Lot 3 genuine Ancient Roman Antoninianus coins Gallienus 253AD Zoo reverse DOE

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Seller: cameleoncoins ✉️ (19,853) 98.5%, Location: Woodland Hills, California, US, Ships to: WORLDWIDE, Item: 303544211908 Lot 3 genuine Ancient Roman Antoninianus coins Gallienus 253AD Zoo reverse DOE. The death of Gallienus is surrounded by conspiracy and betrayal, as were many emperors' deaths. Different accounts of the incident are recorded, but they agree that senior officials wanted Gallienus dead. Lot of 3 original ancient Roman bronze coins Antoniniani of: Gallienus - Roman Emperor: 253-268 A.D. - Various Doe reverses. Nice details.

Measuring 17-21mm. Original patina and tone. Gently cleaned.

Rich remains of earthen encrustation, patina and silvering. Exactly as pictured.

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The Downfall of Gallienus   Antoninianus of Claudius II

During the 260s, the breakup of the Roman Empire into three distinct governing entities (the core Roman Empire, the Gallic Empire and the Palmyrene Empire ) placed the whole Roman imperium into a precarious position. Gallienus was seriously weakened by his failure to defeat Postumus in the West, and the ability of Odaenathus to live with his arrangement with Gallienus in the East. By 268, however, the situation had changed, as Odaenathus was put to death, most likely out of court intrigue, and Gallienus fell victim to a mutiny in his own ranks. Upon the death of Odaenathus, power fell to his younger son, who was dominated by his mother, Zenobia .[14]

Under threat of invasion by multiple tribes, Gallienus' troubles primarily lay with Postumus , whom he could not attack because his attention was required in dealing with Macrianus and the invading "Skythai." After four years of delay, Postumus had established power, but in 265, when Gallienus and his men crossed the Alps, they defeated and besieged Postumus in an (unnamed) Gallic city. When victory appeared to be near, Gallienus made the mistake of approaching the city walls too closely and was gravely injured, compelling him to withdraw the campaign. In the next three years, Gallienus' troubles would only get worse. The "Skythai" successfully invaded the Balkans in the early months of 268, and Aureolus , a commander of the cavalry, declared himself an ally of Postumus and the new emperor in Milan .[15]

At this time, another invasion was taking place. A group called the Herulians navigated through Asia Minor and then into Greece on a naval expedition. Details of these invasions are abstract, as it is nearly impossible to reconstruct the happenings, due to the chain of conflicts initiated by the Herulians in 268. Scholars assume Gallienus' efforts were focused on Aureolus, the officer who betrayed him, and the defeat of the Herulians was left to his successor, Claudius Gothicus.

The death of Gallienus is surrounded by conspiracy and betrayal, as were many emperors' deaths. Different accounts of the incident are recorded, but they agree that senior officials wanted Gallienus dead. According to two accounts, the prime conspirator was Heraclianus . One version of the story tells of Heraclianus bringing Claudius into the plot while the account given by Historia Augusta exculpates the would-be emperor and adds the prominent general Marcianus into the plot. The removal of Claudius from the conspiracy is due to his later role as the progenitor of the house of Constantine , a fiction of Constantine 's time, and may serve to guarantee that the original version from which these two accounts spring was current prior to the reign of Constantine. It is written that while sitting down at dinner, Gallienus was told that Aureolus and his men were approaching the camp. Gallienus rushed to the front lines, ready to give orders, when he was struck down by a commander of his cavalry. In a different and more controversial account, Aureolus forges a document in which Gallienus appears to be plotting against his generals and makes sure it falls into the hands of the emperor's senior staff. In this plot, Aurelian is added as a possible conspirator. The tale of his involvement in the conspiracy might be seen as at least partial justification for the murder of Aurelian himself under circumstances that seem remarkably similar to those in this story.[16]

Whichever story is true, Gallienus was killed in the summer of 268, and Marcus Aurelius Claudius was chosen by the army outside of Milan to succeed him. Accounts tell of people hearing the news of the new Emperor, and reacting by murdering Gallienus' family members until Claudius declared he would respect the memory of his predecessor. Claudius had the deceased emperor deified and buried in a family tomb on the Appian Way . The traitor Aureolus was not treated with the same reverence, as he was killed by his besiegers after a failed attempt to surrender.[17]

The Campaigns of Claudius

At the time of his Claudius' accession, the Roman Empire was in serious danger from several incursions, both within and outside its borders. The most pressing of these was an invasion of Illyricum and Pannonia by the Goths .[18] Although Gallienus had already inflicted some damage on them at the Battle of Nestus,[19] Claudius, not long after being named Emperor, followed this up by winning his greatest victory, and one of the greatest in the history of Roman arms.

