Bonosus (usurper)

• For the bishop of Trier Bonosus of Trier ( † 373 ) see Bonosus of Trier.
• For the Roman consul of the year 344 see Sallustius Bonosus.

Bonosus († 281) was a Roman usurper. His life story is largely based on his Life in Late Antiquity (and often notoriously unreliable ) Historia Augusta, which is why many statements are hardly verifiable.

According to the Vita in the Historia Augusta, he was born in Hispania, his father was a Brit, his mother was a Gaulish. He lost his father at a young age, yet succeeded his mother to give him a suitable education. He had brought an excellent military and government career behind him when it succeeded the Germans while he was stationed on the Rhine, to burn the Roman fleet, which was under his command.

Fearing the consequences, he allegedly called 280 (or 281) in Cologne - along with Proculus (?) - The Roman emperor. The rightful emperor Probus, however, managed to defeat him. Bonosus committed suicide by hanging. He left allegedly because again the Historia Augusta serves as a (not reliable ) source, a wife and two sons, who had been treated with honor by Probus.

Other late antique sources only report on the survey of Bonosus in Cologne and the suppression of the uprising by Probus (see Kreucher, Probus, p 166). The embellishments in the Historia Augusta are therefore enjoy only with extreme caution and Bonosus is therefore as may be considered fictitious.