GALLO, GAIUS VIBIUS TREBONIANUS GALLUS, Roman Emperor. — Born in Perugia around AD 200, died in Terni in AD 253. He was a member of the Senate in AD 250 and served as governor of Moesia, commanding the legions during the war against the Goths. Upon the death of Decius, he was acclaimed emperor (AD 251); he quickly made peace with the Goths, leaving them their plunder and prisoners, and went to Rome to secure the Senate’s approval of his elevation. To dispel suspicions of treachery, he adopted Decius’s second son, Hostilian.
In AD 253, the Goths invaded Pannonia; the provincial legate, Aemilianus, defeated them and was acclaimed emperor. Gallus marched against him but was killed at Terni by his own soldiers, along with his son Volusianus. Soon afterward, Aemilianus was also killed, and the Empire passed to Valerian, who had been acclaimed by the soldiers of Gaul.
Toward Christians, Gallus initially showed tolerance, but the plague that broke out in AD 252 sparked a persecution. Sacrifices were indeed ordered throughout the Empire for propitiation (St. Cyprian, *Epist.*, 59). Christians naturally abstained, and their absence provoked the pagans’ hatred, leading to riots against them everywhere. An edict was then promulgated condemning the leaders of the churches—bishops, priests, and deacons—to exile (Eusebius, *Hist. Eccl.*, VII, 10; St. Cyprian, *Epist.*, 61). The most illustrious victim was Pope Cornelius, arrested in June AD 252 and sent to Centumcellae (Civitavecchia), where he died in May–June AD 253 (*ibid.*, 60). Lucius was elected to succeed him but was also exiled. Elsewhere, the persecution seems not to have claimed victims, due to Gallus’s death, which prevented the edict’s full enforcement.