Balista

After the Persian Empire defeated and captured that emperor in the Battle of Edessa, a body of Roman troops was rallied by a fiscal officer, Macrianus, and Balista.

Joined, in some accounts, by Odaenathus, the Lord of Palmyra, they routed the Persian army that was returning from the ravaging of Cilicia.

In the Balkans, Macrianus were routed by the commander of Roman cavalry, Aureolus, a general loyal to Gallienus, and killed.

Neither the time nor manner of Balista's death can be ascertained with certainty, but it is believed to have happened about November 261, and to have been contrived by Odaenathus.

[2] Balista, under the name Marcus Clodius Ballista is the hero of the Warrior of Rome Series by Harry Sidebottom.