  The Roman Empire in 268 A.D

At the Battle of Naissus , Claudius and his legions routed a huge Gothic army.[20] Together with his cavalry commander, the future Emperor Aurelian , the Romans took thousands of prisoners, destroyed the Gothic cavalry as a force, and stormed their laager (a circular alignment of wagons long favored by the Goths).[dubiousdiscuss ] The victory earned Claudius his surname of "Gothicus" (conqueror of the Goths),[21] and that is how he is known to this day. More importantly, the Goths were soon driven back across the Danube River by Aurelian, and nearly a century passed before they again posed a serious threat to the empire.[22]

At the same time, the Alamanni had crossed the Alps and attacked the empire. Claudius responded quickly, routing the Alamanni at the Battle of Lake Benacus in the late fall of 268, a few months after the battle of Naissus.[23] For this he was awarded the title of "Germanicus Maximus."[24] He then turned on the Gallic Empire , ruled by a pretender for the past fifteen years and encompassing Britain , Gaul, and the Iberian Peninsula . He won several victories and soon regained control of Spain and the Rhone river valley of Gaul.[25] This set the stage for the ultimate destruction of the Gallic Empire under Aurelian.[26]

However, Claudius did not live long enough to fulfill his goal of reuniting all the lost territories of the empire. Late in 269 he had traveled to Sirmium [27] and was preparing to go to war against the Vandals , who were raiding in Pannonia .[28] However, he fell victim to the Plague of Cyprian (possibly smallpox ), and died early in January 270.[29] Before his death, he is thought to have named Aurelian as his successor, though Claudius' brother Quintillus briefly seized power.[30]

The Senate immediately deified Claudius as "Divus Claudius Gothicus".[31]

The Empire and Foreign Affairs Under Claudius

Claudius was not the only man to reap the benefits of holding high office after the death of Gallienus . Before the rule of Claudius Gothicus, there had only been two emperors from the Balkans , but afterwards there would only be one emperor who did not hail from the provinces of Pannonia , Moesia or Illyricum until the year 378, when Theodosius I from Hispania would take the throne. To comprehend the structure of government during the reign of Claudius, we must look at four inscriptions that deepen our understanding of a new, truncated empire. The first is a dedication to Aurelius Heraclianus , the prefect involved in the conspiracy against Gallienus, from Traianus Mucianus, who also gave a dedication to Heraclianus ' brother, Aurelius Appollinaris, who was the equestrian governor of the province of Thracia in 267-68 AD.[32] Because these men shared the family name, Marcus Aurelius, a name given to those made citizens by the constitutio Antoniniana , we can understand that these men did not come from the imperial élite . The third inscription reveals the career of Marcianus , another leading general by the time that Gallienus died. The fourth honors Julius Placidianus, the prefect of the vigiles . While we cannot prove that Heraclianus, Appollinaris, Placidianus , or Marcianus were of Danubian origin themselves, it is clear that none of them were members of the Severan aristocracy, and all of them appear to owe their prominence to their military roles. To these men must be added Marcus Aurelius Aurelianus (the future emperor Aurelian ) and Marcus Aurelius Probus (another emperor in waiting), both men of Balkan background, and from families enfranchised in the time of Caracalla .[33]

Although we see a rise in Pannonian, Moesian and Illyrian marshals, and foreigners become notable figures, it would be impractical to think the government could function without help from the traditional classes within the empire. Although their influence was weakened, there were still a number of men with influence from the older aristocracy . Claudius assumed the consulship in 269 with Paternus, a member of the prominent senatorial family, the Paterni, who had supplied consuls and urban prefects throughout Gallienus' reign, and thus were quite influential. In addition, Flavius Antiochianus , one of the consuls of 270, who was an urban prefect the year before, would continue to hold his office for the following year. A colleague of Antiochianus, Virius Orfitus, also the descendant of a powerful family, would continue to hold influence during his father's term as prefect. Aurelian's colleague as consul was another such man, Pomponius Bassus, a member of one of the oldest senatorial families, as was one of the consuls in 272, Junius Veldumnianus.[34]

