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"Barracks Emperors" (Rome, 235-284 A.D.)


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"Barracks Emperors" (235-284 A.D.)

A "barracks emperor" was a Roman Emperor who rose to power because of his "relationship" with the army. While many of these "barracks emperors" rode their command positions to the throne, often it was the army's acclamation that produced the emperor, and a legion's loyalty was frequently fickle. The murder of Severus Alexander in 235 A.D. marks the end of the Severan Era and the beginning of the era of "barracks emperors." This period is commonly referred to as The Crisis of the Third Century.

There were at least 22 "barracks emperors" during the 49 years between AD 235 - AD 284, producing an average reign of a little over two years each. The almost constant state of civil war was marked by defeat after defeat in battles with the Persian (Sassanian) Empire, "Three huge defeats were inflicted on the Romans, two emperors were dead, and a third, Valerian, captured. Shapur [Sassanian King] proceeded to drag Valerian around with him, in chains, as a symbol of his own greatness -- an image preserved for posterity in the great carved relief of Bhisapur. After his [Valerian's] death, Shapur had him skinned and tanned as a permanent trophy. Later in the century, a second Roman emperor, Numerianus, was also captured, but killed immediately" (Heather, Peter. The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. 60).

"New" troops were constantly needed on the "Persian Front," and troops cost money. The monetary malaise of the third century Empire, caused by this increase in the defense budget, was not ameliorated until the fiscal measures imposed by Diocletian had taken effect. This economic accommodation was precarious; it was, at best, a delicate balancing act between how much the Empire could be taxed and whether the Empire's "tax-base" would survive.

Persia continued to be Rome's greatest external threat until the migration of the Huns in the late fourth century AD. The subsequent problems that arose from the displacement of so many Barbarian "tribes" (Goths, Vandals, etc.) north of the Danube led to widespread Barbarian invasions along the Roman frontier and inexorably to the demise of the western Roman Empire.

J. P. Fitzgerald, Jr.



The Barracks Emperors


AD 235 MAXIMINUS I (the Thracian)

AD 238 GORDIANUS I and GORDIANUS II

AD 238 PUPIENUS and BALBINUS

AD 238 GORDIANUS III

AD 244 PHILLIPPUS (Philip the Arab)

AD 249 TRAJAN DECIUS

AD 251 GALLUS and VOLUSIANUS

AD 253 AEMILIANUS

AD 253 VALERIAN and GALLIENUS

AD 258 GALLIENUS (alone)


Recovery of the Empire


AD 268 CLAUDIUS II GOTHICUS

AD 270 QUINTILLUS

AD 270 AURELIANUS

AD 275 TACITUS

AD 276 FLORIANUS

AD 276 PROBUS

AD 282 CARUS

AD 283 CARINUS and NUMERIANUS

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"Five Good Emperors" (The Adoptive Emperors)


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"Five Good Emperors" (The Adoptive Emperors)

The period of time ranging from Nerva to Marcus Aurelius has been generally referred to as that of the '5 Good Emperors.' While the definition of 'good' is always subjective, there is little argument that this period provided the greatest stretch of uninterrupted power and prosperity for the Roman state. Perhaps more appropriately, these emperors should be known as the 'Adoptive Emperors' because this in itself is an indication of the 'good'. As each was adopted from among the best available candidates, rather than direct hereditary lineage (though there was some relation), it helped insure that Rome was in the most capable hands. Though the Roman people as a group may have noticed little relative difference in the period from Augustus to Domitian, the '5 Good Emperors' offered a century of consistency without the interruptions of Caligula, Nero and Civil War.

Following the death of Domitian, an effective but reviled leader among the aristocracy, Rome was fortunate to find a stabilizing force in Nerva. A respected senator, Nerva filled the potential power vacuum, and set the tone for the next century during his short but precedent building reign. The great general Trajan followed Nerva and not only re-established Rome as a conquering force, but established his greatness among scholars as perhaps second only to Augustus. Hadrian and Antoninus Pius were among the best of administrators, and Marcus Aurelius (as well as the sometimes forgotten Lucius Verus) continued that pattern while re-establishing military superiority among the bordering Germanic tribes. The period would come to an end amidst plague and the weariness of war with the death of Aurelius in AD 180. As his son Commodus ascended the throne as sole emperor, thus ending the period of 'adoptive' authority, the stability and cohesiveness of the previous era would begin to unravel.

UNRV: http://www.unrv.com/early-empire/five-good-emperors.php

Edited by J. P. Fitzgerald, Jr.

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"The Gallic and other Secessionist Emperors" (260-296 A.D.)


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"The Gallic and other Secessionist Emperors" (Rome, 260-296 A.D.)

"The Gallic Empire (in Latin Imperium Galliarum)" is the modern name for the independent realm that lived a brief existence during the Roman Empire's Crisis of the Third Century, from 260 to 273.

The Gallic Empire consisted of the breakaway Roman provinces of Gaul, Britain, and Hispania, including the peaceful Baetica in the south. The crisis was ignited when Emperor Valerian was captured by the Sassanid Persians, leaving his son Gallienus in very shaky control. As governors in Pannonia staged unsuccessful local revolts, this took the emperor to the Danube, leaving Postumus, who was governor of Germania Superior and Inferior, in charge at the Rhine.

