Emperor Claudius II Gothicus

Claudius II Gothicus ruled for less than two years and stopped the invasion that might have ended the empire. Born around AD 214 in Illyria, probably to a family of no rank, he rose through the army in the period when military competence was the only route to power, and served as a senior cavalry commander under Gallienus. Gallienus was murdered besieging Milan in AD 268, and Claudius was proclaimed by the troops. He was implicated in the plot by some sources and not others; he had the assassins executed and had Gallienus deified, which suggests he wanted the question closed. He inherited an empire that had effectively broken into three. Postumus ruled a separatist Gallic empire in the west, Palmyra was detaching the east under Zenobia, plague was general, and the coinage had almost no silver in it. He defeated the Alamanni at Lake Benacus shortly after his accession, clearing northern Italy. His decisive action came in AD 269 at Naissus in the Balkans, against an enormous Gothic and Herulian migration that had come by sea and land and was ravaging Greece and Thrace. The battle was hard-fought and probably closer than the sources admit, and it destroyed the invasion; survivors were settled in the provinces or drafted. He took the title Gothicus for it. He recovered Spain and part of Gaul from the Gallic empire. He died of plague at Sirmium in early AD 270, having reigned about eighteen months. Constantine's dynasty later claimed descent from him, on evidence that was almost certainly invented.

MyHistorian
A causal knowledge graph of history