient Indo-European people inhabiting Southeast Europe; the name Europe first referred to Thrace proper, prior to the term vastly extending to refer to its modern concept. The region could have been named after the principal river there, Hebros from the Indo-European arg "white river", According to an alternative theory, Hebros means "goat" in Thracian. In Turkey, it is referred to as Rumeli, Land of the Romans, owing to this region being the last part of the Eastern Roman Empire, conquered by the Ottoman Empire. In terms of ancient Greek mythology the name appears to derive from the heroine and sorceress Thrace, the daughter of Oceanus and Parthenope, sister of Europa.
The historical boundaries of Thrace have varied. The ancient Greeks employed the term "Thrace" to refer to all of the territory which lay north of Thessaly inhabited by the Thracians, a region which "had no definite boundaries" and to which other regions were added. In one ancient Greek source, the Earth is divided into "Asia, Libya and Thracia"; as the Greeks gained knowledge of world geography, "Thrace" came to designate the area bordered by the Danube on the north, by the Euxine Sea on the east, by northern Macedonia in the south and by Illyria to the west. This coincided with the Thracian Odrysian kingdom, whose borders varied over time. After the Macedonian conquest, this region's former border with Macedonia was shifted from the Struma River to the Mesta River; this usage lasted until the Roman conquest. Henceforth, Thrace referred only to the tract of land covering the same extent of space as the modern geographical region. In its early period, the Roman province of Thrace was of this extent, but after the administrative reforms of the late 3rd century, Thracia's much reduced territory became the six small provinces which constituted the Diocese of Thrace.
The medieval Byzantine theme of Thrace contained only. The largest cities of Thrace are: Plovdiv, Stara Zagora, Haskovo, Komotini, Xanthi, Istanbul, Çorlu, Kırklareli and Tekirdağ. Most of the Bulgarian and Greek population are Orthodox Christians, while most of the Turkish inhabitants of Thrace are Sunni Muslims. Ancient Greek mythology provides the Thracians with a mythical ancestor Thrax, the son of the war-god Ares, said to reside in Thrace; the Thracians appear in Homer's Iliad as Trojan allies, led by Peiros. In the Iliad, another Thracian king, makes an appearance. Cisseus, father-in-law to the Trojan elder Antenor, is given as a Thracian king. Homeric Thrace was vaguely defined, stretched from the River Axios in the west to the Hellespont and Black Sea in the east; the Catalogue of Ships mentions three separate contingents from Thrace: Thracians led by Acamas and Peiros, from Aenus. Ancient Thrace was home to numerous other tribes, such as the Edones, Bisaltae and Bistones in addition to the tribe that Homer calls the “Thracians”.
Greek mythology is replete with Thracian kings, including Diomedes, Lycurgus, Tegyrius, Polymnestor and Oeagrus. Thrace is mentioned in Ovid's Metamorphoses, in the episode of Philomela and Tereus: Tereus, the King of Thrace, lusts after his sister-in-law, Philomela, he kidnaps her, holds her captive, rapes her, cuts out her tongue. Philomela manages to get free, however, she and her sister, plot to get revenge, by killing her son Itys and serving him to his father for dinner. At the end of the myth, all three turn into birds – Procne into a swallow, Philomela into a nightingale, Tereus into a hoopoe; the indigenous population of Thrace was a people called the Thracians, divided into numerous tribal groups. The region was controlled by the Persian Empire at its greatest extent, Thracian soldiers were known to be used in the Persian armies. On, Thracian troops were known to accompany neighboring ruler Alexander the Great when he crossed the Hellespont which abuts Thrace, during the invasion of the Persian Empire itself.
