LEG I ADI

442, Lot: 337. Estimate $100. Sold for $140. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Gallienus. AD 253-268. Antoninianus (22.5mm, 2.16 g, 12h). Mediolanum (Milan) mint. Issue 2(2), AD 260-1. GALLIENVS AVG, radiate head left / LEG I ADI VI P VI F, Capricorn to right. MIR 36, 982c; RIC V (joint reign) 315; Cunetio 1440. VF, deposits.

Bought from Seaby, 1990. Ex Seaby Coin and Medal Bulletin 850 (May 1990), no. C256.

Legio I Adiutrix (”Helpers”) was initially raised in AD 68. Probably the recruitment was begun by Nero and completed Galba, using a core of sailors and marines from the Misenum fleet. It remained in Italy and fought on the losing side for Otho during the AD 68-69 Civil War before being posted to Germany circa AD 70, where it remained at the fortress of Mainz in double-billet with Legio XIV Gemina. It saw plenty of action during the reigns of Domitian, Nerva, and Trajan, and was moved by Hadrian in AD 118 to a new permanent base of Brigetio in modern Hungary. In the tumultuous third century, I Adiutrix was in the thick of the action on the vulnerable Danube frontier, battling barbarian invasions and the legions of rival Roman usurpers alike. The Notatia Dignitatum attests to its survival at Brigetio into the fifth century AD. Its symbol was Capricorn, the birth sign of Galba.