Ancient: Trebonianus Gallus

Claudius was not Gallic Empire but was the legitimate emperor in Rome during the height of the Gallic usurpations. It started as a reaction to Gallienus and Aurelian put a stop to the foolishness. The other ruler of little consequence was Quintillus, Claudius' brother, who was put up as an opponent of Aurelian. Had he succeeded, he might be known as second of the Claudian Dynasty but Aurelian was the choice of the armies and turned out to be a decent ruler.

IMHO this is not a place for Postumus since the Gallic Empire deserves a thread of its own. I will give a Quintillus and mention that his coins are usually a bit scrappy and part legend.

One might say the 3rd Century killing spree started when Caracalla killed Geta and grew in madness from there. The idea of the emperor being the guy with the biggest knife dates back to Septimius Severus who was only selected as emperor by the Senate after they saw it was the safe thing to do.

 

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http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/247117
Museums are slow to admit the extent of restorations to their treasures but more are coming clean. The Met still claims the head and body go together. I do not own the thing so I am harder to convince.

I frequently doubt the correctness of statue identifications and reconstructions. I live in a city which has a statue of Caligula. I never believed the head belonged to the body just because of the way it looked. They recently took it apart and corrected the angle of the head using evidence of the grain in the stone. It looks better now to the point I can accept it. That is a matter of another century. I wonder if the Gallus body is a god or a gladiator? It is not an emperor IMHO.
http://www.blackbird.vcu.edu/v12n2/gallery/schertz_p/caligula.shtml

 

Thanks for the clarifications, Doug. This is a weak area in my understanding. Clearly I need to do some more reading.

 

Now having started this thread, how can I resist? My first Postumus was also in the lot I bought this week. Haven't even had the chance to attribute it yet.

But here's my Postumus:

 

Nice coins all!
Here is one of mine: Claudius II

 

Well, I think I'll add-in a couple of Severus Alexander examples (they're both kinda cool)

CILICIA, Ninica-Claudiopolis
Severus Alexander, with Julia Maes, Æ37
AD 222-235
Diameter: 37 mm
Weight: 17.83 grams
Obverse: , draped, and cuirassed bust of Severus Alexander right; c/m’s: Nike, holding wreath, standing right within oval incuse (3) and six-pointed star
Reverse: Laureate / Draped bust of Maesa right
Reference: SNG France –; SNG Levante –; SNG Levante Supp. 167 (same obv. die); for c/m’s: Howgego 262 and 451
Other: 6h … dark green patina
From the Kelly J. Krizan, M.D. Collection




Pontus, Amasia. Severus Alexander. Æ35
A.D. 222-235
Civic year 228 (A.D. 228/9)
Diameter: 35 mm
Weight: 26.18 grams
Obverse: Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust of Severus Alexander right, seen from behind
Reverse: High altar upon which eagle stands facing, head left; above, Sol in facing quadriga, holding whip; to left of altar, tree



=> 37mm and 35mm .... yup, these are a couple of sweet ol' bigguns!!

 

Ummm, I'm not 100% sure which of the rulers you dudes are allowing to be included in this cool thread? (oh, but I'm pretty sure that somebody will step-in and comment on my examples ... please do)


So, I have chosen Philip-I & Philip-II and Trajan Decius ...

While Philip-I was Gordian-III's Praetorian Prefect, he purposefully mismanaged the soldier's food supply in hopes of pinning the blame on Gordian-III (apparently this strategy worked very well, for the soldiers mutinied and young Gordian-III merely went "missing") ... then before the whole thingy could be properly investigated, Philip proclaimed himself emperor (sounds like his troops got a bit of loot for making the whole plan run smoothly) ...






However, several other military leaders tried to contest Philip's takeover ... but "luckily" Philip's ablest general (Trajan Decius) was able to defeat these rebellions. Actually, Trajan Decius did such a great job that his subjects demanded that he should be hailed as emperor! ... Philip headed off to meet the advance of the rebels, but was killed in battle.




Philip-II was the son of Philip-I and was named co-Augusta just before Philip-I headed off to battle Trajan Decius (Philip-II was only ten years old at this time => geee, thanks Dad, what could go wrong?) .... so, once Trajan Decius defeated Philip-I, the Praetorian Guard merely mudered Phillip-II and kept things simple.

 

I said the body and head don't belong together and now I see the Met says they do (Thanks, Doug). Some ancient statues do have the head-to-body proportions right. Do they really think a statue with such magnificent quality really would have the proportions so wrong? They have studied it up close and "examined it in great detail as art of the conservation effort," so they should know. If the bronze is truly original and continuous from torso to head they would have to belong together, but if the head has been restored to the body I still doubt they do. As Tomas Hoving said in his book on art collecting at the Met ("The Chase, the Capture") , his very first point was to trust your "immediate impression." Mine is that the head and body don't belong together.

 

Keeping the Emperors and usurpers of the Third Century Crisis straight in one's mind is both challenging and fun:

Here's a nice summary of Trebonianus Gallus' less than spectacular reign:




Gallus was a legitimate emperor in the depths of the Third Century Crisis. Here's a nice review (see the list of emperors and potential usurpers):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barracks_emperor

Note: This list only goes from Maximinus Thrax in AD 235 to Gallienus and his usurpers AD 268.

This list also doesn't include the usurpers of the Romano-Gallic or Romano-Palmyrene breakaway empires

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallic_Empire

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmyrene_Empire


guy