Many senators, resenting their recent loss of power, had despised Gallienus.

Pleased to hear of his death, they kill several of his friends and supporters, including Gallienus's brother and surviving son.

Claudius intervenes, asking the senators to show restraint and for them to deify the late emperor, in order to help soothe the angered troops.

Only in the central territories of the empire is Claudius' authority recognized, however.

Claudius, like Maximinus Thrax before him, is of barbarian birth.

After an interlude of failed aristocratic Roman emperors since Maximinus's death, Claudius is the first in a series of tough soldier-emperors who will eventually restore the Empire from the Crisis of the third century.