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

Item: i54020

Authentic Ancient Coin of:

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, 

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

, 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

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.