LEG III ITAL

442, Lot: 373. Estimate $200. Sold for $360. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Gallienus. AD 253-268. Antoninianus (21.5mm, 3.15 g, 12h). Mediolanum (Milan) mint. Issue 2(2), AD 260-1. GALLIENVS AVG, radiate head left / LEG III ITAL VI P VI F, stork standing right. MIR 36, 999c; RIC V (joint reign) 339; Cunetio 1460. Near VF, brown surfaces, traces of silver.

Bought from Baldwin's, 1994.

Marcus Aurelius raised Legio III Italica circa AD 165 in preparation for the Marcomannic Wars that followed. Late in the reign of Marcus, it was headquartered at a formidable fortress, Castra Regina in Raetia (modern Regensburg, Switzerland). In the mid-third century, Raetia was quickly seized and held by the usurper Postumus, with the apparent support of III Italica. However, at least one detachment must have served Gallienus, as he honors it on his legionary coinage, depicting its rather unusual symbol, the stork. III Italica is still recorded at Regensburg in the late fourth or fifth century AD Notitia Dignitatum.