Ridiculously underappreciated Augustus of Rome. Gallienus had a hell of a career despite suffering just about every setback an Emperor could experience. Thanks for another amazing video SPQRH.

This man had horrible luck and circumstances but despite all that he pushed on and gave it his best instead of standing around complaining. It's a lesson for all of us to take in our own lives

This video is long overdue. Roman historians after Gallienus had ulterior motives for blackening his reputation, and later historians took up their opinions uncritically. But, when you look at all of the evidence, the worst thing you can say about him is that he wasn't Aurelian. But who was? Gallienus had every disadvantage but he survived and held together the center. And don't forget he was the main patron for Plotinus, the founder of the philosophical school of Neoplatonism, which is incredibly important to the intellectual world of late antiquity and the early Middle Ages.

Their is something beautiful in tragic heroes that I love. Gallienus, Majorian, Stilico and Aecius fought with all their willpower to mantain a crumbling empire from total colapse.

The testament to ability of Gallienus is that he reigned for 15 years straight, in a time when average Roman emperor reigned for, like, 1-3 years at best. His idea of having a central reserve cavalry force that rapidly rides to cut down enemies all across the empire, was directly improved and adopted wholesale by Diocletian and Constantine in the form of Comitatenses.

Gallienus gets an A for effort. He tried his best.

I might be alone in this, but Gallienus is a genuine top 5 Roman Emperor for me. He literally did the best he could to save Rome... When he really didn't need to. Think about what a life he lived and he must have known he was fighting a losing battle, but he still fought. He literally took an arrow and kept going. No one would have blamed him if he had just gone full debauchery and hedonist and left the empire to rot, but he didn't. Tragedy after tragedy he still fought to preserve the empire no matter what. I would even argue that it's because of this tenacity that the crisis would eventually come to an end. He fought the losing battle so that Rome may emerge victorious in the war. Truly one of the greatest Romans... And one of the greatest Men of all time.

A seriously underrated Agustus of Roman history. I've been waiting for this ^^

One of the most underrated Roman emperors.

I read historical books about Roman Emperors written not more than twenty years ago. Almost all of them considered Gallienus as a very bad emperor, who sit around and watched everything around him burn. He even insulted Valerian, his own father, for dying pathetically. But the only source for that slander is Historia Augusta, a known historical book that was filled with outright wrong information. Now, it's pretty obvious, using all information about the period, that Gallienus was a good Emperor in a very unfortunate times. He was so damn unlucky and was paid for his good service with nothing but his own death and those of his family one by one, traitors, secession and damnation...

SPQR, thank you for doing all these. Of the many takes on Rome/Roman emperors, I think I like yours the best!

In my opinion, Gallienus was one of the best roman emperors ever. If he had lived one century earlier, he could be as successful same as Vespasianus or Traianus. Unfortunately, he lived in incredible difficult times. Never before were the Roman empire attacked from so many enemies at the same time and never before took place so many uprisings simultanesly. Despite such disasters, Gallienus tried do the best he could and turned away the collapse of the empire. Later sucesful emperors as Aurelianus or Diocletianus just countinued in work he began.

A great rule, disappointing to see how Gallienus’ demise went down…

I bet Gallienus was like "Can I catch a damn break I just came from that region" He was great in my eyes bc he was up and moving his nickname should be the saddle. Another day another barbarian horde and usurper to put down lol

One of the great Emperors for sure. Gallienus walked so Aurelianus and Diocletianus could run.

Being an emperor in this period was the worst/most dangerous job in the Empire: going up and down all over the empire all the time, fighting one barbarian incursion after another (plus Persians), while constantly worrying that your own army will rebel or just kill you on spot.

I wish all of your videos were so deeply in-depth as this masterpiece, I’ve always found Valerian and Galllianeus the most fascinating of the 3rd century emperors, seriously just a fantastic episode can’t wait for your Claudius video

Gallienus was arguably a better all around emperor than Aurelian. Aurelian was very much a general (the greatest in the third century even), and ran the empire like his army: no messing around, ruthless, efficient. He was the right man for the mess of the 270s. Gallienus was a skilled commander, a military reformer, adaptible, cultured, and tolerant. In a time of peace, Gallienus would still be one of the best, while Aurelian would resemble an intensely religious version of Septimius Severus.

