Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XXIII 24-25 Mar 2022
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Valerian I AV Aureus. Rome, AD 253-254. IMP C P LIC VALERIANVS AVG, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust to right / IOVI CONSERVATORI, Jupiter standing to left, holding thunderbolt and sceptre. RIC V.1 37; MIR 23a (1); Calicó 3421. 2.95g, 19mm, 6h.
Good Extremely Fine. Extremely Rare; only four other examples offered at auction in the past 20 years.
From a private North European collection.
Unlike many of the men who vied to rule the Roman Empire during the third century AD, Valerian came from a noble senatorial family and had held the consulship and been princeps senatus under the fateful year of the six emperors. He was given significant control over affairs both civil and military by Trajan Decius and Trebonius Gallus, and when Gallus was killed by his own troops in AD 253 AD, Valerian was proclaimed emperor by his soldiers and swiftly acknowledged by the Senate. He quickly appointed his son Gallienus as Caesar and sent him to shore up the western frontier while he focused on the threats posed by the Persians and Goths in the east.
While he enjoyed initial success against the Goths, his long and futile campaign against the Persian king Shapur I ended with his capture, an unprecedented blow which marked the empire's darkest hour. He allegedly endured such humiliations as being forced to serve as Shapur's footstool for many years, until he died in captivity and was flayed and stuffed. In this context, the supreme traditional reverse type of IOVI CONSERVATORI, with an image of protective power exuded by the great god Jupiter's muscular figure, assertive stance and deadly thunderbolt, seems bitterly ironic.
Good Extremely Fine. Extremely Rare; only four other examples offered at auction in the past 20 years.
From a private North European collection.
Unlike many of the men who vied to rule the Roman Empire during the third century AD, Valerian came from a noble senatorial family and had held the consulship and been princeps senatus under the fateful year of the six emperors. He was given significant control over affairs both civil and military by Trajan Decius and Trebonius Gallus, and when Gallus was killed by his own troops in AD 253 AD, Valerian was proclaimed emperor by his soldiers and swiftly acknowledged by the Senate. He quickly appointed his son Gallienus as Caesar and sent him to shore up the western frontier while he focused on the threats posed by the Persians and Goths in the east.
While he enjoyed initial success against the Goths, his long and futile campaign against the Persian king Shapur I ended with his capture, an unprecedented blow which marked the empire's darkest hour. He allegedly endured such humiliations as being forced to serve as Shapur's footstool for many years, until he died in captivity and was flayed and stuffed. In this context, the supreme traditional reverse type of IOVI CONSERVATORI, with an image of protective power exuded by the great god Jupiter's muscular figure, assertive stance and deadly thunderbolt, seems bitterly ironic.