The imperial heir Saloninus and the praetorian prefect Silvanus remained at Colonia Agrippina (Cologne), to keep the young heir out of danger and perhaps also as a control on Postumus' ambitions. Before long, after some successful border skirmishes, Postumus took control of Colonia Agrippina, and put the young heir and his guardian to death.

Postumus set up the Empire's capital at Cologne, with its own senate, two annually elected consuls (not all of the names of the consuls have survived) and its own praetorian guard. Postumus himself seems to have held the office of consul five times.

Beyond a mere symptom of chaos in the third century crisis, the Gallic Empire can be interpreted as a measure of provincial identification competing with the traditional sense of romanitas, of the cohesive loyalties of individual legions, and of the power accumulated by entrenched Romanized aristocratic kinship networks whose local power bases ranged from the Rhine to Baetica, although the extent of "Gaulish" self-identification that nationalist historians have inferred is probably inflated. Postumus declared his sole intention was to protect Gaul — this was his larger Imperial task — and in 261 he repelled mixed groups of Franks and Alamanni to hold the Rhine limes secure, though lands beyond the upper Rhine and Danube had to be abandoned to the barbarians within a couple of years.

The Gallic emperors are known primarily from the coins they minted. The political and military history of the Gallic Empire can be sketched through their careers.

The Secessionists


POSTUMUS 260-269 AD (Gallic)

AUREOLUS 267-268 AD (Gallic)

LAELIANUS 269 AD (Gallic)

MARIUS 269 AD (Gallic)

VICTORINUS 269-271 AD (Gallic)

DOMITIANUS 271? AD (Britain)

TETRICUS I 271-274 AD (Gallic)

TETRICUS II 273-274 AD (Gallic)

VABALATHUS 266-272 AD (Palmyrene)

CARAUSIUS 287-293 AD (Britain & Boulogne)

ALLECTUS 293-296 AD (Britain)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallic_Empire

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Asia


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Byzantium (330 A.D.-11 May 1453 A.D.)


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Byzantium

For the purposes of my collection, I have chosen the first third of the 4th century AD to mark the foundation of The Byzantine Empire. As noted scholar Cyril Mango writes in the introduction to his book BYZANTIUM, "The Byzantine Empire, as defined by the majority of historians, is said to have come into being when the city of Constantinople, the New Rome, was founded in 324 AD [he differs with Norwich on the founding date], and to have ended when that same city fell to the Ottoman Turks in 145[3]" (Mango, Cyril. BYZANTIUM. London: Phoenix, 2005 [first published in Great Britain by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in 1980]. 1).

Historian, John Julius Norwich notes, “The Byzantine Empire, from its foundation by Constantine the Great on Monday, 11 May 330 to its conquest by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II on Tuesday, 29 May 1453, lasted for a total of 1,123 years and 18 days – a period of time comfortably longer than that which separates us from the Norman conquest of England in 1066. For everyone except astronomers and geologists, such a period must be considered a long time . . ." (Norwich, John Julius. A Short History of Byzantium. New York: Vintage Books, 1999. xxxvii).

"One of the first and most brilliant of twentieth-century Philhellenes, Robert Byron, maintained that the greatness of Byzantium lay in what he described as ‘the Triple Fusion’: that of a Roman body, a Greek mind and an oriental, mystical soul. Certainly these three strands were always present, and were largely responsible of the Empire’s unique character: at bottom, however, the Byzantines were human like the rest of us, victims of the same weaknesses and subject to the same temptations, deserving of praise and of blame much as we are ourselves. What they do not deserve is the obscurity to which for centuries we have condemned them. Their follies were many, as were their sins; but much should surely be forgiven for the beauty they left behind them and the heroism with which they and their last brave Emperor met their end, in one of those glorious epics of world history that has passed into legend and is remembered with equal pride by victors and vanquished alike. That is why five and a half centuries later, throughout the Greek world, Tuesday is still believed to be the unluckiest day of the week; why the Turkish flag still depicts not a crescent by a waning moon, reminding us that the moon was in its last quarter when Constantinople finally fell; and why, excepting only the Great Church of St. Sophia itself, it is the Land Walls – broken, battered, but still marching from sea to sea – that stand as the city’s grandest and most tragic monument” (Norwich, John Julius. A Short History of Byzantium. New York: Vintage Books, 1999. 383).

Although many historians recognize Constantine the Great as the founder of the Byzantine empire, he did not spend much of his reign in his new capital; his ability to speak Greek was poor (it was Heraclius, 610-41 AD, who decreed that Greek would supplant Latin as the official language of the Empire ), and Constantine the Great always considered himself to be a Roman.

It can be argued that it is the Roman victory over Greek forces under Philip V at Cynoscephalae in 197 B.C. that assures Rome's ascendancy as The Mediterranean Super-Power.

Ironically, it is in Constantinople--ultimately, a very Greek Constantinople--where we can trace the trajectory of Rome's diminuendo. From 476 AD (when the Western Roman Empire falls) to 1453 AD (when Mehmet II conquers Constantinople) Byzantine Greece is the master of Rome.

