Volusian Silver Antoninianus, RIC IV Volusian 179

Monetary and Historical Context

The antoninianus designated as RIC IV Volusian 179 was issued in the turbulent aftermath of the Gothic wars of AD 251. In June of that year, Emperor Decius and his elder son Herennius Etruscus perished in the marshes of Abrittus, creating an immediate political and military crisis along the Danubian frontier. The legions acclaimed Trebonianus Gallus as emperor. Gallus swiftly secured a peace treaty with the Goths and returned to Rome, where he sought to avert civil strife by adopting Decius's surviving son, Hostilian, as co-Augustus. At the same time, Gallus appointed his biological son, Volusian, to the rank of Caesar. This dynastic settlement proved ephemeral: within months, Hostilian died in Rome, reportedly of the plague that was then ravaging the empire, whereupon Volusian was raised to Augustus in late AD 251. From late AD 251 until their downfall in the summer of AD 253 at the hands of Aemilian's rebellious forces, Trebonianus Gallus and Volusian ruled as joint Augusti. The issue of RIC IV Volusian 179 reflects the severe fiscal and monetary strains of this period. The antoninianus, originally introduced by Caracalla in AD 215 as a double denarius tariffed at two denarii but struck with only about 1.5 times the denarius's silver content, had become the primary silver-denominated coin of the imperial state. Successive fiscal emergencies under Gordian III, Philip the Arab, and Decius forced imperial mints to accelerate emissions while lowering metallic standards. Under Gallus and Volusian, the antoninianus underwent noticeable degradation, with silver content dropping into the twenty to thirty percent range, alloyed predominantly with copper and trace metals. In this strained monetary environment, the antoninianus functioned as the principal vehicle for military pay, administrative expenditures, and tax collections.

Mint Production and Manufacture

RIC IV Volusian 179 was produced by the central imperial mint at Rome. During the joint reign of Trebonianus Gallus and Volusian, the Rome mint was organized into several numbered officinae, typically four to six operating workshops, each tasked with turning out synchronized reverse types for the co-emperors. Unlike later third-century emissions, coins of this specific issue do not bear overt officina marks or mint signatures in the field or exergue, leaving workshop attribution to stylistic analysis and die studies. Manufacture followed standard Roman imperial striking techniques. Blanks were cast in moulds or cut from prepared cast rods of heavily debased billon alloy, then heated to facilitate striking between engraved iron or bronze dies. Obverse dies were set into the lower anvil while reverse dies were held by an operator and struck with a heavy hammer. Die axes for this issue commonly cluster near regular orientations, predominantly 12 o'clock or 6 o'clock, although moderate rotational variation is normal for the period. While theoretical weight standards for the mid-third-century antoninianus aimed roughly around 3.5 to 3.8 grams, individual specimens of RIC IV Volusian 179 vary considerably in struck mass, commonly spanning from approximately 2.5 grams to over 4.0 grams due to relaxed tolerances in blank preparation. Diameters typically measure between 20 mm and 23 mm.

Obverse Typology and Imperial Iconography

The obverse of RIC IV Volusian 179 depicts the youthful bust of Volusian facing right. He wears a radiate crown, which served as the universal denominational marker identifying the coin as an antoninianus (or double denarius), mirroring the radiate solar crown first utilized for this denomination under Caracalla. The imperial bust is both draped and cuirassed, rendered in the characteristic mid-third-century military portrait style. The folds of the paludamentum (military cloak) are pinned across the shoulder, visible over the metallic plates or leather pteruges of the cuirass. Portraiture produced at Rome under Gallus and Volusian presents stylized, somewhat angular features. Volusian is depicted with a compact jawline, prominent nose, and close-cropped military haircut, following the soldier-emperor aesthetic established in the preceding decades. Although he reigned only as a young man alongside his father, his portraits on the Rome antoniniani emphasize imperial solemnity, military authority, and mature readiness to defend the state, minimizing purely juvenile traits.

Reverse Iconography: Pax Augustorum

The reverse of RIC IV Volusian 179 presents Pax, the divine personification of Peace, standing toward the left. She is depicted draped in a traditional long stola. In her extended right hand, Pax raises an olive branch, the long-standing Greco-Roman symbol of reconciliation, peace, and agricultural fertility. Held diagonally across her body in her left arm rests a transverse sceptre, the attribute of divine authority and orderly governance. The choice of Pax during the joint reign of Trebonianus Gallus and Volusian was laden with urgent ideological significance. Having just concluded an inglorious but essential treaty with the Goths to halt northern devastation, the imperial regime urgently sought to project a return to stability and internal tranquility. Personifications of Pax were struck extensively in parallel for both Gallus and Volusian, assuring the urban populace and provincial elites that the new collegiate government had successfully restored civic concord and frontier peace, even as plague and external pressures continued to threaten the empire.

