A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

son of the foregoing, is mentioned by Trebellius Pollio, who presses in his name to swell the number of the 30 tyrants, stating that having received first the title of Caesar, and subsequently that of Augustus, he was slain along with his father. But when we recollect that notwithstanding the multitude of coins still existing of the elder Postumus, not one has been found commemorating the dignities of the younger, we are led with Eckhel to doubt the testimony of a writer notoriously inaccurate, and to conclude that no such person ever existed, or at all events that he was never invested with the title of Augustus or Caesar. (Trebell. Pollio. Trig. Tyr. iii.; Eckhel, vol. vii. p. 447.) It must not, however, be concealed, that in addition to the pieces described by Goltzius, which every numismatologist rejects as spurious, there are to be found in some cabinets two very rare medals, one in gold, the other in billon, bearing upon the obverse the head of the elder Postumus, with the legend IMP. C. POSTUMUS. P. F. AUG., and on the reverse the bust of a more juvenile personage, with a radiated crown, and the words INVICTO. AUG. Whether we are justified in regarding this as a representation of the younger Postumus, is a question which can hardly be answered with certainty, but the arguments adduced to prove the affirmative are far from being conclusive. (See Mionnet, Medailles Romaines, vol. ii. p. 70.) A cut of the billon coin is placed below.

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