J. P. Fitzgerald, Jr.

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Coins of Judaea


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Coins of Judaea


Ancient Jewish coins were produced only during a 268 year period - and then not continuously. This period began during the Maccabean/Hasmonean Dynasty in 134 BCE and ended with the conclusion of the Bar Kochba revolt in 135 CE. http://www.jerusalemcoins.com/

The first coins used in Judaea were Persian then Greek then Jewish then Roman then Jewish, again; then Roman, again. A citizen of Jerusalem in the first century BCE would have a wide array of coins with which she (or he) would deal on a daily basis. Non-Jewish coins struck in the Holy Land (what we recognize today as Israel, Palestine and parts of southern Syria) are often included, according to numismatic tradition, under the designation of Judaean coinage. Ironically, then, coins struck under, say, the Flavians, known numismatically as their "Judaea Capta" series, may be juxtaposed in a collection with coins struck during the Bar Kochbah Rebellion. An additional, wonderful irony is the fact that certain coins from the Bar Kochbah Rebellion (the silver zuz for example) are over-struck on Roman denarii--with the Jewish devices superimposed over those of a Roman emperor. Often, remnants of the Roman portrait or legend is still discernable beneath the Jewish strike.

The history of Ancient Judaean numismatics, then, is one that depicts both the "propaganda" of an imperial power (whose domination is rarely peaceful) and a nation subjected to an often despised occupation, their struggle for freedom and the celebration of their hard won-short lived independence.

J. P. Fitzgerald, Jr.

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Constantinian Era (306 - 337 A.D.)


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Constantinian Era

De Imperatoribus Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Rulers and their Families
Constantine I (306 - 337 A.D.)

Hans A. Pohlsander
SUNY Albany

The emperor Constantine has rightly been called the most important emperor of Late Antiquity. His powerful personality laid the foundations of post-classical European civilization; his reign was eventful and highly dramatic. His victory at the Milvian Bridge counts among the most decisive moments in world history, while his legalization and support of Christianity and his foundation of a 'New Rome' at Byzantium rank among the most momentous decisions ever made by a European ruler. The fact that ten Byzantine emperors after him bore his name may be seen as a measure of his importance and of the esteem in which he was held.

Copyright(C) 1999, Hans A. Pohlsander
Published: De Imperatoribus Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Rulers and their Families http://www.roman-emperors.org/startup.htm. Used by permission.
Edited by J. P. Fitzgerald, Jr


The following passage is from A Short History of Byzantium, by John Julius Norwich:

. . . Constantine I, Emperor of Rome. No ruler in all history has ever more fully merited his title of ‘the Great’; for within the short space of some fifteen years he took two decisions, either of which alone would have changed the future of the civilized world. The first was to adopt Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire. The second was to transfer the capital of that Empire from Rome to the new city which he was building on the site of old Byzantium and which was to be known, for the next sixteen centuries, by his name: Constantinople. Together, these two decisions and their consequences have given him a serious claim to be considered – excepting only Jesus Christ, the Buddha and the Prophet Mohammad – the most influential man in all history . . . (Norwich, John Julius. A Short History of Byzantium. New York: Vintage Books, 1999. 3).


The following passage is from The Emperor Constantine, by Michael Grant:

. . . But he was also murderous, and the many whom he murdered, or executed, included not only his rival Licinius (to whom he had promised survival) but also his own eldest son and his own second wife Fausta. There is no excusing those deaths, at any time or in any society . . . There are, and remain, certain absolute standards, and by his death-dealing Constantine offended signally against them.

It is a mocking travesty of justice to call such a murderer Constantine the Great . . . (Grant, Michael. The Emperor Constantine. London: Phoenix, 1998. 226.


CONSTANTINE THE GREAT, early 307 - 22 May 337 A.D

CRISPUS, Caesar 317 - 326 A.D.

DELMATIUS, Caesar 18 September 335 - mid 337 A.D.

HANNIBALLIANUS, Rex Regnum 335 - 337 A.D.

CONSTANTINE II, 22 May 337 - March or April 340 A.D.

CONSTANS, 9 September 337 - 19 January 350 A.D.

CONSTANTIUS II, 22 May 337 - 3 November 361 A.D.

MAGNENTIUS, 18 January 350 - 10 August 353 A.D.

DECENTIUS, Caesar July or August 350 - 18 August 353 A.D.

VETRANIO, 1 March - 25 December 350 A.D.

CONSTANTIUS GALLUS, Caesar 28 September 351 - winter 354 A.D.

JULIAN II "the Philosopher," February 360 - 26 June 363 A.D.

JOVIAN, 27 June 363 - 17 February 364 A.D.

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Festivitas


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Festivitas

These are coins and medallions that commemorate exceptional people, places and events.

J. P. Fitzgerald, Jr.

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Greek Archaic Period (Late Seventh Century B.C. -- 479 B.C.)


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Greek Archaic Period (Late Seventh Century B.C.-- 479 B.C.)


