Valerianus

Valerianus, P. LICINIUS, Roman emperor (253-260), was proclaimed emperor by the legions in Rhætia after the murder of Gallus. He was then about sixty, and he assumed as colleague his eldest son Gallienus (q.v.). Throughout his reign trouble hovered on every frontier of the empire, but as the East appeared most threatening Valerian set out at the head of an army, and was suddenly attacked and completely defeated at Edessa (260). He languished till death in hopeless captivity, subjected to all the cruelties an oriental imagination could suggest. It is said that he was tortured into betraying to Sapor the city of Antioch and the passes of the Taurus, and that after his death his skin was stuffed, painted purple, and preserved as a trophy of victory.