In his first full year of power, Claudius was greatly assisted by the sudden destruction of the imperium Galliarum. When Ulpius Cornelius Laelianus, a high official under Postumus , declared himself emperor in Germania Superior , in the spring of 269, Postumus defeated him, but in doing so, refused to allow the sack of Mainz , which had served as Laelianus ' headquarters. This proved to be his downfall, for out of anger, Postumus' army mutinied and murdered him. Selected by the troops, Marcus Aurelius Marius was to replace Postumus as ruler. Marius' rule did not last long though, as Victorinus , Postumus' praetorian prefect, defeated him. Now emperor of the Gauls, Victorinus was soon in a precarious position, for the Spanish provinces had deserted the Gallic Empire and declared their loyalty to Claudius, while in southern France , Placidianus had captured Grenoble . Luckily, it was there that Placidianus stopped and Victorinus' position stabilized. In the next year, when Autun revolted, declaring itself for Claudius, the central government made no moves to support it. As a result, the city went through a siege, lasting many weeks, until it was finally captured and sacked by Victorinus.[35]

It is still unknown why Claudius did nothing to help the city of Autun , but sources tell us his relations with Palmyra were waning in the course of 270. An obscure passage in the Historia Augusta life of Gallienus states that he had sent an army under Heraclianus to the region that had been annihilated by Zenobia . But because Heraclianus was not actually in the east in 268 (instead, at this time, he was involved in the conspiracy of Gallienus' death), we can see that this can not be correct. But the confusion evident in this passage, which also places the bulk of "Skythian" activity during 269 a year earlier, under Gallienus, may stem from a later effort to pile all possible disasters in this year into the reign of the former Emperor. This would keep Claudius' record of being a descendant of Constantine from being tainted. If this understanding of the sources is correct, it might also be correct to see the expedition of Heraclianus to the east as an event of Claudius' time.[36]

The victories of Claudius over the Goths would not only make him a hero in Latin tradition, but an admirable choice as an ancestor for Constantine , who was born at Naissus , the site of Claudius' victory in 269. Claudius is also held in high esteem by Zonaras , whose Greek tradition seems to have been influenced by Latin . For Zosimus , a more reasoned contemporary view shows him as less grand. Claudius' successes in the year 269 were not continued in his next year as Emperor. As the "Skythai" starved in the mountains or surrendered, the legions pursuing them began to see an epidemic spreading throughout the men. Also, Claudius' unwillingness to do anything at the siege of Autun likely provoked a quarrel with Zenobia .[37]

Although it is not proven that the invasion of Gaul was the breaking point between Claudius and Zenobia, the sequence of events point to the siege as an important factor. The issue at hand was the position that Odaenathus held as corrector totius orientis. Vaballathus , the son of Zenobia, was given this title when Zenobia claimed it for him. From then on, tension between the two empires would only get worse. Heraclianus ' fabled arrival might have been an effort to reassert central control after the death of Odaenathus, but, if so, it failed. Although coins were never minted with the face of Odaenathus, soon after his death coins were made with image of his son.

Under Zabdas , a Palmyrene army invaded Arabia and moved into Egypt in the late summer. At this time, the prefect of Egypt was Tenagino Probus, described as an able soldier who not only defeated an invasion of Cyrenaica by the nomadic tribes to the south in 269, but also was successful in hunting down "Skythian" ships in the Mediterranean . However, he did not see the same success in Egypt, for a Palmyrene underground, led by Timagenes , undermined Probus , defeated his army, and killed him in a battle near the modern city of Cairo in the late summer of 270.[38]

Generally when a Roman commander is slaughtered it is taken as a sign that a state of war is in existence, and if we can associate the death of Heraclianus in 270, as well as an inscription from Bostra recording the rebuilding of a temple destroyed by the Palmyrene army, then these violent acts could be interpreted the same way. Yet they apparently were not. As David Potter writes, "The coins of Vaballathus avoid claims to imperial power: he remains vir consularis, rex, imperator, dux Romanorum, a range of titles that did not mimic those of the central government. The status vir consularis was, as we have seen, conferred upon Odaenathus ; the title rex, or king, is simply a Latin translation of mlk, or king; imperator in this context simply means "victorious general"; and dux Romanorum looks like yet another version of corrector totius orientis" (Potter, 263). These titles suggest that Odaenathus' position, not unlike a king in the Semitic world, was inheritable. In Roman culture, the status gained in procuring a position could be passed on, but not the position itself. It is possible that the thin line between office and the status that accompanied it were dismissed in Palmyrene court, especially when the circumstance worked against the interests of a regime that was able to defeat Persia , which a number of Roman emperors had failed to do. Vaballathus stressed the meanings of titles, because in Palmyrene context, the titles of Odaenathus meant a great deal. When the summer of 270 ended, things were looking very different in the empire than they did a year before. After its success, Gaul was in a state of inactivity and the empire was failing in the east. Insufficient resources plagued the state, as a great deal of silver was used for the antoninianus , which was again diluted.[39]

