Gaius Messius Quintus Decius Valerinus (d. 251 CE) became emperor in October 249 CE after defeating his predecessor Philip the Arab (244–249 CE) at Verona, taking the name Gaius Messius Quintus Traianus Decius. Throughout his brief reign, the empire faced foreign incursions from the Goths and the Carpi in the Balkans, and Decius spent nearly all of his time as emperor back in the region of his birth defending the frontier and trying to …