Bonosus (usurper)

{{Short description|Usurper of the Roman Empire (died 280)}}

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{{Infobox Roman emperor

| name = Bonosus

| full name = Bonosus

| title = Usurper of the Roman Empire

| image = Bonosus.jpg

| caption = Antoninianus previously identified as Bonosus, now assumed to be a barbarous imitation of a Postumus antoninianus.

| reign = {{circa|AD}} 280 (against Probus)

| predecessor =

| successor =

| spouse 1 = Name unknown

| spouse 2 =

| issue = two sons

| dynasty =

| father = A Briton

| mother = A Gaul

| birth_date =

| birth_place =

| death_date = 280 AD

| death_place =

| place of burial =

| regnal name = Imperator Caesar Bonosus Augustus

}}

Bonosus (died AD 280){{cite book|last1=Hazel|first1=J.|title=Who's who in the Roman World|date=2002|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9780415291620|page=39|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bfkd6fy_zb8C|accessdate=10 September 2017}}{{cite book|last1=Clinton|first1=H.F.|title=An Epitome of the Civil and Literary Chronology of Rome and Constantinople: From the Death of Augustus to the Death of Heraclius|date=1853|publisher=University Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_LzMLAAAAYAAJ/page/n90 85]|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_LzMLAAAAYAAJ|accessdate=10 September 2017}} was a late 3rd-century Roman usurper. He was born in Hispania (Roman Spain) to a British father and Gallic mother. His father—a rhetorician and "teacher of letters"—died when Bonosus was still young but the boy's mother gave him a decent education.{{Cite web|url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta/Firmus_et_al*.html|title=Historia Augusta • Lives of Firmus, Saturninus, Proculus and Bonosus|website=penelope.uchicago.edu}} He had a distinguished military career with an excellent service record. He rose successively through the ranks and tribuneships but, while he was stationed in charge of the Rhenish fleet {{circa|lk=no|280}}, the Germans managed to set it on fire.{{cite book|author=Jacob Burckhardt|title=The Age of Constantine the Great|url=https://archive.org/details/ageofconstantine00burc|url-access=registration|date=1 January 1983|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-04680-1|pages=[https://archive.org/details/ageofconstantine00burc/page/387 387]–}} Fearful of the consequences, he proclaimed himself Roman emperor at Colonia Agrippina (Cologne) jointly with Proculus. After a protracted struggle, he was defeated by Marcus Aurelius Probus and hanged himself rather than face capture.

Bonosus left behind a wife and two sons who were treated with honor by Probus.