HERCVLI MAGVSANO

442, Lot: 611. Estimate $150. Sold for $300. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Postumus. Romano-Gallic Emperor, AD 260-269. Radiate bronze (31mm, 20.34 g, 5h). Struck AD 261. IMP C M CASS LAT POSTVMVS P F AVG, radiate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / HERCVLI MAGVSANO, Hercules standing right, holding lion-skin and resting club on rock. RIC V 139 var. (bust type); Bastien 105a (same dies); Banti 21. Near Fine, brown surfaces, some red. Rare.

Ex Rauch Sommerauktion 2010 (13 September 2010), lot 1345.

This reverse type refers to a cult prevalent among the Batavii, a tribe resident in Germania Inferior (modern Netherlands), which conflated a native deity, Magusanus, with the Roman Hercules. Votive inscriptions and monumental sanctuaries to Hercules Magusanus have been found in several locations within Batavian territory (see Roymans 2004). It is unclear why Postumus should have chosen to have this deity honoured on his coinage, but it has been suggested either that he had a particular affinity with the Batavii or that one of his victories had been won close to one of the sanctuaries, at Empel.