The following is an excerpt from David R. Sear's two volume text Greek Coins And Their Values:

Greek numismatics spans a period of no less than nine centuries, though for the last three hundred years Greek coins were merely a secondary 'local currency' in the eastern half of the Roman Empire. And for several centuries before this Rome had exerted a strong political influence over most of the Greek world. From their origins, then, shortly before 600B.C. to the time of the establishment of the Roman Empire, Greek coins underwent six centuries of development and change, and this is the period covered by Greek coins and Their Values. These six centuries have bequeathed to us a truly remarkable array of coins, issues of a multitude of independent city-states as well as of the great kingdoms of the Hellenistic age. The rise and fall of tyrants and of whole communities are faithfully chronicled in the numismatic record which has come down to us, providing fertile ground for the growth of a collection which can be a source of endless interest and satisfaction to its owner . . . Greek coins [are] some of the most beautiful numismatic creations which mankind has ever produced (Sear, David R. Greek Coins And Their Values, Volume One: Europe. London: Seaby, 2004. vii).

The following is an excerpt from Wayne G. Sayles' text Ancient Coin Collecting, 2nd Edition:

The coinage of the Greeks is divided into three main chronological phases. The earliest of these, the Archaic Period, spans the years from the invention of coinage down to the Greek victory over Persia in 479 BC. From that date to the accession of Alexander the Great as King of Macedon in 336 BC is know as the Classical Period. The last phase of Greek cultural dominance, known as the Hellenistic Period, ended in 30 BC with the death of Cleopatra. The Greeks (Hellenes) derived their name from Hellen, the mythical son of Pyrrha and Deucalion (the Greek "Noah"). These "periods" of Greek culture are arbitrary and are a creation of the modern mind. One will also see references to transitional periods, and other creative divisions, but the primary periods are Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic. Although the dates are tied to mayor political events, these periods actually reflect a recognition of changes in artistic style and cultural adjustments. It is probably not coincidental that these artistic and political milestones converge" (Sayles, Wayne G. Ancient Coin Collecting. 2nd Edition. Iola: Krause Publications, 2003. 19).

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Greek Classical Period (479 -- 336 B.C.)


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Greek Classical Period (479-336 B.C.)


The following is an excerpt from David R. Sear's two volume text Greek Coins And Their Values:

Greek numismatics spans a period of no less than nine centuries, though for the last three hundred years Greek coins were merely a secondary 'local currency' in the eastern half of the Roman Empire. And for several centuries before this Rome had exerted a strong political influence over most of the Greek world. From their origins, then, shortly before 600B.C. to the time of the establishment of the Roman Empire, Greek coins underwent six centuries of development and change, and this is the period covered by Greek coins and Their Values. These six centuries have bequeathed to us a truly remarkable array of coins, issues of a multitude of independent city-states as well as of the great kingdoms of the Hellenistic age. The rise and fall of tyrants and of whole communities are faithfully chronicled in the numismatic record which has come down to us, providing fertile ground for the growth of a collection which can be a source of endless interest and satisfaction to its owner . . . Greek coins [are] some of the most beautiful numismatic creations which mankind has ever produced (Sear, David R. Greek Coins And Their Values, Volume One: Europe. London: Seaby, 2004. vii).

The following is an excerpt from Wayne G. Sayles' text Ancient Coin Collecting, 2nd Edition:

The coinage of the Greeks is divided into three main chronological phases. The earliest of these, the Archaic Period, spans the years from the invention of coinage down to the Greek victory over Persia in 479 BC. From that date to the accession of Alexander the Great as King of Macedon in 336 BC is know as the Classical Period. The last phase of Greek cultural dominance, known as the Hellenistic Period, ended in 30 BC with the death of Cleopatra. The Greeks (Hellenes) derived their name from Hellen, the mythical son of Pyrrha and Deucalion (the Greek "Noah"). These "periods" of Greek culture are arbitrary and are a creation of the modern mind. One will also see references to transitional periods, and other creative divisions, but the primary periods are Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic. Although the dates are tied to mayor political events, these periods actually reflect a recognition of changes in artistic style and cultural adjustments. It is probably not coincidental that these artistic and political milestones converge" (Sayles, Wayne G. Ancient Coin Collecting. 2nd Edition. Iola: Krause Publications, 2003. 19).

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Greek Hellenistic Period (336 -- 30 B.C.)


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Greek Hellenistic Period (336-30 B.C.)


The following is an excerpt from David R. Sear's two volume text Greek Coins And Their Values:

Greek numismatics spans a period of no less than nine centuries, though for the last three hundred years Greek coins were merely a secondary 'local currency' in the eastern half of the Roman Empire. And for several centuries before this Rome had exerted a strong political influence over most of the Greek world. From their origins, then, shortly before 600B.C. to the time of the establishment of the Roman Empire, Greek coins underwent six centuries of development and change, and this is the period covered by Greek coins and Their Values. These six centuries have bequeathed to us a truly remarkable array of coins, issues of a multitude of independent city-states as well as of the great kingdoms of the Hellenistic age. The rise and fall of tyrants and of whole communities are faithfully chronicled in the numismatic record which has come down to us, providing fertile ground for the growth of a collection which can be a source of endless interest and satisfaction to its owner . . . Greek coins [are] some of the most beautiful numismatic creations which mankind has ever produced (Sear, David R. Greek Coins And Their Values, Volume One: Europe. London: Seaby, 2004. vii).

