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WEB179: GALLIENUS
The size of US nickel. Silver Antoninianus, NICE SILVERING, OBV: GALLIENVS AVG, Emperor head Rt., REV: FORTVNA REDVX. Fortune stage lt.
Silver Antoninianus, $54.00, VERY FINE

WEB177: SALONINA
The size of US penny. Antoninianus, OBV: SALONINA AVG. Emperess head Rt. REV: PVDICITIA. Pudicitia seated Lt.
Antoninianus, $44.00, FINE PLUS

GALLIENUS 253-268 AD and Wife, SALONINA, 268 AD
During the persecutions the Christians they were denied the use of there places of worship, but in 261 the Emperor Gallienus gave official permission to use them once again. This reign also provides what may be the first direct Christian reference on a coin, as a piece struck in milan, with the the name and portrait of SOLONINA, his wife. SALONINA WAS REPUTED TO HAVE BEEN A CHRISTIAN.
Son of Valerian, Gallienus was entrusted with the defence of the Rhine frontier in 254. He achieved considerable success against the German tribes. Valerian left Rome in 256 for the east and was captured by the Persians, leaving Gallienus sole ruler of the Empire. His reign consisted of internal revolts, famine, plagues, frontier wars and contests with provincial usurpers. Although an able soldier he could not reconstitute an empire showing signs of disintegration, and after a succession of campaigns he was eventually murdered at the seige of Milan in 268 AD. Salonina was murdered with her husband.

WEB192:

NERO. Nice Patina.
The size of US HALF DOLLAR. Bronze AS, OBV: NERO CAESAR AVG. GERM. IMP, Nero bare head rt., REV: SC, Victory lt., holding shield.
FOLLIS, $89.00, FINE PLUS

NERO 54-68 AD
Nero Claudius Caesar, who ruled Rome from � 54 to 68, was one of its most infamous emperors. Born on Dec. 15, � 37, he was the son of Domitius Ahenobarbus and Caligula's sister Agrippina II. After Agrippina married Emperor Claudius I, she induced him to adopt Nero. When Claudius died, the Praetorian Guard and the Roman Senate hailed Nero as the new emperor. Nero pledged cooperation with the Senate, announcing the beginning of a new golden age. Agrippina vied for influence and power, however, with the prefect of the Praetorian Guard, Burrus, and with Nero's former tutor, the philosopher Seneca. The first victim of the ensuing plots and counterplots was Claudius's son, Britannicus, who was poisoned in 55. Nero resented Agrippina's interference and had her murdered in 59. Burrus died in 62, and Seneca retired the same year. From 62, Nero ruled unrestrained. Having divorced and murdered his first wife, Claudius's daughter, Octavia, Nero married (62) Poppaea Sabina, an ambitious intriguer. In 62 he revived the wide-ranging law of treason, and people were executed on suspicion of offense. In 64 a great fire ruined Rome. Nero lavishly rebuilt the city, but rumor held that he had started the fire himself to make room for his new palace and that he had recited poetry while watching the blaze. To avert this suspicion Nero blamed the Christians for the fire. There began a fierce persecution throughout the empire, and through robbery and confiscation the Christians were forced to pay in great part for the building of the new Rome. In this persecution Saints Peter and Paul were martyred in Rome in A.D. 67. Executions increased in 65, when an assassination plot was uncovered. The poet Lucan, Seneca, the famous general Corbulo, and numerous other senators lost their lives. Nero's great passion was art. He scandalized Roman society by displaying in public his talents as a chariot driver, singer, and musician. In 67 he toured Greece; the Greeks held numerous games and awarded Nero all of the first prizes for his racing and musical performances in honor of his visit. As Nero devoted himself to artistic pursuits, the reins of power slipped from his hands. In 68 the governors of three provinces rose in an open revolt. When the Praetorians also deserted him, Nero committed suicide on June 9, 68.

WEB159:
ALEXANDER III, THE GREAT.
About the size of US dime but thicker. AE 18, OBV: Head of Herakles Rt., REV: BA Bow case and quiver.
AE 18, $65.00, VERY FINE

ALEXANDER III, THE GREAT, 356-323 BC

Born, 356 BC, Pella, Macedonia, died, June 13, 323 BC, Babylon. Also known as ALEXANDER III or ALEXANDER OF MACEDONIA king of Macedonia (336-323 BC). He overthrew the Persian Empire, carried Macedonian arms to India, and laid the foundations for the Hellenistic world of territorial kingdoms. Already in his lifetime the subject of fabulous stories, he later became the hero of a full-scale legend bearing only the sketchiest resemblance to his historical career.

