The History of the Third Century

The history of the third century began to be re worked by conservative members of the senatorial class into series of morality plays that had a clear cast of heroes and villains. The historia augusta expends a great deal of ink praising posthumus, who was, after all, nothing less than a traitor to rome,. In order to contrast him with the terrible, no good gallienus. Because of the senate's lingering hatred for galleenus, despite this friction with the upper classes, gallienus did manage to stay in power for 15 years. So he had to be doing something right.