Volusian, as Caesar, 251. Antoninianus (Silver, 21 mm, 3.00 g, 12 h), Rome, summer 251. C VIBIO VOLVSIANO CAES Radiate and draped bust of Volusian to right, seen from behind. Rev. PAX AVG Pax standing front, head to left, holding olive branch in her right hand and transverse scepter in her left. Cohen 73. RIC 133. Very rare and in exceptional condition for the issue. A superb example with a splendid portrait, very sharply struck and undoubtedly among the finest known. Good extremely fine.

The humiliating defeat of the Roman army in the disastrous Battle of Abrittus in mid 251 and the killing of the emperor Trajan Decius and his older son Herennius Etruscus by the Gothic invaders exposed the sole surviving prince Hostilian to imminent danger. To everyone's great surprise, the new emperor Trebonianus Gallus, who had gained the support of the remnants of Danubian army, adopted his predecessor's son and made him co-Augustus, while appointing his own son Volusian to the subordinate rank of Caesar. This unprecedented move may have helped consolidating Gallus' claim to power in the early weeks of his reign, when his position as the leader of a defeated army was still rather weak and he could not risk a full-on civil war against the other, more powerful Roman forces on the Rhine and Syrian frontiers. Yet the unusual imperial arrangement was not meant to last, as Hostilian suddenly passed away in late summer 251, making way for the appointment of Gallus' own son Volusian to the rank of Augustus. Aurelius Victor and the Epitome de Caesaribus report that Hostilian died of the Plague of Cyprian, but the suspicious circumstances of his death has led many to believe that he was, as the Byzantine historian Zosimos claims, executed at the behest of Gallus. The few coins of Volusian as Caesar were struck during this short period of time in the summer of 251 and belong to the classic rarities of this troublesome era, with the present coin being one of the finest surviving examples