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Juthungi sued for peace, and Aurelian allowed them to return home. Journeying to Rome, Aurelian
received the imperial powers begrudgingly. He could not enjoy them in peace for long. An urgent request
came from Pannonia, where the Vandals were on the attack. Aurelian crushed them in 270-271 but had to
face the Juthungi again in Italy, this time allied with the Alamanni and the Marcomanni. The tribes
ambushed Aurelian near Placentia, defeating him and forcing a retreat into northern Italy. However, the
Germans were too disorganized to follow up on their victory, and Aurelian used the time to bolster the
defenses of the north. He marched against them a second time and exterminated them at Metaurus,
Fanum Fortuna and Ticinum, winning the so-called JUTHUNGINE WAR.
Returning to Rome in 271, Aurelian had to pacify a terrified city. He halted the rioting and put up new
defense walls (the Aurelian Walls). The minters of Rome had also revolted, and Aurelian was forced to
trap and execute them and their allies, some of senatorial rank, in a terrible battle on the Caelian Hills.
Thrace was reconquered and freed of the Goths, who were pursued over the Danube. But imperial
frontiers had proven impossible to defend, and the province of Dacia was abandoned entirely. A battle
near the Orontes River ended the revolt of Palmyra in the East, as Aurelian defeated General Zabdas and
his forces.
In 274, Aurelian marched into Gaul to attack the usurper Tetricus and his Gallic Empire. At the battle of
Gampi Catalaunii, near Chalons, Tetricus abandoned his troops and surrendered. The Empire had been
pacified, and a triumphant return to Rome ended senatorial resistance to Au-relian's claims.
The currency of the Empire had been reduced in value, causing inflation, and Aurelian reformed the
system using the sestertii. Informers were punished, debts cancelled, bread and corn rationed fairly, and
religious devotion to the sun god, Sol Invictus, encouraged. Aurelian attempted by these means to
develop a universal deity to unite the pagan world. In the process he started persecution of the Christians
again.
With his internal reforms accomplished, Aurelian returned to the East in the summer of 275 with
ambitions toward Mesopotamia. A harsh disciplinarian, he caught his secretary, Eros, in a lie during the
campaign and promised dire punishment. Eros, expecting to die, went to the Praetorian Guards and said
that Aurelian planned to kill them too. A plot sprang up immediately, resulting in the assassination of
Aurelian a short time later.
¤ AURELIUS, MARCUS See MARCUS AURELIUS.
¤ AURELIUS VICTOR (fl. late 4th century A.D.) Historian whose main work was a brief account of
the emperors, written around 360 A.D. and covering the period from the reign of Tiberius to Constantius
II. Aurelius Victor was, by his own admission, a man of humble African origin. Following the
publication of his book, Caesars, he was honored by Julian with the post of governor of Pannonia
Secundae in 361 and was later the Prefect of the City of Rome (c. 389). A pagan, Victor wrote in the
style of Sallust. The Caesars was a large collection of stories but was only the most important of several
histories. A second imperial annal was an Epitome to the time of Theodosius I. Although similarities
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