The following is an excerpt from Wayne G. Sayles' text Ancient Coin Collecting, 2nd Edition:

The coinage of the Greeks is divided into three main chronological phases. The earliest of these, the Archaic Period, spans the years from the invention of coinage down to the Greek victory over Persia in 479 BC. From that date to the accession of Alexander the Great as King of Macedon in 336 BC is know as the Classical Period. The last phase of Greek cultural dominance, known as the Hellenistic Period, ended in 30 BC with the death of Cleopatra. The Greeks (Hellenes) derived their name from Hellen, the mythical son of Pyrrha and Deucalion (the Greek "Noah"). These "periods" of Greek culture are arbitrary and are a creation of the modern mind. One will also see references to transitional periods, and other creative divisions, but the primary periods are Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic. Although the dates are tied to mayor political events, these periods actually reflect a recognition of changes in artistic style and cultural adjustments. It is probably not coincidental that these artistic and political milestones converge" (Sayles, Wayne G. Ancient Coin Collecting. 2nd Edition. Iola: Krause Publications, 2003. 19).

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Islamic Coins


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Islamic Coins


The term "Islamic coins," in practice, is another way of referring to the coinage of the Near and Middle East after the rise of Islam in the seventh century. Rightly speaking, an Islamic coin is one designed following the traditions of Islam, that is, with inscriptions in Arabic script and no images. Nevertheless, there have been lots of coinages by Muslim rulers with images and inscriptions in other languages, and lots of coinages by non-Muslims (Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Confucians, for example) that have Arabic inscriptions and no images.

Most collectors and scholars of Islamic coinage ignore the Islamic coinage of the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. In sum, there's a difference between the theoretical and the practical.

Dr. Michael L. Bates, Curator Emeritus of Islamic Coins, American Numismatic Society. http://www.numismatics.org/collections/cuislam.html

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Late Antiquity (Rome, 364-476 A.D.)


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Late Antiquity


Late Antiquity -- A.D. 284-632, the period between the Emperor Diocletian and the Prophet Muhammed -- was a period when the Mediterranean world changed dramatically. It saw the triumph of Christianity over paganism, the fragmentation of the Roman Empire, the rise of new polities, and the emergence of Islam. Many of the ideas and institutions important to the Middle Ages were formed in this period (from ORB Online Encyclopedia).

The contents of ORB are copyright © 1995-2002 Laura V. Blanchard and Carolyn Schriber except as otherwise indicated herein.
http://www.nipissingu.ca/department/history/muhlberger/orb/lt-atest.htm

Date accessed: 30 April 2007: J. P. Fitzgrald, Jr.


For the purposes of my gallery, dating Late Antiquity begins with the accession of Valentinian I in 364 A.D. and ends with the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 A.D.

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Magna Graecia: Greek Archaic and Classical (8th through 2nd centuries B.C.)


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Magna Graecia: Greek Archaic and Classical (8th through 2nd centuries B.C.)

Magna Graecia (Latin for "Greater Greece," Megalê Hellas/Μεγάλη λλάς in Greek), Greek colonies of southern Italy. The Greek overseas expansion of the 8th cent. B.C. founded a number of towns that became the centers of a new, thriving Greek territory. They were on both coasts from the Bay of Naples and the Gulf of Taranto southward. Unlike Greek Sicily, Magna Graecia began to decline by 500 B.C., probably because of malaria and endless warfare among the colonies. Only Tarentum (now Taranto) and Cumae remained individually very significant.

Magna Graecia was the center of two philosophical groups in the 6th cent. B.C., that of Parmenides at Elea and that of Pythagoras at Crotona.

Through Cumae especially, the Etruscans of Capua and the Romans came into early contact with Greek civilization.

The following are the chief cities of Magna Graecia (those colonized from Greece, except Thurii and Elea, go back to the 8th or early 7th cent. B.C.; those colonized locally are perhaps a century younger)

—on the east coast from north to south,

Tarentum (colonized from Sparta),

Metapontum (colonized from Achaea),

Heraclea (colonized from Tarentum),

Siris (colonized from Colophon),

Sybaris (colonized from Achaea),

Thurii (colonized from Athens, replacing Sybaris),

Crotona (colonized from Achaea),

Caulonia (colonized from Crotona),

Epizephyrian Locris (colonized from Locris);



--on the west coast from north to south,

Cumae (colonized from Chalcis),

Neapolis (now Naples; colonized from Cumae),

Paestum, or Posidonia (colonized from Sybaris),

Elea (colonized from Phocaea in Ionia),

Laos (colonized from Sybaris),

Hipponium (colonized from Epizephyrian Locris) and

Rhegium (colonized now Reggio de Calabria; from Chalcis)
.


Bibliography
See: D. Randall-MacIver, Greek Cities of Italy and Sicily (1931); T. J. Dunbabin, The Western Greeks (1948); A. G. Woodhead, The Greeks in the West (1962).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. ©Columbia University Press. This page last modified Thursday, 08-Mar-2007 15:10:02 EST. Accessed: Sunday, 13-Mar-2007 22:50 EDT.

Edited by J. P. Fitzgerald, Jr.

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Other-Classical Cultures


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Other Classical Cultures
(I know the tradition is to relate to these cultures numismatically as "Non-Classical," but I find that title offensive.)

