Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XIX 26-27 Mar 2020
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Valerian I AV Aureus. Samosata mint, AD 255-256. IMP C P LIC VALERIANVS AVG, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right / VICTORIAE AVGG, Victory, holding reins and rod, driving galloping biga to right. RIC 276 var. (Antioch, laureate and draped); C. 239 var. (laureate only); Göbl, pl. 120, 1680; Calicó 3449a (same dies). 3.63g, 19mm, 12h.
Extremely Fine. Very Rare.
Ex Numismatica Ars Classica, Auction 54, 24 March 2010, lot 560;
Ex A. Tkalec AG, 22 April 2007, lot 311;
Ex Numismatics Fine Arts, Inc., Auction XVI, 2 December 1985, lot 518.
Reigning during of the most turbulent periods of Roman history, Valerian achieved everlasting notoriety as the first Roman emperor to be captured in battle, a shocking event that had a dramatic impact on the perception of Roman arms in cultures across the Mediterranean.
He rose to power as a capable military commander, who was entrusted to hold Rome when then-emperor Trajan Decius left to fight the Gothic invasion in the Balkans. After Decius was defeated, the first emperor to die in battle against a foreign enemy, Trebonianus Gallus assumed the purple. He too would rely on Valerian for assistance, this time against the rebellion of Aemilianus, commander of the Moesian legions. Before Valerian could come to Gallus' aid, however, the emperor was murdered by his own troops who had defected to Aemilianus, who later suffered a similar betrayal and death before ever reaching Rome. These legions then declared Valerian as emperor, whose elevation was ratified by the Senate shortly thereafter.
Valerian's first official act was to appoint his son Gallienus co-emperor, in order that together father and son might tackle the myriad of threats both internal and external that were then assailing the empire; the turmoil of the period and the excessive strain placed on the Roman economy is evidenced by the beginning of a massive decline in the Roman monetary system. Valerian would confront the Sassanid Persian threat in the East, and Gallienus would take charge of the West. Valerian at first met with success: Antioch was once again re-taken, and the province of Syria was returned to Roman control. In 259 Valerian reached the ancient city of Edessa, near the modern Turkish-Syrian border. Here an outbreak of plague among the legionaries weakened the Roman forces, and in early 260 Valerian was decisively defeated in the Battle of Edessa.
Shortly after, Valerian would come face to face with the leader who had been troubling emperors for decades – the Sassanid Persian king Shapur I, known as Shapur the Great. The battle was a decisive defeat for the Romans, and Valerian himself was taken captive and deported to Persia alongside what remained of his army. His fate thereafter has been the subject of much speculation. Christian writers (such as Lactantius, De Mortibus Persecutorum), sought to assign a fitting death to one of their most infamous persecutors. Likewise, Romans assuming the worst of their traditional Persian enemies described several versions of Valerians torture, humiliation and eventual grisly death. These included being used as a human mounting block and been skinned and then stuffed with straw (Trebellius Pollio, Life of Valerian; Aurelius Victor, Caesares, 32; Eutropius IX, 6). However, modern scholars have disputed many of these accounts as inconsistent with Persian traditions of treating captured kings, and it is more likely he simply died in captivity as a "living trophy" (Touraj Daryaee, Sasanian Iran).
Extremely Fine. Very Rare.
Ex Numismatica Ars Classica, Auction 54, 24 March 2010, lot 560;
Ex A. Tkalec AG, 22 April 2007, lot 311;
Ex Numismatics Fine Arts, Inc., Auction XVI, 2 December 1985, lot 518.
Reigning during of the most turbulent periods of Roman history, Valerian achieved everlasting notoriety as the first Roman emperor to be captured in battle, a shocking event that had a dramatic impact on the perception of Roman arms in cultures across the Mediterranean.
He rose to power as a capable military commander, who was entrusted to hold Rome when then-emperor Trajan Decius left to fight the Gothic invasion in the Balkans. After Decius was defeated, the first emperor to die in battle against a foreign enemy, Trebonianus Gallus assumed the purple. He too would rely on Valerian for assistance, this time against the rebellion of Aemilianus, commander of the Moesian legions. Before Valerian could come to Gallus' aid, however, the emperor was murdered by his own troops who had defected to Aemilianus, who later suffered a similar betrayal and death before ever reaching Rome. These legions then declared Valerian as emperor, whose elevation was ratified by the Senate shortly thereafter.
Valerian's first official act was to appoint his son Gallienus co-emperor, in order that together father and son might tackle the myriad of threats both internal and external that were then assailing the empire; the turmoil of the period and the excessive strain placed on the Roman economy is evidenced by the beginning of a massive decline in the Roman monetary system. Valerian would confront the Sassanid Persian threat in the East, and Gallienus would take charge of the West. Valerian at first met with success: Antioch was once again re-taken, and the province of Syria was returned to Roman control. In 259 Valerian reached the ancient city of Edessa, near the modern Turkish-Syrian border. Here an outbreak of plague among the legionaries weakened the Roman forces, and in early 260 Valerian was decisively defeated in the Battle of Edessa.
Shortly after, Valerian would come face to face with the leader who had been troubling emperors for decades – the Sassanid Persian king Shapur I, known as Shapur the Great. The battle was a decisive defeat for the Romans, and Valerian himself was taken captive and deported to Persia alongside what remained of his army. His fate thereafter has been the subject of much speculation. Christian writers (such as Lactantius, De Mortibus Persecutorum), sought to assign a fitting death to one of their most infamous persecutors. Likewise, Romans assuming the worst of their traditional Persian enemies described several versions of Valerians torture, humiliation and eventual grisly death. These included being used as a human mounting block and been skinned and then stuffed with straw (Trebellius Pollio, Life of Valerian; Aurelius Victor, Caesares, 32; Eutropius IX, 6). However, modern scholars have disputed many of these accounts as inconsistent with Persian traditions of treating captured kings, and it is more likely he simply died in captivity as a "living trophy" (Touraj Daryaee, Sasanian Iran).