Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XVII 28 Mar 2019
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Regalianus AR Antoninianus. Carnuntum, circa AD 260-261. [IMP] C P C REGALIANVS AVG, radiate head right / ORIENS AVG, Sol standing facing, raising right hand and holding whip. RIC 7; C. 4; MIR 1713f. 2.17g, 20mm, 3h.
Good Very Fine; usual traces of overstriking. Very Rare; in excellent condition for the issue with a clear portrait and legend.
From a private Central European collection.
Regalianus was a Dacian general who attempted to usurp the imperial throne in AD 260. The main sources of information on this obscure figure are the unreliable (and for the most part fabricated) Historia Augusta, along with Eutropius (who calls him Trebellianus) and Aurelius Victor and the Epitome de Caesaribus (which call him Regillianus). That he was never a serious threat to Gallienus therefore seems reasonably secure, and beyond this little more is known. Of his origin, the Tyranni Triginta mentions that he was a Dacian, a kinsman of Decebalus. He was probably of senatorial rank, and one might surmise he had received military promotion from the Emperor Valerian. The defeat of the Roman field army in the east and the capture of the senior emperor Valerian led inevitably to unrest in the vulnerable border provinces of Pannonia and Dacia, manifesting in the revolt of Ingenuus in 260, and the subsequent revolt of Regalianus, who raised his wife Sulpicia Dryantilla (who was of noble lineage) to the rank of Augusta to strengthen his position. Regalianus is believed to have repulsed Sarmatian attacks, but was shortly thereafter killed by a coalition of his own people and of the Roxolani.
Good Very Fine; usual traces of overstriking. Very Rare; in excellent condition for the issue with a clear portrait and legend.
From a private Central European collection.
Regalianus was a Dacian general who attempted to usurp the imperial throne in AD 260. The main sources of information on this obscure figure are the unreliable (and for the most part fabricated) Historia Augusta, along with Eutropius (who calls him Trebellianus) and Aurelius Victor and the Epitome de Caesaribus (which call him Regillianus). That he was never a serious threat to Gallienus therefore seems reasonably secure, and beyond this little more is known. Of his origin, the Tyranni Triginta mentions that he was a Dacian, a kinsman of Decebalus. He was probably of senatorial rank, and one might surmise he had received military promotion from the Emperor Valerian. The defeat of the Roman field army in the east and the capture of the senior emperor Valerian led inevitably to unrest in the vulnerable border provinces of Pannonia and Dacia, manifesting in the revolt of Ingenuus in 260, and the subsequent revolt of Regalianus, who raised his wife Sulpicia Dryantilla (who was of noble lineage) to the rank of Augusta to strengthen his position. Regalianus is believed to have repulsed Sarmatian attacks, but was shortly thereafter killed by a coalition of his own people and of the Roxolani.