This is incredible account of this period and I've been a student of Late Roman History for decades...wonderful telling and production, thank you

Ran across your site by accident. So glad I did. A good story about a very underrated emperor. Keep up the good work.

The man who held Rome together, patching up holes everywhere The only reason Gallienus was so brutal in his Reign was because he was just so fed up with all the bullshit. 2 out of 3 sons are murdered His father captured with an unknown fate in Persia Revolts out the fucking ass The slaughter at Byzantium was mostly just him being sick of it & just told his men "Fuck it, kill them all, JUST KILL THEM ALREADY" And him challenging Postumus to single combat was likely him not only wanting to avoid the spill of Roman blood but also wanting to personally avenge his sons death Men he trusted betrayed him, so I could see why he would just tell his men to kill anyone who wasn't loyal to him as that was an immediate red flag that a revolt was gonna happen It's also worth mentioning that the Army LOVED him alot. Maybe not the Commanders but the regular soldiers yes. When they heard that he was dead, they became extremely upset & Claudius had to calm them down. But once reports came in that the Senate was massacring Gallienus's remaining family in Rome, the Soldiers once again got very upset & threatened to march on Italy. So Claudius had to personally write to the Senate for them to stop

I have to agree. To be honest the most I know about Gallienus is through Mike Duncan, who wasn't exactly gushing about him, but the facts in his narrative seemed to describe an emperor who was making a good fist of a shitty situation .

Wow! Gallienus had a tumultuous reign to say the least! His military innovation was interesting concerning the calvary. Over a 15 year reign he had his critics and enemies. Many he was able to suppress but eventually "they" got him in the end. It was a very difficult time with so many incursions and generals being proclaimed Emperor whenever they would win a skirmish with some tribe. His harsh treatment of enemies, rebels insubordination by soldiers you could see this was a man that had lost his father & two sons to the strains of Emperorship and was in no mood to suffer fools. He tried to innovate by taking a second wife and use that alliance to supplement border security. But something more was needed. And we would see that later on with Diocletian and the Tetrarchy. Well done! Enjoyed that immensely!

Greetings. I very much appreciate your diligence and approach to addressing this very complex and convoluted part of history. You present the facts as you know them, as well as clearly stating when you are expressing an opinion. This is something that I have found rare in my life, else I may have continued my formal education instead of joining the Army, which was an education of the world as it really is. As I am older, I appreciate the bot you have started to use in narration, as it is easier for ME to follow, and the cadence used doesn't lull me into inattention. Not that YOU ever did, I just had to strain to follow your vocal cadence. If I strain too much to focus on one thing, I miss the details that I want to hear. I say that with all respect and absolutely no intention of offence. As I have said, I AM old, with a small amount of brain damage. In closing sir, once again all respect as well as best wishes for your future endeavors, which I look forward to with a great deal of interest.

Like Gallienus, this channel is massively under-appreciated. How am I just finding this gold mine of content?

Man I missed this guy's voice on history marche. Amazing video covering a topic I didn't know anything about. I wish youtube would send me notifications with any regularity. Especially with channels that don't post super often.

What a wonderful exposé. I was aware of Gallienus but didn't know he had started using cataphracts. Thank you for this video.

Without Gallienus, Aurelian would have no empire to restore.

Gallienus worked his tail off! Great example of why you need to build a strong talent pipeline of engaged/capable/loyal people. Just impossible to lead on a large scale when you are constantly just putting out fires.

This story needs to be committed to celluloid, film or TV. Arguably even more interesting than Caesar himself

I’ve never heard of this dude 🎉 1 great thing about this channel: the narrator takes his time: I really appreciate that 😊

You need to continue and do all the emperors. Fourth and fifth century emperors are exciting too.

Everyone gushes over the rock stars like Aurelian or Majorian, but I'd argue Gallienus was more vital to Rome's survival. Gallienus has to be the most underrated Roman emperor, who ruled during the most dangerous time in the Roman Empire. His is as underrated as Antoninus Pius who ruled during the most peaceful time of the Roman Empire. Neither man is talked about, yet each was absolutely essential for Rome's success. If Gallienus hadn't done what he did, Rome would have certainly dissolved in the 260s AD and become a barbarian state. And on top of that, he did it all while his co-emperor Valerian was literally kidnapped and executed by a foreign king. And if Antoninus Pius hadn't made his decisions he did, then the Pax Romana may have not existed at all.

