SALONINUS Rare Unpublished Unique Type 258AD Pergamon Ancient Roman Coin i35239

Description

Item:
i35239
Authentic Ancient  Coin of:
Saloninus - Roman Caesar: 258-259 A.D. - Roman Emperor: 260  A.D. -
Bronze 22mm (4.90 grams) Pergamon in Mysia 258-260 A.D.
Π . Κ . CA . ΟVΑΛЄΡΙΑΝΟC ΚΑ, Bare-headed, draped  and cuirassed bust right.
ΠЄΡΓΑΜΝΩΝ ΝΕΩΚΟ, Dionysus standing left, holding bunch of grapes and thyrsos,  panther at feet to left.
* Numismatic Note: Possibly  Unpublished Type!!!
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Dionysus
Bacchus
was the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy in Greek mythology . His name in Linear B tablets shows he was worshipped from  c. 1500-1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks : other traces of Dionysian-type  cult have been found in ancient Minoan Crete . His origins are uncertain, and  his cults took many forms; some are described by ancient sources as Thracian,  others as Greek. In some cults, he arrives from the east, as an Asiatic  foreigner; in others, from Ethiopia in the South.
He  is a god of epiphany , "the god that comes," and his  "foreignness" as an arriving outsider-god may be inherent and essential to his  cults. He is a major, popular figure of Greek mythology and religion , and is included in some lists of the twelve Olympians . Dionysus was the last god to  be accepted into Mt. Olympus. He was the youngest and the only one to have a  mortal mother His festivals were the driving force behind the development of Greek theatre . He is an example of a dying god .The earliest cult images of Dionysus  show a mature male, bearded and robed. He holds a fennel staff, tipped with a pine-cone and known  as a
thyrsus
. Later images show him as a  beardless, sensuous, naked or half-naked androgynous youth: the literature  describes him as womanly or "man-womanish."In its fully developed form, his  central cult imagery shows his triumphant, disorderly arrival or return, as if  from some place beyond the borders of the known and civilized. His procession
(thiasus)
is made up of wild female followers (maenads)  and bearded satyrs with erect penises . Some are armed with the
thyrsus
, some dance or play music. The god himself is drawn in a chariot,  usually by exotic beasts such as lions or tigers, and is sometimes attended by a  bearded, drunken Silenus . This procession is presumed to be the  cult model for the human followers of his Dionysian Mysteries . In his Thracian mysteries, he wears the
bassaris
or  fox-skin, symbolizing a new life. Dionysus is represented by city  religions as the protector of those who do not belong to conventional society  and thus symbolizes everything which is chaotic, dangerous and unexpected,  everything which escapes human reason and which can only be attributed to the  unforeseeable action of the gods.
He was also known as
Bacchus
, the name adopted by the Romans and the frenzy he induces,
bakkheia
.  His
thyrsus
is sometimes wound with ivy and dripping with honey. It is a  beneficent wand but also a weapon, and can be used to destroy those who oppose  his cult and the freedoms he represents. He is also the Liberator (
Eleutherios
),  whose wine, music and ecstatic dance frees his followers from self-conscious  fear and care, and subverts the oppressive restraints of the powerful. Those who  partake of his mysteries are possessed and empowered by the god himself. His  cult is also a "cult of the souls"; his maenads feed the dead through  blood-offerings, and he acts as a divine communicant between the living and the  dead.
In Greek mythology, he is presented as a son of Zeus and the mortal Semele , thus semi-divine or heroic: and as son of Zeus and Persephone or Demeter , thus both fully divine, part-chthonic  and possibly identical with Iacchus of the Eleusinian Mysteries . Some scholars believe  that Dionysus is a syncretism of a local Greek nature deity and a  more powerful god from Thrace or Phrygia such as Sabazios or Zalmoxis .
Pergamon
,
Pergamum
or
Pérgamo
(in Greek ,
Πέργαμος
) was an ancient Greek city in modern-day Turkey , in Mysia , today  located 16 miles (26 km) from the Aegean Sea on a promontory on the north side of the river Caicus (modern day Bakırçay ),  that became the capital of the Kingdom of Pergamon during the Hellenistic period , under the Attalid dynasty , 281-133 BC. Today, the main sites of ancient Pergamon are  to the north and west of the modern city of Bergama .
