An Aurelian Dynasty

Let's say that the assassination of Emperor Aurelian in 275 is butterflied away for whatever reason—perhaps he learns of the plot ahead of time, or perhaps his secretary Eros never gets himself into trouble to begin with. Aurelian then manages to live another ten to fifteen years, founding a dynasty. In this scenario, who is he most likely to adopt as heir? Or alternatively, who would make the best (or most interesting) choice?

I assume the man would be unrelated by blood, as Aurelian and his wife only seem to have had a daughter and I don't remember reading of any nephews or kinsmen.
 
Bump. Really, no ideas?

I was thinking maybe either Aurelian's Praetorian Prefect, Placidianus, or (the future OTL emperor) Carus (just to keep things interesting).

I've long been considering a TL on the subject and I'm just curious as to what everyone thinks a stable Aurelian succession would have looked like. I know that the evidence for this particular time period is not the best, but there's always healthy speculation...
 

OS fan

Banned
An interesting candidate would be Diocletian, of course. The adoptive system - later to become the tetrarchy - would be more solid. The "dominus et deus" state cult would be stronger against Christianity.
 
Another consequence of this POD is how his campaign against the Sassanids would go. The Sassanids were in a weakened position at the time and Aurelian seems to be the kind of ruler/general who could deal them a heavy blow.
 
Another consequence of this POD is how his campaign against the Sassanids would go. The Sassanids were in a weakened position at the time and Aurelian seems to be the kind of ruler/general who could deal them a heavy blow.

Do you think that he'd annex any territory in Mesopotamia, or just spend the campaign crippling the Sassanids? Aurelian seemed to have a sound grasp of Roman overextension at the time, after all...
 
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