This was great! Very detailed but also comprehensive. I learned a lot. Or at least I heard a lot of things I didn’t know, we’ll see down the road how much I learned.

It was AURELIANwho saved Rome. It is true though that Gallienus was an insanely UNDERrated hero who helped Claudius II Conquer the Goths but then he got quite literally stabbed in the back.

Excellent and detailed video. And the final thoughts are really fair if all he did was true. The Empire needed a king like him at that time for sure

Ending is just depressing Rest in Peace Top G

This channel does not get nearly the high plaudits and attention it richly deserves

Gallienus played the cruelest game of whack a mole. Always fixing one crisis only to be met with another.

Exeptional portrait of emperor Galienus ,the best of such entreprises of historians traying an excellent equilibrium between panegyric and critique. !

Great video once again! Is there a way to support this channel? Also, can you recommend at least top 5 books for Roman history.

So many Romans who suddenly meet their fate with an _"Argh!"_ 🤣 Great video, interesting story.

I have been to the city of Thessaloniki (Salonica) in northern Greece and I believe that the stout tower that has become the symbol of the city (-the White Tower I think it's called) was built under the auspices of Gallienus.

Imperator Caesar Publius Licinius Egnatius Gallienus Augustus Chadicus Maximus. Read L. De Blois The policy of emperor Gallienus. Hands down one of the best and underrated emperors period. Well done boy

So Ingenuus was being Dis-Ingenuus when he took his job 😉; also, Gallienus' nickname should have been The Lawnmower the way he had to carry on cutting guys down everywhere all the time. If Rome had had road miles the way we have air miles today, Gallienus would have been on permanent discount prices his whole life the way he got dragged from pillar to post.

Well narrated as always!

Always a good story teller, love chilling to these documentary's

The unsung hero of the Third Century Crisis.

Hey guys, great video! I wonder what program or app you use to make these videos? :) Would appreciate a response very much!

Rome's greatest threat was itself.

Being Roman Emperor at that period must've sucked. Why anyone would want that job is not really clear. Great video.

Looking over my Gallienus coins again, I think I'll value them higher from now on.

Gallienus: Can you stop proclaiming new emperors FOR 5 F*CKING MINUTES?

Its been a while bro whats happening, cant wait for Claudius Gothicus and finally, Aurelian❤️

Thank you for covering this Emperor.

Don’t usually watch these videos, but I have to for my favorite emperor

The most tragic of all emperors until then, it must be incredibly frustrating to live in that time and see how the Romans themselves no longer want to save the empire, only pursue their selfish interests. It is unbearable to see the number of traitors taking up arms, leaving the borders unprotected and exposing the empire to looting and death. He should have been more cruel, since there is no greater crime than the one committed by all those traitors. Respect to Odaenathus.

I have a small nitpick on an otherwise great video. Gallienus (joint emperor with his father from 253 to 260 and sole emperor till 268) was the 3rd longest ruling emperor of the 3rd century. Both Septimius Severus (emperor from 193 to 211) and Diocletian (284 - 305 though in truth till his death in 311) have him beaten there.

