The Thirty Tyrants, or Thirty Pretenders (Latin: Tyranni Triginta) were a group of thirty men and two women declared by the author of the notoriously unreliable Historia Augusta, writing under the name Trebellius Pollio, to have been pretenders to the throne of the Roman Empire in the time of the legitimate emperor Gallienus. Scholarly consensus is that the author artificially increased the number of his protagonists in conscious parallelism with the Thirty Tyrants of Athens. The Augustan History (Lat. ... The Augustan History (Lat. ... The Roman Empire is the term conventionally used to describe the Ancient Roman polity in the centuries following its reorganization under the leadership of Octavian (better known as Caesar Augustus), until its radical reformation in what was later to be known as the Byzantine Empire. ... Gallienus depicted on a lead seal. ... The Thirty Tyrants were a pro-Spartan oligarchy installed in Athens after Athens defeat in the Peloponnesian War in April 404 BC. Its two leading members were Tharamenes and Critias, a former acolyte of Socrates. ...

The mysogynic streak of the author of the Historia Augusta not only shows from the fact he counted "thirty" as the number of pretenders, but in the introduction to the book following that of the "Tyranni Triginta" (the book on Claudius Gothicus) he starts his introduction with a complaint of the low level reached so that he was forced to write even the lives of women ("Life of Claudius" I,2) Marcus Aurelius Claudius Gothicus (May 10, 213/214 - January, 270) , more often referred to as Claudius II, ruled the Roman Empire for less than two years (268 - 270), but during that brief time, he was so successful and beloved by the people of Rome that he attained divine status. ...

These two women mentioned in the "Tyranni Triginta" are:

• Zenobia, claiming descendance of Cleopatra VII of Egypt;
• Victoria, a.k.a. Vitruvia, the mother of Victorinus.

The Thirty men listed in the Historia Augusta are: Cyriades, Postumus, Postumus Junior, Laelianus, Victorinus, Victorinus Junior, Marius, Ingenuus, Regalianus, Aureolus, Macrianus, Macrianus Junior, Quietus, Odaenathus, Herodes, Maeonius, Balista, Valens, Valens Superior, Piso, Aemilianus, Saturninus, Tetricus Senior, Tetricus Junior, Trebellianus, Herennianus, Timolaus, Celsus, Titus, Censorinus. For the genus of plants named after Zenobia, see Zenobia (plant) Zenobia coin reporting her title, Augusta. ... Egyptian statue of Cleopatra VII Cleopatra VII Philopator (January 69 BC – August 12, 30 BC) was queen of ancient Egypt, the last member of the Ptolemaic dynasty and hence the last Hellenistic ruler of Egypt. ... Marcus Piav(v)onius Victorinus was emperor of the successionist Gallic Empire from 268 to 270 or 271, following the brief reign of Marius. ... Cyriades stands first in the list of the Thirty Tyrants enumerated by Trebellius Pollio, from whose brief, indistinct, and apparently inaccurate narrative we gather that, after having robbed his father, whose old age he had embittered by dissipation and vice, he fled to the Persians, stimulated Sapor to invade the... Marcus Cassianius Latinius Postumus was emperor of the Gallic Empire from AD 259 to 268. ... Ulpius Cornelius Laelianus was a usurper to Postumus, the emperor of the Gallic Empire. ... Marcus Piav(v)onius Victorinus was emperor of the successionist Gallic Empire from 268 to 270 or 271, following the brief reign of Marius. ... Marcus Aurelius Marius was emperor of the Gallic Empire in AD 268. ... Ingenuus held a senior military command in Pannonia when he proclaimed himself Roman Emperor ca. ... Regalianus (died 260) had been made general by emperor Valerian and like many others of his rank he was proclaimed Roman emperor in 260 after the capture and execution of Valerian by the Sasanid Persians. ... For the Frankish ruler of Aragon, see Aureolus of Aragon. ... Fulvius Macrianus (died 261), also known as Macrianus Major to distinguish him from his son Macrianus Minor, was disqualified from the imperial office because of his lameness, but with support from Ballista, Roman emperor Valerians praefect, he had his two sons Macrianus Minor and Quietus elevated to the throne. ... Roman emperor Titus Fulvius Iunius Macrianus (died 261), also known as Macrianus Minor to distinguish him from his father, was the son of Fulvius Macrianus. ... Roman emperor Titus Fulvius Iunius Quietus (d. ... Septimius Odaenathus, or Odenatus (Greek: (Hodainathos), Palmyrene אחינל = little ear), the Latinized form of Odainath, was a famous prince of Palmyra, in the second half of the 3rd century AD, who succeeded in recovering the Roman East from the Persians and restoring it to the Empire. ... Balista was one of the Thirty Tyrants of Trebellius Pollio. ... VALENS was the maternal granduncle or uncle of the usurper Valens Junior. ... Aemilianus celebrating peace-maker Mars god of war. ... Roman emperor Iulius Saturninus (died 280) was a Gaul by birth (others have him as a Moor) and was a friend of the emperor Probus. ... Tertricus Coin Caius Pius Esuvius Tetricus was emperor of the Gallic Empire from 270/271 to 273, following the murder of Victorinus. ... TREBELLIANUS (TREBATIUS PRISCUS, or TREBATIUS TESTA) , one of the most insigni­ficant and despicable of the herd of thirty tyrants enumerated by Trebellius Pollio. ... CELSUS (T. Cornelius), one of the Thirty Ty­rants enumerated by Trebellius Pollio. ...

