Original subtitles

[music playing]

NARRATOR: When the empire is attacked by foreign invaders

and a deadly plague, \h\hRomans citizens

blame the new religion \h\h\hof Christianity

\h\hfor angering the empire’s pagan gods.

\h\h\h\hDesperate, Emperor Decius turns to violence,

\h\hsacrificing the lives of Christians

to win back the gods’ favor.

Now, threatened by barbarian \h\h\hattacks on all fronts,

\h\hthe people of Rome live in constant fear.

\h\hAs the crisis deepens, insurgents seize control,

dividing the empire \h\hagainst itself,

until a new ruler emerges.

His name is Aurelian, and he unifies the fractured empire

using its greatest reservoir \h\h\hof strength, the army.

[music playing, men shouting]

\hBy the middle of the third century,

\hthe Roman Empire is huge and relies

on distant, isolated legions \hto protect every far flung

province.

\h\hNOEL LENSKI: The troops at this point

\h\h\h\hwere forced into a situation where they often

had to rely on self-help.

The imperial superstructure was very far away from them.

Emperors made its to \hfrontier conflicts

often after they had mushroomed entirely out of control.

\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: In the absence of the emperor,

\hthe soldiers sometimes take leadership matters

into their own hands.

\hGEOFFREY GREATREX: The emperor can’t be there,

so there’s a bit of drift.

And so somebody arises who is \hable to do the job for him,

and probably will \hcall themselves

an emperor in order to rally \hlocal support to beat back

the barbarians who \hare threatening

the integrity of the provinces.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: Having dared to raise their own emperors,

\hthe powerful border armies now declare independence from Rome.

As these armies break away on the eastern and western

frontiers, forming their own empires,

\h\hRome’s northern frontier is attacked by the Alemanni

barbarians in 269 AD.

In his palace in Rome, the true Roman emperor, Claudius II,

is troubled by this devastating assault on Roman soil.

\h\h\hEnemies from the other side of the Alps

did more than invade \hthe Roman Empire.

\hFor the first time in an extraordinarily long time,

they actually crossed \hthe Alps into Italy.

NARRATOR: Claudius \hseeks the advice

of his powerful cavalry \h\hcommander, Aurelian,

\h\ha man whose military discipline is described

by the third century historian Volpiscus.

ACTOR AS VOLPISCUS: Aurelian, \h\h\hfrom his earliest years,

was very quick of mind and \hfamous for his strength.

He never let a day go by without practicing the spear, the bow

and arrow, and other weaponry.

NARRATOR: Aurelian’s skills will soon be tested as news

from the frontier worsens.

Distraught refugees from northern Italy

bear witness to the devastation.

With this invasion, the danger \hof a mutiny within the army

becomes even greater.

\hNOEL LENSKI: If barbarian people threatened to invade,

\h\hthen the local people would simply proclaim emperor whoever

happened to be the military \h\hcommander in the region

at the time.

\hNARRATOR: In order to keep the northern frontier from breaking

away as well, Claudius \h\h\hmust act quickly

to stop the encroaching \h\h\h\hAlemanni forces.

\h\hIn the Alemanni camp, the barbarians

celebrate, reveling in the \hrich spoils taken easily

\h\h\h\hfrom a weakened Roman Empire, including Roman women

\h\h\hand children they intend to use as slaves.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\h\hWe’ve got inscriptions, actually,

which talk to us, which tell us about parties of raiders who’ve

\h\hgone into Italy and taken lots of prisoners.

\h\h\hSo it’s sort of easy pickings, to some extent,

for these raiders.

\h\hThey’re preying or an empire that is not

at its peak at this time.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: The groups of Alemanni are led by powerful chieftains

who ensure their warrior’s loyalty by rewarding them

with slaves of Roman blood.

But the barbarians’ greed knows no end.

\hEmperor claudius is forced to march his army from Rome,

\hmeeting the Alemanni warriors at Lake Garda in northern Italy.

Claudius and his men face a brutal enemy.

Fourth century historian \hAmmianus Marcellinus.

ACTOR AS AMMIANUS: \hRushing forward

with more haste than caution, \h\h\h\hthey threw themselves

on our squadrons of horse with \h\hhorrible grinding of teeth

and more than their usual fury.

