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Tetricus II
TETRICVS filius, or junior, as he is commonly called.----Caius Pesuvius Pivesus Tetricus, son of Tetricus I, was very young when his father became emperor in Gaul (A.D. 267). He was soon after named Caesar, and associated with
his father in sovereign power. Possessed of a good figure, of an agreeable countenance, and of high intellectual endowments, this young man reigned as his parent’s colleague, under circumstances of great promise, until A.D. 272 or 273, when the elder Tetricus thought fit to abdicate, and voluntarily submit himself to Aurelian. Then it was that the son shared the degradation of the sire----walking through the streets of Rome, behind the triumphal car of "Restitutor Orbis," as Aurelian had the oriental presumptuousness to term himself; but who respected neither his own good fame nor the dignity of the senate in thus treating two such distinguished members of that body. However, after this indulgence of his pride as a triumpher, the emperor is said to have behaved towards both those princes as though they had not "fallen from their high estate." The younger Tetricus was re-established in the possessions of his family and admitted to a seat in the senate. Such, indeed, was his conduct, says Beauvais, "that he obtained the friendship of the Romans by making himself useful to everyone; and no man of senatorial rank was more honored than himself by Aurelian and his successors."----His style on coins is PIVESVS TETRICVS CAES.----C. PIVESV. TETRICVS. CAES.----IMP. TETRICVS P. F. AVG.----and CAESAR TETRICVS AVG., as on the small brass (from the cabinet of Mr. Roach Smith) given above. Whether Tetricus the younger remained Caesar only, or whether he also received the title of Augustus is a question which historians appear to have left in doubt, and on which numismatists are not agreed. Referring the reader, who may desire further acquaintance with the pros and cons of the case, to what Banduri has advanced on this point and Eckhel stated in opposition, together with Mionnet’s comments on both, in his notes on the medals of this young prince (vol. i. p. 83-4), it shall suffice for us here to observe that, with the fact, both historical and numismatic before us, that Tetricus junior was conjoined as IMPERATOR with his father, there is the greatest probability of his having also been proclaimed AVGVSTVS.----And as moreover a gold coin of the younger Tetricus, with the title AVG. has, since Eckhel’s death, been published as genuine by Mionnet, we should hardly deem it premature to regard the question as already decided; in other words we are of opinion that there exists sufficient proof of Tetricus filius having been styled Augustus as well as Caesar, especially as we find such a conclusion supported by those undoubtedly authentic medals whereon his portrait joined to that of his father is accompanied by IMPP. TETRICII PII. AVGG. for legend of obverse, and by AETERNITAS AVGG. (Augustorum) for legend of reverse.
The coins of Tetricus II are extremely rare in gold----very rare in base silver, or billon; but very common in small brass.
The pieces of this prince, of Roman die, were coined in Gaul, as were those of his father.----"A great many medals of the two Tetrici are found (says Beauvais) with their legends and types disfigured by the coarseness of their fabric, and the ignorance of the workmen.