TREBONIANUS GALLUS (Gaius Vibius Trebonianus Gallus)

• Gaius Vibius Trebonianus Gallus was born in Perugia in around 206.
• He was a senator, had served as consul, and as governor of Upper Moesia from 250 had fought in Decius's Gothic wars.
• Decius and his son died in battle when they were trapped by the Goths in June 251 and the defeated Roman army chose him as emperor.
• Some claimed that Gallus had known about the trap.
• He adopted Decius's surviving younger son Gaius Valens Hostilianus Messius Quintus, as co-Caesar with his own son, Gaius Vibius Volusianus.
• Gallus made peace with the Goths and returned to Rome. There there was plague, which carried off Hostilianus, around July 251. Gallus raised his own son Volusianus to the rank of emperor.
• In 252, the east, the Persian king Shapur I overran the entire province of Syria and Antioch, third city of the Roman world, was taken.
• On the lower Danube the Goths broke their agreement and went on the offensive. They were defeated by Aemilius Aemilianus, governor of Upper Moesia, who was proclaimed emperor by his legions.
• Gallus and Volusianus rushed to meet Aemilianus but were murdered by their own troops at Interamna (modern Terni), 50 miles north of Rome.