Inscriptions and Epigraphic Analysis

The obverse legend on RIC IV Volusian 179 reads IMP CAE C VIB VOLVSIANO AVG, inscribed continuously around the perimeter of the die, beginning from the lower left and running clockwise. The epigraphic formula abbreviates Volusian's official imperial titulature: 'Imperator Caesar Caius Vibius Volusianus Augustus'. The initial elements 'IMP CAE' establish his supreme military command and adoption of the foundational imperial titles, followed by his praenomen and nomen gentile ('C VIB'), his cognomen ('VOLVSIANO'), and the definitive augustan title ('AVG'). The inscription is rendered in classical Roman square capitals, with letter forms exhibiting the somewhat hurried, compact engraving characteristic of mid-third-century Rome mint dies. The reverse legend reads PAX AVGG. The term 'PAX' names the personified deity, while the epithet 'AVGG' features two terminal 'G' characters, an established epigraphic convention designating the dual plural Augustorum. This plural formulation explicitly indicates that the peace celebrated on the reverse emanated from the joint authority and harmonious rule of the two collegiate Augusti, Trebonianus Gallus and Volusian. It forms an ideological counterpart to single-emperor issues that bore 'AVG' with a solitary 'G'.

Typology and Chronological Placement

Within the typology established by Harold Mattingly, Edward A. Sydenham, and C. H. V. Sutherland in Roman Imperial Coinage (Volume IV, Part III), number 179 occupies a central position among the principal silver issues struck for Volusian as Augustus at Rome. The type must be distinguished from Volusian's earlier Caesar issues, which bore legends such as C VIBIO VOLVSIANO CAES, struck during the brief interval in AD 251 when Hostilian remained senior co-Augustus. Once Volusian became Augustus in late AD 251, the mint of Rome introduced multiple reverse series celebrating the virtues and achievements of the Augusti, including Pietas, Concordia, Virtus, and Pax. Among the Pax types, RIC IV Volusian 179 is defined specifically by Pax standing left holding an olive branch and a transverse sceptre. It is typologically distinct from variants where Pax holds a vertical sceptre or where additional control symbols appear in the reverse fields, such as stars or officina letters (which characterize later Rome emissions and provincial mints like Antioch). The production of RIC IV Volusian 179 spanned from late AD 251 through early-to-mid AD 253, ending abruptly when Trebonianus Gallus and Volusian were slain by their own soldiers near Interamna as Aemilian marched on Rome.

Circulation, Hoards, and Archaeological Context

Antononiani of RIC IV Volusian 179 entered circulation during a period of accelerating monetary velocity and rampant hoarding. Because the alloy of Gallus and Volusian's antoniniani contained noticeably less silver than earlier Severan or Gordianic issues, the public tended to hoard higher-grade earlier coins while spending lower-grade recent issues, an ongoing manifestation of Gresham's Law. Nevertheless, the acute military crises of the 250s and 260s led to widespread burial and non-recovery of coin parcels throughout the Roman world. Specimens of RIC IV Volusian 179 appear frequently in mid-to-late third-century coin hoards discovered across Britain, Gaul, the Rhine frontier, and the Danubian provinces, as well as in Italy. Examples are well documented in major hoard horizons such as the Cunetio and Normanby hoards in Roman Britain, where Gallus and Volusian's antoniniani survive in substantial quantities alongside issues of Decius and Valerian. Because Valerian and Gallienus subsequently debased the antoninianus even more drastically down to five percent silver or less by the late 260s, antoniniani of the early 250s like RIC IV Volusian 179 retained sufficient intrinsic bullion value to remain in active circulation for nearly two decades after their issue, circulating until Aurelian's monetary reform of AD 274 demonetized or recalled older radiates.

References

1. Coin Hoards and Hoarding in the Roman Empire. pp. 112-145
2. Coinage in the Roman Economy, 300 B.C. to A.D. 700. pp. 128-135
3. Online Coins of the Roman Empire (OCRE): RIC IV Volusian 179. Type RIC IV Volusian 179
4. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Vol. IV, Part III: Gordian III to Uranius Antoninus. p. 177, no. 179