{PART TWO}

WEB183:

SOLD

POPE PAUL VI.

The size of US HALF DOLLAR. SILVER, 500 Lire, OBV: Pope head lt., REV: CITTA' DEL VATCANO, Heads of St. Peter and Paul facing, sward between, crosses keys below. B-3449.

AE 18, $00.00, EXTREMELY FINE

WEB184: POPE PAUL VI.

The size of US HALF DOLLAR. SILVER, 500 Lire, OBV: Pope head lt., REV: CITTA' DEL VATCANO 1966, Bust of the Good Sheperd facing, L. 500 above. B-3441.

AE 18, $28.00, EXTREMELY FINE

POPE PAUL VI 1963-1978 AD

Giovanni Battista Montini was born in Brescia, Lombardy, on September 27, 1897. His father was a successful journalist and a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies. As a young man the future pope had such poor health that he was allowed to attend the seminary as a day student. He was ordained at Brescia on May 29, 1920, and sent to Rome for further studies. Having entered the papal diplomatic service he was sent to Warsaw as secretary to the nuncio. His health failed and he returned to Rome, where he was assigned to the secretariat of state. By 1937 he was under secretary, and by 1952 acting secretary, of state. During World War II he was in charge of the Vatican's work for refugees and prisoners of war. He was there all during the occupation of Rome when there was a real danger the Germans would take the Pope and his chief aides with them when they were driven north. On December l, 1954, Pius XII made him Archbishop of Milan, the largest and, after Rome, the most important diocese in Italy. Since Pius XII made no cardinals after 1953, the Archbishop of Milan was not a member of the conclave of 1958; but he was one of the first cardinals made by John XXIII in December of that year. He played a prominent role in the Council and since he was clearly the favorite of John XXIII, his election as his successor (June 21, 1963) was almost taken for granted.

WEB186:

SOLD

POPE PIUS IX.

The size of US DIME. SILVER, 10 Soldi, OBV: Pope head lt., REV: 10 SOLDI, 1868.

$17.00, EXTREMELY FINE

POPE PIUS IX 1846-1878 AD

The cardinals, who felt that Gregory XVI had been a little severe, fixed their eyes on the amiable Cardinal Mastai-Ferretti, but the Austrians also had their eyes on him--cold eyes. Austria's representative Cardinal Gaysruck reached the conclave with a veto for Mastai-Ferretti, but it was too late. He had already been elected and had chosen the name Pius IX. Giovanni Mastai-Ferretti was born at Sinigaglia on May 13, 1792. Refused admission to the pope's noble guards because of epileptic attacks, he turned to the study of theology, and when his epilepsy passed away, Giovanni was ordained a priest. In 1823 he accompanied the apostolic delegate to Chile, and thus became the first pope to have visited the new world. As archbishop of Spoleto, he handled the revolt of 1831 with kind diplomacy. He persuaded the rebels to down arms and the avenging Austrians to be merciful. Transferred to Imola in 1832, he became a cardinal in 1840. Pius IX at once started to live up to his liberal reputation. He promptly issued an amnesty for political prisoners and made numerous reforms in the Papal States. The delighted Romans took the horses from his carriage to pull it themselves, while girls strewed flowers in the way. But, however numerous his concessions, they were not sufficient to please the radicals, and when Pius refused to join the war against Austria in stormy forty- eight, his popularity plummeted. On November 15 the radicals stabbed the Pope's prime minister, Rossi, and practically besieged Pius himself. Disgusted, Pius fled to Gaeta, leaving Mazzini and his minions to take over at Rome. In 1849 a French army restored papal authority in Rome, and in 1850 back came Pius IX, thoroughly cured of liberalism. The restoration was not to last. In 1860 Cavour and Garibaldi wrested most of the Papal States from Pius, and in 1870 when the French garrison was withdrawn from Rome, the Piedmontese moved in. Pius, after making a token resistance, confined himself to the Vatican. He refused to accept the situation, and Italo-papal relations remained fundamentally strained until 1929. If Pius was unfortunate in the temporal sphere, he showed himself a vigorous leader in spiritual matters. In 1854 he declared it a dogma that Mary was conceived without original sin. This was an assertion of papal infallibility and a challenge to a materialistic age which had little belief in original sin. In 1864 Pius issued the encyclical "Quanta cura" and with it a syllabus of seventy errors. This was no sudden whim of the Pope's, but a measure which had been widely discussed and long pondered. Since it was an outspoken and even harsh indictment of many nineteenth- century trends, it caused a sensation. Indeed the syllabus has been an arsenal of anti-Catholic arguments for many who misjudged or misinterpreted it. The greatest event of the pontificate of Pius IX was the First Vatican Council. This, the twentieth ecumenical council, proclaimed as a dogma that the pope when speaking ex cathedra, that is, as pope, can make no mistake in solemn declarations of what must be believed in matters of faith and morals. Pius had to adjourn the council in the summer of 1870 owing to the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War. Pius IX died, a very old, tired man, on February 7, 1878. The pontificate of Paul VI will always be linked with the Council. His was the task of bringing it to a successful conclusion (December 8, 1965) and of starting, though he knew he could not finish, the implementation of its decrees. One of its major themes was collegiality, or the collective responsibility of all the bishops, under the pope, for the general welfare of the Church. He wished to govern with and through the various national episcopal conferences. He was determined to hold firmly to basic Catholic teaching on faith and morals and to allow any other changes circumstances might suggest. Since conditions vary greatly from place to place and some people had unusual notions of the changes the Council had intended, there was some confusion about what could be done. He will be remembered for his work toward the reunion of all Christians, his reaching out to the immense multitudes who belong to non-Christian religions or to none, his internationalizing the Roman Curia, and his untiring work for peace. He was deeply interested in the emerging nations of the Third World and supported every effort for their social advancement. He was the first pope to visit every continent, and the first since St. Peter to visit the Holy Land. The first papal visit to the Western Hemisphere was his visit to the United Nations Headquarters in New York on October 4, 1965. His attempt to establish better relations with communist governments had few results and aroused mixed feelings in various Catholic circles. His exceptional capacity for work lasted to the end, which came quite suddenly on August 6, 1978.

