Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XXV 22-23 Sep 2022
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Valerian I AV Aureus. Samosata, AD 255-256. IMP C P LIC VALERIANVS AVG, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust to right / VICTORIAE, Victory driving galloping biga to right, holding whip; AVGG in exergue. RIC V.1 276 (Antioch) var. (bust type); C. 239; MIR 1680c; Calicó 3449a. 3.83g, 19mm, 12h.
Near Mint State; minor contacts. Rare.
From a private collection in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
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 Trebonianus Gallus, and when Gallus was killed by his own troops in AD 253, 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 confidence asserted by the celebratory reverse type of Victory and legend VICTORIAE AVGG seems bitterly ironic.
Near Mint State; minor contacts. Rare.
From a private collection in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
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 Trebonianus Gallus, and when Gallus was killed by his own troops in AD 253, 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 confidence asserted by the celebratory reverse type of Victory and legend VICTORIAE AVGG seems bitterly ironic.