The weather was fantastic on Sunday, so drove out to my usual hunting ground and pulled this beauty out of the dirt. It was lying at the farthest point in my swing, and I just caught a bit of it - with a short broken bleep. A repeat swing over the target area revealed a soliud signal, VDI of 72 and heavy on the 2.5 Khz frequency. The coin was minted in Rome in 251 A.D. by emperor Trebonianus Gallus. The reverse shows the Roman goddess Libertas, the same goddess whom the American Statue of Liberty was modeled after.
Trebonianus Gallus AR (silver) Antoninianus. Rome mint: 251 AD.
Obverse: IMP CAE C VIB TREB GALLVS AVG, radiate draped bust right.
Reverse: LIBERTAS AVGG, Libertas standing left holding Pileus & Vindicta.
Libertas is seen here holding a PILEUS. The pileus was a brimless, felt cap worn in Ancient Greece and later also introduced in Ancient Rome. It was associated with the manumission of slaves who wore it upon their liberation, and became emblematic of liberty and freedom from bondage in classical antiquity. In Ancient Rome, a slave was freed in a ceremony in which a praetor touched the slave with a rod called a vindicta and pronounced him to be free. The slave's head was shaved and a pileus was placed upon it. Both the vindicta and the cap were considered symbols of Libertas, the goddess representing liberty.
IMP CAE C VIB TREB GALLVS AVG translates to “Imperatator Caesar Consul Trebonianus Gallus Augustus”.
LIBERTAS AVGG translates to “Liberty of the Emperors” - (Plural, for him and his co-emperor Hostilian.
Trebonianus Gallus
Gallus was born in Italy, in a family with respected ancestry of Etruscan senatorial background. He had two children Gaius Vibius Volusianus, later Emperor, and a daughter, Vibia Galla. While Governor of Moesia (the south bank of the Danube, from Serbia to Macedonia), Gallus was a key figure in repelling the frequent invasion attacks by the Gothic tribes of the Danube and became popular with the army, bolstered by his official image: military haircut, gladiatorial physique, intimidating stance. In June 251, the current emperor Decius died in the Battle of Abrittus at the hands of the Goths they were supposed to punish for raids into the empire. When the army heard the news, the soldiers proclaimed Gallus emperor, despite Hostilian, Decius' surviving son, ascending the imperial throne in Rome. Gallus did not back down from his intention to become emperor, but accepted Hostilian as co-emperor, perhaps to avoid the damage of another civil war. Gallus proclaimed his son Volusianus as Caesar, and he was appointed as such by the Senate.
Anxious to secure his position at Rome and stabilize the situation on the Danube frontier, Gallus made peace with the Goths. Peace terms allowed the Goths to leave the Roman territory while keeping their captives and plunder. In addition, it was agreed that they would be paid an annual subsidy. On June 24, 251, Decius was deified, but by July 15 Hostilian disappears from history—he may have died in an outbreak of plague. Eager to show himself competent and gain popularity with the citizens, Gallus swiftly dealt with the epidemic, providing burial for the victims.
253 was not a good year for Gallus. Persians pushed their way across Syria, Armenia, and Turkey and burned the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus. The Celts north of Danube rose back up, and the Scythian tribes crossed the river and were once again on the loose behind the Roman border.
The Governor Aemillianus took initiative and defeated the invaders, much to the linking of the Legions. Since the army was no longer pleased with the Emperor, the soldiers proclaimed Aemilianus emperor. With a usurper, supported by Pauloctus, threatening the throne, Gallus prepared for a fight. He recalled several legions and ordered reinforcements to return to Rome from Gaul under the command of the future emperor Publius Licini Valerianus. Despite these dispositions, Aemilianus marched onto Italy ready to fight for his claim and caught Gallus at Terni before the arrival of Gallus’s son Valerianus and his reinforcements. What exactly happened there is not clear. Later sources claim that after an initial defeat, Gallus and Volusianus were murdered by their own troops, or Gallus did not have the chance to face Aemilianus at all because his army went over to the usurper. In any case, both Gallus and Volusianus were killed in August 253.
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