Lucius Mussius Aemilianus '' signo'' Aegippius (died 261 or 262) who held a number of military and civilian positions during the middle of the third century. He is best known as a

Roman usurper Roman usurpers were individuals or groups of individuals who obtained or tried to obtain power by force and without legitimate legal authority. Usurpation was endemic during the Roman imperial era, especially from the crisis of the third cent ...

during the reign of

Gallienus Publius Licinius Egnatius Gallienus (; c. 218 – September 268) was Roman emperor with his father Valerian from 253 to 260 and alone from 260 to 268. He ruled during the Crisis of the Third Century that nearly caused the collapse of the empi ...

Sources

The sources for this emperor include

Eusebius Eusebius of Caesarea (; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος ; 260/265 – 30 May 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilus (from the grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος τοῦ Παμφίλου), was a Greek historian of Christianity, exegete, and Chris ...

, ''

Ecclesiae Historia The ''Church History'' ( grc-gre, Ἐκκλησιαστικὴ ἱστορία; la, Historia Ecclesiastica or ''Historia Ecclesiae'') of Eusebius, the bishop of Caesarea was a 4th-century pioneer work giving a chronological account of the devel ...

'' 7.11; ''

Epitome de Caesaribus The ''Epitome de Caesaribus'' is a Latin historical work written at the end of the 4th century. It is a brief account of the reigns of the Roman emperors from Augustus to Theodosius the Great. It is attributed to Aurelius Victor, but was writte ...

'', 32.4; ''

Historia Augusta The ''Historia Augusta'' (English: ''Augustan History'') is a late Roman collection of biographies, written in Latin, of the Roman emperors, their junior colleagues, designated heirs and usurpers from 117 to 284. Supposedly modeled on the si ...

'', "Gallienus" 4.1-2, 5.6, 9.1; " Tyranni Triginta" 22.1-8, as well as several

papyri Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, '' Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'') can also refer to a ...

and one inscription.

Career

Mussius Aemilianus probably was of Italian stock. His career in imperial service is documented up to 18 May 247 from an inscription recovered at

Fiumicino Fiumicino () is a town and comune in the Metropolitan City of Rome, Lazio, central Italy, with a population of 80,500 (2019). It is known for being the site of Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport, the busiest airport in Italy and the eleventh-b ...

. Appointments he held up to that date include ''praefectus vehiculorum trium provinciarum Galliarum'', ''procurator Alexandreae Pelusi'' and a third location (now lost), ''procurator portus utriusque Ostiae''. Valerian appointed him ''

Praefectus ''Praefectus'', often with a further qualification, was the formal title of many, fairly low to high-ranking, military or civil officials in the Roman Empire, whose authority was not embodied in their person (as it was with elected Magistrates) but ...

'' of

Roman Egypt , conventional_long_name = Roman Egypt , common_name = Egypt , subdivision = Province , nation = the Roman Empire , era = Late antiquity , capital = Alexandria , title_leader = Praefectus Augustalis , image_map = Roman E ...

, a position he held from possibly as early as 256 to 261. While the primary concern of the governor of Egypt was to safeguard the harvest and delivery of grain to the populace of Rome, he had other responsibilities which included resuming the persecution of Christians that had started under his predecessor

Aurelius Appius Sabinus The gens Appia was a plebeian family at Rome. Its nomen, ''Appius'', is a patronymic surname based on the praenomen '' Appius''. The gens does not appear to have been very large, and few of its members achieved great importance. Members * Sextus ...

preserves a letter of Bishop

Dionysius The name Dionysius (; el, Διονύσιος ''Dionysios'', "of Dionysus"; la, Dionysius) was common in classical and post-classical times. Etymologically it is a nominalized adjective formed with a -ios suffix from the stem Dionys- of the name ...

of Alexandria where the bishop documents his trial before Mussius Aemilianus for professing Christianity, for which he was exiled to Cephro in the Libyan Desert. A surviving papyrus, dated to 259/260, has been identified as an independent witness to this trial.Lincoln H. Blumell
"The Date of P.Oxy. XLIII 3119, the Deputy-Prefect Lucius Missius Aemilianus, and the Persecution of Christians by Valerian and Gallienus"
''Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik'', 186 (2013), pp. 111–113

Usurpation

He supported the rebellion of the

Macriani Macriani is the name of three Roman usurpers - a father and two sons - who tried to gain the Roman throne from Emperor Gallienus. All three died in 261 A.D. They were: *Macrianus Major, the father *Macrianus Minor, first son *Quietus Titus Fulv ...

against

(260-261). When the Macriani were defeated Mussius Aemilianus proclaimed himself emperor. Gallienus sent his general

Aurelius Theodotus Aurelius Theodotus was a Roman '' eques'' and general who flourished during the earlier part of the third century AD. He was assigned by the emperor Gallienus to suppress the rebellion of Lucius Mussius Aemilianus, after which he served as ''prae ...

to Egypt to deal with Aemilianus. After a short struggle Aemilianus was defeated (before 30 March 262), captured, and later strangled in prison. Subsequently

Memor The Gallienus usurpers were the usurpers who claimed imperial power during the reign of Gallienus (253–268, the first part of which he shared with his father Valerian). The existence of usurpers during the Crisis of the Third Century was very c ...

, a possible supporter, was executed.

Sources

Career

Usurpation

See also

References

Further reading