VIRTUS PROBI: PAYMENTS FOR THE BATTLE CAVALRY DURING THE RULE OF PROBUS (A.D. 277–278)*

Fernando López Sánchez

With the exception of the military crisis beginning in 406,1 the worst military crisis that the Roman Empire ever suffered was the one that started in 260 with the capture in the East of Valentinian by Shapur. With all the frontiers under threat, the decreasing trust of the army in the ruling dynasty led to a de facto division into three regions: the Gal- lias, the Italian-Danubian axis and the Eastern part of the Empire. The re-uni cation of the Empire from the centre could only be achieved in 274, after many efforts by Aurelian. Within this context, it is not surprising that, both in the past and present, the main interest of his- torians has focused on understanding the means by which the central Empire that governed from Italy could at the same time cope with external attacks and carry out the re-conquest of the Empire. Within this process of re-uni cation, special attention has been given to the battle cavalry, a special cavalry unit presumably based in Milan and sent to different regions according to the orders given by the different central emperors. And yet the existence of a cavalry stationed in Milan and ready to act under direct order of the emperor does not seem to have been an exclusive prerogatory of the central Empire of Italy. The Gallic emperors, too, in the years 260–274, seem to have had a battle cavalry, similar to that formed in the north of Italy.2 The real agent in the recovery of the Gallias for the central Empire, the emperor Aurelian, had since 274 been very conscious of the need

* I am indebted to Dominique Hollard for his advice and comments and to the research group Urbs of Zaragoza. 1 All dates are ad unless otherwise stated. 2 F. López Sánchez, ‹ La série légionnaire de Victorin et ses emblèmes ad hoc ›, in D. Hollard, ed., L’armée et la monnaie. Actes de la journée d’études du 10 décembre 2005 à la Monnaie de Paris. Recherches et Travaux de la Société d’Études Numismatiques et Archéologiques (= SÉNA) 1 (Paris 2006), 37–49. 564 fernando lópez sánchez to tackle rather than ignore the internal problems of Gaul. Although his premature death prevented him from becoming the emperor of the Gallias, the nucleus of the battle cavalry that, without any doubt, was based in Lyon in 274, was used by Probus in the years 277–278. The series Virtus Probi issued in Lyon to commemorate the personal actions of Probus in the Rhine area re ects the fact that Probus acted during these years not so much as a commander of the central Empire but equally as an emperor of the Gallic region. In this paper, in four dif- ferent sections, I’ll attempt to demonstrate the way in which Probus, from Lyon, wanted to identify himself with Gallia, even though he was a central emperor. The rst section of this paper, The meaning of the coin legend Equites, aims to show that Equites was not a legend applied to the whole body of the cavalry in the monetary series of the third century. The Roman engravers had various ways of linking a monetary series to a particular cavalry unit and to a speci c event. Equites was a legend only used in the years 268 or 276–277 and was linked to an invading military corps under the ultimate command of a magister equitum, and not of a Roman emperor. It is therefore unsurprising that Probus used this coin legend only in Italy in 276–277 rather than during his personal leadership in the operations in Gaul in 277–278. The second and third parts of this article, Virtus Postumi and the defence of Gaul by a local emperor and Virtus Probi and the defence of Gaul on behalf of a central emperor, attempt to clarify why Probus decided to strike the 5th monetary series of P. Bastien in Lyon in the years 277–8. In those years, Probus wanted to present himself in Gaul not as merely a central emperor that had arrived in a Gallic frontier territory, but as a sovereign genuinely worried about the region. The nal section of this study, The Gallic battle cavalry of Probus, concludes that Probus inherited from Aurelian a battle cavalry based in Lyon.

The meaning of the coin legend Equites

As L. de Blois has pointed out, the battle cavalry of the central Empire (Italy and the Danube) had its headquarters in Milan between 260 and