The Thracians did not describe themselves by name. Divided into separate tribes, the Thracians did not form any lasting political organizations until the founding of the Odrysian state in the 4th century BC. Like Illyrians, the locally ruled Thracian tribes of the mountainous regions maintained a warrior tradition, while the tribes based in the plains were purportedly more peaceable. Discovered funeral mounds in Bulgaria suggest that Thracian kings did rule regions of Thrace with distinct Thracian national identity. During this period, a subculture of celibate ascetics called the Ctistae lived in Thrace, where they served as philosophers and prophets. Sections of Thrace in the south star
Dacia
In ancient geography in Roman sources, Dacia was the land inhabited by the Dacians. The Greeks referred to them as the Getae and the Romans called them Daci. Dacia was bounded in the south by the Danubius river, in Greek sources the Istros, or at its greatest extent, by the Haemus Mons. Moesia, a region south-east of the Danube, was a core area where the Getae lived and interacted with the Ancient Greeks. In the east it was bounded by the Pontus Euxinus and the river Danastris, in Greek sources the Tyras, but several Dacian settlements are recorded between the rivers Dniester and Hypanis, the Tisia to the west. At times Dacia included areas between the Middle Danube; the Carpathian Mountains are located in the middle of Dacia. It thus corresponds to the present-day countries of Romania and Moldova, as well as smaller parts of Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and Ukraine. A Dacian Kingdom of variable size existed between 82 BC until the Roman conquest in AD 106; the capital of Dacia, located in modern Romania, was destroyed by the Romans, but its name was added to that of the new city built by the latter to serve as the capital of the Roman province of Dacia.
The Dacians are first mentioned in Herodotus and Thucydides. The extent and location of Dacia varied in its three distinct historical periods: The Dacia of King Burebista, stretched from the Black Sea to the source of the river Tisa and from the Balkan Mountains to Bohemia. During that period, the Geto-Dacians conquered a wider territory and Dacia extended from the Middle Danube to the Black Sea littoral and from present-day Slovakia's mountains to the Balkan mountains. In 53 BC, Julius Caesar stated that the lands of the Dacians started on the eastern edge of the Hercynian Forest. After Burebista's death, his kingdom split in four states five. Strabo, in his Geography written around AD 20, says: ″As for the southern part of Germany beyond the Albis, the portion, just contiguous to that river is occupied by the Suevi; the hold of the Dacians between the Danube and Tisza was tenuous. However, the archaeologist Parducz argued a Dacian presence west of the Tisa dating from the time of Burebista.
According to Tacitus Dacians bordered Germania in the south-east, while Sarmatians bordered it in the east. In the 1st century AD, the Iazyges settled West of Dacia, on the plain between the Danube and the Tisa rivers, according to the scholars' interpretation of Pliny's text: "The higher parts between the Danube and the Hercynian Forest as far as the winter quarters of Pannonia at Carnutum and the plains and level country of the German frontiers there are occupied by the Sarmatian Iazyges, while the Dacians whom they have driven out hold the mountains and forests as far as the river Theiss". Written a few decades after the Roman conquest of parts of Dacia in AD 105–106, Ptolemy's Geographia included the boundaries of Dacia. According to the scholars' interpretation of Ptolemy Dacia was the region between the rivers Tisza, upper Dniester, Siret. Mainstream historians accept this interpretation: Waldman Mason. Ptolemy provided a couple of Dacian toponyms in south Poland in the Upper Vistula river basin: Susudava and Setidava.
This could have been an "echo" of Burebista's expansion. It seems that this northern expansion of the Dacian language, as far as the Vistula river, lasted until AD 170–180 when the migration of the Vandal Hasdingi pushed out this northern Dacian group; this Dacian group the Costoboci/Lipiţa culture, is associated by Gudmund Schütte with towns having the specific Dacian language ending "dava" i.e. Setidava; the Roman province Dacia Traiana, established by the victors of the Dacian Wars during AD 101–106 comprised only the regions known today as Banat, Oltenia and was subsequently extended to southern parts of Moldavia, while Dobruja and Budjak belonged the Roman province of Moesia. In the 2nd century AD, after the Roman conquest, Ptolemy puts the eastern boundary of Dacia Traiana as far east as the Hierasus river, in the middle of modern Romania. Roman rule extended to the south-western area of the Dacian Kingdom, to parts of the Principality of Moldavia east of the Siret and north of the Upper Trajan Wall, to areas in modern Muntenia and Ukraine, except the Black Sea shore.