\hTheir hair streamed behind them, and a kind of madness

flashed from their eyes.

\h\hNARRATOR: Emperor Claudius is also severely outnumbered,

but he has a secret weapon at his side, the powerful cavalry

commander, Aurelian.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hHe was known as [non-english speech] that is,

sort of hand ready to the sword, ready to leap into action when

that should be necessary.

NARRATOR: True to his name, Aurelian helps Claudius beat

\h\h\hback the Alemanni, killing half their force

and driving the rest back over the Alps.

And in an effort to better secure

Italy from future barbarian attacks,

Emperor Claudius and Aurelian religion travel to the Balkans

\h\h\h\hto increase the military presence there.

But while on campaign, Emperor Claudius contracts the plague.

CLIFFORD ANDO: Claudius’s \h\h\h\h\hreign was short.

He ruled from 268 to 270.

He had a single military success in the year 269,

heavily advertised at the time \hand much talked about later.

NARRATOR: But this success, the defeat of the Alemanni,

\h\his not enough to restore the empire.

As Emperor Claudius’s \h\h\hlife slips away,

it is clear that this task must fall on his trusted general,

Aurelian.

\h\h\h\hHe is declared emperor by his troops.

\h\hAurelian repays them by sacrificing

to the god of soldiers, Sol \hInvictus, the Unconquered

Sun, a deity now emerging as the god of victory within the army.

\hWhatever gives you the victory,

\hwhatever it is that’s going to be beneficial,

that’s the-- that’s the--

\hthe wagon, as it were, you hitch your star too.

\h\hNARRATOR: A man of low birth, Aurelian now rises

to the highest position \hin the empire because

of his military brilliance, like many great generals before him.

You can’t be a civilian emperor by the middle

of the third century.

\hYou have to lead troops in battle.

There’s always some place where you’ve gotta go and fight.

NARRATOR: Aurelian will need the loyalty of the soldiers

and the strength of their god as he faces a familiar enemy.

[music playing]

\h\h\h\hIn 271 AD, the bloodthirsty Alemanni

return, ravaging northern Italy and making it as far

as Piacenza.

\h\h\hAurelian and his army race west to cut off the barbarians,

\h\hsending ahead an offer to negotiate.

\hBut the Alemanni have other plans.

\hFLORIN CURTA: He invited the barbarians to give themselves

\h\h\h\hup, but reportedly, they replied that they were free men

and they could show him how free men can fight.

\hSure enough, at dusk, in the wooded area south of Piacenza,

they ambushed the Roman army, \hwhich suffered heavy losses.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: In the forest, \h\h\hthe Roman soldiers

are no match for the barbarians.

FLORIN CURTA: Why was an ambush such a successful tactics

against Roman--

Roman troops?

And largely, the answer lies in the form of organization

of the Roman armies.

\h\h\hThey were trained-- the discipline consisted assisted

\h\h\hin training them to actually fight in a line,

in a formation.

And then we can do so only when the conditions are met where

\h\hyou can develop that formation, which is not

the case in a wooded area.

\hNeedless to say, the barbarians knew that.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: Caught in a wooded trap, the Roman army

\h\h\h\his thrown into confusion and routed.

\h\hFor Aurelian, the defeat is devastating.

\h\hMICHAEL KULIKOWSKI: The troops are in some ways very

loyal to their own commanders.

But they’re also very fickle.

\hSo if an emperor is winning, they are happy to support him.

Once an emperor starts to lose, then he is almost certainly

done for.

NARRATOR: Aurelian rallies what troops have survived, praying

that they will remain loyal.

He needs them now more than \hever to keep the Alemanni

from reaching the city of Rome.

When Rome’s frontier \harmies break away

from the rest of the empire, \hemperor Aurelian’s legions

are left helpless against the fierce Alemanni barbarians now

heading into the heart of Italy.

Terror grips the people of Rome as they fear the barbarians’

arrival is imminent.

Desperate, many flee the city.

FLORIN CURTA: The defeat of the Roman army, Aurelian’s army,

created panic in Rome because \h\hthere was no serious force

\h\hto stand between the barbarians and the city.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: Those unable to escape riot

in the streets enraged by Aurelian’s failure to keep

the barbarians out of Italy.

