AURELIAN (Lucius Domitius Aurelianus), Roman Emperor. - Born in Pannonia, he was a valiant soldier and commander; he ascended the throne in 270, in a period that was very sad for the empire. To defend Rome he had the grandiose circuit of walls built that for the most part still exists. Of his military exploits, above all the victory over Zenobia (272) must be remembered, she being the usurper of Syria, Palestine, Egypt and part of Asia Minor, whose capital was Palmyra. He favored the evolution of the State toward absolutism, restored the finances and was generous with the people. He wished to introduce the cult of the Sun as the protecting divinity of the empire and as a religion common even to followers of different cults; he hoped to attract Christians as well into this belief and, seeing the futility of his efforts, he was induced to persecute them; but the accounts of the martyrs of this time are scanty and unreliable. Very well known is the ruling he issued in the case against Paul of Samosata, bishop of Antioch, who, deposed by a council of bishops held in that same city in 269, did not wish to abandon the episcopal house; the emperor decided that this belonged to the one who was in "epistolary communion with the bishops of Italy and of the city of the Romans" (Eusebius, Hist. eccl., VII, 30, 19), showing that he was acquainted with the Christian ecclesiastical organization. He died at the end of August 275, killed in private vendetta while marching against the Persians.

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: Flav. Vopisco, Vita Aureliani, in Hist. Aug.; F. Fuchs, s. v. in E. de Ruggiero, Dizionario epigrafico, I, pp. 930-46; L. Homo, Essai sur le règne de l'empereur Aurélieu, Paris 1904; F. Cumont, La théologie solaire du paganisme romain, in Mémoires de l'Acad. des Inscript., ibid. 1913. - On Paul of Samosata, cf. G. Bardy, Paul de Samosate. Etude historique, Louvain 1929; P. Ciprotti, Ingerenza di Imperatori pagani nella vita interna della Chiesa? offprint from the Arch. di dir. eccl., 5 (1943), pp. 4-13. - For the description of the walls of Rome, cf. G. Lugli, I monumenti antichi di Roma e suburbio, II, Rome 1934, pp. 139-261.

Paolo Brezzi

@incollection{ec2_aureliano_lucius_domitius_aure, author = {Brezzi, Paolo}, title = {Aureliano (Lucius Domitius Aurelianus), imperatore romano}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {II}, pages = {408}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1949}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/aureliano-lucius-domitius-aurelianus-imperatore-romano} }

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Aurelian (Lucius Domitius Aurelianus), Roman Emperor

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