Historia Augusta: Valeriani Duo

I. 1 Sapori rex regum Velsolus : "Si scirem posse aliquando Romanos penitus vinci, gauderem tibi de victoria, quam praefers. 2 Sed quia vel fato vel virtute gens illa plurimum potest, vide, ne, quod senem imperatorem cepisti, et id quidem fraude, male tibi cedat, posterisve tuis. 3 Cogita, quantas gentes Romani ex hostibus suas fecerint, a quibus saepe victi sunt.

1. 1 To Sapor, king of kings, Velsolus : "If I knew that the Romans could ever be utterly conquered, I would rejoice with you over the victory which you parade. 2 But since, whether by fate or by virtue, that nation possesses very great power, see to it that, because you captured an old emperor—and that indeed by fraud—it does not turn out badly for you or for your posterity. 3 Consider how many nations the Romans have made their own out of enemies by whom they have often been defeated.

4 Audivimus certe, quod Galli eos vicerint et ingentem illam civitatem incenderint: certe Romanis serviunt. Quid Afri ? Certe serviunt Romanis. 5 De longioribus exemplis et fortasse interioribus nihil dico.

4 We have certainly heard that the Gauls have conquered them and have burned that immense city: certainly they serve the Romans. What of the Africans ? Certainly they serve the Romans. 5 Of longer examples and perhaps more interior ones I say nothing.

Mithridates Ponticus totam Asiam tenuit: certe victus est, certe Asiam Romanorum est. 6 Si meum consilium requiris, utere occasione pacis et Valerianum suis redde. Ego gratulor felicitati tuae, si tamen illa uti tu scias".

Mithridates of Pontus held all Asia: certainly he was conquered, certainly Asia is the Romans’. 6 If you seek my counsel, use the occasion of peace and give Valerian back to his own. I congratulate your felicity, if, however, you know how to use it".

II. 1 Velenus rex Cadusiorum sic scripsit : "Remissa mihi auxilia integra et incolumnia gratanter accepi. At captum Valerianum principem principum non satis gratulor, magis gratularer, si redderetur. Romani enim graviores tunc sunt, quando vincuntur.

CHAPTER 2. 1 Velenus, king of the Cadusians, wrote thus : "The auxiliaries sent back to me intact and unharmed I have gladly received. But as for the captured Valerian, prince of princes, I do not quite congratulate; I would congratulate more, if he were returned. For the Romans are more grievous then, when they are conquered.

2 Age igitur ut prudentem decet, nec fortuna te inflammet, quae multos decepit. Valerianus et filium imperatorem habet et nepotem Caesarem, et quid ad omnem orbem illum Romanorum, qui contra te totus insurget ? 3 Redde igitur Valerianum et fac cum Romanis pacem, nobis etiam ob gentes Ponticas profuturam".

2 Act therefore as befits a prudent man, and let not Fortune inflame you, who has deceived many. Valerian has both a son as emperor and a grandson as Caesar, and what as to that whole orb of the Romans, which will rise up entirely against you ? 3 Therefore give back Valerian and make peace with the Romans, a peace that will also be profitable to us on account of the Pontic peoples".

III. 1 Artabasdes rex Armeniorum talem ad Saporem epistolam misit : "In partem gloriae venio, sed vereor, ne non tam viceris quam bella severis. 2 Valerianum et filius repetit et nepos et duces Romani omnis Gallia et omnis Africa et omnis Hispania et omnis Italia et omnes gentes, quae sunt in Illyrico atque in oriente et in Ponto, quae cum Romanis consentiunt aut Romanorum sunt.

III. 1 Artabasdes, king of the Armenians, sent such a letter to Sapor : "I come into a share of the glory, but I fear lest you have not so much conquered as sown wars. 2 Valerian both his son demands back and his grandson and the Roman leaders, all Gaul and all Africa and all Spain and all Italy and all the nations which are in Illyricum and in the East and in Pontus, which agree with the Romans or are of the Romans.