Religion

An account written by Aurelius Victor states that Claudius consulted the Sibylline Books prior to his campaigns against the Goths . Hinting that Claudius "revived the tradition of the Decii", Victor illustrates the senatorial view, which saw Claudius' predecessor, Gallienus , as too relaxed when it came to religious policies.[40]

Links to Constantinian dynasty

The unreliable Historia Augusta reports Claudius and Quintillus having another brother named Crispus and through him a niece, Claudia, who reportedly married Eutropius and was mother to Constantius Chlorus .[41] Some historians suspect this account to be a genealogical fabrication, however, intended to link the family of Constantine I to that of a well-respected emperor.[42]

Saint Valentine

Claudius Gothicus has been linked to Saint Valentine since the Middle Ages . Contemporary records of his deeds were most probably destroyed during the Diocletianic Persecution on early 4th century[43] and a tale of martydom was invented in Passio Marii et Marthae , a "fanciful" work published in the 5th or 6th century.[43][44] 20th-century historians agree that the accounts from this period are not historically accurate.[43][44] The legend refers to "Emperor Claudius" but Claudius I did not make any persecution against Christians, so people assigned him to be Claudius II even although this emperor spent most of his time warring outside of his territory.[43] Furthermore, there is no evidence, outside of St. Valentine's legends, for Claudius II reversing Gallienus 's policy of toleration for Christians.[45][43] The legend was retold in later texts. In the Nuremberg Chronicle of 1493 AD, the emperor martyred the Roman priest during a general persecution of Christians. The text states that St. Valentine was beaten with clubs and finally beheaded for giving aid to Christians in Rome.[43] The Golden Legend of 1260 AD recounts how St. Valentine refused to deny Christ before the "Emperor Claudius" in 270 AD and as a result was beheaded.[44] Since then, February 14 marks Valentine's Day , a day set aside by the Christian church in memory of the Roman priest and physician.[46]

Gallienus (Latin: Publius Licinius Egnatius Gallienus Augustus ; c. 218 – 268) was Roman Emperor with his father Valerian from 253 to 260 and alone from 260 to 268. He ruled during the Crisis of the Third Century that nearly caused the collapse of the empire. While he won a number of military victories, he was unable to prevent the secession of important provinces. Life

Rise to power

The exact birth date of Gallienus is unknown. The Greek chronicler John Malalas and the Epitome de Caesaribus report that he was about 50 years old at the time of his death, meaning he was born around 218. He was the son of emperor Valerian and Mariniana , who may have been of senatorial rank, possibly the daughter of Egnatius Victor Marinianus , and his brother was Valerianus Minor . Inscriptions on coins connect him with Falerii in Etruria , which may have been his birthplace; it has yielded many inscriptions relating to his mother's family, the Egnatii.[3] Gallienus married Cornelia Salonina about ten years before his accession to the throne. She was the mother of three princes: Valerian II , who died in 258; Saloninus , who was named co-emperor but was murdered in 260 by the army of general Postumus; and Marinianus , who was killed in 268, shortly after his father was assassinated.

When Valerian was proclaimed Emperor on 22 October 253, he asked the Senate to ratify the elevation of Gallienus to Caesar and Augustus . He was also designated Consul Ordinarius for 254. As Marcus Aurelius and his adopted brother Lucius Verus had done a century earlier, Gallienus and his father divided the Empire. Valerian left for the East to stem the Persian threat, and Gallienus remained in Italy to repel the Germanic tribes on the Rhine and Danube . Division of the empire had become necessary due to its sheer size and the numerous threats it faced, and it facilitated negotiations with enemies who demanded to communicate directly with the emperor.