"From the Land of Sheba to the Court of Ghengis Khan, the past rings with the famous names of those 'other ancients,' who left their mark on [their] coinage" (Sayles, Wayne G. Ancient Coin Collecting VI: Non-Classical Cultures. Iola: Krause Publications, 1999).

These Other-Classical Cultures include (among others):

The Celts

The Visigoths

The Armenians

Nabataean Kingdom

The Persians

The Parthians

The Sakaraukae

The Sasanians (separate gallery)

The Huns

China (see "Asia" gallery)

Indo-Scythians

Indo-Parthians

India

Persis

Elymais

Judaean Coins (separate gallery)

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Pergamum


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Pergamum

Pergamum (also Pergamon and Pergamos) is an ancient Greek city in Mysia, situated 16 miles from the Aegean Sea on a lofty isolated hill on the northern side of the broad valley of the Caicus (modern Bakir) River. The site is occupied by the modern town of Bergama, in the il (province) of Izmir, Turkey. Pergamum existed at least from the 5th century BC, but it became important only in the Hellenistic Age (323–330 BC), when it served as the residence of the Attalid dynasty. Their fortress and palace stood on the peak of the hill, while the town itself occupied the lower slopes. Under the Roman Empire the city was situated on the plain below.

It had formal autonomy under the Attalids, who, however, interfered in most aspects of civic government. Initially they ruled Pergamum as vassals of the Seleucid Kingdom, [it is very important to note that Philetairos is the founder of the Pergamene Kingdom and the Attalid Dynasty, regardless of what this article by The Encylopedia Britannica says] but Eumenes I declared himself independent of Antiochus I (263 BC); when he died in 241 he was succeeded by his nephew Attalus I, who defeated the Galatians and assumed the royal title; the dynasty received its name from him. The original Attalid territory around Pergamum (Mysia) was greatly expanded by 188 BC with the addition of Lydia (excluding most Greek coastal cities), part of Phrygia, Lycaonia, and Pisidia (from 183 BC), all former Seleucid territories. This expansion was accomplished as the result of Eumenes II's alliance with Rome in its conflict with the Seleucid Antiochus III.

When Eumenes' son and second successor, Attalus III, died without an heir, he bequeathed the kingdom to Rome (133). Rome accepted it and set up the province of Asia (129), which included Ionia and the territory of Pergamum, but left the other regions to neighbouring kings, who were clients of Rome. The kingdom of Pergamum yielded much wealth, especially in agricultural surpluses and silver, first to the Attalid rulers and later to Rome.

The Attalids made the city of Pergamum one of the most important and beautiful of all Greek cities in the Hellenistic Age; it is one of the most outstanding examples of city planning in that period. They built a library excelled only by that at Alexandria. The kings after Attalus I collected many works of art from Greece to adorn the city's temples and courtyards, supplementing the many works of sculpture, painting, and decoration commissioned from resident artists. In Roman times its population was an estimated 200,000. Excavations that were begun in 1878 under the auspices of the Berlin Museum, besides unearthing many artistic treasures, have enabled archaeologists to reconstruct the plan of the most important areas of the Hellenistic city. Its monuments included a theatre; the temple to Athena Nicephorus; and the great altar of Zeus with its richly decorated frieze, a masterpiece of Hellenistic art. A part of the altar and its surviving reliefs, restored and mounted, now stands in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.

The civic structures of the lower city included a large marketplace, a gymnasium, and temples of Hera and Demeter. Roman remains include an amphitheatre, a theatre, and a racetrack. The early Attalids erected the first structures of the upper (royal) city, but the later kings Eumenes II and Attalus III, by their extensive building and rebuilding, were chiefly responsible for the city's great architectural and artistic reputation. After the fall of Rome, Pergamum was ruled by the Byzantines until it passed into Ottoman hands early in the 14th century.
"Pergamum." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 2 Dec. 2007 .

The following excerpt is from T. B. L. Webster, The Art of Greece: the Age of Hellenism, p. 92: "The most splendid and influential Middle Hellenistic city was Pergamon. The last king of Pergamon, Attalos III, left his kingdom to Rome in 133 B.C.; thus very large numbers of works of art came to Italy when his property was auctioned. The site is on a hill which rises steeply 300 metres above the coastal plain opposite the island of Lesbos. One of Alexander's companions, Lysimachos, who set himself up as king of Thrace and northern Asia Minor, deposited a large amount of treasure in the natural stronghold of Pergamon and placed an officer, Philetairos, in command. Philetairos deserted Lysimachos in 282 B.C. and from that time Pergamon was under the suzerainty of Seleukos; Philetairos won a victory over raiding Galatians or Gauls in 278 B.C. Philetairos' nephew, Eumenes I, made himself independent in 263 B.C.; he was succeeded by his nephew Attalos I, who ruled until 197 B.C. He again defeated the Gauls in 230 B.C. and made an alliance with the Romans. His Western policy was carried on by his elder son Eumenes II and by his younger son Attalos II. Finally Attalos III, son of Eumenes II, who succeeded in 138 B.C., bequeathed his kingdom to Rome. . .