CLIFFORD ANDO: The population of Rome

does seem to have understood \hthat becoming a vast city

\h\hin the midst of an empire whose armies were concentrated

\hat the frontier left them as it were peculiarly vulnerable

if an army were actually \hto make it into Italy.

\h\hNARRATOR: But before the Alemanni worriers can reach

the capital, Aurelian is finally able to cut them off at Fanum

180 miles from Rome.

After his recent defeat, Aurelian

must win back his army’s \h\hloyalty with nothing

less than absolute victory.

RAY VAN DAM: Emperors \h\hhad always relied

upon the support of the army.

And emperors may have \hpresented themselves

as champions of the republic.

But the reality, the underlying reality of imperial power,

is it always depends \h\h\hupon the army.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: Together, Aurelian and his soldiers

teach their barbarian foes a lesson in Roman discipline.

\h\hFLORIN CURTA: They learn now that whenever there was

\h\han opportunity for the Roman army

to develop tight formation, \h\h\h\hthey had no chance.

\hNARRATOR: Overwhelmed, many barbarian warriors

die a watery death in \hthe Metaurus river.

Aurelian’s victory drives the \hAlemanni from Italy at last.

\hGEOFFREY GREATREX: It’s also regaining confidence.

And no doubt his triumph served to boost morale at a time

when it had been greatly shaken.

\hNARRATOR: But Aurelian’s hard-won triumph in Italy

\his quickly overshadowed by news of rising conflict

\hfrom the city of Palmyra on the empire’s eastern frontier.

For more than 10 years beginning well before Aurelian’s reign,

foreign invaders struck \h\hhard against Rome’s

\heastern provinces, including Palmyra, threatening to break

through the weakening border.

\h\hCLIFFORD ANDO: And this ongoing flow of population,

\hsome of whom were highly militarized and used quite

\hdifferent tactics than the Romans were used to,

caused very profound problems \h\hin the eastern provinces.

\hNARRATOR: On the edges of the Syrian desert far

\h\h\hfrom the protection of Rome, the people of Palmyra

have faced the devastation \h\h\hof their army alone.

GEOFFREY GREATREX: \hThese opponents,

they also are taking advantage of the absence of the emperor

\hto take over, to roll back the frontiers, which they do

successfully, and to make--

to extort payments \hfrom the Romans.

NARRATOR: Counting the bodies of their dead,

\h\hthe Palmyrenes finally grew weary

of waiting for help from a distant Rome.

GEOFFREY GREATREX: These people in these various areas who

\hare threatened by invasion, they wish

they were better protected.

\h\h\hSo they call upon local defenders to take on the role

\hthat the emperors seem unable to do because the emperors can’t

be everywhere.

\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: In a blatant act of revolt,

\h\hthe Palmyrene army took matters into its own hands.

As a result, for the past decade,

\h\h\hthe eastern provinces have called themselves the Palmyrene

Empire, breaking away from Rome.

Now they make a direct threat \h\h\hagainst Emperor Aurelian

by taking the fertile \hRoman land of Egypt.

The rich Egyptian granaries are now controlled by the Palmyrene

queen.

Her name is Zenobia

GEOFFREY GREATREX: They’re fascinated by this figure

\h\h\h\hof a woman of the east wielding such control, perhaps

a latter day Cleopatra type.

And incidentally, I mean, she \hdid try to associate herself

with Cleopatra.

When they took over Egypt, she \hsought to sort of establish

a connection in order to reconcile the Egyptians

to her rule.

NARRATOR: With Egypt \h\hunder her thumb,

\hZenobia basks in her power, ordering the granaries to stop

\h\hshipments of grain to Rome, cutting off one of the empire’s

main sources of food.

CLIFFORD ANDO: Italy was, of course, the effective heart

of the empire.

It was where the empire began.

\hBut Africa and Egypt had long been the bread basket

of the empire.

That’s where the agricultural \h\h\hwealth was concentrated.

NARRATOR: Queen Zenobia with \h\hher loyal general Zabdas

at her side now holds the \hempire’s grain hostage,

\hsending a clear message to Rome that the Palmyrenes are

powerless no more.

