At the time of Claudius's accession, the
Roman Empire was in serious danger from several incursions, both inside and outside its borders. The most pressing of these was an invasion of
Illyricum and
Pannonia by the
Goths. Claudius, not long after being named emperor, followed this up by winning his greatest victory, and one of the greatest in the history of Roman arms. For this he was awarded the title of "Germanicus Maximus." Claudius was not the only man to reap the benefits of holding high office after the death of
Gallienus. Before the rule of Claudius Gothicus, there had only been two emperors from the
Balkans, but afterwards there would only be one emperor who did not hail from the provinces of
Pannonia,
Moesia or
Illyricum until 378, when
Theodosius I from
Hispania would take the throne. Four inscriptions provide an insight into the government at the time. The first is a dedication to
Aurelius Heraclianus, the prefect involved in the conspiracy against Gallienus, from Traianus Mucianus, who also gave a dedication to Heraclianus's brother, Aurelius Appollinaris, who was the equestrian governor of the province of
Thracia in 267–68 AD. Because these men shared the family name, Marcus Aurelius, a name given to those made citizens by the
constitutio Antoniniana, these men did not come from the imperial
élite. The third inscription reveals the career of
Marcianus, another leading general by the time that Gallienus died. The fourth honours Julius Placidianus, the prefect of the
vigiles. Heraclianus, Appollinaris,
Placidianus, or Marcianus may not have been of
Danubian origin themselves, but none of them were members of the
Severan aristocracy, and all of them appear to owe their prominence to their military roles.
Marcus Aurelius Probus (another emperor in waiting) was also of Balkan background, and from a family enfranchised in the time of
Caracalla. Although their influence was weakened, there were still a number of men with influence from the older
aristocracy. Claudius assumed the consulship in 269 with
Paternus, a member of the prominent senatorial family, the Paterni, who had supplied consuls and urban prefects throughout Gallienus's reign, and thus were quite influential. In addition,
Flavius Antiochianus, one of the consuls of 270, who was an urban prefect the year before, would continue to hold his office for the following year. A colleague of Antiochianus, Virius Orfitus, also the descendant of a powerful family, would continue to hold influence during his father's term as prefect. Aurelian's colleague as consul was another such man, Pomponius Bassus, a member of one of the oldest senatorial families, as was one of the consuls in 272, Junius Veldumnianus. , personifications of gold, silver, and bronze It is still unknown why Claudius did nothing to help the city of Autun, but sources tell us his relations with
Palmyra were waning in the course of 269. An obscure passage in the
Historia Augustas life of Gallienus states that he had sent an army under
Aurelius Heraclianus to the region that had been annihilated by
Zenobia. But because Heraclianus was not actually in the east in 268 (instead, at this time, he was involved in the conspiracy of Gallienus's death), this cannot be correct. But the confusion evident in this passage, which also places the bulk of Scythian activity during 269 a year earlier, under Gallienus, may stem from a later effort to pile all possible disasters in this year into the reign of the former emperor. This would keep Claudius's record of being an ancestor of
Constantine from being tainted. If this understanding of the sources is correct, it might also be correct to see the expedition of Heraclianus to the east as an event of Claudius's time. Although it is not proven that the invasion of
Gaul was the breaking point between Claudius and Zenobia, the sequence of events point to the siege as an important factor. The issue at hand was the position that
Odaenathus held as
corrector totius orientis (imparting overall command of the Roman armies and authority over the Roman provincial governors in the designated region).
Vaballathus, the son of Zenobia, was given this title when Zenobia claimed it for him. From then on, tension between the two empires would only get worse.
Aurelius Heraclianus's fabled arrival might have been an effort to reassert central control after the death of Odaenathus, but, if so, it failed. Although coins were never minted with the face of Odaenathus, soon after his death coins were made with image of his son – outstripping his authority under the emperor. Under
Zabdas, a
Palmyrene army invaded
Arabia and moved into
Egypt in the late summer. At this time, the prefect of Egypt was Tenagino Probus, described as an able soldier who not only defeated an invasion of
Cyrenaica by the nomadic tribes to the south in 269, but also was successful in hunting down Scythian ships in the
Mediterranean. However, he did not see the same success in Egypt, for a group allied to the Palmyrene empire, led by
Timagenes, undermined Probus, defeated his army, and killed him in a battle near the modern city of
Cairo in the late summer of 270. Generally, when a Roman commander is killed it is taken as a sign that a state of war is in existence, and if we can associate the death of
Heraclianus in 270, as well as an inscription from
Bostra recording the rebuilding of a temple destroyed by the Palmyrene army, then these violent acts could be interpreted the same way. Yet they apparently were not. As
David Potter writes, "The coins of
Vaballathus avoid claims to imperial power: he remains vir consularis, rex, imperator, dux Romanorum, a range of titles that did not mimic those of the central government. The status vir consularis was, as we have seen, conferred upon
Odaenathus; the title rex, or king, is simply a Latin translation of
mlk, or king; imperator in this context simply means "victorious general"; and dux Romanorum looks like yet another version of corrector totius orientis" (Potter, 263). These titles suggest that Odaenathus's position was inheritable. In Roman culture, the status gained in procuring a position could be passed on, but not the position itself. It is possible that the thin line between office and the status that accompanied it were dismissed in the Palmyrene court, especially when the circumstance worked against the interests of a regime that was able to defeat
Persia, which a number of Roman emperors had failed to do. Vaballathus stressed the meanings of titles, because in the Palmyrene context, the titles of Odaenathus meant a great deal. When the summer of 270 ended, things were looking very different in the empire than they did a year before. After its success, Gaul was in a state of inactivity and the empire was failing in the east. Insufficient resources plagued the state, as a great deal of silver was used for the
antoninianus, which was again diluted. Before his death, he is thought to have named Aurelian as his successor, though Claudius's brother
Quintillus briefly seized power. Historians date Claudius's death in either January,
Jerome and
Aurelius Victor both give "1 year and 9 months". Some Alexandrian coins have been dated to his third year, suggesting that he died in September 270 (the
Coptic calendar began on 29 August). The date is strangely given as the "3rd" and "1st year", which most likely refers to the third year of Claudius and first of Aurelian (who dated his reign from Claudius' death). The last confirmed document is dated to 20 September 270, although another undated papyri could be tentatively dated to October. == Religion ==