Pergamon was to be an Athens in the East. Attalos' victory over the Gauls was to be regarded as a triumph of Greeks over barbarians like the Athenian triumph over the Persians. So the Altar of Zeus was the Parthenon of the Pergamenes; and the temple of Athena, which could not carry this symbolism, was yet given a resemblance to the Parthenon when the gateway was built, because a similar slanting view faced the spectator when he emerged from the Parthenon gateway on the Athenian Acropolis. [There was a copy of the Athena Parthenos in the Library in Pergamon]. . .."

Edited by J. P. Fitzgerald, Jr.

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Photos, Art, & Maps, etc.


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Four Quartets

"We shall not cease from exploration,
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time."

T.S. Eliot, "Little Gidding"

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Republic of Rome (509 B.C. -- 44 B.C. ? -- 31 B.C. ? -- 27 B.C. ?)


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Republic of Rome (509 B.C. -- 44 B.C. ? -- 31 B.C. ? -- 27 B.C. ?)


The Roman Republic was that era of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by a republican form of government. The republican period began with the overthrow of the Monarchy, c.509 BC, and lasted over 450 years until its subversion, through a series of civil wars, into the Principate form of government and the Imperial period. The precise event which signaled the transition of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire is a matter of interpretation. Historians have proposed the appointment of Julius Caesar as perpetual dictator (44 BC), the Battle of Actium (2 September 31 BC), and the Roman Senate's grant of Octavian's extraordinary powers under the first settlement (January 16, 27 BC), as candidates for the defining pivotal event.

Determining the precise end of the Republic is a task of modern historians; Roman citizens of the time did not recognize that the Republic had ceased to exist. The early Julio-Claudian "Emperors" maintained that the res publica still existed, albeit under the protection of their extraordinary powers, and would eventually return to its full Republican form. The Roman State continued to call itself a res publica as long as it continued to use Latin as its official language.().

The following is an excerpt from Richard Hooker's on-line article "Rome: the Roman Republic:"

[The era of the Republic of Rome begins] After the overthrow of the Tarquin monarchy by Junius Brutus in 509 BC . . . The era of the great expansion of Roman power and civilization is the era of the Roman Republic, in which Rome is ruled by its Senate and its assembly, which were institutions formed at the beginning of the monarchy. The history of the Republic is a history of continuous warfare; all of the historical stories which the Romans will use as stories of Roman virtue and values date from this tumultuous period of defense and invasion.

The Romans had at the beginning of the Republic a constitution which had laid down the traditions and institutions of government; this constitution, however, was not a formal or even a written document, but rather a series of unwritten traditions and laws. These traditions and laws were based on the institution of a monarchy, so while the Romans did not revive the monarchy, they still invested enormous amounts of power in their officials. At the top were the consuls, who were two patricians elected to the office for one year. These patricians exercised imperium in much the same way the kings had in the Roman monarchy. These consuls initiated legislation, served as the head of the judiciary and the military, and served as chief priests to the nation. They even dressed as monarchs, by wearing purple robes and sitting on the seat traditionally reserved for the monarch: the ivory chair.

However, the power of the consuls were severely limited. First, they only served for one year, at which point they would have to be re-elected or enter into private life again. Second, there were two consuls; either consul could effectively prevent any action or decision by the other consul by simply vetoing him. No consul could act without the other consul in agreement. Third, the consuls would have to serve on the Senate after their term in office; this led them to cultivate assiduously the cooperation of the senate. So the consuls exercised absolute power, imperium, but their power was severely hamstrung by the circumstances of their office. As a result, the consuls did not exercise much initiative or creativity, so Roman government tended to be highly conservative and cautious. This, however, was the intent of the consular system (Hooker, Richard. "Rome: the Roman Republic." World Civilizations, An Internet Classroom and Anthology. 6 June 1999. Washington State University. 25 April 2007. ).

Edited by J. P. Fitzgerald, Jr.

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Sasanian Empire (226651 A.D.)


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The Sasasanian Empire (226–651)

by Guitty Azarpay,
The Sasanian Empire Project, The University of California, Berkeley
June 2000

The Sasanian empire (AD 224-642) was the creation of the last great Iranian monarchy before the Arab conquest of Western Asia in the seventh century. The Sasanians are best remembered for their distinctive cultural expressions and for the longevity of their more than four centuries of rule. The Sasanian age was a dynamic time of cultural and economic revival when a new Persian ruling house in southwestern Iran, like the Achaemenid Persians of a thousand years before, extended its dominion over much of Western and Central Asia, in territories that stretched from Transcaucasia to the Indus. The Sasanian age was also a time of intensified trade and exchange, when Iran served as a major gateway to the transcontinental Silk Road that linked the West with China and the Far East.

The Sasanians came into power when Ardashir I, a provincial ruler of Persis, in the Iranian heartland of present-day Fars province, defeated his Parthian overlord, to become the ruler of a new dynasty in Western Asia named after an ancestral figure. By the mid third century, ambitious Sasanian kings extended Persian power across almost 2,000 miles, from the Persian Gulf to the Black Sea, and from Syria's Mediterranean shore to Afghanistan.