\hZenobia’s power play strikes deep.

\hIn Rome, Aurelian finds the people desperate and starving

for lack of grain.

\h\h\h\hThough he orders his troops to share their bread

\hwith the masses, it is not enough.

GEOFFREY GREATREX: Naturally, Egypt was the granary of Rome.

And therefore an interruption to the grain supplies to Rome

\h\h\hwas a huge threat to any emperor, particularly one who

had already had strife to deal with in Rome.

NARRATOR: The threat \h\hof famine leaves

Romans restless and angry.

Having lost territory to the armies of the east and west,

\h\h\hthe empire now faces rebellion in Rome itself.

Having relieved Rome of the \hAlemanni barbarian threat,

Emperor Aurelian faces a new \hcrisis when the Palmyrene

usurper Queen Zenobia stopped \hshipments of Egyptian grain

to Rome, threatening the \hcity with starvation.

Soon the Romans turn against their emperor Aurelian.

FLORIN CURTA: The violence, by the way, that these rebellions

\h\hpart was on a level not seen since Republican times.

\hNARRATOR: Aurelian has no choice but to unleash

his own savage warriors against the insurgents.

\hRICHARD WEIGEL: You’re fighting in Rome itself,

and this is civil war.

This is something \hthe Romans also

fear because they know how divisive it can be

and how devastating it can be.

NARRATOR: Unaccustomed to \hbattling inside a city,

Aurelian soldiers struggle.

Though virtually unbeatable \h\h\h\hon open battlefield,

\h\hthe Roman army once again shows its weakness when tight

formation cannot be maintained.

GEOFFREY GREATREX: The actual \h\h\hwar and not the struggle

itself would have been \hin an urban context.

And of course, for the Roman soldiers

involved at Aurelian’s \h\h\h\hdisposal, this

must have been highly unusual.

I mean, ancient battles were not typically urban struggle

street-by-street fighting.

\h\hAnd this is where your trained soldiers

would have greater difficulty.

\h\hNARRATOR: But in the end, Aurelian puts down the revolt

decisively.

\hThe fourth century historian Eutropius.

\h\hACTOR AS EUTROPIUS: Aurelian suppressed them

with the utmost severity.

Several noblemen, he condemned to death.

He was indeed cruel and bloodthirsty and rather

an emperor necessary for the times than an enviable one.

\h\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: Aurelian executes the rebel leaders,

\h\hreminding the people of Rome that he is their ruler.

\h\h\h\hThe emperor has crushed the resistance.

\h\h\hHe now rebuilds the city walls against external forces.

\hRome will be strong and safe in his hands.

CLIFFORD ANDO: In the aftermath of the military crisis

\h\hin northern Italy at the start of his reign,

the emperor Aurelian provided \h\h\h\hthat the city of Rome

\h\hshould be outfitted with a new set of walls.

This was the first significant, really significant new set

of walls built for \hthe city of Rome

since nearly 1,000 years before.

\hNARRATOR: Aurelian now turns to the crisis of the Palmyrene

Empire.

\h\hHe must secure his grain supply in order

to avoid famine in Rome.

His dwindling bread rations \h\h\hwill not last forever.

GEOFFREY GREATREX: \h\hWell, Aurelian

was determined to \hreassert control

over all areas of the empire.

And so he moves east in \h272 to regain control.

NARRATOR: His first target \his the former Roman city

of Antioch then part of the larger region called Syria.

\hAntioch is a bustling city invaluable to Rome

as a wealthy center of trade.

But now under the control \hof the Palmyrene Empire,

it becomes a safe haven for the fugitive Queen Zenobia.

FLORIN CURTA: Zenobia \h\h\hand her generals

knew for sure that Antioch \hwould be the first city,

the first thing that Aurelian would have

to conquer upon entering Syria.

\hSo she barricaded herself in the city.

And Zabdas drew the army \h\hin the Orontes plain

to the west of lake Antioch.

\hNARRATOR: Zenobia enjoys her prestige,

happy to let her generals \hready themselves for war

just outside the city walls.

\h\hThere Zenobia’s general Zabdas meets Aurelian’s army

on the battlefield.

