Little is known about Ulpius Cornelius Laelianus (268-269). Governor of the province of Germania Superior, he commanded at least one legion, Legio XXII Primigenia. Encouraged by troop discontent about Emperor Postumus and buoyed by the success of a military campaign against Germanic invaders, he rebelled. He was proclaimed emperor, but his imperial adventure lasted less than three months. During this brief period, he minted coins at his headquarters in Mainz, probably in order to pay his officers and buy their loyalty. This usurpation of the right to mint gold coins, symbol of imperial power, also ensured the dissemination of his own portrait. Laelianus was most likely killed when Postumus retook Mainz. Postumus, who refused to plunder the city, was assassinated in turn by his own soldiers and replaced by another equally ephemeral usurper, Marius.

This aureus is characterized by the exceptional quality of expression in the portrait, which is imbued with great serenity. Very similar to the best coins minted under Postumus, it may have been the workmanship of the same diemaker at Cologne, another city probably conquered by Laelianus. The elegant composition of the reverse closely resembles that of a reverse dedicated to Hispania on a Hadrian aureus minted in 134-138. The resemblance, far from being coincidental, demonstrates Laelianus’s desire to emphasize his links to Spain, as he had the same aristocratic family name as Emperor Trajan (98-117), Ulpius.

This gold coin is one of the great rarities in Roman monetary history: only a dozen or so copies are known, mainly in museum collections. It illustrates the contribution numismatics can make to our understanding of historical figures.