270 – 280s

Events in the 270s 1

• 270 – 275 Aurelian — restorer of the world Lucius Domitius Aurelianus — "Restitutor Orbis" (Restorer of the World) — reunites the fragmented empire in five years (270–275 AD). He defeats the Palmyrene Empire (272 AD), capturing Queen Zenobia, and the Gallic Empire (274 AD). He builds the Aurelian Walls around Rome — still largely standing today — and introduces the cult of Sol Invictus as a unifying state religion. He is murdered by his own officers in 275 AD, but the empire he leaves behind is intact, a remarkable achievement in a century of dissolution.