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| - Shortly after the de facto secession of the Gallic Empire from the Roman Empire, Gallic Emperor Postumus set up a new Senate in Colonia Agrippina. At first, the Gallic Senate was identical to its Roman counterpart. During the 270s, Postumus began to believe that in order to maintain political stability in his empire, it was necessary for him and his successors to deal with the Senate as an equal, rather than make it a puppet. In accordance with this view, Postumus gave the Senate the power to depose and replace the emperor, choose the emperor's successor in the event of the emperor dying or abdicating without choosing his own successor, and the power to appoint the majority of the provincial governors.
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| abstract
| - Shortly after the de facto secession of the Gallic Empire from the Roman Empire, Gallic Emperor Postumus set up a new Senate in Colonia Agrippina. At first, the Gallic Senate was identical to its Roman counterpart. During the 270s, Postumus began to believe that in order to maintain political stability in his empire, it was necessary for him and his successors to deal with the Senate as an equal, rather than make it a puppet. In accordance with this view, Postumus gave the Senate the power to depose and replace the emperor, choose the emperor's successor in the event of the emperor dying or abdicating without choosing his own successor, and the power to appoint the majority of the provincial governors. The second Gallic Emperor, Victorinus, did not share Postumus' vision of genuine co-operation between the emperor and the Senate. Throughout his rule, he frequently removed senators who opposed his agenda from the Senate and replaced them with loyal allies of his. The first and most notable time he stuffed the Senate with his partisans was in 282, when the Senate was about to vote on a motion to depose him. Victorinus died in 293 without naming a successor. Because Victorinus had not designated a successor, the responsibility of choosing the new First Citizen (which had become the official title of the Gallic Emperor) fell on the Senate. When the Senate was considering who to elect, one of the main issues that came up was the relationship between the Senate and the new First Citizen. Two factions emerged in the Senate. One, called the Postumians, wanted to re-instate Postumus' policy of co-operation between the emperor and the Senate; and the other, called the Princepists, were content with the Senate deferring the wishes of the emperor and the emperor using his authority over the Senate's membership to remove his opponents. The Postumians threw their support behind Tetricus, while the Princepists were divided between Laelianus, Bonosus, and Carausius. The Senate held the election on March 1, 294. Tetricus won the election by a narrow plurality vote, and he designated Carausius his successor. Tetricus and his supporters promised that Carausius would succeed Tetricus only to win the votes of enough of Carausius' supporters. Tetricus would rather have chosen a Postumian for his successor, and Carausius did not share Tetricus' sympathy for the interests of the Senate. From the very beginning of his reign, Tetricus relegated not only Carausius but also his closest associates to administrative offices and military commands that were unimportant, and reserved important civil and military positions for Postumians. The idea was to make it so that if Carausius did indeed succeed Tetricus, he would lack meaningful leadership experience, and be heavily dependent on Postumians who had been groomed to exercise the real power.
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