Early reign and the revolt of Ingenuus

Gallienus spent most of his time in the provinces of the Rhine area (Germania Inferior, Germania Superior , Raetia , and Noricum ), though he almost certainly visited the Danube area and Illyricum during 253 to 258. According to Eutropius and Aurelius Victor, he was particularly energetic and successful in preventing invaders from attacking the German provinces and Gaul, despite the weakness caused by Valerian's march on Italy against Aemilianus in 253. According to numismatic evidence, he seems to have won many victories there, and a victory in Roman Dacia might also be dated to that period. Even the hostile Latin tradition attributes success to him at this time.

In 255 or 257, Gallienus was made Consul again, suggesting that he briefly visited Rome on those occasions, although no record survives. During his Danube sojourn (Drinkwater suggests in 255 or 256), he proclaimed his elder son Valerian II Caesar and thus official heir to himself and Valerian I; the boy probably joined Gallienus on campaign at that time, and when Gallienus moved west to the Rhine provinces in 257, he remained behind on the Danube as the personification of Imperial authority.

Sometime between 258 and 260 (the exact date is unclear), while Valerian was distracted with the ongoing invasion of Shapur in the East, and Gallienus was preoccupied with his problems in the West, Ingenuus , governor of at least one of the Pannonian provinces, took advantage and declared himself emperor. Valerian II had apparently died on the Danube, most likely in 258. Ingenuus may have been responsible for that calamity. Alternatively, the defeat and capture of Valerian at the battle of Edessa may have been the trigger for the subsequent revolts of Ingenuus, Regalianus , and Postumus . In any case, Gallienus reacted with great speed. He left his son Saloninus as Caesar at Cologne , under the supervision of Albanus (or Silvanus) and the military leadership of Postumus. He then hastily crossed the Balkans , taking with him the new cavalry corps (comitatus ) under the command of Aureolus and defeated Ingenuus at Mursa or Sirmium .The victory must be attributed mainly to the cavalry and its brilliant commander. Ingenuus was killed by his own guards or committed suicide by drowning himself after the fall of his capital, Sirmium.

Invasion of the Alamanni

A major invasion by the Alemanni and other Germanic tribes occurred between 258 and 260 (it is hard to fix the precise date of these events),probably due to the vacuum left by the withdrawal of troops supporting Gallienus in the campaign against Ingenuus. Franks broke through the lower Rhine, invading Gaul, some reaching as far as southern Spain, sacking Tarraco (modern Tarragona ).The Alamanni invaded, probably through Agri Decumates (an area between the upper Rhine and the upper Danube), likely followed by the Juthungi . After devastating Germania Superior and Raetia (parts of southern France and Switzerland ), they entered Italy, the first invasion of the Italian peninsula, aside from its most remote northern regions, since Hannibal 500 years before. When invaders reached the outskirts of Rome, they were repelled by an improvised army assembled by the Senate, consisting of local troops (probably prǣtorian guards) and the strongest of the civilian population.On their retreat through northern Italy, they were intercepted and defeated in the battle of Mediolanum (near present day Milan ) by Gallienus' army, which had advanced from Gaul, or from the Balkans after dealing with the Franks.The battle of Mediolanum was decisive, and the Alamanni didn't bother the empire for the next ten years. The Juthungi managed to cross the Alps with their valuables and captives from Italy. An historian in the 19th century suggested that the initiative of the Senate gave rise to jealousy and suspicion by Gallienus, thus contributing to his exclusion of senators from military commands.

The revolt of Regalianus

Around the same time, Regalianus , a military commander of Illyricum , was proclaimed Emperor. The reasons for this are unclear, and the Historia Augusta (almost the sole resource for these events) does not provide a credible story. It is possible the seizure can be attributed to the discontent of the civilian and military provincials, who felt the defense of the province was being neglected.

Regalianus held power for some six months and issued coins bearing his image. After some success against the Sarmatians , his revolt was put down by the invasion of Roxolani into Pannonia , and Regalianus himself was killed when the invaders took the city of Sirmium . There is a suggestion that Gallienus invited Roxolani to attack Regalianus, but other historians dismiss the accusation.It is also suggested that the invasion was finally checked by Gallienus near Verona and that he directed the restoration of the province, probably in person.

Capture of Valerian, revolt of Macrianus

In the East, Valerian was confronted with serious troubles. A band of Scythians set a naval raid against Pontus , in the northern part of modern Turkey. After ravaging the province, they moved south into Cappadocia . Valerian led troops to intercept them but failed, perhaps because of a plague that gravely weakened his army, as well as the contemporary invasion of northern Mesopotamia by Shapur I , ruler of the Sassanid Empire .