Poor Gallienus had been betrayed by Aurelian and Claudius II who had collaborated with the Praetorian Guards, and before that, he had been screwed by many usurpers, the senate, many natural disasters and even the murder of his son Salonnius which had triggered him the most!! If Gallienus know the conspiracy of Aurelian, his fate would be very different (Also pin this message so that every GALLIENVS fan could see it; I decided to repost again :< ) : After he survived the assassination, he made an impressive speech to all his generals and the speech was similar to Alexander's in Opis, telling them how he guarded Rome against the dark ages, and he rewarded these generals by promoting them, and even his own secret: He was the reincarnation of GAIVS IVILVS CAESAR while saying one word like GAIVS IVLIVS CAESAR in 47 BC: "Quirites.", Gallienus, 268 AD His generals IMMEDIATELY stopped the idea of killing Gallienus, instead, they bowed down to him while praising him as DEVS. In 269, he would march on Naissus, killing every Goth as many as possible and recruiting the remainder as his army by mercy, He recovered half of Gaul and Hispania not only to take advantage of the infighting in Gallic Empire but also to take revenge on his dead "ally" Postumus, who indirectly relieved parts of his burden by defending the Rhine frontier, A fat, ugly anti-Gallienus senator called @tap who had encouraged people to debase the coinage and support Postumus gave the whole of the Italy Penisula to the Gallic Empire, immediately marched into Italy and wore his GOLDEN wreath, defeated @tap, executed the senator by flaying him alive brutally and tossed his corpse into a fire during a sacrifice in the fashion of the execution of Valerian which had been told by Christians (myth only), as @tap was responsible for murdering Gallienus' wife and raped many women, Barbarian hordes were invading the empire like the Vandals, but he crushed them with his generals while willing to integrate them into Roman society for their known warrior reputations, He cleaned all the decadence in Rome by dismissing or executing the corrupt senators, and confiscating their properties for his army pay while replacing all these positions with his army officers like Probus and Diocletian in the senate, He built MASSIVE fortifications in Rome something similar to Aurelian Walls (Gallienus Walls), to keep Rome safe from any enemies, For Danube safety, he created Little Dacia by reducing the size of Dacia which was 1/4 to its original size, while repelling the Goths with his best general Aurelian, and delivering IVSTICE to Cinva, He and Aurelian would gather all cavalrymen he had created, and wreck Zenobia's empire completely, as an act for revenge of another dead ally Odaenathus, and even captured Zenobia, Returning west, given the fact he acted like Stilicho in the 260s, he would solely CRVSH the Gallic Empire, sparing all cities that he had conquered and forcing Tetricus to bow down before him, Despite becoming bald like Carus and losing his father and all his sons, Gallienus saved Rome from the brink of collapse in 280 AD, when he was 62 years old. When he marched on Rome of triumph, he was declared by everyone as RESTITVTOR ORBIS, same as Aurelian in 274 AD despite taking a long time, Shockingly, he pardoned Zenobia and Tetricus, allowing them for returning to their respective homeland, gave their descendants senatorial ranks, and even defied Postumus and Odaenathus, building MARBLE statues of them in Rome, alongside Gallienus, He was GALLIENVS, the only emperor better than AVGVSTVS and TRAIANVS. Not only he had saved the empire, but also decided to rebuild it from the ashes. In the final campaign, GALLIENVS raised an army and EXPAND the empire towards the Persian Gulf and parts of the Media, DESTROYED Cestiphon completely and erected a GIANT statue of his own like Trajan there, and even recovered his father's remains, who died of old age around 20 years before and gave a proper burial by Shapur I. He sacked the way to Merv and killed the incompetent shah Bahram II, forcing it to pay a huge sum of reparations, even deeper into India aimed at looting gold, food, and slaves there, to completely restore the wealth of the empire, After the campaign, he did his usual duties, travelling to every corner of the empire for defeating any threat like barbarian hordes, while solving any crisis in the empire until he died in 298 AD, leaving a strong and prosperous empire behind him, and handled his throne to his son-in-law, Constantius I Chlorus. "I did it, Gaius...Your reincarnation had successfully restored the Republic and rebuilt it with gold..."- GALLIENVS' last words to his son-in-law Constantius I Chlorus, before dying. His body gradually became cold, but his eyes never closed while smiling at Constantius I, perhaps he was happy with his people and the empire... GALLIENVS, the RESTITVTOR ORBIS, died of old age in his palace, three months after he became gravely ill and defeated a barbarian horde. Tears rolled out of Constantius I's eyes, as he saw his father-in-law's GIGANTIC body was dissipated into gold dust (In the fashion of Jane Foster in Marvel), and winds carried it into heaven. The same day when GALLIENVS ascended to heaven, everyone cried hard to mourn him, And his body was not cremated, instead, he stayed in heaven, and watched his empire thrive under the reign of his grandson, Constantine I... "I see the city of Rome has been decorated with gold and silver, the coins aren't as worthless as the beginning of my reign. My cenotaph isn't located in the Hadrian Mausoleum... Instead, it was located in Trier to use my divine light to scare off the barbarians. It is because... I, Gallienus, am both a Roman god and a Christian Saint.", GALLIENVS Note: The fanfiction is created by me, as an act to express Gallienus' heroism and my fondness for him.

Awesome ) now do for Aurelian pls)

Are the mighty Claudius Gothicus and the the Restorer coming anytime soon?

I always felt gallienus had the most thankless position of any emperor..hhe got ragged on as a decadent do nothing meanwhile spent his entire teign running from one part of the empire to the other putting down invasions and usurpers, and lost basically his whole family to usurpers. He was killed for failing to do a job that was next to impossible to do..and all that for a man who had not come up through the ranks like so many others.

