LEG XIIII GEM

442, Lot: 412. Estimate $150. Sold for $240. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Gallienus. AD 253-268. Antoninianus (19.5mm, 3.01 g, 5h). Mediolanum (Milan) mint. Issue 2(2), AD 260-1. GALLIENVS AVG, radiate and cuirassed bust right / LEG XIIII GEM VI P VI F, capricorn leaping right. MIR 36, 1019n; RIC V (joint reign) 361; Cunetio 1474. Near VF, some silver content, a little porosity, reverse a bit weak.

Bought from Galata, 1989. Ex Galata FPL (October 1989), no. 165; Glendining’s (9 December 1986), lot 175 (part of); ‘Gibraltar’ (Jimena de la Frontera) Hoard (1962) [NC 1962, pp. 335–406].

Julius Caesar raised a Legio XIV (also rendered XIIII) for his Belgic campaign in 57 BC. However, this legion was wiped out during the Gallic rebellion three years later. A second Fourteenth was raised by Caesar sometime later and served him during the Thapsus campaign in Africa in 46 BC. This legion was mustered out in 45 BC, but recalled to action in the war against Caesar’s assassins circa 43-42 BC. Both Mark Antony and Octavian had a Legio XIV at Actium; after the battle these two groups were merged, thus explaining the epithet Gemina (”Twin”). The new XIV went on to a storied career, taking part in the Claudian invasion of Britain in AD 43 and single-handedly crushing Queen Boudicca’s rebellion in AD 61, winning the additional epithets Martia Victrix (”Warlike, Victorious”). In AD 70 the Fourteenth was summoned back to the continent and eventually settled into permanent quarters at Carnuntum, modern Petronell in Austria. where it remained for the next three centuries. Thanks to numerous tombstones of legionaries for XIV GMV, we know more about the armor, equipment and insignia of this legion than any other Roman military unit. Its symbols were an eagle and Capricorn, the natal sign of Augustus.