WEB191:

SOLD

POPE PIUS XI.

The size of US QUARTER. SILVER 5 Lire OBV: PIVS XI PONT MAX A IX, POPE HEAD LT., REV: St. Peter in boat, lt.

FOLLIS, $22.00, EXTREMELY FINE

POPE PIUS XI 1922-1939 AD

Pius XI, b. May 31, 1857, d. Feb. 10, 1939, was pope from 1922 until his death. Achille Ratti, the son of a silk weaver, was born at Descio near Milan. He headed Milan's Ambrosian Library (1907) and the Vatican Library (1914). In 1918 he became Pope Benedict XV's representative to Poland. His proximity to the Polish-Soviet War reinforced his horror of communism. He became cardinal-archbishop of Milan in 1921. The deadlocked conclave of 1922 chose Ratti as pope on the eve of Benito Mussolini's March on Rome. Facing a choice between the right and the left, the Vatican decided that fascism seemed the lesser of two evils. The church's place in Italy and Germany was defined by concordats that later gave a precise basis for protest of fascist violations. The Lateran Treaty of 1929, negotiated by Cardinal Gasparri, resolved the Roman Question with a financial settlement and restored papal sovereignty over Vatican City. This modus vivendi asserted the Catholic character of the Italian state and allowed a nonpolitical role for Catholic Action, a lay movement founded by Pius in 1923. Violation of the treaty terms by Mussolini provoked an encyclical, Non abbiamo bisogno (1931), which denounced the claims of the totalitarian state. In 1933 the papacy negotiated a concordat with Nazi Germany; later, however, Pius condemned the Third Reich's "aggressive neopaganism" in the encyclical Mit brennender sorge (1937). The encyclical Divini Redemptoris (1937) condemned communism. Forty years after Leo XIII's encyclical on the social question, Pius XI issued Quadragesimo anno (1931), which elaborated the church's position on social and economic reform; it called for justice and charity in all endeavors and stressed Christian social action. As pastor, Pius XI appointed native bishops to many of the Asian hierarchies and founded colleges at Rome for the Eastern Rites. For the tenth anniversary of the Lateran Treaty, Pius XI drafted a discourse that presumably condemned totalitarianism in the strongest terms. After his death, however, his successor, Pius XII (Eugenio Pacelli, secretary of state from 1930), decided not to deliver the speech on the eve of World War II.