The True Savior of Rome

FINALLY some love for this CHAD!

Amazing work, thank you :)

Imagine you hold more than half of europe, half of "Asia", and all of North Africa, but then it starts to crumble. I don't think most or any person today would have the mental fortitude to handle all of that PLUS colossal hordes AND inside scheming for 15 whole years while STILL having time to indulge in upper class interests like he did, especially back when you had to walk to every single place things happened in. A gigachad through and through, the man should be taught in all western schools today as an example of perseverance and working under pressure.

Gallienus was superior 3rd century military tactics because of his higher sophistication and education by comparison to his contemporaries, but he was always contested Emperor. It's one thing to be challenged by outside forces, but Gallienus is a perfect analogy for marriage. If Rome isn't united, there certainly will be challenges by outside forces. Even as pagans when it was okay, this Roman compulsion to portray one's self as Helios always was strong basis for maximum resentment, especially when the provinces weren't well protected. It's the world falling apart on paganism at the time of underground better humanity in Christianity. Most history is a focus on those in power at the time, but a lot more leads to these protest and revolts.

MORE VIDEOS OF THIS SERIES. PLEASE SER CAN I HAVE SOME MORE?

Simply excellent. Thank you.

Are you going to do Claudius Gothicus next?

I remember these days, I was a busy dude getting things set up for the Dark Ages, Crusades, Inquisition, and such. But I did My share of partying in Gaul.

[SPQR] we have the quote on quote 4 good emperors, trajan to Marcus starting with the old guy no one remembers. But I would say starting with Valerian to Aurelian, we get the 4 genius emperors. All genius military political and even somewhat financial for their time, that kept the empire together. These four halted the decline and laid the foundations for a stable empire under Diocletian. What do you think?

Looks like these guys gave up doing their Roman Emperor videos or they made too many mistakes on this one and are taking a long time. Don't understand why. Claudius Gothicus should be a very short video.

Another great video 👍

The size of the empire was just too much to manage

Gallienus... he seemed to take the blunt of the Crisis and not fall at all. but what got to him were... the traitors. including those two... Claudius II and Aurelian. he did not deserve that faith.

Very good video love it !

dedicated his life to the empire, wins victory after victory. gets killed by his troops. wtf!

Was he given the opportunity to negotiate on having his father returned? Same question for his sons?

THE* most underrated Roman emperor.

Aureolios being proclaimed emperor made me so fucking furious

This guys IQ was OP imo sad he could not catch a break

Love ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ Roman history.

Not bad for a guy whose father may have been turned into a footstool.

Still waiting for Marcus Aurelius Claudius.

Revolts everywhere stymied the Roman man power and ability to react to the many incursions His Calvary stratagem is genius but didn't think to fortified the gaps that where proven present when an incursions happened, he was too trusting if people who proved traitors consistently and didn't show any consequences for other tribes attacking the empire allowing them to try and know that they would not be put to slaughter like Carthaginians where making the attacks less risky in the long run for the offending attackers

Totally excellent!

You deserve more notice.

So syvanne says that gallienus kills,how many alemannics in Mediolanum battle?

Aureolus: one who betrays once betrays twice

It's about time to glorify the Roman Empire again

If that had been me, I'd have been AT LEAST as merciless to all the disloyal traitors, usurpers and mutineers popping up everywhere. He should've instituted some sort of hostage system to keep generals' children close to him at all times, to ensure loyalty. Aureolus should've been brutally executed after his first revolt.

A tough job with a really harsh retirement plan!

What a sad end to what seems like a pretty great General and Emperor.

We want Gothicus!

Great clip about an man who is too lost in flood of the lesser men during the third century. The English in the banners (?) cast a truly unnecessary shadow of mediocrity over an otherwise very professional presentation. PLEASE slow down and proofread before publishing. It was, however, as always very informative!

A classic Emperor better than overrated Aureillean or Valerian.

anyone know what the art at 28:51 is called?

This is the best video on the reign of Gallienus i have seen so far. However it presents a bit idealised image of this emperor. With all his good qualities and determination, Gallienus seemed to be somewhat vain and snobbish patrician, who tended to be cruel and eccentric. To me he looks like a more mediocre Hadrian but in much worse conditions.

Great great video.💯