Galeria Valeria Daughter of Diocletian 308AD Big Ancient Roman Coin VENUS i57451

Item: i57451

Authentic Ancient

Coin of:

Galeria Valeria – Roman Empress – Wife of Galerius –

Bronze Follis 25mm (5.84 grams) Cyzicus mint: 308-309 A.D.

Reference: RIC 46 (Cyzicus)
GALVALERIAAVG – Diademed, draped bust right.
 VENERIVICTRICI Exe: Δ/MKV – Venus
standing left, holding apple and raising skirt. 

You are bidding on the exact item pictured,

Authenticity.

Venus
was a
Roman
goddess

principally associated with
love,
beauty
and
fertility
, who played a key role in many
Roman religious
festivals and myths. From the third century BC, the
increasing
Hellenization
of Roman upper classes identified her as the equivalent of the
Greek goddess

Aphrodite
.

Her cult began in
Ardea
and
Lavinium,
Latium.
On August 15, 293 BC, her oldest known
temple
was dedicated, and August 18 became a festival called the
Vinalia Rustica
. After
Rome‘s
defeat at the Battle of Lake Trasimene
in the opening
episodes of the Second Punic War
, the Sibylline oracle
recommended the importation of the Sicillian Venus of Eryx; a temple to her was
dedicated on the Capitoline Hill
in 217 BC: a second temple to
her was dedicated in 181 BC.

Venus seems to have played a part in household or private religion of some
Romans. Julius Caesar claimed her as an ancestor (Venus Genetrix); possibly a
long-standing family tradition, certainly one adopted as such by his heir
Augustus.
Venus statuettes have been found in quite ordinary household shrines (lararia).
In fiction, Petronius
places one among the
Lares
of the
freedman Trimalchio
‘s household shrine.

Galeria Valeria (died 315) was the daughter of

Roman

Emperor
Diocletian

and wife of his co-emperor

Galerius
.

Born as Valeria to Diocletian and

Prisca

, she married Galerius in 293, when her father elevated him to the

position of Caesar. Prior to this marriage, clearly organized to strengthen the

bonds between the two emperors, Galerius had to divorce his first wife,

Valeria Maximilla

.

Galeria was sympathetic towards Christians, while Galerius persecuted them.

Galeria was raised to the title of

Augusta

and Mater Castrorum in November 308. Since she gave no child

to Galerius, Galeria adopted her husband’s illegittimate son,

Candidianus

, as her own.

When Galerius died, in 311,

Licinius

was entrusted with the care of Valeria and her mother Prisca. The two women,

however, fled from Licinius to

Maximinus Daia

, whose daughter was betrothed to Candidianus. After a short

time, Valeria refused the marriage proposal of Maximinus, who arrested and

confined her in

Syria

and confiscated her properties. At the death of Maximinus, Licinius

ordered the death of both women. Valeria fled, hiding for a year, until she was

found in

Thessaloniki

. She was captured by the mob, beheaded in the central square of

the city, and her body thrown in the sea. Canonized as christian saint with her

mother (see

Saint Alexandra

).