..i'm having a hard time staying in one or two rabbit holes..this 3rd century emperor gig just let me down a couple of others...but that's ok..its all connected......Valerian's mother, Salonnia, had bad forbodings on her eldest son and the situtation Gallenius put him in..i would reckon maybe she had something to do with these type coins of her eldest son. POST YER COINS N COMMENTS PEEPS! Valerian ll(Caesar 256-258) AR(?) Antoninianus, Valerian ll bust right obverse, child Zeus sitting on goat goddess foster mother/nurse Amalthea reverse. 21mm 2.96gms, Cologne mint
Purdy nice coin! Ya dun guuud, @ominus1 ! I really like that reverse... very very cool... Here is my only Valerian II... boring. But, HEY! VII was purdy boring, too! RI Valerian II 256-258 CE Silvered Ant PRINCIP IVVENTVS
Like that goat! Nice portrait, too. Here are a couple from my old novice Roman collection of 2007-08. Valerian II Salonina
VALERIANVS CAES - Radiate and draped bust of Valerian II right / IOVI CRESCENTI - child Jupiter riding right on the goat Amalthea, looking left, right hand raised, left hand holding goat´s horn Antoninianus, Lugdunum or Cologne (?), late 256- early 258 RIC 3, Göbl/MIR 907e, Elmer 67a, Sear 10731 The goat Amalthea had been born as nymph and lived on the island of Crete. When she and some other nymphs were playing at a creek, they heard a baby cry in a cave at Mount Ida. They immediately went into the cave and Amalthea was holding and consoling the newborn boy, when his mother returned. This was Rhea, wife of the Titan Kronos. Kronos had been prophesied that one of his children would thrust him from the throne, and therefore had devoured all the children his wife had given him. When one day Rhea had realized that she was pregnant again, she had decided to flee and hide. But Kronos quickly became suspicious and searched for her everywhere, and soon stood in front of the cave and demanded that Rhea deliver the child to him. Rhea handed him a stone wrapped in bloody diapers, which Kronos devoured immediately. He then asked Rhea to come with him immediately. She accompanied him for a while, then pretended to be weak from birth, let Kronos go ahead, and ran back. When she found her little son save and sound in the caring arms of the young nymph, Rhea asked her to look after little Zeus and turned her into a divine goat so she could feed the child with milk, ambrosia, and nectar. She called the beautiful white goat „Amaltheia“, which in Greek means "divine white goat". Amalthea suckled the child with her milk. From their horns, Zeus drank nectar and ambrosia. In addition, a swarm of bees brought him mountain honey. One day, when littlle Zeus cried, Kronos became suspicious and wanted to know who caused the noise in the cave. As he could not enter because he was too tall, he could only stick his head in the mouth of the cave. But before his eyes had grown accustomed to the darkness, Amalthea jumped up and gave him a huge blow with her horns. Amalthea lost one of her horns during this thrust. This horn was later known as the cornucopia. It kept filling up with what its owner wanted. Thanks to Amalthea's care, Zeus soon became so strong that he was able to oust the mighty Kronos from his throne.
I've got another Amalthea/Jovi Crescenti type: Valerian II, AR antoninianus, 23 mm 4.2 grams Struck: 257-258, Cologne. Obverse: VALERIANVS CAES, radiate, draped bust right Reverse: IOVI CRESCENTI, the child Jupiter sitting right on the goat Amalthea, looking left, right hand raised, left hand holding the goat's horn. Reference: RIC 3 (Lyons); Cohen 26 (Saloninus); Elmer 67a; Goebl 0907e; Sear 10731.
If you study the 3rd century emperors in very much detail, you learn that an emperor who made his son a caesar or co-emperor was probably signing his child’s death warrant, regardless of his age. In those days, ruling for five years was a long stretch.
Nice coins all! Valerian II is one of those figures I couldn't just have one of. Eastern mint, VICTORIA PART, or "Go get 'em, Grandpa!" IOVI CRESCENTI, a much younger portrait (Rome mint?) (Somewhere I have a nice shiny example with the Cologne portrait where he looks like he's about 3 years old - but apparently I didn't image it) RIP little dude (Anyone else find it really strange that Saloninus never got pothumous coinage?)
I can't compete with your wonder-coins, but I can at least add a few of this family beyond Valerian1. I collect only bronze/copper, so here are Gallienus (5), Salonina (2), Valerian2 (2), and Saloninus (1). The last is ESPECIALLY tough in a Sestertius.
Valerian II, Antoninianus, RIC 50 Antioch P LIC COR VALERIANVS CAES, radiate, draped bust right / PRINCIPI IVBENTVTIS, Prince standing left, holding baton and spear.
