Victorinus
Victorinus: emperor of the Gallic Empire (r.269-271).
Names:
- full name and date of birth unknown
- the house in Trier where he lived when he was still an officer, has been excavated near the forum
- Autumn 269: Imperator Caesar Marcus Piavonius Victorinus Augustus
- Spring 271: murdered by a member of his household
Successor of: Marius
Relatives:
- mother: Victoria
Main deeds:
- 266 or 267: Consul (with Postumus IV)
- 269 After the death of Postumus, Marius was in charge of the Gallic Empire, but he could not establish his rule. Victorinus, who may have been Postumus' right-hand man, became emperor. The only town that did not recognize him, was Autun, which was captured after a siege.
- 270 or 271: consul II
- 271: Killed (private motivation). His mother Victoria ensured the succession by Tetricus.
Succeeded by: Tetricus
Text from the Historia Augusta
When the elder Postumus saw that Gallienus was marching against him with great forces, and that he needed the aid not only of soldiers but also of a second prince, he called Victorinus, a man of soldierly energy, to share in the imperial power, and in company with him he fought against Gallienus. Having summoned to their aid huge forces of Germans, they protracted the war for a long time, but at last they were conquered. Then, when Laelianus, too, had been slain, Victorinus alone remained in command. He also, because he devoted his time to seducing the wives of his soldiers and officers, was slain at Cologne through a conspiracy formed by a certain clerk, whose wife he had debauched; his mother Vitruvia, or rather Victoria, who was later called Mother of the Camp, had given his son Victorinus the title of caesar, but the boy, too, was immediately killed after his father was slain at Cologne.