The Usurper Petronius Maximus

Sale: Triton XII, Lot: 795. Estimate $30000.  Closing Date: Monday, 5 January 2009.  Sold For $50000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Petronius Maximus. Usurper, AD 455. AV Solidus (4.50 g, 6h). Rome mint. D N PETRONIVS MA-XIMVS P F AVC, pearl-diademed, draped, and cuirassed bust right / VICTORI-A AVCC, Petronius standing facing, holding long cross in right hand and Victory set on globe in left, right foot on human-headed serpent; R-M//COMOB. RIC X 2201; Depeyrot 48/1; Lacam pl. 18, 2 (same dies); DOCLR -. EF, attractively toned, area of flat strike on head on reverse, trace of die rust in obverse legend.

Ex Sternberg XXXV (28 October 2000), lot 935; Numismatica Ars Classica 2 (21 February 1990), lot 909.

Following the assassination of Valentinian III in AD 455, Petronius Maximus seized the throne and immediately married Valentinian’s wife, Licinia Eudoxia. Licinia, believing that Petronius was responsible for her late husband’s death, was not happy with the new arrangement, and she appealed to the Vandal king of Carthage, Gaiseric, for help. Gaiseric responded to Licinia’s plea and quickly sailed for Italy. Fearing for his life, Petronius decided to flee, but was abandoned by his bodyguard. While riding out of Rome on 31 May, he was stoned and killed. His reign lasted for only seventy days.