3 Unum ergo senem cepisti, sed omnes gentes orbis terrarum infestissimas tibi fecisti, fortassis et nobis, qui auxilia misimus, qui vicini sumus, qui semper vobis inter vos pugnantibus laboramus."

3 Therefore you have seized one old man, but you have made all the nations of the world most hostile to you, perhaps even to us, we who have sent auxiliaries, who are neighbors, who always labor while you are fighting among yourselves."

IV. 1 Bactrani et Hiberi et Albani et Tauroscythae Saporis litteras non receperunt, sed ad Romanos duces scripserunt auxilia pollicentes ad Valerianum de captivitate liberandum. 2 Sed Valeriano apud Persas consenescente Odenatus Palmyrenus collecto exercitu rem Romanam prope in pristinum statum reddidit. 3 Cepit regis thesauros, cepit etiam, quas thesauris cariores habent reges Parthici, concubinas.

4. 1 The Bactrians and the Iberians and the Albanians and the Tauro‑Scythians did not receive Sapor’s letters, but wrote to the Roman leaders, promising auxiliaries to liberate Valerian from captivity. 2 But with Valerian growing old among the Persians, Odaenathus the Palmyrene, with an army collected, restored the Roman Commonwealth almost to its pristine state. 3 He seized the king’s treasures; he also seized the concubines, which the Parthian kings hold dearer than treasures.

4 Quare magis reformidans Romanos duces Sapor timore Ballistae atque Odenati in regnum suum ocius se recepit. Atque hic interim finis belli fuit Persici.

4 Therefore, Sapor, more dreading the Roman leaders, in fear of Ballista and Odenatus, withdrew more swiftly into his own kingdom. And here in the meantime was the end of the Persian war.

V. 1 Haec sunt digna cognitu de Valeriano, cuius per annos septuaginta vita laudabilis in eam conscenderat gloriam, ut post omnes honores et magistratus insigniter gestos imperator fieret, non, ut solet, tumultuario populi concursu, non militum strepitu, sed iure meritorum et quasi ex totius orbis una sententia. 2 Denique si data esset omnibus potestas promendi arbitrii, quem imperatorem vellent, alter non esset electus. 3 Et ut scias, quanta vis in Valeriano meritorum fuerit publicorum, ponam senatus consulta, quibus animadvertant omnes, quid de illo semper amplissimus ordo iudicaverit.

5. 1 These are things worthy to be known about Valerian, whose praiseworthy life, through seventy years, had ascended to such glory that, after all the honors and magistracies borne with distinction, he became emperor—not, as is wont, by a tumultuary rush of the people, nor by the clamor of the soldiers, but by the right of his merits and as if by the single verdict of the whole world. 2 Finally, if to all there had been given the power of expressing their judgment, whom they would wish as emperor, no other would have been elected. 3 And that you may know how great the force of Valerian’s public merits was, I will set forth the senate’s decrees (senatus consulta), by which all may take note what the most august order has always judged concerning him.

4 Duobus Deciis conss. sexto kal. Novembrium die, cum ob imperatoriaslitteras in aede Castrorum senatus haberetur ireturque per sententias singulorum, cui deberet censura deferri (nam id Decii posuerant in senatus amplissimi potestate), ubi primum praeto redixit : "Quid vobis videtur, p.c., de censore deligendo?" atque eum, qui erat princeps tunc senatus, sententiam rogasset absente Valeriano (nam ille in procinctu cum Decio tunc agebat), omnes una voce dixerunt interrupto more dicendae sententiae : "Valeriani vita censura est.

4 In the consulship of the two Decii, on the sixth day before the Kalends of November (October 27), when, on account of imperial letters, the senate was being held in the Shrine of the Camp and they were going through the votes of the individuals as to whom the censorship ought to be conferred (for the Decii had placed that in the power of the most ample senate), when first the praetor said: "What seems to you, Conscript Fathers, about choosing a censor?" and had asked the opinion of him who at that time was the princeps of the senate, with Valerian absent (for he at that time was in battle array with Decius), all with one voice said, the customary order of giving opinions being broken off: "Valerian’s life is a censorship."