Publius Licinius Cornelius Saloninus
(242 - 260) was Roman  Emperor in 260.
Saloninus was born around the year 242. His father was the later emperor Gallienus ,  his mother Cornelia Salonina a Greek from Bithynia. In 258 Saloninus was appointed Caesar by his father (just like his older brother Valerian  II , who had died around 258) and sent to Gaul, to make sure  his father's authority was respected there. (The title
Caesar
in Imperial  nomenclature indicated that the holder was the Crown Prince and First-in-line-of  Succession after
Augustus
, the title reserved to the ruling Emperor).  Like Valerian II who was made the ward of Ingenuus ,governor  of the Illyrian provinces, Saloninus was put under the protection of Silvanus (praetorian prefect) (otherwise named as Albanus)
As Caesar in Gaul Saloninus had his main seat in Cologne .
Bray conjectures  that Saloninus's appointment as
Caesar
, like that of his elder brother,  Valerian II, in Illyria, was made at the instigation of Valerian who was, at once, the senior Emperor (Augustus) and grandfather of the two young  Caesars and, as head of the Licinius clan, exercised also the
potestas  patriae
over all members of the Imperial family, including his son Gallienus, his  co-Emperor (and co-Augustus). Bray suggests that Valerian's motive in making  these appointments was the establishment of an Imperial dynasty, thus making the  succession more secure. We do not know how Valerian envisaged his grandson  interacting with the existing governors and military commanders of the Gallic  provinces. There is no reason to suppose that he ever thought the thing through  as systematically as Diocletian when he established the Tetrarchy some thirty years later. However, Silvanus must have been a seasoned  soldier/administrator and he does seem to have harboured the notion that, as  guardian of Valerian, he should exercise real authority in Gaul. This was  demonstrated by the circumstances in which he fell out with the usurper Postumus .
In 260 (probably in July) Silvanus (no doubt in Saloninus's name) ordered  Postumus to hand over some booty that Postumus's troops had seized from a German  warband which had been on its way home from a successful raid into Gaul.  However, Postumus's men took violent exception to this attempt to enforce the  rights of the representative of a distant Emperor who was manifestly failing in  his duty to protect the Gallic provinces. Asserting what was probably the  prevailing Custom of the Frontier they turned on Saloninus and Silvanus who had  to then flee to Cologne with some loyal troops. It was probably at this time  that Postumus was acclaimed Emperor by his army. Riding the tiger of military  discontent which he could barely control, Postumus then besieged Saloninus and  Silvanus in Cologne.
Gallienus, who was fully engaged elsewhere - probably campaigning on the  middle Danube - could do nothing to save his son. (By this time Saloninus's  grandfather, the senior Emperor, Valerian was probably already a captive of the  Persian King Shapur ).  Saloninus's troops, in their desperation, finally proclaimed him Emperor,  perhaps hoping that this would induce Postumus's army to desert him and join  them in a bid for Empire - i.e. against Valerian and Gallienus. If this was  indeed their hope, they were to be disappointed in the event for Postumus's army  pressed on with the siege and, about one month later, the citizens of Cologne  handed Valerian and his guardian over to their enemy. Postumus was then unable  to prevent his army from murdering them. (Despite his public protestations of  regret, it seems unlikely, in fact, that Postumus made a serious effort to this  resist this course of events).
Whether or not Gallienus ever concurred with Valerian's dynastic experiment  is not known. Certainly the murder of Saloninus so soon after the suspicious  death of Valerian II (
q.v.
)seems to have cured Gallienus of any ambition  in this regard. (We may assume that Valerian's mother, Salonina, would have been  most unhappy: the death of her elder son, Valerian II, in Illyria under the  tutelage of Ingenuus must have seemed to her to have confirmed her worst fears of this  sort of arrangement). It had certainly proved to be folly to set up  inexperienced boys as hostages to fortune and hope that their relationship to  the Imperial family would quell provincial resentment at what was perceived as  the inability of the central government to secure the frontiers from barbarian  attack. Throughout the period of his sole reign Gallienus made no effort to  elevate his third son, Egnatius Marinianus , to the purple or associate him in any way with his  government of the Empire - although he did allow him to be elected to the  largely ceremonial office of Consul in 268.
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