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Damascus AE24 Rouvier 99 of Volusian

Volusian AE24 of Damascus, Syria. IMP GALLO VOLOSSIANO AVG, laureate, draped bust right / COL DAMAS METRO, deer standing right, infant Telephos suckling below.

Lot No.3277. gFine/nVF and Rare.

$ 450.

Sorry, this lot has been sold.

Heracles came to Tegea in Arcadia made love to Auge, not knowing that she was King Aleus' daughter. Of this union, a boy was born that was secretly hidden by Auge in the precinct of Athena. But Aleus, some say, discovered her daughter's motherhood when he, on account of a pestilence that was ravaging the country, visited the temple of Athena. He then took the babe and exposed it in Mount Parthenius; and if the child had died, probably nothing would be known about him. But since Providence or the gods took care of him, he survived, being nourished by a doe that had just cast her fawn. Soon shepherds appeared who took up the babe and called him Telephos.

Famous fresco of Telephos and the Deer, before 76 AD, from Herculanium.

C Vibius Afinius Gallus Vendumnianus Volusianus was the son of Trebinianus Gallus. He was made Caesar when his father assumed the throne in 251 AD, and Augustus after Hostilian died later in 251, and he shared his father's fate when they were murdered in 253 AD.