Antoninianus - Postumus HERCVLI ER–VMANTHIO

Postumus founded the Gallic Empire in 260 AD after executing Salinoninus, the young co-emperor left in his care, and held it together for nearly a decade through military competence and shrewd administration. By 269 he was dead — killed by his own troops after refusing to let them sack Mainz following a victory. The empire he built outlasted him by four years, collapsing under Tetricus in 274 when Aurelian finally reunited the Roman west.

The Hercules Erymanthius type belongs to an extensive series invoking the Herculean labors, a programmatic coinage choice that aligned Postumus with divine strength at a moment when legitimacy had to be manufactured through imagery rather than inherited through Rome.