RICHARD BURGESS: You have walls of Romans moving in lines, man

to man, fist to fist.

You can’t kill somebody until \h\hyou look them in the eye.

You’ve got arms getting cut off, hands getting cut off,

damage to-- to--

to the neck, to the face.

\h\hNARRATOR: But as his infantrymen fall

prey to the swords of the Palmyrenes,

Aurelian knows his only chance \h\his to outmaneuver General

Zabdas.

FLORIN CURTA: It is \hduring this battle

\h\hthat Aurelian instructed his highly-disciplined light

cavalry to perform \hwhat later came

\h\h\h\hto be known as the feigned retreat strategy.

NARRATOR: Aurelian’s light calvary pretends to flee,

tricking the Palmyrenes \h\h\hinto giving chase,

\hleaving the protection of the main lines behind them.

FLORIN CURTA: At which point, the Roman cavalry turned back

and cut them to pieces.

In any case, indeed, the \hPalmyrene [inaudible]

cavalry was destroyed.

And the road was open to Antioch.

NARRATOR: General Zabdas orders the surviving Palmyrene troops

to retreat.

Zenobia and her generals \h\hhead toward Palmyra.

Aurelian gives chase, determined to catch the queen before she

reaches her home city.

But in the Syrian \hdesert, Aurelian

faces unexpected obstacles.

FLORIN CURTA: You have to \hremember this is summer.

It’s hot in the desert.

\hSo harassed by both the hot summer and the Arabs--

Arab nomads that had remained \h\hloyal to Zenobia, Aurelian

\hand his army pursued or pushed to Palmyra.

NARRATOR: But an arrow wound \hdelays Aurelian’s pursuit,

\h\hgiving Zenobia time to secure herself in Palmyra.

\hCursing his nomad attackers, Aurelian

vows to capture their queen.

In 272 AD, Emperor Aurelian \h\h\hdefeats Zenobia’s army

at Antioch.

But in pursuit of the fleeing queen,

Aurelian is ambushed, \h\h\h\h\hallowing her

to reach the safety of Palmyra.

Now ordered to surrender by \hAurelian who has besieged

the city, Zenobia writes him a scathing rebuke in the spirit

of her model Cleopatra.

\h\h\hACTOR AS ZENOBIA: Whatever must be accomplished in matters

of war must be done \h\hby valor alone.

You demand my surrender as though you were not aware

\h\h\h\h\hthat Cleopatra preferred to die a queen

rather than remain alive \hhowever high her rank.

\hNARRATOR: Despite her bravado, the proud queen

knows she is not safe for long in the city.

She quickly packs for travel.

GEOFFREY GREATREX: Palmyra \h\h\hitself is not really

ready for a siege anyway.

\h\hThey built some very hasty-erected defenses.

\h\hAnd clearly, Aurelian has some support inside the city.

\hIt does not hold out for very long.

NARRATOR: Queen Zenobia \hand her general Zabdas

slip away into the cover of darkness,

eluding Aurelian again.

\hIn 272 AD, Zenobia races toward Persia,

\h\h\hmaking it as far as the Euphrates River in modern day

Iraq.

But Aurelian’s soldiers \h\hare in hot pursuit.

On the banks of the Euphrates, the queen

offers the boatman gold \h\hto cross the river.

But even her desperate threats \h\hare too late to save her.

\hFLORIN CURTA: She was intercepted and captured

by the Roman cavalry.

They took Zenobia, her advisors and generals as prisoners

of war and put them on trial.

\hNARRATOR: Bound to prevent escape,

Zenobia knows she will \hsoon face Aurelian.

Having won back the \hthrone of Palmyra,

Aurelian finally confronts \h\h\h\hthe rebel Zenobia,

\h\ha woman whose boldness he can’t help but admire.

In his own words--

\h\hACTOR AS AURELIUS: What manner of woman she is, how

\hwise in counsels, how steadfast in plans, how

firm toward the soldiers, how generous when necessity calls,

\hand how stern when discipline demands.

NARRATOR: But facing likely execution, Zenobia’s courage

begins to wane.

FLORIN CURTA: Zenobia pleaded \hthat she had been led astray

by bad advice on which account her advisor was put to death.

And so was the general Zabdas.