After the Marcomannic Wars, Dacian groups from outside Roman Dacia had been set in motion. So were the 12,00
Egypt (Roman province)
The Roman province of Egypt was established in 30 BC after Octavian defeated his rival Mark Antony, deposed Pharaoh Cleopatra, annexed the Ptolemaic Kingdom to the Roman Empire. The province encompassed most of modern-day Egypt except for the Sinai Peninsula. Aegyptus was bordered by the provinces of Crete and Cyrenaica to Judea to the East; the province came to serve as a major producer of grain for the empire and had a developed urban economy. Aegyptus was by far the wealthiest Eastern Roman province, by far the wealthiest Roman province outside of Italia. In Alexandria, its capital, it possessed the largest port, the second largest city of the Roman Empire; as a key province, but the'crown domain' where the emperors succeeded the divine Pharaohs, Egypt was ruled by a uniquely styled Praefectus augustalis, instead of the traditional senatorial governor of other Roman provinces. The prefect was appointed by the Emperor; the first prefect of Aegyptus, Gaius Cornelius Gallus, brought Upper Egypt under Roman control by force of arms, established a protectorate over the southern frontier district, abandoned by the Ptolemies.
The second prefect, Aelius Gallus, made an unsuccessful expedition to conquer Arabia Petraea and Arabia Felix. The Red Sea coast of Aegyptus was not brought under Roman control until the reign of Claudius; the third prefect, Gaius Petronius, cleared the neglected canals for irrigation, stimulating a revival of agriculture. Petronius led a campaign into present-day central Sudan against the Kingdom of Kush at Meroe, whose queen Imanarenat had attacked Roman Egypt. Failing to acquire permanent gains, in 22 BC he razed the city of Napata to the ground and retreated to the north. From the reign of Nero onward, Aegyptus enjoyed an era of prosperity. Much trouble was caused by religious conflicts between the Greeks and the Jews in Alexandria, which after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 became the world centre of Jewish religion and culture. Under Trajan a Jewish revolt occurred, resulting in the suppression of the Jews of Alexandria and the loss of all their privileges, although they soon returned.
Hadrian, who twice visited Aegyptus, founded Antinopolis in memory of his drowned lover Antinous. From his reign onward buildings in the Greco-Roman style were erected throughout the country Under Antoninus Pius oppressive taxation led to a revolt in 139, of the native Egyptians, suppressed only after several years of fighting; this Bucolic War, led by one Isidorus, caused great damage to the economy and marked the beginning of Egypt's economic decline. Avidius Cassius, who led the Roman forces in the war, declared himself emperor in 175, was acknowledged by the armies of Syria and Aegyptus. On the approach of Marcus Aurelius, Cassius was deposed and killed and the clemency of the emperor restored peace. A similar revolt broke out in 193, when Pescennius Niger was proclaimed emperor on the death of Pertinax; the Emperor Septimius Severus gave a constitution to Alexandria and the provincial capitals in 202. Caracalla granted Roman citizenship to all Egyptians, in common with the other provincials, but this was to extort more taxes, which grew onerous as the needs of the emperors for more revenue grew more desperate.
There was a series of revolts, both civilian, through the 3rd century. Under Decius, in 250, the Christians again suffered from persecution, but their religion continued to spread; the prefect of Aegyptus in 260, Mussius Aemilianus, first supported the Macriani, usurpers during the rule of Gallienus, in 261, became a usurper himself, but was defeated by Gallienus. Zenobia, queen of Palmyra, took the country away from the Romans when she conquered Aegyptus in 269, declaring herself the Queen of Egypt also; this warrior queen claimed that Egypt was an ancestral home of hers through a familial tie to Cleopatra VII. She was well educated and familiar with the culture of Egypt, its religion, its language, she lost it when the Roman emperor, severed amicable relations between the two countries and retook Egypt in 274. Two generals based in Aegyptus and Domitius Domitianus, led successful revolts and made themselves emperors. Diocletian reorganised the whole province, his edict of 303 against the Christians began a new era of persecution.
This was the last serious attempt to stem the steady growth of Christianity in Egypt, however. As Rome overtook the Ptolemaic system in place for areas of Egypt, they made many changes; the effect of the Roman conquest was at first to strengthen the position of the Greeks and of Hellenism against Egyptian influences. Some of the previous offices and names of offices under the Hellenistic Ptolemaic rule were kept, some were changed, some names would have remained but the function and administration would have changed; the Romans introduced important changes in the administrative system, aimed at achieving a high level of efficiency and maximizing revenue. The duties of the prefect of Aegyptus combined responsibility for military security through command of the legions and cohorts, for the organization of finance and taxation, for the administration of justice; the reforms of the early 4th century had established the basis for another 250 years of comparative prosperity in Aegyptus, at a cost of greater rigidity and more oppressive state control.
