Gallic Empire

You go down the road toward the end of the Third Century Crisis, around 275, Aurelian, who's ba- the, the empire had broken up at that point in time, where you have kind of the hollowed out center.

You have the West breaks off and forms what's called the Gallic Empire.

The East breaks off and forms the Palmyren Empire.

And in a five-year period, he reconquers the West, reconquers the East, and then he issues a new coin, hoping that people will have faith in this coin.

So what actually happens is Rome starts to fragment in this period.

You have a Roman general named Posthumus who's in the west, and he breaks off parts of Germany and France and other areas around there and forms what's called the Gallic Empire.

And that's around 260.

It's going to go about 15 years in its actual existence.

this is actual Rome actual here? This is

Rome actual.

And what he ends up doing is in a five-year period, he reconquers the Gallic Empire, brings it back in, reconquers the East, brings it back in, puts the whole thing back together, mints coinage that's better than what's being minted at that point in time, and then he's assassinated by his secretary.

Wow.

Gallienus did not accept that Odenathus' position as viceroy, which he himself granted in the first place, could be passed on to Zenobia's son.

However, the establishment of Palmyra in the east, coupled with the failure to defeat the Gallic Empire in the west, seriously weakened Gallienus.

The stability of the Roman Empire deteriorated further still when he too was assassinated in September 268.

Different accounts of the incident are recorded, but they agree that senior officials wanted Gallienus dead.

Later that summer, the queen launched an invasion of Egypt, with an army consisting of palmarines, Syrian legionnaires, mercenaries, and barbarians.

It was a grueling hard-fought campaign, but Zenobia's forces successfully took Egypt.

Despite the setback in the east, in the empire's west, the Gallic Empire was similarly unstable, and the assassination of Posthumus in 269 had prompted a series of defections.

Claudius' trusted general Placidianus seized the moment and took control of southern Gaul after several victories.