The list is a very mixed one, including:

• nine pretenders of roughly the same time, the reign of Gallienus;
• one pretender of the time of Decius;
• two pretenders of the time of Claudius II and Aurelian;
• two other persons of uncertain date;
• four men who certainly never held the imperial power;
• three men who probably never held the imperial power;
• two women and six children who never held the imperial power;
• three almost certainly fictitious names.

The nine men felt by David Magie, the editor of the Loeb Classical Library edition of the Historia Augusta in the early 20th century, to have been real pretenders to the throne at the time of Gallienus are: Postumus, Laelianus, Marius, Ingenuus, Regalianus, Aureolus, and Macrianus and his two sons, Macrianus Minor and Quietus. At least some of these men issued coins. Gaius Messius Quintus Trajanus Decius (201- July 1, 251), Roman emperor (249 - 251) was born at Budalia near Sirmium in lower Pannonia. ... Claudius Gothicus on a coin celebrating his equity (AEQUITAS AUGUSTI). ... Contemporary coin of Aurelian. ... The Loeb Classical Library is a series of books, today published by the Harvard University Press, which present important works of ancient Greek and Latin Literature in a way designed to make the text accessible to the broadest possible audience, by presenting the original Greek or Latin text on each... Marcus Cassianius Latinius Postumus was emperor of the Gallic Empire from AD 259 to 268. ... Ulpius Cornelius Laelianus was a usurper to Postumus, the emperor of the Gallic Empire. ... Marcus Aurelius Marius was emperor of the Gallic Empire in AD 268. ... Ingenuus held a senior military command in Pannonia when he proclaimed himself Roman Emperor ca. ... Regalianus (died 260) had been made general by emperor Valerian and like many others of his rank he was proclaimed Roman emperor in 260 after the capture and execution of Valerian by the Sasanid Persians. ... For the Frankish ruler of Aragon, see Aureolus of Aragon. ... Fulvius Macrianus (died 261), also known as Macrianus Major to distinguish him from his son Macrianus Minor, was disqualified from the imperial office because of his lameness, but with support from Ballista, Roman emperor Valerians praefect, he had his two sons Macrianus Minor and Quietus elevated to the throne. ... Roman emperor Titus Fulvius Iunius Macrianus (died 261), also known as Macrianus Minor to distinguish him from his father, was the son of Fulvius Macrianus. ... Roman emperor Titus Fulvius Iunius Quietus (d. ...

Modern scholar analysis differs from Magie's interpretation, that was rather based on how convincing the author of the Augustan History was: coins of for example the Gallic Emperor Victorinus turned up, and his mother Victoria seems to have had some influence for appointing the next emperor, Tetricus I. The Gallic Empire (in Latin, imperium Galliarum) is the modern name for the independent realm that lived a brief existence during the Roman Empires Crisis of the Third Century, from 260 to 274. ...

External link

• Historia Augusta: the Thirty Tyrants (Latin text and English translation)