Aegyptus was subdivided for administrative purposes into a number of smaller provinces, s
Didius Julianus
Didius Julianus was the emperor of Rome for nine weeks from March to June 193, during the Year of the Five Emperors. Julianus had a promising political career, governing several provinces, including Dalmatia and Germania Inferior, defeating the Chauci and Chatti, two invading Germanic tribes, he was appointed to the consulship in 175 along with Pertinax as a reward, before being demoted by Commodus. After this demotion, his early, promising political career languished, he ascended the throne after buying it from the Praetorian Guard, who had assassinated his predecessor Pertinax. A civil war ensued. Septimius Severus, commander of the legions in Pannonia and the nearest of the generals to Rome, marched on the capital, gathering support along the way and routing cohorts of the Praetorian Guard Didius Julianus sent to meet him. Abandoned by the Senate and the Praetorian Guard, Julianus was killed by a soldier in the palace and succeeded by Severus. Julianus was born to Quintus Petronius Didius Severus and Aemilia Clara.
Julianus's father came from a prominent family in Mediolanum, modern-day Milan, his mother was a North African woman of Roman descent, from a family of consular rank. His brothers were Didius Proculus and Didius Nummius Albinus, his date of birth is given as 30 January 133 by Cassius Dio and 2 February 137 by the Historia Augusta. Didius Julianus was raised by mother of the emperor Marcus Aurelius. With Domitia's help, he was appointed at a early age to the vigintivirate, the first step towards public distinction, he married a Roman woman named Manlia Scantilla, sometime around 153, she bore him a daughter, Didia Clara, their only child. In succession Julianus held the offices of quaestor and aedile, around 162, was named as praetor, he was nominated to the command of the Legio XXII Primigenia in Mogontiacum. In 170, he served for five years. After repelling an invasion by the Chauci, a tribe dwelling in the drainage basin of the river Scheldt, the northwestern coastal area of present-day Germany, he was raised to the consulship in 175 along with Pertinax.
He further distinguished himself in a campaign against the Chatti, governed Dalmatia and Germania Inferior. He was made prefect, charged with distributing money to the poor of Italy. Modern historians consider this a demotion for political reasons, as Commodus, the Roman Emperor at the time, feared Julianus' growing power, it was around this time that he was charged with having conspired against the life of Commodus, but the jury acquitted him and instead punished his accuser. Afterwards, he succeeded Pertinax as the proconsul of North Africa. After the murder of Pertinax on March 28, 193, the Praetorian guard announced that the throne was to be sold to the man who would pay the highest price. Titus Flavius Claudius Sulpicianus, prefect of Rome and Pertinax's father-in-law, in the Praetorian camp ostensibly to calm the troops, began making offers for the throne. Meanwhile, Julianus arrived at the camp, since his entrance was barred, shouted out offers to the guard. After hours of bidding, Sulpicianus promised 20,000 sesterces to every soldier.
The guards closed with the offer of Julianus, threw open the gates, proclaimed him emperor. Threatened by the military, the senate declared him emperor, his wife and his daughter both received the title Augusta. Upon his accession, Julianus reversed Pertinax's monetary reforms by devaluing the Roman currency to near pre-Pertinax levels; because Julianus bought his position rather than acquiring it conventionally through succession or conquest, he was a unpopular emperor. When Julianus appeared in public, he was greeted with groans and shouts of "robber and parricide." Once, a mob obstructed his progress to the Capitol by pelting him with large stones. When news of the public anger in Rome spread across the Empire, three influential generals, Pescennius Niger in Syria, Septimius Severus in Pannonia, Clodius Albinus in Britain, each able to muster three legions, rebelled, they instead declared themselves emperor. Julianus declared Severus a public enemy because he was the nearest of the three to Rome, making him the most dangerous foe.
Julianus sent senators to persuade Severus' legionaries to abandon him, a new general was nominated to replace him, a centurion dispatched to take Severus' life. The Praetorian Guard had fought in field battles, so Julianus marched them into the Campus Martius and drilled the guard in the construction of fortifications and field works. Despite this training, the Praetorian Guard was still undertrained compared to the field legionaries of Severus. Severus first secured the support of Albinus, declaring him Caesar, seized Ravenna and its fleet. Severus killed Tullius Crispinus, the Praetorian prefect, sent to negotiate with Severus and slow his march on Rome and won over to his cause the ambassadors sent to turn his troops. Cassius Dio maintains that the Praetorian Guard tried to fight back, but were crushed, while modern historians believe that the Praetorian Guard abandoned Julianus, deserting en masse. Julianus attempted to negotiate with Severus, offering to share the empire with his rival, but Severus ignored these overtures and pressed forward.
