Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XXI 24-25 Mar 2021
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Volusian AV Aureus. Rome, AD 251-253. IMP CAE C VIB VOLVSIANO AVG, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust to right / CONCORDIA AVGG, Concordia standing facing, head to left, holding patera and double cornucopiae. RIC IV -; Calicó -. 2.84g, 18mm, 7h.
Near Mint State. Unpublished in the standard references and possibly unique.
From the Collection of GK, Ukrainian Emigrant.
This coin dates to the period when Volusian ruled as co-Augustus with his father Trebonianus Gallus. His father's previous colleague, Hostilian, was the son of the last Emperor, Trajan Decius, who was killed fighting the Goths at the Battle of Abritus. Gallus was present in this army, and had been hailed as Emperor by the troops following the defeat. He immediately made what contemporaries called a 'shameful' peace with the Goths and returned to Rome to begin his reign. By raising Decius' son, Hostilian, to the rank of co-Augustus beside him, he made a conciliatory gesture which aimed to deaden the sharpness of his usurpation, however the same army which brought Gallus to Rome also brought with it a plague known as the Cyprian Plague (after St Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, who described the horrors of this plague from first-hand experience), and this plague, in sweeping through Rome, was most likely the cause of Hostilian's death and thus the end of their short-lived partnership.
On the death of Hostilian, Gallus raised his son Volusian from Caesar to Augustus. The early ensuing coinage attempted to promote their joint reign in a positive dynastic light, with reverse types promising a "sound and popular government ... based on the 'Concordia Augustorum'" - the 'harmony of the Emperors', which our coin promotes - "and their constitutional rule ('Libertas Augg.')" which will result in the "'Felicity of the State'" and its security, as the other types of these Augusti advertise. Such types add up to a vision of their rule which demonstrates "an almost violent reaction from the military and provincial rule of Decius towards a more civilian and more Roman conception of the Empire" (RIC IV pp.156-157), yet this style of governance was ill-suited to the demands of the mid-3rd Century: Gallus and Volusian chose to remain in the capital rather than confront the Goths who were pressing the provinces, while the general who was dispatched to deal with them, Aemilian, harnessed the victories and glory he won in this campaign to successfully usurp the incumbent Emperors - even if he himself was soon to be usurped by another general, Valerian, moving in from the provinces.
Near Mint State. Unpublished in the standard references and possibly unique.
From the Collection of GK, Ukrainian Emigrant.
This coin dates to the period when Volusian ruled as co-Augustus with his father Trebonianus Gallus. His father's previous colleague, Hostilian, was the son of the last Emperor, Trajan Decius, who was killed fighting the Goths at the Battle of Abritus. Gallus was present in this army, and had been hailed as Emperor by the troops following the defeat. He immediately made what contemporaries called a 'shameful' peace with the Goths and returned to Rome to begin his reign. By raising Decius' son, Hostilian, to the rank of co-Augustus beside him, he made a conciliatory gesture which aimed to deaden the sharpness of his usurpation, however the same army which brought Gallus to Rome also brought with it a plague known as the Cyprian Plague (after St Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, who described the horrors of this plague from first-hand experience), and this plague, in sweeping through Rome, was most likely the cause of Hostilian's death and thus the end of their short-lived partnership.
On the death of Hostilian, Gallus raised his son Volusian from Caesar to Augustus. The early ensuing coinage attempted to promote their joint reign in a positive dynastic light, with reverse types promising a "sound and popular government ... based on the 'Concordia Augustorum'" - the 'harmony of the Emperors', which our coin promotes - "and their constitutional rule ('Libertas Augg.')" which will result in the "'Felicity of the State'" and its security, as the other types of these Augusti advertise. Such types add up to a vision of their rule which demonstrates "an almost violent reaction from the military and provincial rule of Decius towards a more civilian and more Roman conception of the Empire" (RIC IV pp.156-157), yet this style of governance was ill-suited to the demands of the mid-3rd Century: Gallus and Volusian chose to remain in the capital rather than confront the Goths who were pressing the provinces, while the general who was dispatched to deal with them, Aemilian, harnessed the victories and glory he won in this campaign to successfully usurp the incumbent Emperors - even if he himself was soon to be usurped by another general, Valerian, moving in from the provinces.