Origins and rise to power Unlike many of the would-be emperors and rebels who vied for imperial power during the
Crisis of the Third Century, Valerian was of a noble and traditional
senatorial family. Details of his early life are sparse, except for his marriage to
Egnatia Mariniana, with whom he had two sons:
Publius Licinius Egnatius Gallienus (his co-emperor and later successor) and
Licinius Valerianus. Valerian was
consul for the first time either before AD 238 as a
Suffectus or in 238 as an
Ordinarius. In 238 he was
princeps senatus, and
Gordian I negotiated through him for senatorial acknowledgement for his claim as emperor. In 251 AD, when
Decius revived the censorship with legislative and executive powers so extensive that it practically embraced the civil authority of the emperor, Valerian was chosen
censor by the Senate, 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 in
Illyricum. Under
Trebonianus Gallus, Valerian was appointed
dux 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. However, when Trebonianus Gallus had to deal with the rebellion of
Aemilianus 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. The
Raetian 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.
Rule and fall of Emperor Valerian standing at the background and held captive by King of Kings
Shapur I found at
Naqsh-e Rustam,
Shiraz,
Iran. The kneeling man is probably
Philip the Arab. Valerian's first act as emperor was to appoint his son Gallienus
Augustus, 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 a
Sassanid vassal and
Armenia was occupied by
Shapur I (Sapor). Valerian and Gallienus split the problems of the empire between them, with the son taking the West, and the father heading East to face the
Persian threat. In 254, 255, and 257, Valerian again became
Consul Ordinarius. By 257, he had recovered Antioch and returned the province of
Syria to Roman control. The following year, the
Goths ravaged
Asia Minor. In 259, Valerian moved on to
Edessa, but an outbreak of
plague killed a critical number of
legionaries, weakening the Roman position, and the town was besieged by the Persians. In 260, probably in June,
Persecution of Christians While fighting the Persians, Valerian sent two letters to the Senate ordering that firm steps be taken against
Christians. The first, sent in 257, commanded Christian clergy to perform sacrifices to the
Roman gods or face banishment. The second, the following year, ordered the execution of Christian leaders. It also required Christian senators and
equites 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 not
apostatize 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. This indicates that Christians were well-established at that time, some in very high positions. The execution of Saint
Prudent at
Narbonne is taken to have occurred in 257. Prominent Christians executed in 258 included
Pope Sixtus II (6 August), Saint
Romanus Ostiarius (9 August) and
Saint Lawrence (10 August). Others executed in 258 included the saints
Denis in Paris,
Pontius in
Cimiez,
Cyprian and
others in Carthage and
Eugenia in Rome. In 259 Saint
Patroclus was executed at
Troyes and Saint
Fructuosus at
Tarragona. When Valerian's son
Gallienus became emperor in 260, the decree was rescinded. of Shapur I capturing Valerian at the Battle of Edessa.
Death in captivity 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." An early Christian source,
Lactantius (thought to be virulently anti-Persian due to the persecution of Christians by many Sasanian monarchs) maintained that, for some time prior to his death, Valerian was subjected to the greatest insults and humiliation 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. 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 being
flayed alive) and then had Valerian skinned and his skin stuffed with straw and preserved as a trophy in the main Persian temple. It was further alleged that it was only after a later Persian defeat against Rome that his skin was given a cremation and burial. The captivity and death of Valerian has been frequently debated by historians without any definitive conclusion. 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 scholar
Abu Hanifa Dinawari, Shapur settled the prisoners of war in Gundishapur and released Valerian, as promised, after the construction of Band-e Kaisar. It has been alleged that the account of Lactantius is colored by his desire to establish that persecutors of the Christians died fitting deaths; the story was repeated then and later by authors in the Roman Near East fiercely hostile to Persia. The joint rule of Valerian and Gallienus was threatened several times by
usurpers. Nevertheless, Gallienus held the throne until his own assassination in 268 AD. ==Family==