Numerian

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More Fun with Roman History

Picking up from yesterday, we’re left with vastly differing accounts of the emperor Numerian’s death.  Which is correct?  The easiest way to solve this is to run down a simple timeline.

Malalas’ Chronographia makes the following claims:

  • Saint Babylas (then patriarch of Antioch) refused to admit an emperor to the church
  • the emperor executed Babylas
  • the emperor went to war with the Persians
  • said emperor was captured following a siege at Carrhae

It becomes apparent he’s referencing three distinct emperors, all of whom predate Numerian by a generation.

Info Dump

Fun with Roman History

I recently got around to reading Peter Heather’s Fall of the Roman Empire.  It’s an excellent read for the layman, and he poses some interesting debates for the historian.  One interesting theory he suggests is that the Huns had an indirect (and earlier than usually assumed) effect on Rome as their migrations forced the Goths to rush the borders and clash with the Empire.

But my area of study is the 3rd Century crisis, and that’s why I noticed an odd and unorthodox account of Numerian’s death.

Everyone remembers the famous emperor Numerian, right?  He’s right up there with…well, don’t feel badly.  They don’t teach much about the 3rd century in school because it was such a mess.  Rome’s borders were crumbling under the weight of Germanic invasions, and the empire was in a state of nearly constant civil war.  Dio (as in Cassius, not Ronnie James) remarked that Rome had descended “from a kingdom of gold to one of iron and rust.”

Continued...