Postumus 260-269 AD. ROMAN IMPERIAL.Rare Silver Antoninianus

Description: Marcus Cassianius Latinius Postumuswas a Roman commander ofBatavianorigin, who ruled as emperor of the splinter state of theRoman Empireknown to modern historians as theGallic Empire. The Roman army in Gaul threw off its allegiance toGallienusaround the year 260,and Postumus assumed the title and powers of Emperor in the provinces ofGaul,Germania,Britannia, andHispania. He ruled for the better part of ten yearsbefore he was murdered by his own troops. Little is known about the early life of Postumus. He has been claimed as being ofBatavianorigin; certainly his coinage honors deitiesHercules Magusanusand Hercules Deusoniensiswho would have been popular among the Batavians.Hercules Magusanus was probably aninterpretatio romanatranslation of the Germanic deityunraz.Deusoniensismay refer to the town of Deuso, located in or near Batavian territory and likely to be identified with modern-dayDiessen; it has been hypothesized that Postumus himself was born in Deuso.From these relatively obscure provincial origins, Postumus would have risen through the ranks of the army until he held command of the Roman forces "...among the Celts".What his precise title was is not definitely known,though he may plausibly have been promoted by the emperorValerianto the position ofimperial legateofGermania Inferior.Postumus was evidently in favour at court, and, according to Knig, was granted an honorary consulship. By 259, Valerian was campaigning in the east against the Persians, while his son and co-emperorGallienuswas preoccupied with the situation on theDanubianfrontier.[11]Consequently, Gallienus left his son,Saloninus, and military commanders, including Postumus, to protect theRhine.Amid the chaos of an invasion by theAlamanniandFranks, and spurred on by news of thedefeat and captureof Valerian,the army in Gaul revolted and proclaimed Postumus emperor. The trigger was their defeat in 260of aJuthungianarmy which was returning fromItalyladen with prisoners, even though they had been repulsed by Gallienus atMediolanum(Milan).[13]Under the command of Postumus andMarcus Simplicinius Genialis, the Roman army crushed the Juthungi, and Postumus proceeded to distribute the captured spoils to the legions he commanded.Saloninus, on the advice of hispraetorian prefectSilvanus(who had coordinated Roman policy in Gaul alongside Postumus), demanded the transfer of the recovered booty to his residence atColonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium(Cologne).Postumus assembled his army and made a show of reluctantly enforcing this command, thus inviting his troops to instead throw off their allegiance to Gallienus.The troops accordingly proclaimed Postumus emperor and besieged Colonia, trapping Saloninus and Silvanus.After breaching the walls of the city, Postumus had Silvanus and Saloninus killed,although his supporters later claimed that it was the native Gauls who were responsible for the murders.Later he erected a triumphal arch to celebrate his victory.Postumus was immediately recognized as emperor in Gaul (except perhaps for the province ofGallia Narbonensis),Germania SuperiorandInferior,andRaetia.By 261, Britannia, Narbonensis and Hispania also acknowledged him as emperor,possibly after an expedition to Britain in the winter of 260261.He established his capital in northern Gaul, probably at Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium orAugusta Treverorum(Trier),and furnished his government with many of the traditional Roman legislative and executive structures.Apart from the position ofemperor, he immediately assumed the office ofconsulalongside a colleague,Honoratianus.Like his imperial predecessors, he became thepontifex maximusof the stateand assumedtribunicianpower each year.He is thought to have established asenate,perhaps on the basis of the Council of the Three Gauls or provincial councils,and aPretorian Guard,one of whose officers was the future Gallic emperorVictorinus.The chief members of Postumus' administration, such as Victorinus andTetricus, appear to have been drawn from his power base in northern Gaul, and indeed the entire administration rapidly became Gallicized. Postumus represented himself as the restorer of Gaul (Restitutor Galliarum) and the bringer of security to the provinces (Salus Provinciarum) on some of his coins;prior to 10 December 261 he also took the title ofGermanicus maximus, a title he earned after successfully defending Gaul against the Germans.His principal objective in assuming the purple appeared to be the restoration and defence of the Rhine frontier and the surrounding area, a task that he approached with vigour, earning the admiration of the ancient authors, who declared that he restored the security that the provinces had enjoyed in the past.So successful was he in the task of