\hNARRATOR: Aurelian has a different fate in mind

for the beautiful queen \honce they reach Rome.

But before leaving Palmyra, Aurelian

\h\hvisits a temple where he will pay tribute to one god

\halone, the god of soldiers, Sol Invictus, who has ensured

his victory on foreign soil.

\h\hFLORIN CURTA: He clearly had in mind an alliance between him

\h\h\hand the sun god that was responsible for his successes

in Palmyra.

\h\h\h\hHe presented himself on his coins

in terms of an association \h\h\h\h\hwith the emperor

to the god Sol Invictus.

\hGEOFFREY GREATREX: Where we’re moving into this dimension of--

\hof associating the emperor very closely

\hwith one particular divinity who clearly,

given the success that Aurelian had enjoyed,

people might believe in.

NARRATOR: In the peace of the eastern temple,

he sees that this is the one \hgod to unite all of Rome.

NOEL LENSKI: He does seem to have been participating

\hin a growing trend toward universalism

both in religion and in Roman political control.

\hNARRATOR: Offering his own blood as sacrifice,

Aurelian promises his god \ha nation of worshippers.

Having taken back the east and restored Rome’s ration

\hof free bread, Aurelian is welcome back to Rome a hero.

CLIFFORD ANDO: It may have signaled

\hto the Romans an end to what had been nearly a half century

of sequence of military \h\hcatastrophe followed

\h\hby recovery followed by catastrophe followed

by illusory recovery again.

\hNARRATOR: Aurelian has another purpose in Rome.

He will use the riches \htaken from the east

to establish the soldier’s \h\h\h\hgod, Sol Invictus,

as the single deity \h\h\hof the empire.

Work soon begins on a new temple.

FLORIN CURTA: He actually put \hthe new [inaudible] on a par

with the official--

official state religion in Rome.

He built a magnificent \h\h\h\htemple for Sol

\h\h\hin Rome which he furnished with the supplies from Palmyra.

[cheering]

NARRATOR: But religion \h\hmust wait for now.

Aurelian has more battles to \hfight before the empire is

fully restored.

\h\h\h\hTo the north, the Roman territories of Gaul and Britain

have fallen under the unlawful \h\h\hrule of a mutinous Roman

\h\h\harmy that calls their dominion the Gallic Empire.

Resembling their barbarian \h\h\hfoes more every day,

the Gallic soldiers \hscorn Roman honor,

\h\h\hnaming the arrogant Roman general Tetricus their emperor.

RICHARD BURGESS: You have armies popping up all over the place

proclaiming their generals emperor,

and then they have to fight.

And whoever wins is the one who ends up

being the legitimate emperor in the end.

RICHARD WEIGEL: The separation \h\h\h\h\hof the Gallic Empire

\h\h\h\hwas, of course, frightening for Romans.

It was a major loss.

\hIt was-- it was humiliating to have such a significant portion

\h\h\hof the traditional Roman Empire in another man’s hands.

NARRATOR: Emperor \hAurelian quickly

moves to take back \hthe Gallic lands

and restore the empire \hto its former glory.

All that stands in his way is Tetricus and the Gallic army.

Having defeated Queen Zenobia \h\h\hand recovered the east,

Aurelian now vows to take back the lost territory in the west

\hfrom the usurper Tetricus and unite

all Romans under one \hgod, Sol Invictus,

warrior god of the soldiers.

\h\h\h\hIn 274 AD, the mutinous Gallic Empire

\hencompasses both Gaul and Britain.

There the soldier emperor \h\hTetricus and his army

have become indistinguishable from their barbarian enemies.

\h\hUndisciplined, they revel in the torment of their prisoners.

\hRICHARD WEIGEL: The job of soldier emperor

\h\hwas tremendously dangerous because they are in power only

\h\h\h\h\h\hbecause they are proclaimed by their troops.

But it’s a very difficult \h\h\hthing once in power

to maintain that because you have

to avoid internal conflicts with other potential generals who

see themselves as possible emperors.

NARRATOR: Tetricus cannot show \hany weakness to his troops.

But in the privacy \h\hof his palace,

Tetricus consults his advisors, trying to determine where

his next rival will come from.

