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My working career was spent on the railroad, but my intellectual passion has always been the study
and collection of ancient coins. In the mid 1960s I began to specialize in the coinage of Trajan Decius and
his family. One might think that collecting the coins of 4 members of a single imperial family: Decius, his
wife Etruscilla, and their sons Herennius Etruscus and Hostilian would be an exercise easily completed and
finished, but that is not the case. Not only did each member of the family have an extensive variety of impe-
rial types, but when one figures in the vast numbers of coins struck for the imperial family in the Greek cit-
ies of the East, the collecting net had to be thrown very far and wide.
Why Decius? Decius’ career interested me. He was born in Pannonia of an old senatorial family and
had already achieved high office (for example, Governor of Moesia in the mid 230s) before Philip I appoint-
ed him to restore order along the Danube frontier, which was being undermined by sporadic rebellions as
well as by the arrival of a new and warlike Germanic tribe, the Goths.
His success in restoring order, and Philip’s unpopularity, caused his troops to declare him emperor in
249. Decius’ aristocratic background was likely a popular choice to the Senate that resented Philip’s humble
origins and was increasingly doubtful of his abilities.
Much of Decius’ reign was spent in trying to stabilize the Danube frontier against repeated Germanic
invasions. In 251 he was killed in battle against the Goths – the first Roman emperor to die at the hands of a
foreign enemy.
Decius’ domestic policy was a conservative return to old Roman traditions. His assumption of the
additional surname of Trajan recalled the past glories of imperial Rome. Another aspect of this return to tra-
ditional Roman values was the series of the “Divi” coins commonly attributed to his reign. This fascinating
series of “restoration” coins of past emperors from Augustus to Severus Alexander can provide a collecting
goal in itself. His persecution of the growing numbers of Christians in the empire resulted from his belief
that the restoration of state cults was essential to the preservation of the empire.
The study and collection of the coins of Decius and his family provided me with many years of fruit-
ful research and enjoyment. It is time to pass along this baton to a new generation of collectors. My hope is
that my coins will bring to their new custodians the same pleasure they have given me for so many years.
The Behnen Collection of Coins of Trajan Decius and His Family
Part I (Lots 283-377)