VALERIAN I 253AD Anazarbus Cilicia SIX PRIZE URNS Ancient Roman Coin i54020

Description

Item
Item:
i54020
Authentic Ancient Coin of:
Valerian I - Roman Emperor: 253-260 A.D. -
Bronze 28mm (19.11 grams) of Anazarbus in Cilicia struck 253/254 A.D.
Reference: Sear GIC 4484; B.M.C.21.40,43
AVT. K.
Π. ΛΙΚ. OVAΛЄΡΙΑΝΟС СЄ., Laureate, draped  and cuirassed bust right.
ANAZAPBOV MHTPOΠ., ΓΓ / AMKT (in upper field and in exergue), Six prize urns;  across central field, ЄT. BOC (= year 272 of the Era of Anazarbus = A.D.  253/254).
You are bidding on the exact item pictured,  provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of  Authenticity.
Publius Licinius Valerianus
(c. 200 - after 260), commonly known in
English
as
Valerian
or
Valerian I
, was the
Roman  Emperor
from 253 to 260.
Origins and rise to power
Unlike the majority of the pretenders during the
Crisis of the Third Centuryy
, Valerian was of a noble and traditional
senatorial
family. Details of his early life are elusive, but for his  marriage to
Egnatia Mariniana
, who gave him two sons: later emperor
Publius  Licinius Egnatius Gallienus
and
Valerianus Minor
.
In 238 he was
princeps senatus
, and
Gordian I
negotiated through him for Senatorial acknowledgement for his claim as emperor.  In 251, when
Decius
revived the censorship with legislative and executive powers so extensive that  it practically embraced the civil authority of the emperor, Valerian was chosen
censor
by the Senate, though he declined to accept the post. Under Decius he  was nominated governor of the
Rhine
provinces  of
Noricum
and
Raetia
and  retained the confidence of his successor,
Trebonianus Gallus
, who asked him for reinforcements to quell the rebellion  of
Aemilianus
Rule and fall
Valerian's first act as emperor was to make his son Gallienus  his colleague. In the beginning of his reign the affairs in Europe went from bad  to worse and the whole West fell into disorder. In the East,
Antioch
had  fallen into the hands of a
Sassanid
vassal,
Armenia
was occupied by
Shapur I
(Sapor).  Valerian and Gallienus split the problems of the empire between the two, with  the son taking the West and the father heading East to face the
Persian
threat.
By 257, Valerian had already recovered Antioch and returned  the province of
Syria
to Roman control but in the following year, the
Goths
ravaged
Asia Minor
. Later in 259, he moved to
Edessa
, but an outbreak of
plague
killed a critical number of
legionaries
,  weakening the Roman position in Edessa which was then besieged by the Persians.  At the beginning of 260, Valerian was defeated in the
Battle of Edessa
and he arranged a meeting with Shapur to negotiate a peace  settlement. The ceasefire was betrayed by Shapur who seized him and held him  prisoner for the remainder of his life. Valerian's capture was a humiliating  defeat for the Romans.
Gibbon
, in
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
describes  Valerian's fate:
The voice of history, which is often little more than the  organ of hatred or flattery, reproaches Sapor with a proud abuse of the rights  of conquest. We are told that Valerian, in chains, but invested with the  Imperial purple, was exposed to the multitude, a constant spectacle of fallen  greatness; and that whenever the Persian monarch mounted on horseback, he placed  his foot on the neck of a Roman emperor. Notwithstanding all the remonstrances  of his allies, who repeatedly advised him to remember the vicissitudes of  fortune, to dread the returning power of Rome, and to make his illustrious  captive the pledge of peace, not the object of insult, Sapor still remained  inflexible. When Valerian sunk under the weight of shame and grief, his skin,  stuffed with straw, and formed into the likeness of a human figure, was  preserved for ages in the most celebrated temple of Persia; a more real monument  of triumph, than the fancied trophies of brass and marble so often erected by  Roman vanity. The tale is moral and pathetic, but the truth of it may very fairly be called in  question. The letters still extant from the princes of the East to Sapor are  manifest forgeries; nor is it natural to suppose that a jealous monarch should, even in the person  of a rival, thus publicly degrade the majesty of kings. Whatever treatment the  unfortunate Valerian might experience in Persia, it is at least certain that the  only emperor of Rome who had ever fallen into the hands of the enemy, languished  away his life in hopeless captivity.
Valerian's massacre of 258
According to the
Catholic Encyclopedia
article on
Valerian
:
Pope Sixtus
was seized on 6 August, 258, in one of the Catacombs and was put  to death;
Cyprian of Carthage
suffered martyrdom on 14 September. Another celebrated  martyr was the Roman deacon
St. Lawrence
. In Spain Bishop
Fructuosus of Tarragona
and his two deacons were put to death on 21 January,  259. There were also executions in the eastern provinces (Eusebius, VII, xii).  Taken altogether, however, the repressions were limited to scattered spots and  had no great success..
Death in captivity
An early Christian source,
Lactantius
,  maintained that for some time prior to his death Valerian was subjected to the  greatest insults by his captors, such as being used as a human footstool by  Shapur when mounting his horse. According to this version of events, after a  long period of such treatment Valerian offered Shapur a huge ransom for his  release. In reply, according to one version, Shapur was said to have forced  Valerian to swallow molten gold (the other version of his death is almost the  same but it says that Valerian was killed by being flayed alive) and then had  the unfortunate Valerian skinned and his skin stuffed with straw and preserved  as a trophy in the main Persian temple. It was further alleged by Lactantius  that it was only after a later Persian defeat against Rome that his skin was  given a cremation and burial. The role of a Chinese prince held hostage by Shapur I, in the events following  the death of Valerian has been frequently debated by historians, without  reaching any definitive conclusion.
The Humiliation of
Emperor Valerianrian
Shapur I
, pen and ink,
Hans Holbein the Younger
, ca. 1521
Some modern scholars believe that, contrary to Lactantius' account,
Shapur I
sent Valerian and some of his army to the city of
Bishapur
where they lived in relatively good condition. Shapur used the remaining  soldiers in engineering and development plans.
Band-e Kaisar
(Caesar's  dam) is one of the remnants of Roman engineering located near the ancient city  of
Susa
. In all the stone carvings on Naghshe-Rostam, in Iran, Valerian is respected by  holding hands with Shapur I, in sign of submission.
It is generally supposed that some of
Lactantius
'  account is motivated by his desire to establish that persecutors of the  Christians died fitting deaths; the story was repeated then and later by authors in the Roman Near East  "fiercely hostile" to Persia.
Other modern scholars tend to give at least some credence to  Lactantius' account.
Valerian and Gallienus' joint rule was threatened several  times by
usurpers
. Despite several usurpation attempts, Gallienus secured the throne  until his own assassination in 268.
Owing to imperfect and often contradictory sources, the  chronology and details of this reign are very uncertain..
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