CLIFFORD ANDO: Tetricus \h\hhimself had survived

over the previous several years a number of internal disputes,

some actually leading to \hconsiderable bloodshed

among rival leaders \h\h\hin the Gauls.

NARRATOR: He plans to someday leave his kingdom to his son,

establishing a dynasty \h\h\hin his own name.

\hBut reports of a new challenger now

threaten to destroy this dream.

\hCLIFFORD ANDO: It seems to have been clear to him

that in the aftermath of his success in the east,

\hAurelian was going to and was already marching

\h\h\h\hon Gaul in an attempt to reintegrate Gaul into the Roman

Empire.

NARRATOR: With news of \hAurelian’s approach,

the volatile Tetricus blames \hhis advisors, lashing out

at everyone around him.

\h\h\hIn 274 AD, Aurelian marches to Chalons, Gaul,

\hin modern-day France to face Tetricus and win back

\h\h\h\h\hthe Western territories for Rome.

\hAurelian and his men meet Tetricus

\h\hin the forests of Chalons where the fighting is fierce.

GEOFFREY GREATREX: Aurelian’s \h\h\harmy probably contained

\h\h\h\h\hmore cavalry than traditional imperial armies

had up until now.

As for Tetricus’s army, well, there

were still important legions \h\halong the Rhine guarding

these areas.

\hIt would have been a battle between forces,

much similar forces with similar equipment at their disposal

\h\h\h\hand therefore all the bloodier and more devastating

for the armies involved.

\h\hNARRATOR: It is Tetricus’s army that now bears the brunt

of Aurelian’s vengeance.

\h\h\hHaving dared to name another as their emperor,

it is they who remain \hthe greatest threat.

\h\hMICHAEL KULIKOWSKI: Part of the crisis of the third century

is the importance that the army plays in choosing an emperor.

\h\hThis is something that’s relatively new in the Roman

world.

\hAnd it’s a result of constant warfare.

The army becomes more powerful.

It becomes more able to choose emperors.

And it becomes more able to impose its own choice

of emperors on Rome itself.

NARRATOR: Aurelian cannot allow this affront to his power.

\h\h\hAs Tetricus’s army falters, Aurelian orders

\hhis troops to cut them down, showing no mercy.

GEOFFREY GREATREX: Some sources claim that Tetricus realized

\hthe game was up even before battle

but looks as though he did \hfight it out to the end.

And it was in the end Aurelian \h\h\hwho gained the victory.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: It is the culmination of his efforts

to reignite the empire.

\hIn the end, he takes the usurper Tetricus prisoner.

\hAnd as with Queen Zenobia of Palmyra,

\h\h\h\hEmperor Aurelian spares Tetricus’s life.

GEOFFREY GREATREX: \hAnd for Tetricus

too, it was surprising that \h\hparticularly an opponent

in civil war--

\hopponents in civil wars were usually--

usually represented \h\ha great danger.

\h\hThey might after all turn against you later.

So Aurelian displayed \hremarkable clemency

in sparing the lives of both of these opponents.

\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: Tetricus’s Gallic army is not so lucky

for it is they who have raised \ha rival emperor in the west.

And now they will pay \h\hthe ultimate price

for their treason.

GEOFFREY GREATREX: Aurelian was a great disciplinarian.

\h\h\h\h\hIt seems he tolerated no mutinies

on the part of soldiers.

He drove them hard but was respected by them.

NARRATOR: To maintain his \h\hown soldiers’ respect,

\hAurelian knows his punishment of the captured Gallic soldiers

must be brutal and complete.

Not one is spared.

[screaming]

CLIFFORD ANDO: Aurelian was both a successful military commander

and in some respects \has perhaps one had

to be a fairly savage one.

\h\h\h\h\hAnd yet his treatment of Tetricus

was remarkably generous.

\hNARRATOR: It is in this generous spirit

that Aurelian returns \hvictorious to Rome.

\hThere after four years of nonstop campaigning,

Aurelian celebrates \hhis reunification

\h\h\h\hof the empire with a spectacular triumph parade,

displaying high-ranking captives from every far-off conquest.

\hCLIFFORD ANDO: There’s all sorts of other lore

\hthat goes with this ceremony which mark it out as-- mark it

out as distinct and in some way both as barbaric and awesome.