As he marched and more cities in Italy supported his claim to the throne. The remnants of the Praetorian Guard received pardons from Severus in exchange for
Clodius Albinus
Clodius Albinus was a Roman usurper, proclaimed emperor by the legions in Britain and Hispania after the murder of Pertinax in 193, who proclaimed himself emperor again in 196, before his final defeat the following year. Albinus was born in Africa Province to an aristocratic Roman family of the Ceionia gens, his father, said his son received the name of Albinus because of the extraordinary whiteness of his complexion. Showing a disposition for military life, he entered the army when young and served with distinction in 175 during the rebellion of Avidius Cassius against Emperor Marcus Aurelius, his merit was acknowledged by the Emperor in two letters in which he calls Albinus an African, who resembled his countrymen but little, and, praiseworthy for his military experience and the gravity of his character. The Emperor declared that without Albinus the legions would have gone over to Avidius Cassius, that he intended to have him chosen consul; the Emperor Commodus gave Albinus a command in Gallia Belgica and afterwards in Britain.
A false rumor having been spread that Commodus had died, Albinus denounced the man before his soldiers in Britain, calling Commodus a tyrant, maintaining that it would be useful to the Roman Empire to restore to the senate its ancient dignity and power. The Senate was pleased with these sentiments, but not so the Emperor, who sent Junius Severus to relieve Albinus of his command. Despite this, Albinus kept his command until after the murders of Commodus and his successor Pertinax in 193. After Pertinax was assassinated, the praetorian prefect Aemilius Laetus and his men, who had arranged the murder, "sold" the imperial throne to wealthy senator Didius Julianus crowning him emperor, but a string of mutinies by the troops in the provinces meant the next Emperor was far from decided. Afterwards, Pescennius Niger was proclaimed Emperor by the legions in Syria. In the civil war that followed, Albinus was allied with Septimius Severus, who had captured Rome. Albinus added the name Septimius to his own, accepted the title of Caesar from him.
Albinus remained effective ruler of much of the western part of the Empire, with support from three British legions and one Spanish. When Didius Julianus was put to death by order of the Senate, who dreaded the power of Septimius Severus, the latter turned his arms against Pescennius Niger. After the defeat and death of Niger in 194, the complete discomfiture of his adherents after the fall of Byzantium in 196, Severus resolved to make himself the absolute master of the Roman Empire. Albinus, seeing the danger of his position, prepared for resistance, he narrowly escaped being assassinated by a messenger of Severus, after which he put himself at the head of his army, said to have consisted of 150,000 men. In autumn 196, Albinus received word that Severus had appointed his elder son Caracalla as his successor with the title of Caesar and convinced the Senate to declare Albinus himself an official enemy of Rome. Now with nothing to lose, Albinus mobilized his legions in Britannia, proclaimed himself Emperor and crossed from Britain to Gaul, bringing a large part of the British garrison with him.
He defeated Severus' legate Virius Lupus, was able to lay claim to the military resources of Gaul, but although he made Lugdunum the headquarters of his forces, he was unable to win the allegiance of the Rhine legions. On 19 February 197 Albinus met Severus' army at the Battle of Lugdunum. After a hard-fought battle, with 150,000 troops on each side according to Dio Cassius, Albinus was defeated and killed himself, or was captured and executed on the orders of Severus. Severus had his naked body laid out on the ground before him, so that he could ride his horse over it, in a final act of humiliation. Albinus' wife and sons were pardoned by Severus, he appeared to change his mind immediately afterwards, for as the dead Albinus was beheaded, so were they. Albinus' headless body was thrown into the Rhône, together with the corpses of his murdered family. Severus sent his head to Rome as a warning to his supporters; the town of Lugdunum was plundered, the adherents of Albinus were cruelly persecuted by Severus.
