Tetricus I AD 271-274 Bronze Antoninianus

Tetricus I AD 271-274 Bronze Antoninianus

Salus feeding snake holding wreath and anchor

Cologne

RCV11248; 19mm, 3.03g

This coins comes with a previous handwritten label

 

The Gallic empire was taken by surprise when Victorinus was assassinated in AD 271. The mother of Victorinus seized the initiative by quickly nominating Tetricus, who was a close relative and governor of Aquitania, as emperor. Tetricus nominated his son, also Tetricus, as Caesar.
Tetricus was not a strong ruler. The days of the Gallic empire were clearly numbered when Aurelian, a powerful general, ascended the Roman throne and made clear that his intention to reunite the empire. Having restored unity in the eastern empire in AD 272 he turned his attention to the west were the Battle of Chalons sur Marne in the spring of AD 274 saw Tetricus defeated. Tetricus and his son, Tetricus II, both abdicated however instead of being killed they were paraded in the triumph back in Rome before being restored as senators by Aurelian. This suggests that there may have been some collusion however both Tetrici lived out the remainder of their lives before dying in obscurity. This makes Tetricus one of the few emperors to survive a succession.
The coinage of Tetricus showed little innovation and although his gold coins are mostly carefully struck, his radiates are generally of poor quality and were extensively copied as Barbarous Radiates.