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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Roman Collector, post: 3734056, member: 75937&quot;]Very cool, [USER=82616]@David Atherton[/USER] , and a rarity, too. I love it when I acquire coins that have evaded the British Museum or BnF collections!</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>This antoninianus of Trebonianus Gallus&#039; (AD 251-253) was struck in autumn, AD 251, and likely alludes to a serious crisis that befell the Roman empire that year -- the so-called Cyprian plague. The Cyprian plague erupted in Ethiopia around Easter of AD 250. It reached Rome in the following year, eventually spreading to Greece and further east to Syria. The plague lasted nearly 20 years and, at its height, reportedly killed as many as 5,000 people per day in Rome. The outbreak claimed the lives of two emperors: Hostilian in AD 251 and Claudius II Gothicus in 270.</p><p><br /></p><p>Although the etiologic agent of the illness has not been determined by medical historians or paleopathologists, recent work by University of Oklahoma historian Kyle Harper (See <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/03/plagues-roman-empire/473862/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/03/plagues-roman-empire/473862/" rel="nofollow">here</a> and <a href="https://www.ancient.eu/article/992/plague-of-cyprian-250-270-ce/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.ancient.eu/article/992/plague-of-cyprian-250-270-ce/" rel="nofollow">here</a>) sheds some light. Harper, in the absence of microbiological evidence, examined 23 contemporary textual references to the pestilence and concludes it was due to an ebola-like viral illness. Our very own [USER=73473]@Magnus Maximus[/USER] wrote an <a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/the-cyprian-plague.340369/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/the-cyprian-plague.340369/">interesting article</a> about it here at CT earlier this year.</p><p><br /></p><p>The families of Trajan Decius and Trebonianus Gallus were intertwined. After Decius&#039; death in battle against the Goths in June, AD 251, the troops elevated Gallus (the governor of Moesia) to the throne. Trebonianus Gallus elevated Decius&#039; son, Hostilian to Augustus, making the boy co-emperor, while giving the lower-ranking title of Caesar to his own son, Volusian. Moreover, Volusian wed Hostilian&#039;s sister, further strengthening the ties between Gallus and the late emperor Decius.</p><p><br /></p><p>Mattingly and Sydenham (RIC 4 III, p. 154) believe this coin was struck shortly after Hostilian died of the plague in the late summer of AD 251. Its reverse inscription reads APOLL. SALVTARI (<i>Apollini salutari</i>) in the dative case: &quot;to Apollo the healer.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/trebonianus-gallus-apoll-salvtari-antoninianus-jpg.893142/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p>Trebonianus Gallus, AD 251-253.</p><p>Roman AR antoninianus, 3.60 g, 19.2 mm, 6 h.</p><p>Rome, 2nd emission, late AD 251.</p><p>Obv: IMP CAE C VIB TREB GALLVS AVG, radiate, draped and cuirassed bust, right.</p><p>Rev: APOLL SALVTARI, Apollo standing left, holding branch with right hand and resting left hand on lyre set on rock.</p><p>Refs: RIC 32; Cohen/RSC 20; RCV 9627; Hunter 21.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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