One of Gallienus’ most famous issues of radiate antoniniani was struck at Rome towards the very end of his reign, around AD 267, and is generally known as the Zoo series. In this article, we will take a special look at this unusual issue, which is without parallel in the whole Roman imperial series.
Each coin invokes the protection of a deity, naming the god or goddess and ending in ‘CONS[ervatori] AVG[usti]’, the Protector of the Emperor; they feature an animal relevant to the deity in question. Thus, the goat was held to be sacred to Jupiter, king of the gods, because a goat, Amalthaea, was said to have nursed the infant deity on the slopes of Mount Ida in Crete. The boar was sacred to Hercules because the demigod had, as one of his labours, captured the great Erymanthian boar.
Cervids, members of the deer family, were sacred to Diana, goddess of the woodlands, whilst the more fantastic hippocamps, beasts with the upper parts