In 259 or 260, the Roman army was defeated in the Battle of Edessa , and Valerian was taken prisoner. Shapur's army raided Cilicia and Cappadocia (in present day Turkey ), sacking, as Shapur's inscriptions claim, 36 cities. It took a rally by an officer Callistus (Balista), a fiscal official named Fulvius Macrianus , the remains of the Eastern Roman legions, and Odenathus and his Palmyrene horsemen to turn the tide against Shapur. The Persians were driven back, but Macrianus proclaimed his two sons Quietus and Macrianus (sometimes misspelled Macrinus) as emperors. Coins struck for them in major cities of the East indicate acknowledgement of the usurpation. The two Macriani left Quietus, Ballista, and, presumably, Odenathus to deal with the Persians while they invaded Europe with an army of 30,000 men, according to the Historia Augusta . At first they met no opposition. The Pannonian legions joined the invaders, being resentful of the absence of Gallienus. He sent his successful commander Aureolus against the rebels, however, and the decisive battle was fought in the spring or early summer of 261, most likely in Illyricum, although Zonaras locates it in Pannonia. In any case, the army of the usurpers surrendered, and their two leaders were killed.

In the aftermath of the battle, the rebellion of Postumus had already started, so Gallienus had no time to deal with the rest of the usurpers, namely Balista and Quietus. He came to an agreement with Odenathus, who had just returned from his victorious Persian expedition. Odenathus received the title of dux Romanorum and besieged the usurpers, who were based at Emesa . Eventually, the people of Emesa killed Quietus, and Odenathus arrested and executed Balista about November 261.

The revolt of Postumus

After the defeat at Edessa, Gallienus lost control over the provinces of Britain, Spain, parts of Germania, and a large part of Gaul when another general, Postumus , declared his own realm (usually known today as the Gallic Empire ). The revolt partially coincided with that of Macrianus in the East. Gallienus had installed his son Saloninus and his guardian, Silvanus , in Cologne in 258. Postumus, a general in command of troops on the banks of the Rhine, defeated some raiders and took possession of their spoils. Instead of returning it to the original owners, he preferred to distribute it amongst his soldiers. When news of this reached Silvanus, he demanded the spoils be sent to him. Postumus made a show of submission, but his soldiers mutinied and proclaimed him Emperor. Under his command, they besieged Cologne, and after some weeks the defenders of the city opened the gates and handed Saloninus and Silvanus to Postumus, who had them killed. The dating of these events is not accurate, but they apparently occurred just before the end of 260. Postumus claimed the consulship for himself and one of his associates, Honoratianus, but according to D.S. Potter, he never tried to unseat Gallienus or invade Italy.

Upon receiving news of the murder of his son, Gallienus began gathering forces to face Postumus. The invasion of the Macriani forced him to dispatch Aureolus with a large force to oppose them, however, leaving him with insufficient troops to battle Postumus. After some initial defeats, the army of Aureolus, having defeated the Macriani, rejoined him, and Postumus was expelled. Aureolus was entrusted with the pursuit and deliberately allowed Postumus to escape and gather new forces. Gallienus returned in 263 or 265 and surrounded Postumus in an unnamed Gallic city. During the siege, Gallenus was severely wounded by an arrow and had to leave the field. The standstill persisted until the death of Gallienus, and the Gallic Empire remained independent until 274.

The revolt of Aemilianus

In 262, the mint in Alexandria started to again issue coins for Gallienus, demonstrating that Egypt had returned to his control after suppressing the revolt of the Macriani. In spring of 262, the city was wrenched by civil unrest as a result of a new revolt. The rebel this time was the prefect of Egypt, Lucius Mussius Aemilianus , who had already given support to the revolt of the Macriani. The correspondence of bishop Dionysius of Alexandria provides a colourful commentary on the sombre background of invasion, civil war, plague, and famine that characterized this age.

Knowing he could not afford to lose control of the vital Egyptian granaries, Gallienus sent his general Theodotus against Aemilianus, probably by a naval expedition. The decisive battle probably took place near Thebes, and the result was a clear defeat of Aemilianus. In the aftermath, Gallienus became Consul three more times in 262, 264, and 266.

