Barracks emperor

(Redirected from Barracks Emperor)

Categories: Roman emperors

A Barracks Emperor is a Roman Emperor who seized power by virtue of his command of Imperial military forces (a barracks is a building used to house soldiers). Barracks Emperors were especially common in the period from 235 through 268, during the Crisis of the Third Century. There were approximately fourteen Barracks Emperors in 33 years, producing an average reign of a little over two years apiece. The resulting instability in the Imperial office and the near constant state of civil war and insurrection threatened to destroy the Roman Empire from within and left it vulnerable to attack from without.

Contents 1 Style of the 3rd century Barracks Emperors 2 Transition to the Dominate Era 3 List 4 See also

Style of the 3rd century Barracks Emperors

Unlike previous Emperors who had seized power in military coups d'état (Vespasian and Septimius Severus, both from middle-class plebeian stock), the Barracks Emperors tended to be low-class commoners (often from disreputable parts of the Empire); the first Barracks Emperor par excellence, Maximinus Thrax, had begun his military career as an enlisted soldier (miles). A Barracks Emperor could not boast of a distinguished family name or a successful career as a statesman or public servant; rather, he had only his military career to recommend himself, and his only influence was the points of his soldiers' swords.

Because the Barracks Emperors were frequently border commanders, the act of overthrowing the reigning Emperor and seizing power for themselves left large gaps in the Empire's border defenses, gaps that could be exploited by the Romans' enemies, such as a Germanic incursion into Imperial territory in the 260s, resulting in the construction of the Aurelian Walls around Rome. The Barracks Emperors also used state money to pay their troops -- no Emperor who had come into power by force of arms could afford to allow his soldiers to fall into dissatisfaction or disaffectation, as those who live by the sword die by the sword -- and public works and infrastructure fell into ruin. To accommodate the vast demands of buying off their soldiers, the state often simply seized private property, damaging the economy and driving up inflation.

Transition to the Dominate Era

The Imperial system was on the verge of total collapse in 284 when yet another Barracks Emperor, a Greek-born cavalry commander named Diocletian, seized power and donned the purple. Diocletian instituted a number of reforms designed to stabilize the Empire and the Imperial office, including a collegial system of Emperors called the Tetrarchy, bringing an end to the Third Century Crisis and inaugurating the Dominate era of Roman history.

Although further Emperors would don the purple on the basis of military power (e.g., the Illyrian Constantine I, the Pannonian Valentinian I, and the Spaniard Theodosius I), the phenomenon of the Barracks Emperors died out, to be replaced in the late Imperial era by Shadow Emperors like Flavius Stilicho, Flavius Constantius, Flavius Aëtius, Marcus Maecilius Flavius Eparchius Avitus, Ricimer, Gundobad, Flavius Orestes, and Odoacer, military strongmen who effectually ruled the Empire as Imperial generalissimos controlling weak-willed puppet Emperors rather than by donning the purple themselves.

List

Reign	Incumbent	Notes
February/March 235 to March/April 238	Maximinus Thrax	Murdered by troops
earlyJanuary/March 238 to lateJanuary/April 238	Gordian I	Committed suicide
earlyJanuary March 238 to lateJanuary/April 238	Gordian II	Killed in battle
earlyFebruary 238 to earlyMay 238	Pupienus Maximus	Murdered by the Praetorians
earlyFebruary 238 to earlyMay 238	Balbinus	Murdered by the Praetorians
May 238 to February 244	Gordian III	Murdered
240 to 240	Sabinianus	Proclaimed himself emperor; defeated in battle
February 244 to September/October 249	Philip the Arab	Killed in battle by Decius
248 to 248	Pacantius	Proclaimed himself emperor; murdered by his own soldiers
248 to 248	Jotapian	Claimant
248 to 248	Silbannacus	Usurper
249 to June 251	Decius	Killed in battle
249 to 252	Priscus	Proclaimed himself emperor in the Eastern provinces
250 to 250	Licinianus	Claimant
early251 to 1 July 251	Herennius Etruscus	Killed in battle
251 to 251	Hostilian
June 251 to August 253	Gallus	Murdered by his own soldiers
July 251 to August 253	Volusianus	Murdered by his own soldiers
August 253 to October 253	Aemilian	Murdered by his own soldiers
253 to June 260	Valerian I	Co-emperor with Gallienus; captured by Persians: died in captivity
253 to September 268	Gallienus	Co-emperor with Valerian 253 to 260; murdered
258 or June 260	Ingenuus	Proclaimed himself emperor
260	Regalianus	Proclaimed emperor
260 to 261	Macrianus Major	Proclaimed emperor; defeated and killed in battle
260 to 261	Macrianus Minor	Proclaimed emperor; defeated and killed in battle
260 to 261	Quietus	Claimant
261 to 261 or 262	Mussius Aemilianus	Proclaimed emperor
268 to 268	Aureolus	Proclaimed himself emperor; surrendered to Claudius II Gothicus

See also

Roman Emperors by Epoch (see also: List - Concise List - Roman Empire)

Principate  Crisis of the   3rd Century   Dominate  Late Empire Julio-Claudian dynasty Four Emperors 68 to 69 Flavian dynasty Nervan-Antonian dynasty Five Good Emperors Severan Dynasty Barracks Emperors Illyrian Emperors Gallic Emperors (most Tetrarchies) Constantine Dynasty - Brittanic emperors Valentinian Dynasty Theodosian Dynasty (Tetrarchy, unification and final split) Emperors of the Western Empire Byzantine emperors

→ (Italy:) Barbarian kings → (Much later in Western Europe:) Holy Roman Emperors → (Continuing in Eastern Europe:) Byzantine emperors