Ulpius Cornelius Laelianus (also incorrectly referred to as Lollianus and Aelianus) was a usurper

Roman usurper

Usurpers are individuals or groups of individuals who obtain and maintain the power or rights of another by force and without legal authority. Usurpation was endemic during roman imperial era, especially from the crisis of the third century onwards, when political instability became the rule.The...

 against Postumus

Postumus

Marcus Cassianius Latinius Postumus was a Roman emperor of Batavian origin. He usurped power from Gallienus in 260 and formed the so-called Gallic Empire...

, the emperor of the Gallic Empire

Gallic Empire

The Gallic Empire is the modern name for a breakaway realm that existed from 260 to 274. It originated during the Roman Empire's Crisis of the Third Century....

. His revolt lasted from approximately late February to early June 269.

Origins

Little is known about Laelianus. He shares the same nomen

Roman naming conventions

By the Republican era and throughout the Imperial era, a name in ancient Rome for a male citizen consisted of three parts : praenomen , nomen and cognomen...

as a prominent Spanish noble family, the Ulpii

Ulpia (gens)

The gens Ulpia was a Roman family, which rose to prominence during the 1st century AD The gens is best known from the emperor Marcus Ulpius Trajanus, who reigned from AD 98 to 117. The Thirtieth Legion took its name, Ulpia, in his honor....

, that included Trajan

Trajan

Trajan , was Roman Emperor from 98 to 117 AD. Born into a non-patrician family in the province of Hispania Baetica, in Spain Trajan rose to prominence during the reign of emperor Domitian. Serving as a legatus legionis in Hispania Tarraconensis, in Spain, in 89 Trajan supported the emperor against...

 among its members, and may have been a relative. This is supported by the strong allusion to Hispania on an aureus he struck, which featured the design of Hispania reclining with a rabbit to her side. If he indeed was a relative, this may be the reason Spain allied itself with Claudius II

Claudius II

Claudius II , commonly known as Claudius Gothicus, was Roman Emperor from 268 to 270. During his reign he fought successfully against the Alamanni and scored a crushing victory against the Goths at the Battle of Naissus. He died after succumbing to a smallpox plague that ravaged the provinces of...

, after the death of Postumus, seemingly without a struggle.

Rule

Laelianus declared himself emperor at Moguntiacum

Mainz

Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...

 in February/March 269. after repulsing a Germanic invasion. Although his exact position is unknown, he is believed to have been a senior officer under Postumus, either the legatus

Legatus

A legatus was a general in the Roman army, equivalent to a modern general officer. Being of senatorial rank, his immediate superior was the dux, and he outranked all military tribunes...

of Germania Superior

Germania Superior

Germania Superior , so called for the reason that it lay upstream of Germania Inferior, was a province of the Roman Empire. It comprised an area of western Switzerland, the French Jura and Alsace regions, and southwestern Germany...

 or the commander of Legio XXII Primigenia

Legio XXII Primigenia

Legio XXII Primigenia was a Roman legion levied by Roman Emperor Caligula in 39, for his campaigns in Germania. There are still records of the XXII Primigenia in Mogontiacum from the end of 3rd century...

. Laelianus represented a strong danger to Postumus because of the two legions he commanded (Primigenia in Mainz and VIII Augusta

Legio VIII Augusta

Legio octava Augusta was a Roman legion created by Pompey in 65 BC, along with the 6th, 7th & 9th, and continuing in service to Rome for at least 400 years thereafter....

 in Strasbourg); Despite this, his rebellion lasted only about two months before he was executed, reputedly by his own soldiers, or by Postumus' troops after a siege of Laelianus' capital. The siege of Mainz was also fatal for Postumus; it is said he was slain when he refused to allow his troops to plunder the city following its capture.

Laelianus (under the name Lollianus) is listed among the Thirty Tyrants

Thirty Tyrants (Roman)

The Thirty Tyrants were a series of thirty rulers that appear in the Historia Augusta as having ostensibly been pretenders to the throne of the Roman Empire during the reign of the emperor Gallienus....

 in the Historia Augusta.

Primary Sources

• Aurelius Victor
  Aurelius Victor
  Sextus Aurelius Victor was a historian and politician of the Roman Empire.Aurelius Victor was the author of a History of Rome from Augustus to Julian , published ca. 361. Julian honoured him and appointed him prefect of Pannonia Secunda...
  
  , Liber de Caesaribus
• Eutropius
  Eutropius
  Flavius Eutropius was an Ancient Roman historian who flourished in the latter half of the 4th century. He held the office of secretary at Constantinople, accompanied the Emperor Julian on his expedition against the Persians , and was alive during the reign of Valens , to whom he dedicates his...
  
  , Brevarium, Book 9
• Historia Augusta, The Thirty Tyrants

Secondary Sources

• Southern, Pat. The Roman Empire from Severus to Constantine, Routledge, 2001
• Potter, David Stone, The Roman Empire at Bay, AD 180-395, Routledge, 2004
• Jones, A.H.M., Martindale, J.R. The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, Vol. I: AD260-395, Cambridge University Press, 1971
• http://www.roman-emperors.org/laelianu.htm Polfer, Michel, "Laelianus (A.D. 269)", De Imperatoribus Romanis] (1999)

External links