Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XIII 23 March 2017
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Postumus Ӕ Double Sestertius. Lugdunum, AD 261. IMP C M CASS LAT POSTVMVS P F AVG, radiate,draped and cuirassed bust right / LAETITIA AVG, galley right with four rowers. RIC 143; Bastien 87. 15.92g, 32mm, 6h.
Virtually Mint State – apart from a light patina, this remarkable specimen is otherwise exactly as it was when it left the die.
One of the very finest known sestertii of Postumus in existence.
Ex Roma Numismatics VII, 22 March 2014, lot 1223.
Postumus appears to have been an imperial legate of Lower Germany when he defeated a Juthungian army which was returning from Italy, laden with goods and captives (even though they had been turned back by Gallienus at Mediolanum). Postumus had already distributed the captured wealth to the legions he commanded when he received the command of Gallienus' son and Caesar, Saloninus, to hand over the recovered spoils. Renouncing Gallienus and Saloninus, the troops hailed Postumus as emperor, and proceeded to attack Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium and kill Saloninus. Postumus immediately secured the loyalty of Gaul, Upper and Lower Germania, and Raetia. The following year Britannia, Gallia Narbonensis and Hispania followed suit.
Though Postumus relied on the army which kept him in power for a decade, the safety of the provinces was not solely an army matter, for the coasts required protection also, and so it is reasonable that his navy deserved mention on the coinage. The issues which couple the reverse legends FELICITAS and LAETITIA with scenes of a galley probably show that the emperor by no means neglected his navy, and perhaps that it achieved success.
The type of galley depicted on the reverse of the present coin could be a navis lusoria, which was a small military vessel of the late Roman Empire that served as a troop transport. It was smaller and narrower than similar earlier vessels, and ideally suited to the rivers close to the Limes Germanicus; the presence of this type of vessel in the Classis Germanica is shown through the discovery of the Mainz Roman ships in 1981-2, thus proving that they operated on the Rhine and Danube.
Virtually Mint State – apart from a light patina, this remarkable specimen is otherwise exactly as it was when it left the die.
One of the very finest known sestertii of Postumus in existence.
Ex Roma Numismatics VII, 22 March 2014, lot 1223.
Postumus appears to have been an imperial legate of Lower Germany when he defeated a Juthungian army which was returning from Italy, laden with goods and captives (even though they had been turned back by Gallienus at Mediolanum). Postumus had already distributed the captured wealth to the legions he commanded when he received the command of Gallienus' son and Caesar, Saloninus, to hand over the recovered spoils. Renouncing Gallienus and Saloninus, the troops hailed Postumus as emperor, and proceeded to attack Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium and kill Saloninus. Postumus immediately secured the loyalty of Gaul, Upper and Lower Germania, and Raetia. The following year Britannia, Gallia Narbonensis and Hispania followed suit.
Though Postumus relied on the army which kept him in power for a decade, the safety of the provinces was not solely an army matter, for the coasts required protection also, and so it is reasonable that his navy deserved mention on the coinage. The issues which couple the reverse legends FELICITAS and LAETITIA with scenes of a galley probably show that the emperor by no means neglected his navy, and perhaps that it achieved success.
The type of galley depicted on the reverse of the present coin could be a navis lusoria, which was a small military vessel of the late Roman Empire that served as a troop transport. It was smaller and narrower than similar earlier vessels, and ideally suited to the rivers close to the Limes Germanicus; the presence of this type of vessel in the Classis Germanica is shown through the discovery of the Mainz Roman ships in 1981-2, thus proving that they operated on the Rhine and Danube.