A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Victoria the Heroine
VICTORIA,
Has been denominated the Heroine or Empress of the West; she was contemporary with Zenobia, the no less celebrated Empress of the eastern division of the Roman territory, and is said to have illuminated by her character and actions the darkness which enveloped Gaul, Spain, and Britain, over which countries she held absolute dominion, although commonly ruling in the name of one or other of the six emperors, who were through her influence invested with the purple. The first of these was her son Victorinus, the second her grandson Victorinus Augustus, both of whom died a violent death, as did also Marius, who, from an humble station was raised to the imperial dignity; Posthumus, the next emperor, was likewise killed; of Ælianus, the next, who reigned seven years, the fate is not recorded; he was succeeded by Tetricus, who afterwards rewarded his relative Victoria for obtaining his nomination and accession to the throne, by procuring her destruction. Amid all these changes, up to the time of her death, "Aurelia Victoria Augusta," as historians have called her, maintained, in defiance of the Roman arms, supreme authority over those she had exalted and over the people she was appointed to rule. The city of Cologne was the seat of her government. Equally bold and sagacious, she attended alike to the affairs of state and to the conduct of war. She has been styled the mother of armies; and there is no doubt that she exercised a wonderful influence in the troublous times in which she lived, and dying before her people had submitted to the Roman arms, (in this respect being more happy than the ungrateful Tetricus,) "left," as a modern writer observes, "her fame, untarnished by disgrace, to descend with the memory of her virtues to succeeding ages." A. D. 273 may be assigned as the date of her death.