5 Ille de omnibus iudicet, qui est omnibus melior. ille de senatu iudicet, qui nullum habet crimen. Ille de vita nostra sententiam ferat, cui nihil potest obici.

Let him judge concerning all, who is better than all. let him judge concerning the senate, who has no crime. Let him deliver sentence about our life, to whom nothing can be objected.

6 Valerianus a prima pueritia fuit censor. Valerianus in tota vita sua fuit censor. Prudens senator, modestus senator, gravis senator, amicus bonorum, inimicus tyrannorum, hostis criminum, hostis vitiorum.

6 Valerian from his earliest boyhood was a censor. Valerian in his whole life was a censor. A prudent senator, a modest senator, a grave senator, a friend of the good, an enemy of tyrants, a foe of crimes, a foe of vices.

7 Hunc censorem omnes accipimus, hunc imitari omnes volumus. Primus genere, nobilis sanguine, emendatus vita, doctrina clarus, moribus singularis exemplo antiquitatis." 8 Quae cum essent saepius dicta, addiderunt : "omnes", atque ita discessum est.

7 This censor we all accept, this one we all wish to imitate. Foremost in lineage, noble in blood, corrected in life, renowned in doctrine, singular in morals, an example of antiquity." 8 As these things had been said rather often, they added : "all", and thus they departed.

VI. 1 Hoc enatus consultum ubi Decius accepit, omnes aulicos convocavit, ipsum etiam Valerianum praecepit rogari atque in conventu summorum virorum recitato senatus consulto : 2 "Felicem te", inquit, "Valerianum, totius senatus sententia, immo animis atque pectoribus totius orbis humani. Suscipe censuram, quam tibi detulit Romana res publica, quam solus mereris, iudicaturus de moribus omnium, iudicaturus de moribus nostris. 3 Tu aestimabis, qui manere in curia debeant, tu censibus modum pones, tu vectigalia firmabis, divides, statu res publicas recensebis; 4 tibi legum scribendarum auctoritas dabitur, tibi de ordinibus militum iudicandum est; 5 tu arma respicies, 6 tu de nostro Palatio, tu de iudicibus, tu de praefectis eminentissimis iudicabis, excepto denique praefecto urbis Romae, exceptis consulibus ordinariis et sacrorum rege ac maxima virgine Vestalium - si tamen incorrupta permanebit -, de omnibus sententias feres.

6. 1 When Decius received this senatorial decree, he convoked all the courtiers; he even ordered that Valerian himself be asked, and, the senatorial decree having been read out in an assembly of the highest men: 2 “Happy are you,” he said, “Valerian, by the judgment of the whole senate—nay, in the minds and hearts of the whole human world. Undertake the censorship, which the Roman commonwealth has conferred upon you, which you alone deserve, to judge concerning the morals of all, to judge concerning our morals. 3 You will assess who ought to remain in the curia; you will set a limit to the censuses; you will make firm the vectigalia, you will distribute, you will establish; you will review the commonwealths; 4 to you authority for writing laws will be given; to you it is to be judged concerning the orders of the soldiers; 5 you will look to the arms; 6 you will judge concerning our Palace, concerning the judges, concerning the most eminent prefects, and, finally—with the prefect of the city of Rome excepted, the ordinary consuls and the king of the sacred rites and the chief Vestal Virgin—if indeed she shall remain uncorrupted—excepted—you will pronounce opinions concerning all.”