Herulian invasions, revolt of Aureolus, conspiracy and death

In the years 267–269, Goths and other barbarians invaded the empire in great numbers. Sources are extremely confused on the dating of these invasions, the participants, and their targets. Modern historians are not even able to discern with certainty whether there were two or more of these invasions or a single prolonged one. It seems that, at first, a major naval expedition was led by the Heruli starting from north of the Black Sea and leading in the ravaging of many cities of Greece (among them, Athens and Sparta ). Then another, even more numerous army of invaders started a second naval invasion of the empire. The Romans defeated the barbarians on sea first. Gallienus' army then won a battle in Thrace , and the Emperor pursued the invaders. According to some historians, he was the leader of the army who won the great Battle of Naissus , while the majority believes that the victory must be attributed to his successor, Claudius II .

In 268, at some time before or soon after the battle of Naissus, the authority of Gallienus was challenged by Aureolus , commander of the cavalry stationed in Mediolanum (Milan), who was supposed to keep an eye on Postumus . Instead, he acted as deputy to Postumus until the very last days of his revolt, when he seems to have claimed the throne for himself. The decisive battle took place at what is now Pontirolo Nuovo near Milan; Aureolus was clearly defeated and driven back to Milan. Gallienus laid siege to the city but was murdered during the siege. There are differing accounts of the murder, but the sources agree that most of Gallienus' officials wanted him dead. According to the Historia Augusta , an unreliable source compiled long after the events it describes, a conspiracy was led by the commander of the guard Aurelius Heraclianus and Marcianus.

Cecropius, commander of the Dalmatians, spread the word that the forces of Aureolus were leaving the city, and Gallienus left his tent without his bodyguard, only to be struck down by Cecropius.One version has Claudius selected as Emperor by the conspirators, another chosen by Gallienus on his death bed; the Historia Augusta was concerned to substantiate the descent of the Constantinian dynasty from Claudius, and this may explain its accounts, which do not involve Claudius in the murder. The other sources (Zosimus i.40 and Zonaras xii.25) report that the conspiracy was organized by Heraclianus, Claudius, and Aurelian .

According to Aurelius Victor and Zonaras, on hearing the news that Gallienus was dead, the Senate in Rome ordered the execution of his family (including his brother Valerianus and son Marinianus) and their supporters, just before receiving a message from Claudius to spare their lives and deify his predecessor.

  Arch of Gallienus in Rome, 262 – dedicated to, rather than built by, Gallienus.

Legacy

Gallienus was not treated favorably by ancient historians, partly due to the secession of Gaul and Palmyra and his inability to win them back. According to modern scholar Pat Southern, some historians now see him in a more positive light.Gallienus produced some useful reforms. He contributed to military history as the first to commission primarily cavalry units, the Comitatenses , that could be dispatched anywhere in the Empire in short order. This reform arguably created a precedent for the future emperors Diocletian and Constantine I .

The biographer Aurelius Victor reports that Gallienus forbade senators from becoming military commanders. This policy undermined senatorial power, as more reliable equestrian commanders rose to prominence. In Southern's view, these reforms and the decline in senatorial influence not only helped Aurelian to salvage the Empire, but they also make Gallienus one of the emperors most responsible for the creation of the Dominate , along with Septimius Severus , Diocletian, and Constantine I.

By portraying himself with the attributes of the gods on his coinage, Gallienus began the final separation of the Emperor from his subjects.A late bust of Gallienus (see above) depicts him with a largely blank face, gazing heavenward, as seen on the famous stone head of Constantine I . One of the last rulers of Rome to be theoretically called "Princeps", or First Citizen, Gallienus' shrewd self-promotion assisted in paving the way for those who would be addressed with the words "Dominus et Deus" (Lord and God).


Authenticity guaranteed.

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YOU ARE BIDDING ON AN ANCIENT ITEM(S) AS DESCRIBED AND PICTURED ABOVE!!! Every item offered by cameleoncoins is unconditionally guaranteed to be genuine & authentic. We can provide a certificate of authenticity or extended return policy by request only!!! If in the unlikely event that an item is found to be reproduction, full return privileges are within 14 days of receiving the coins. We will promptly offer a full refund without hesitation or hassle.
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  • Condition: Authenticity guaranteed!
  • Date: 268
  • Year: 253 AD
  • Composition: Bronze
  • Ruler: Gallienus
  • Historical Period: Roman: Imperial (27 BC-476 AD)
  • Denomination: Antoninianus
  • Era: Ancient

PicClick Insights - Lot 3 genuine Ancient Roman Antoninianus coins Gallienus 253AD Zoo reverse DOE PicClick Exclusive

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