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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Probus Biography PROBUS, MARCUS AURELIUS. Roman Emperor 276-282 A.D. He was born at Sirmium in Pannonia about 232 A.D. Probus early entered the army, and had the fortune to receive favorable notice from the Emperor, Valerian, who raised him before the legal period to the rank of tribune. He distinguished himself against the Sarmatians on the Danube, and subsequently in Africa, Egypt, Asia, Germany, and Gaul, winning golden opinions from Valerian's successors, Gallienus, Claudius II, Aurelian, and Tacitus. By the last-named Emperor he was appointed governor of the whole of Rome's Asiatic possessions. Such was the zealous attachment evinced for him by his soldiers, that, on the death of Taeitus, they forced him to assume the purple; and his rival, Florianus, having been removed, Probus was enthusiastically hailed Emperor by all classes (276 A.D.). His brief reign was signalized by important successes. The Germans were driven out of Gaul with enormous slaughter, pursued into the heart of their own country, compelled to restore their plunder and to furnish a contingent to the Roman armies. Probus swept the barbarians from the Rhćtian, Pannonian, and Thracian frontiers, and forced Persia to agree to a humiliating peace. On his return to Rome Probus devoted himself to the development of the internal resources of the Empire; but, as the Romans had now no enemies, the Emperor employed the soldiers as laborers in executing various extensive and important works of public utility. Such occupations, considered as degrading by the soldiers, excited the utmost irritation, and a body of them murdered him (October, 282 A.D.). Consult: Champigny, Les Césars (Paris, 1843); Hermann Schiller, Geschichte der römischen Kaizerzeit, vol. i (Gotha, 1883), and the article "Aurelius, 27," in Friedrich Lübker, Reallexikon des klassischen Altertums, vol. i (8th ed., Leipzig, 1914). The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XIX (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 234. |