He had one son, or two, who were executed with their mother by order of Severus. It is said that he wrote a collection of Milesian tales. Livius.org: Decimus Clodius Albinus James Grout: D. Clodius Albinus, part of the Encyclopædia Romana Albinus coinage
The Fall of the Roman Empire (film)
The Fall of the Roman Empire is a 1964 American epic film directed by Anthony Mann and produced by Samuel Bronston, with a screenplay by Ben Barzman, Basilio Franchina and Philip Yordan. The film stars Sophia Loren, Stephen Boyd, Alec Guinness, James Mason, Christopher Plummer, Mel Ferrer, Omar Sharif; the film was a financial failure at the box-office. Despite this, it is considered unusually intelligent and thoughtful for a film of the contemporary sword and sandal genre and enjoys a 100% "Fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes, it features the largest outdoor film set in the history of film, a 92,000 m2 replica of the Roman Forum. The film's name refers not to the final fall of the Roman empire, which did in fact survive for centuries after the period depicted in the film, but rather to the onset of corruption and decadence which led to Rome's final demise, it deals extensively with the problem of imperial succession, examines both the relationship between father and son on the background of imperial politics as well as the nature and limits of loyalty and friendship.
The film's plot is only loosely based on actual historical events. However, in the long-established view of Roman history, Marcus Aurelius is considered as the last of the Five Good Emperors whose time is considered the best of Roman imperial history. Commodus is considered to have fallen far below the standard set by his father and the four earlier Emperors, his reign is considered as the beginning of the decline - though that would still take several centuries. In the winter of 180 A. D. the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius fights to keep Germanic tribes from invading his northern territories on the Danube frontier. His deputies are the Greek ex-slave Timonides, a closet Christian, the stern and honest general Gaius Livius. Livius has close connections with the imperial family, being the lover of Aurelius' philosopher daughter Lucilla and a friend of her brother Commodus, he is amazed to hear that Aurelius wants to make him his heir. Despite his military obligations the emperor has egalitarian ideals, dreaming of a day when Rome grants equal rights to men of all nations.
He knows that he will not live to achieve this end, trusts Livius to do so more than his charismatic but brutal son. The discovery that his father has disinherited him hurts Commodus immensely, damages the brotherly relationship he had enjoyed with Livius. Aurelius summons all the governors of the Roman empire to his headquarters, intending to announce Livius' future accession. Before he can do so he is poisoned by Commodus' cronies, who hope to secure their own political future by putting their friend on the throne. Sure enough, Livius feels that a non-aristocrat such as himself would never be accepted as emperor without Aurelius' explicit backing. Commodus, not part of the murder plot, is left feeling helplessly angry at his deceased father, he dedicates himself to undoing all Aurelius' policies. Meanwhile, Livius' army scores an important victory on the frontier, capturing the German chieftain Ballomar and his aides. Timonides wins the Germans' trust by undergoing an ordeal, having his hand thrust in a fire.
Lucilla helps convince Livius to defy the emperor, since she loved her father as much as Commodus hates him. A speech by Timonides persuades the Roman Senate to let the German captives become peaceful farmers on Italian land, thereby encouraging their fellow barbarians to cooperate with Rome instead of fighting it. Commodus is furious, sends Livius back to his frontier post in what is a sentence of banishment. Lucilla is forced to go to Armenia, with. Commodus is compelled to recall Livius; when he arrives at the site of the unrest, Livius is horrified to find. She tries to persuade him to join her in making a splinter state, free of her brother's influence, but he feels that Roman civilization will collapse if it is broken into pieces; the issue is settled in an unexpected manner when Lucilla's husband calls in Rome's archenemy the Persians to help the rebelling forces fight Livius. The sight of the dreaded Persian cavalry so panics the defecting Romans that they go back over to Livius, swelling his army and allowing him to score an immense victory.
The king of Armenia is killed, Commodus sends word that Livius is to be made joint ruler of Rome. The condition for this reward, however, is that Livius is to wreak hideous punishments on the populations of the disloyal provinces. Rejecting this latest piece of brutality and Lucilla take their army to Rome and order Commodus to abdicate, he responds by bribing away the soldiers' loyalty and massacring Timonides and the population of the German colony. The fawning Senate declares Commodus a god, Livius and Lucilla are sentenced to be burned alive as human sacrifices to the new deity; this victory for Commodus is accompanied by a terrible private discovery—he is not of royal blood, being the product of illicit sex between his promiscuous mother Faustina Minor and the gladiator Verulus, who has since served as the emperor's bodyguard. His mind unhinged by this great shame, Commodus makes the bizarre decision of challenging Livius to a duel for the throne; the two fight with javelins in the
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Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). 
