345, Lot: 511. Estimate $100. Sold for $80. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Divus Victorinus. Died AD 271. Antoninianus (19mm, 2.38 g, 1h). Commemorative issue. Colonia Agrippinensis (Cologne) mint. Struck under Tetricus I, late AD 271. Radiate head right / Providentia standing facing, head left, holding baton and cornucopia; globe at feet to left. RIC V 88; Mairat (Tetricus I) 414-5; AGK 2b. VF, brown patina.

Victorinus hailed from a wealthy Gallic family, serving in the army and eventually becoming praetorian tribune and consul of the Gallic Empire under Postumus. Assuming the purple after the murder of Postumus, Victorinus initially met with limited support. The province of Hispania broke away, returning to the fold of the central Roman Empire, while southern Gaul threatened to do the same. Victorinus managed to hold onto Gaul only to meet his death a few years later, at the hands of a jealous general whose wife he was rumored to have seduced.