Siddhesh Joshi (Editor)

Regalianus

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Reign
  
c. 260

Spouse
  
Sulpicia Dryantilla


Name
  
Regalianus Regalianus

Successor
  
Gallienus

Predecessor
  
Gallienus

Regalianus wwwwildwindscomcoinsricregalianusRIC082jpg


Wife
  
Sulpicia Dryantilla (senatorial descent)

Died
  
260 AD, Carnuntum, Petronell-Carnuntum, Austria

P. C(assius?) Regalianus (died 260) was a Dacian general who turned against the Roman Empire and became himself emperor for a brief period, being murdered by the hands who raised him to power.

Regalianus Regalianus Roman Imperial Coins of at WildWindscom

Career

Regalianus Regalianus Roman Imperial Coins of at WildWindscom

The main source of information is the unreliable and for the most part fabricated Historia Augusta. Other sources are Eutropius, who calls him Trebellianus, and Aurelius Victor and the Epitome de Caesaribus, which call him Regillianus. About his origin, the Tyranni Triginta says he was a Dacian, a kinsman of Decebalus. He probably was of senatorial rank, and had received military promotion from the Emperor Valerian.

Regalianus CNG Printed Auction Triton XIII Regalianus Usurper AD 260 AR

After the defeat and capture of Valerian in the east (260), the border populations felt insecure, and elected their own emperors to guarantee they would have leaders against the foreign threats. The population and the army of the province of Pannonia had chosen Ingenuus, and elected him emperor, but the lawful emperor, Gallienus, had defeated the usurper.

Regalianus CNG Printed Auction CNG 94 Regalianus Usurper AD 260 AR

Gallienus had moved to Italia, however, to deal with an invasion of the Alamanni. The local population, facing the threat of the Sarmatians, elected Regalianus emperor, who raised his wife, Sulpicia Dryantilla, who was of noble lineage, to the rank of Augusta to strengthen his position. Regalianus bravely fought thereafter against the Sarmatians. Short time after his victory, he was killed by a coalition of his own people and of the Roxolani.

Regalianus Regalianus

A few, probably fictitious, anecdotes survive about this man, in the brief biographical sketch of him given in the Book on Thirty Tyrants in the Historia Augusta: it is stated for example that he was raised to the throne because of his name (Regalianus, "of a king" or "kingly"); when his soldiers heard this jest they greeted Regalianus as their emperor.


Regalianus Regalianus

Regalianus Regalianus 260261 AD Armstrong Economics

References

Regalianus Wikipedia