In recognition of the importance of Simplicinius Genialis to his regime, Postumus had appointed him one of the two consuls of the year. Now, as tradition demanded, Simplicinius Genialis had travelled from his province to give his thanks in this panegyric.
‘For what gift of the gods could be greater and more glorious than a princeps whose purity and virtue make him their own equal?’
The introductory invocation of the gods was moving into the concept of divine election. Tactful, Postumus thought, given the reality of his accession. Doubtless it would be followed by the Gauls, oppressed by the tyranny of Gallienus, left undefended from the savagery of the Germans, spontaneously acclaiming a reluctant new emperor. The whole actio gratiarum would take quite a time. Postumus blamed the long-dead Pliny of Comum. Once, the speech of thanks by a consul was a brief thing. Then Pliny had reinvented the genre as this interminable parade of flattery.
Postumus had never wanted to be emperor. He did not now. From a modest beginning among the Batavians, he had risen through the army to be a general, to be governor of Germania Inferior. He knew himself a good commander. It had been enough. Ironically, it was his own skill — that and the jealousy and greed of that bastard Silvanus — that had made him emperor.
At Deuso near the Rhine, Postumus, at the head of his mounted bodyguard, and one legion had intercepted a war band of Franks returning from Spain. He had defeated them. Almost all of them were killed or captured, their booty distributed among his soldiers. Silvanus, the governor of Germania Superior, was Dux of the whole frontier then and had charge of the Caesar Saloninus, the young son of Gallienus. In effect, Silvanus had been left in charge of the west when Gallienus had hurried back to Italy to fight a marauding horde of Alamanni. Postumus had received a peremptory command from Silvanus to hand all the booty over to him. In point of law Silvanus was right; all manubiae should go to the imperial fiscus. That had all been very well in the silver age of the Antonine emperors. In this age of iron and rust the troops had to be mollified. Postumus had been left between Scylla and Charybdis. If he had attempted to get the plunder back from the soldiers they would have killed him. If he did not, Silvanus would have accused him of maiestas and executed him for his treason. Postumus had consulted those with him in the field, Lollianus the Praefectus Legionis of XXX Ulpia Victrix, Victorinus the Tribunus of his Equites Singularis Consularis, and Marius, his Praefectus Castrorum. The commanders of the legion, horse guards and camp agreed — he had no choice but to bid for the throne.
A donative had been given to the troops. The images of Gallienus and his family had been torn from the standards; idealized portraits of Postumus had replaced them. A purple cloak had been taken from the sanctuary of Hercules Deusoniensis and draped around the shoulders of his devotee, the new Augustus.
Perhaps there had been a way back, even then. A message had come from Gallienus, ambiguous in its brevity: ‘What are you doing? Behave! Do you seek battle?’ Postumus had written back, playing for time: ‘Do not come north across the Alps, do not put me in a position of fighting Roman citizens.’ Gallienus’s response had smacked of madness. ‘Let it be settled by single combat.’ By then events had gathered their own momentum. A judicious distribution of some more of Postumus’s share of the Frankish loot had won over I Minerva, the other legion in his province, along with its commander, Dialis. The same cause lay behind Laelianus and Servilius Rufinus, the commanders of the two legions in Germania Superior, declaring for Postumus. The defection of the legions in his own province catching Silvanus by surprise, he had retired with Saloninus and a handful of loyal troops behind the walls of Colonia Agrippinensis. Postumus had laid siege to the town.
It might be a negotiated settlement had still had a chance. Postumus had written to Gallienus saying he had been elected by the Gauls and was content to rule over them. But no answer had come back. The siege had dragged on, and the attitude of those camped outside the walls had hardened. When the citizens ran short of food, they bought their own salvation by handing over Silvanus and the young imperial prince. And then — Lollianus and Marius had urged him to it; Postumus regretted it now — and then both Silvanus and Saloninus had been beheaded. With that, all hope of peace had gone. Postumus knew Gallienus would not rest until one of them was dead. He could not blame him. If someone killed his son, he would do the same.
Postumus had not wanted to be emperor, but once you had taken the wolf by the ears you could not let go. He would do everything in his capacity to keep his grip. He would do anything, absolutely anything, to ensure the survival of his family and himself, and, if it were possible, of course he would be of benefit to those he ruled.
‘By his presence he will safeguard the soldiers in the camp, civil rights in the forum, law-suits at the tribunal, the dignitas of the senate house, and he will preserve for each one his personal possessions.’ Simplicinius Genialis had moved his oration into an exegesis of qualities thought by the elite desirable in their ruler.
Postumus shifted his gaze to the high, shadowed beams of the ceiling. A princeps cannot scruple at deceit or betrayal. Love the treachery, hate the traitor — unless circumstances dictate you love him, too. The agents of Vocontius Secundus, his Princeps Peregrinorum, had brought him the names of those who served Gallienus whom they considered might be suborned. The frumentarii had been diligent, but the list was not over-long, nor, with a few exceptions, were its contents over-mighty. Four caught the eye. Placidianus, the Prefectus Vigilum, still owned lands in Gaul near his birthplace, Augustodunum. The vigiles comprised seven thousand paramilitary firemen in the heart of Rome. It could be useful. Then there was Proculus. He was the Prefect of a unit made up of vexillationes of soldiers drawn from the legions of Pannonia and was now stationed with the comitatus of Gallienus at Mediolanum. Proculus hailed from Albingauni in the Alpes Maritimae. Many of his family were still there, and his cousin was no less than Maecianus, Prefect of Postumus’s Equites Singulares Augusti. For what it was worth, Proculus was an inveterate womaniser, always bragging of his conquests and prowess. The third man of interest was a young officer called Carus, recently appointed a protector. No one was closer to Gallienus than the protectores, and they were assigned the most important tasks. Carus was from Narbo, and retained property there. Finally, there was Saturninus. His long and distinguished career of civil and equestrian offices had been rewarded with the signal honour of being Gallienus’s colleague as consul this year. The ancestral estates of Saturninus spread across Narbonensis into Aquitania.
Postumus’s eyes followed the smoke of the sacred fire as it coiled through the dark patterns of the ceiling. One of the stranger aspects of this undeclared but truceless civil war was that — despite its potential efficacy and the disposable wealth it would yield — so far, neither he nor Gallienus had threatened to confiscate the properties in their territories owned by the families of men serving on the other side. Tempting as it was, Postumus would not take the first step. He had more to lose. The old law that every senator must have one third of his property in Italy was not always observed. Yet many of the key supporters of his regime had holdings in lands under Gallienus. His amici Ragonius Clarus and Trebellius Pollio were from Macedonia and Italy respectively. Lollianus came from Syria Phonice. Tetricius, his governor of Aquitania, might be a native of that province, but he possessed one of the finest houses in Rome, a beautiful building on the Caelian Hill, between two groves and facing the Temple of Isis. Postumus would remember to tell Vocontius Secundus to have the frumentarii keep an especially close watch on Tetricius and the others.