*Palmyra.* In the Orient the Persians were unable to retain their hold on Syria and Asia Minor. Their withdrawal was in large measure caused by the activities of Odaenathus, the ruler of the city of Palmyra, who inflicted a severe defeat upon Sapor and recovered Roman Mesopotamia. Thereupon two brothers, Fulvius Macrianus and Fulvius Quietus, sons of an officer who had distinguished himself against the Persians, were acclaimed as emperors in Asia Minor. However, the one was defeated in attempting to invade Europe and the other was overthrown by Odaenathus. In recognition of his services Gallienus bestowed upon him the title of “Commander of the East” (_dux orientis_), with the duty of protecting the East (264 A. D.). In Palmyra, he ruled as _basileus_, or king, and although he nominally acknowledged the overlordship of the Roman emperor, he was practically an independent sovereign. *The Goths.* A fresh peril arose in the maritime raids of the Goths, Heruli, and other tribes who had seized the harbors on the north coast of the Black Sea. With the ships that they thus secured they ravaged the northern coast of Asia Minor as early as 256 A. D. In 262 they forced the passage of the Bosphorus and Hellespont and plundered the shores of the Aegean. Their most noted raid was in 267, when they sacked the chief cities of Greece, including Athens. No less than eighteen usurpers, for the most part officers who had risen from the ranks, had unsuccessfully challenged the authority of Gallienus in the various provinces. At last, in 268 A. D., one of his leading generals, Aureolus, laid claim to the imperial title. Gallienus defeated him and was besieging him in Milan, when he was killed at the instigation of his officers, who proclaimed as his successor one of their own number, Marcus Aurelius Claudius. *Claudius Gothicus, 268–270 A. D.* The rule of Claudius lasted only two years, in which his greatest achievement was the crushing defeat which he inflicted upon the Goths who had again overrun Greece and the adjacent lands (269 A. D.). This victory won him the name of Gothicus. Upon the death of Claudius in 270 A. D., the army chose Lucius Domitius Aurelianus as emperor.