\h\hThe presence of the empire Aurelian in Rome

and the presence of the emperor in order

to celebrate an actual \h\h\hmilitary victory

was a novel event for its entire generation.

NARRATOR: The defeated usurpers Zenobia and Tetricus are

paraded as well, evidence \hof Aurelian’s successes

in the east and west.

GEOFFREY GREATREX: It was \ha humiliating spectacle

\hto be paraded through Rome as a captured enemy leader.

\hIt implied as it were they probably lacked the courage

to have died in battle.

NARRATOR: Humiliated though they may be, Zenobia and Tetricus

\h\h\hand the other captives are allowed

to live by the generous \h\h\hemperor Aurelian.

He also shows his generosity \h\h\hto the people of Rome.

\h\h\hFLORIN CURTA: Aurelian himself distributed largely

the bread, the pork meat, but also we are told white tunics

of Egyptian and African cloth.

\hSo it was clearly a very generous display of force

there.

NARRATOR: Grateful \hin his triumph,

\h\hAurelian consecrates the temple he has built

\h\hfor the god of soldiers, Sol Invictus, whose power and favor

\h\hhe believes have made him invincible.

\h\h\hNOEL LENSKI: Many scholars believe simply

that this was trying to enforce conformity among the peoples

of the empire for political purposes

and also for religious purposes.

\hAnd those two things are not that easily separated

in the mind of a Roman.

NARRATOR: Aurelian decrees \h\hthis day, December 25,

will be celebrated each year as the birthday of Sol Invictus.

Later emperors also seeking to unite Rome with religion

\hwill adopt this date for the birth of Jesus Christ.

\h\hEven now over 1,700 years later, this once pagan holiday

is celebrated as Christmas \h\h\h\haround the world.

\hMICHAEL KULIKOWSKI: Throughout the empire

in the third century, \h\h\hthere’s clearly

a movement towards monotheism, \htowards different cults that

\hbelieve in a single god and in-- sometimes

in a single redeeming god.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: The united Roman empire now stretches

from Palmyra to Britain.

\h\hBut in 275 AD, barbarians again wreak havoc in the east.

\hAurelian marches his army to Thrace to prepare for battle.

GEOFFREY GREATREX: Aurelian \h\his a fascinating figure.

\hHe was very energetic and dynamic individual.

\h\h\hIf you think of all the places in which he campaigned

in his life, he must have \h\hhad tremendous energy.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: It is this drive and energy that earn

him the loyalty of his troops.

RICHARD WEIGEL: Aurelian \h\h\his very successful

as a military leader.

He knows his troops.

\h\h\h\hHe works very effectively with them.

\h\hI’m sure he rewards them on a regular basis.

\hHe can, I, think depend on a a significant ongoing support

from the soldiers.

They they trust him.

They see him as as their leader.

NARRATOR: Having brought these \hsoldiers the glory and honor

of unimaginable victory, Aurelian never suspects

the betrayal that festers \h\h\h\hamong their ranks.

[music playing]

\hRICHARD WEIGEL: The assassination

of Aurelian is, again, \hone of these things

\h\h\hthat’s very difficult to explain particularly at a time

\h\hwhen he’s been so successful militarily

\h\h\hwhen the troops should feel satisfied

with-- with that success and with their rewards.

\h\hNARRATOR: Their treacherous act leaves the empire in shock.

[screaming]

FLORIN CURTA: As far as we know, the news that the emperor was

\h\h\h\hdead were received with disbelief and a lot of sadness.

\hHe was buried with great pomp in a magnificent tomb

in the very spot where \hhe was assassinated.

\hNARRATOR: Rome mourns the loss of a great emperor, one

who has saved the empire \hfrom certain collapse.

[cheering]

GEOFFREY GREATREX: I think Aurelian’s importance lies

\h\h\hin the fact that it’s the beginning of the Roman recovery

of the--

they were the central Roman machine coming back to life.

\hAnd he managed to reunite the empire,

to bring it all under \hhis central control.

\h\hBut in the end, not even the god of soldiers

could protect him from the swords of traders.

And the empire he had worked so hard to unite fragments again.