Talk:Postumus

Death date 269 instead of 268?

This article shows that Postumus was murdered at 268. But a lot of authors of several books describe date spring 269? (Chris Scarre; Chronicle of Roman Emperors 1995, Pat Southern: Roman Empire from Severus to Constantine 2001, Alaric Watson: Aurelian and the third Century 1999) --Barosaurus Lentus (talk) 17:01, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Introducing Drinkwater

I'm about to undertake some revisions of this article using JF Drinkwater's The Gallic Empire. This is the first—and as far as I know only—book-length monograph on its subject, and conveniently I now have my hands on a copy. While this is an authoritative treatment, it's obviously not the final word, and scholarly perspectives since 1987 will need to be woven in. Still, it's a synthesis much closer to the sources—and to the work of other modern scholars—than a more informal reference like De Imperatoribus Romanis is. One major difference I see between Wikipedia's current treatment and Drinkwater's is leaving room for doubt. Many things asserted in this article are little more than plausible conjectures, and as much as possible, we should distinguish between a modern scholar's plausible conjecture and what is directly attested by ancient texts, coinage, the archaeological record and so on (and even they can't always be taken at face value). You'll see what I mean when I get started, but I thought I would leave fair warning about what I'm doing. Q·L·1968 ☿ 01:58, 31 March 2013 (UTC)

I think I'm done with that. The article now appears to rely primarily on Drinkwater (which it should, since he literally wrote the book on the Gallic empire), though further nuance and correction based on subsequent scholarship would certainly be welcome. Q·L·1968 ☿ 20:31, 2 June 2013 (UTC)

Raetia

The article now includes a sentence—duly cited—saying that Gallienus actually did something successful, namely wresting control of Raetia from Postumus. I'm flagging this as dubious, because Postumus never controlled Raetia in the first place. In fact, he probably left the Agri Decumates undefended, and possibly the Helvetic civitas as well, in order to shorten his border with Gallienus and the latter's successors (Drinkwater, 224ff). Any clarification of this statement would be appreciated. Q·L·1968 ☿ 20:31, 2 June 2013 (UTC)

The source cited doesn't appear to support the claim that Gallienus took control of Raetia from Postumus; indeed, the 2015 second edition says "Postumus controlled the greater part of Raetia [...] under Gallienus, Raetia was lost"! I'm removing the claim. Caeciliusinhorto-public (talk) 09:44, 24 June 2022 (UTC)

Wife?

This source seems to refer to a a woman speculated to have been his wife, but I can't find any source for where the claim has come from. ★Trekker (talk) 22:41, 8 February 2023 (UTC)

This supposed wife of Postumus emerges in numismatic commentary during the 18th century. Just where the name Julia Donata actually comes from is lost in time, but the majority of 19th century commentary suggests that there is no evidence that she actually existed, and that the coin which bears her image was suspected to be a forgery. A 1920s journal in JSTOR mentions her, but reiterates that there is no proof of her existence. See THIRD-CENTURY ROMAN MINTS AND MARKS, Percy H. Webb, The Numismatic Chronicle and Journal of the Royal Numismatic Society Fifth Series, Vol. 1, No. 3/4 (1921), pp. 226-293 (68 pages)

https://www.jstor.org/stable/42663954 Oatley2112 (talk) 03:34, 10 February 2023 (UTC)