Roman Empire

Gallienus, Co-Emperor AD 253-268

RIC -; cf. Göbl 22o (bust); Calicò -, Superb Extremely Fine

Rome, AD 253/4. IMP C P LIC GALLIENVS AVG, laureate and cuirassed bust of Gallienus right. Reverse: FIDES MILITVM, Fides standing facing, head left, holding two standards.

Ex NAC 78 (26 May 2014), 1101

While his father still was still free, Gallienus had enjoyed some success holding the Rhine and Danube frontiers, but after the capture of Valerian, the situation deteriorated rapidly. Almost immediately he had to put down a revolt by the Pannonian governor Ingenuus and stop an invasion of Italy by the Alemanni. The Germanic invaders were only prevented from sacking Rome by an army hastily assembled by the Senate although the forces of Gallienus managed to crush the Alemanni as they were retiring from Italy laden with spoils. In Gaul, Gallienus made only one failed attempt to depose M. Cassianius Latinius Postumus, the founder of a breakaway Gallic Empire, and permitted the Odenathus, the king of Palmyra, to grow powerful as his representative in the East. Renewed Gothic and Herulian attacks and the revolt of the cavalry commander Aureolus plagued the last years of his reign. In AD 268, Gallienus besieged Aureolus in Milan, but before the city could be taken and the rebel crushed, the Emperor was murdered by his own officers.