Aurelia. See CHRYSAIS.
Aurelianus, LUCIUS DOMITIUS—also named CLAUDIUS DOMITIUS and VALERIUS—one of the most powerful of the Roman emperors, was of very humble origin, his father having been a husbandman. He was born in Dacia or Pannonia about 212 A.D., and enlisting early as a common soldier, he rapidly distinguished himself, and held the highest military offices under Valerianus and Claudius II. On the death of Claudius (270), Aurelian was elected emperor by the army, with whom his great stature, strength, and courage had made him very popular. He commenced his reign by repulsing the barbarian Alemanni Marcomanni, and then proceeded to erect a new line of fortified walls round Rome, the ruins of which may still be traced. Finding that the province of Dacia could not be maintained against the assaults of the Goths, he surrendered it on certain conditions, and strengthened the frontier of the Roman empire by making the Danube its boundary. He next turned his attention to the East, where the renowned queen, Zenobia (q.v.), had extended her sway from Syria to Asia Minor and Egypt. Aurelian defeated her in two battles, and besieged her in Palmyra, from which she attempted to escape when she saw defence would prove unavailing. She was, however, taken prisoner, and soon after the city surrendered, and was treated leniently. Shortly after he had departed, a new insurrection took place. He returned in 273, and gave the splendid city up to destruction. Aurelian was again called to the East by a rebellion in Egypt, instigated by Firmus, a merchant of great influence, which he speedily quelled. In Gaul, Tetricus, who had held imperial power since before the death of Gallienus, finding himself unable to wield it, surrendered it to Aurelian. By restoring good discipline in the army, order in domestic affairs, and political unity to the Roman dominions, this prince merited the title awarded to him by the senate—'Restorer of the Roman Empire.' He was assassinated at the instigation of a faithless secretary, between Heraclæa and Byzantium, during his campaign against the Persians (275).