Valeriano (253-260 d.C.)

Valerian I (September 253–June 260) The article presents a group of silver coins from the third century A.D. found in Rimigliano (Leghorn) in 2002. The coins are mostly ‘antoniniani’ in silver from the time of emperor Gallienus (253–268). The coins of the group which are studied in the present article are 15, dating from 253 to 260 and referring to the time of emperor Valerian I. The obverse of coins represents the draped bust, or draped and cuirassed bust, of the emperor, right, with his radiate crow. The legend reads IMP. C. P. LIC. VALERIANVS AVG or the same in an abbreviated form. On the reverse are symbolic or commemorative elements and figures representing faithfulness of the army, the liberality of the emperor in the occasion for a donatives, Apollo in his role of averter of the plague then afflicting the army, the emperor which raising a female figure – either kneeling or standing – for the restoration of the East. One specimen issue in Lugdunum presents the type of Sol as symbol of a new time. The mint which has been identified is that of Roma, and only in a case it is the mint of Antiochia. All the earliest military accomplishments of Valerian on the East, as well as those of Gallienus, his son, along the Danubian frontiers in the West, seem justify the titles of ‘Restorer of the Orient’ and of ‘Restorer of the World’, and which appear into the reverse legends on some the coins studied. For each coin has been written a file, with the analytical description of the subjects represented on the obverse and the reverse, the mint where the coin was issued, the measures of the coin, and the bibliographic references. Cat. 1–15; Tab. 3, n. 10–16.