Claudius Gothicus OTD

[gb29400]

An interesting Claudius Gothicus,

Claudius II Gothicus, Antoninianus, Siscia?
IMP C CLAVDIVS PIVS AVG, radiate draped and cuirassed bust right
VBERIT - AS AVG, Uberitas standing facing, head left, holding purse in her right hand and cornucopiae in her left
19 mm - 2.81 g; RIC.-

[gallienus1]

An interesting coin gb29400. As far as I understand Uberitas as the personification of fruitfulness, particularly agricultural fertility, first appeared on the Roman coinage of Trajan Decius. This was probably due to a 300-year period of extreme climate variability, resulting in a drop of agricultural productivity and severe food shortages that started in his reign.   

See-
 https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/climate-and-the-fall-of-the-roman-empire-42171285/

Uberitas continued to appear on the coinage up to the reign of Carausius. After his reign Uberitas appears to have fallen out of favor on coinage, I suppose as the result of the great social changes of the early 4th century.

Best regards,
Steve

[Robert_Brenchley]

According to Peter Frankopan, 'The Silk Roads', it was climate change that drove populations out of Central Asia and led to the nomadic invasions of the empire.

[gallienus1]

Thanks for the tip about the book The Silk Roads: A New History of The World. For some reason I missed discovering it. I am very interested in how climate has affected human history and looking at the description of the work on Wikipedia I see that it also makes the case for the Persian Empire being critical to the rise of Western civilization.

Clearly I must read! I will order a copy ASAP.

Best regards,
Steve

[Thilo]

Steve,

if you are interested in climate change and its effect on Roman history, Kyle Harper's The Fate of Rome is the book you need to read. His focus is climate change and disease in late antiquity and their effect on the empire's resilience. For me, simply the best book on the history of late antiquity I ever laid my hands on. I highly recommend it.

Best,

Thilo

[gallienus1]

Hi Thilo. Thank you for very much for drawing my attention Kyle Harper's The Fate of Rome. I just ordered a copy of the book, hopefully it will arrive before my holidays start so I can have the time to read it. The profound changes in Late antiquity which led to the early medieval period is deeply interesting to me. I read Peter Brown's The World of Late Antiquity in the 1970's which considered the process as cultural transition, rather than decay and collapse followed by a more technologically and socially primitive replacement culture. I believed Peter Brown right up until the 1990's, when I realized the archaeological and historical evidence more closely follows the decay and collapse theory prevalent before the 1970's.

There is a book from the 1070's that still seems to hold up well on the social changes within the the late classical world- John Holland Smith's The Death of Classical Paganism. It is out of print but second hand copies are usually available.

best regards,

Steve