After the assassination of Gallienus, the conspirators immediately proclaimed Claudius emperor. He quickly had to take the field against the Alamanni who had invaded through Raetia into northern Italy. Facing a revolt in Gaul and the rebellion of Palmyra in the East, he had to meet a further Gothic invasion across the Danube into Moesia. He gained a resounding victory, which he commemorated by adopting the cognomen ‘Gothicus’, but in early 270 he died of plague at Sirmium.

The brother of Claudius Gothicus, he was proclaimed at Aquileia upon the death of his brother. However, when the Balkan army declared for Aurelian he committed suicide after a reign of only three months.

A man of humble origins who achieved high military command under Gallienus. An energetic and capable politician, as well as a successful soldier, he was the natural successor to Claudius. His reign was plagued by invasions, Vandals in Pannonia and the Alamanni into northern Italy, which necessitated the building of the massive Aurelian Walls to protect Rome. He was forced to attack the city of Palmyra, where Zenobia and her son Vabalathus had challenged Roman rule in the East, and then turn westward to put an end to the dissident Gallic Empire. It was in setting out for a campaign against the Persians that he was murdered near Byzantium.

The wife of Aurelian, with whom she had a daughter. She was made Augusta, but nothing further is known to history.

Securing control of Palmyra in the name of her son Vabalathus after the suspicious death of her husband, she long kept the East secure, gaining recognition from Rome. Attempts at expansion led to conflict, and she ended being paraded in Aurelian’s triumph.

The son of Zenobia and Septimius Odaenathus of Palmyra in Syria. Led by his mother he claimed the Imperial titles, including Imperator and Augustus. It is likely that he died when Aurelian attacked their ‘empire’ in AD 272.

The army, having no obvious candidate to replace the murdered Aurelian, referred the decision to the Senate. After a month of debate they appointed the aged senator Tacitus as Emperor. Despite his age he did well, and took the field against a Gothic invasion of Asia Minor which he succeeded in repelling. However, Tacitus died on his way back to Rome after a reign of only six months.

Florian had been Prefect of the Guard under his half-brother Tacitus, and was proclaimed Emperor by the troops upon his brother’s death. His reign was almost immediately challenged when the Eastern army proclaimed their general Probus as Emperor. The two armies almost clashed in Cilicia, and Florian was eventually assassinated by his own troops after a reign of only three months.

He had been Aurelian’s most successful general, and was acclaimed by the Eastern legions. Following the death of Florian he was unopposed as Emperor. He continued Aurelian’s policy of pacifying the frontiers in a series of campaigns in Gaul, Illyricum, Pamphylia and Lycia, and later in Gaul again. In 282 he was passing through the Balkans on the way to campaign against Persia, when the news came of a revolt, led by the Praetorian Prefect Carus, in Raetia. This caused the army to mutiny and murder the Emperor.

A Gaul by birth, he had been appointed governor of Syria by Probus. Forced by the people of Alexandia to rebel, Saturninus initially resisted, but in 280 proclaimed himself Emperor. Before Probus could respond, Saturninus was killed by his own troops.

Probably of Frankish origin, Proculus had risen in the Roman legions. Whilst Probus was in the East, he usurped power in Gaul and defended the province against the Alamanni. Forced to retreat by Probus' return, he was eventually betrayed and executed.

Carus, after announcing his proclamation to the Senate, set about carrying out Probus’ plans for campaigning in the East. His elder son Carinus was made Caesar, and left to guard the West, whilst his younger son, Numerian, also made Caesar, accompanied the Emperor. Persian resistance crumbled and great gains were made, but again the Emperor perished, presumably through a conspiracy, though it was given out that he had been struck by lightening.

Made Augustus before his father’s death, Carinus, along with his brother Numerian, succeeded to the title Emperor. He crushed the rebel Julian near Verona, but was killed in battle with Diocletian near Margus in Moesia.

History records nothing of this Empress. Her coinage makes it quite clear she was the wife of Carinus, and most probably the mother of Nigrinian.  Her fate after her husband's death is unknown.

This young prince is known to have been a grandson of Carus, and it is most probable that he was the son of Carinus and Magnia Urbica. He died ininfancy during AD 284.

Numerian succeeded his father Carus as Augustus, though real power lay with his Praetorian Prefect and father-in-law, Aper. Having withdrawn from Persia, he died in Bithynia in mysterious circumstances. The army chose their general Diocletian to succeed him. Diocletian’s immediate condemnation and slaying of Aper as Numerian’s murderer aroused suspicions that he too may have been involved in the conspiracy.

Upon the news of the death of Carus, Julian led a revolt in Illyricum, styling himself ‘corrector Venetiae’. He extended his powers as far as Siscia, but died in battle with Carinus near Verona.