stabilizing his domain that the coins issued by Postumus were of better workmanship and higher precious metal content than coins issued by Gallienus.His control of the Spanish and British mining regions was presumably crucial in this regard,as was his employment of master minters who would have come into Gaul with Gallienus.Postumus fought successful campaigns against theFranksandAlemanniin 262 and 263; following his victory over them in 263, his coin-types celebrated peaceful themes such asFelicitas Augustifor some time.After having spent much of the last four years pushing the Franks out of Gaul, Postumus then recruited Frankish troops to fight against other Franks, probably dispersed within existing Roman army units. Scholars continue to debate whether Postumus originally intended to dislodge Gallienus from Rome or was content to rule only the western provinces.From the beginning of his usurpation, Postumus had made it clear that his priority was for Gaul, and that he had no immediate intentions to make a bid for Rome.Postumus' power base was Gaul and his main responsibility was the defense of the Rhine provinces. If he marched against Gallienus, then he would be exposing his heartland not only to the Germanic tribes but also potentially to any number of usurpers.Perhaps he hoped to achieve some official recognition from Gallienus; what is clear, however, is that Postumus was not overtly separatist and did not revive the 1st-century dream of an independentGalliarum imperium.The forms, titles, and administrative structures of Postumus' principate remained conventionally Roman. For four years Gallienus was too distracted by Germanic invasions and other usurpers in the east to address the situation to his north and west,but in 265 he launched a campaign to defeat Postumus.His first attempt failed when Postumus managed to escape from a precarious situation due to the carelessness of Gallienus' cavalry commanderAureolus.Aureolus was punished with demotion, eventually leading him to turn against Gallienus in 267. A second campaign, led by Gallienus himself, also seemed to have the advantage over Postumus, but while Gallienus was besieging a city in Gaul (perhapsAugusta Treverorum he was wounded and forced to withdraw.After this, Gallienus was occupied with crises in the rest of his empire and did not confront Postumus again. By the end of 265, Postumus' coin issues were triumphantly commemorating the victory over Gallienus, and the festivities celebrating hisquinquennaliacontinued into the following year.Very little troubled the reign of Postumus from 265 to 268; archaeological evidence, such as it is, points to a general return to peace and normalcy.In 266, Postumus became consul for the fourth time, taking as his colleagueMarcus Piavonius Victorinus, a Gallic noble who was also a senior military officer; his selection to such a high-profile position may be seen as an attempt to broaden Postumus' base of support.The year 268 saw the issuing of the 'Labours of Hercules' series of gold coins in honour of Postumus' favourite god.A sudden debasement of the coinage later that year shows that Postumus was facing increasing financial difficulties, due perhaps to a disruption of silver production in the Spanish mines or the need to buy off an increasingly discontented army. Such discontent was probably due to Postumus' failure to take advantage of a golden opportunity to move against Gallienus in 268.Aureolus, the general who was in command ofMediolanum(Milan) in Gallienus' interest, rebelled and ultimately declared for Postumus.The city of Mediolanum and its north Italian andRaetianhinterland would have been critical to Postumus if he planned to march on Rome. For whatever reason, Postumus failed to support Aureolus, who was defeated by Gallienus and besieged inside Mediolanum.Before the end of summer in 268, Gallienus was assassinated, and his successor,Claudius II, captured and killed Aureolus.At the same time, a sequence of events began which would end Postumus' rule in Gaul.Postumus assumed his fifth consulship on 1 January 269,but the army inGermania Superiorraised a usurper in early 269.[lLaelianus, one of Postumus' top military leaders and the governor of Germania Superior, was declared emperor inMogontiacum (Mainz)by the local garrison and surrounding troops (Legio XXIIPrimigenia).Within a few months, Postumus was able to capture Mogontiacum and kill Laelianus. His army wanted to sack the defeated city, and when Postumus tried to restrain them, the soldiers turned on him and killed him. The mutineers set upMarius, a common soldier, as emperor. Marius held sway for a short while before being overthrown byVictorinus, Postumus' erstwhile colleague in the consulship and tribune of the praetorian guard.In the meantime, the Gallic Empire lost Hispania.

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