Laborabunt autem etiam illi, ut tibi placeant, de quibus non potes iudicare." Haec Decius. 7 Sed Valeriano sententia huiusmodi fuit : "Ne, quaeso, sanctissime imperator, ad hanc me necessitatem alliges, ut ego iudicem de populo, de militibus, de senatu, de omni penitus orbe iudicibus et tribunis ac ducibus. 8 Haec sunt, <propter> quae Augustum nomen tenetis; apud vos censura desedit, non potest hoc implere privatus.

"But even those, whom you cannot judge, will labor to please you." So Decius. 7 But Valerian had an opinion of this sort: "Do not, I beg, most holy emperor, bind me to this necessity, that I should judge of the people, of the soldiers, of the senate, of the whole world through and through—judges and tribunes and commanders. 8 These are the things, which you hold the Augustan name; with you the censorship has sat down; a private person cannot fulfill this."

9 Veniam igitur eius honoris peto, cui vita inpar est, inpar est confidentia, cui tempora sic repugnant, ut censuram hominum natura non quaerat."

9 Therefore I ask pardon for that honor, to which my life is unequal, my confidence unequal, to which the times so oppose, that human nature does not seek the censorship."

VII. 1 Poteram multa alia et senatus consulta et iudicia principum de Valeriano proferre, nisi et vobis pleraque nota essent, et puderet altius virum extollere, qui fatali quadam necessitate superatus est. Nunc ad Valerianum minorem revertar.

7. 1 I could bring forward many other things, both senatorial decrees and judgments of the emperors, about Valerian, were not most things also known to you, and I should be ashamed to extol the man higher, who was overcome by a certain fatal necessity. Now I shall return to the younger Valerian.

VIII. 1 Valerianus iunior, alia quam Gallienus matre genitus, forma conspicuus, verecundia probabilis, eruditione pro aetate clarus, moribus periucundus atque a fratris dissolutione seiunctus, a patre absente Caesar est appellatus, a fratre, ut Caelestinus dicit, Augustus. 2 Nihil habet praedicabile in vita, nisi quod est nobiliter natus, educatus optime et miserabiliter interemptus.

8. 1 Valerian the Younger, born of a mother other than Gallienus, conspicuous in form, commendable for modesty, renowned for erudition for his age, very pleasant in manners and separated from his brother’s dissoluteness, in his father’s absence was named Caesar; by his brother, as Caelestinus says, Augustus. 2 He has nothing praiseworthy in life, except that he was nobly born, most excellently educated, and miserably slain.

3 Et quoniam scio errare plerosque, qui Valeriani imperatoris titulum in sepulchro legentes illius Valeriani redditum putant corpus, qui a Persis est captus, ne ullus error obrepat, mittendum in litteras censui hunc Valerianum circa iussu : "Valerianus imperator." 4 Non puto plus aliquid vel de maiore Valeriano vel de iuniore requirendum. 5 Et quoniam vereor, ne modum voluminis transeam, si Gallienum, Valeriani filium, de quo iam multus [et fortasse nimius] nobis fuit sermo [in illius vita,] vel Saloninum filium etiam Gallieni, qui et [Saloninus et] Gallienus est dictus in [historia sui temporis, huic] libro adiunctos [edam, nunc] ad aliud volumen transeam[us, ut iubetur.] semper enim me vobis dedim[us] et famae, cui negare nihil possumus.

3 And since I know that many err, who, reading on the sepulcher the title of Emperor Valerian, suppose that the body of that Valerian who was captured by the Persians has been returned, lest any error creep in, I have judged it should be committed to letters that this Valerian have around, by order: "Emperor Valerian." 4 I do not think anything more either about the elder Valerian or about the younger needs to be sought. 5 And since I fear that I may overstep the measure of the volume, if I should add Gallienus, the son of Valerian, about whom already there has been much [and perhaps too much] talk by us [in his life,] or Saloninus, also the son of Gallienus, who in the [history of his own time] is called both [Saloninus and] Gallienus, joined to this book [I publish, now], let me pass [let us pass, as is ordered] to another volume. For I have always devoted my[self] to you and to fame, to which we can refuse nothing.