A principal achievement of the Sasanian dynasty is its replacement of feudal leadership with centralized authority, topped by the king. Sasanian Iran, which remained a highly centralized state for over 400 years, forged a fusion of the offices of church and state, of religious authority and secular rule. As head of state, the dynasty's founder Ardashir (224-241), a descendant of the Zoroastrian priesthood of Fars, also assumed guardianship of the sacred fire, the symbol of the national religion. This symbol is explicit on Sasanian coins where the reigning monarch, with his crown and regalia of office, appears on the obverse, backed by the sacred fire, the symbol of the national religion, on the coin's reverse.
http://ecai.org/sasanianweb/

The Sassanid era, encompassing the length of the Late Antiquity period, is considered to be one of the most important and influential historical periods in Iran. In many ways the Sassanid period witnessed the highest achievement of Persian civilization, and constituted the last great Iranian Empire before the Muslim conquest and adoption of Islam.


The Arts of King and Court; Religious Traditions; Borderlands and Beyond; The Artistic Legacy

The kings of the Sasanian dynasty dominated Mesopotamia and Iran for more than four centuries, ruling over a realm comparable to that of the emperors of Rome and Byzantium. While the Sasanian empire coexisted alongside the Byzantine empire and was of equal importance and grandeur, it is not as widely studied or recognized. While the Sasanians inherited a land divided into small kingdoms and at war with each other, they passed on to their successors the concept of a unified empire and a tradition of legendary royal power and unparalleled achievement in the arts.

The most conspicuous monuments of the Sasanian empire are the huge dynastic rock reliefs carved on the mountain cliffs of Iran with investiture, battle, and hunting scenes. More familiar are silver-gilt treasures, a number of which will be included in the exhibition, and the collections of seals illustrating a great range of designs. Many characteristics of Sasanian art are consistent with the thought and beliefs of the Zoroastrian religion. Greco-Roman imagery on selected works also demonstrates the western influence on Sasanian art.

The reach of Sasanian culture extended far beyond the empire’s territorial borders, as far as western Europe, Africa, China, and India. The relationship between the Sasanian and Romano-Byzantine cultures is not widely realized, yet the interaction between them had a significant influence on the character of early Islamic and medieval European life. This is apparent in many areas, including the concept of majesty, the structure and procedures of court life, and the development of the arts, including architecture and writing. The penetration of the Sasanians eastward into Central Asia and their control for a time of parts of the great Silk Road led ultimately to the influence of Iranian forms and designs on the art of East Asia.
©2007 Asia Society; http://www.asiasociety.org/arts/07_sasanian.html

Sasanian coins:

Sasanian coins are an important primary source for the history, economics and religion of this dynasty. From the beginning, the image of the king with his elaborate crown appears on the front and a Zoroastrian fire altar is shown on the back. The crowns incorporate symbols, such as wings, which are associated with the Zoroastrian religion and idea of kingship. The coin inscriptions, which are in Middle Persian (Sasanid-Pahlavi), give the king’s name, his religious affiliation as a worshipper of Ahuramazda, the Zoroastrian Wise Lord.

From the sixth century onwards, important information on the mint and date within the king’s reign appears on the back. More than fifty mint centres are known through abbreviations in Middle Persian but not all can be identified with certainty. Sasanian were minted in gold, silver, bronze and occasionally lead. There were two women sovereigns in the Sasanian period. These were Boran (Purandokht) (r. 630-31) and Azarmidukht (r. 631). Both were daughters of emperor Khosrow II Parviz (r. 591-628).
Copyright © 1998-2007 (http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/copyright.htm), The Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies (CAIS).

Edited by J. P. Fitzgerald, Jr.

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Severan Era


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Severan Era

"The Severan dynasty comprised the relatively short reigns of Septimius Severus (r. 193–211 A.D.), Caracalla (r. 211–17 A.D.), Macrinus (r. 217–18 A.D.), Elagabalus (r. 218–22 A.D.), and Alexander Severus (r. 222–35 A.D.). Its founder, Septimius Severus, was a member of a leading native family of Leptis Magna in North Africa who allied himself with a prominent Syrian family by his marriage to Julia Domna. Their union, which gave rise to the imperial candidates of Syrian background, Elagabalus and Alexander Severus, testified to the broad political franchise and economic development of the Roman empire. It was Septimius Severus who erected the famous triumphal arch in the Roman Forum, an important vehicle of political propaganda that proclaimed the legitimacy of the Severan dynasty and celebrated the emperor's victories against Parthia in a lavishly sculpted historical narrative. As in most artistic achievements under the Severans, the monumental reliefs show a decisive break with classicism that presaged Late Antique and Byzantine works of art. At Leptis Magna, he renovated and embellished a number of monuments and built a grandiose new temple-forum-basilica complex on an unparalleled scale that befitted the birthplace of the new emperor. Septimius cultivated the army with substantial remuneration for total loyalty to the emperor and substituted equestrian officers for senators in key administrative positions. In this way, he successfully broadened the power of the imperial administration throughout the empire. By abolishing the regular standing jury courts of Republican times, he was likewise able to transfer power to the executive branch of the government.

His son, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, nicknamed Caracalla, obliterated all distinctions between Italians and provincials, and enacted the Constitutio Antoniniana in 212 A.D., which extended Roman citizenship to all free inhabitants of the empire. Caracalla was also responsible for erecting the famous baths in Rome that bear his name. Their design served as an architectural model for later monumental public buildings. He was assassinated in 217 A.D. by Macrinus, who then became the first emperor who was not a senator. The imperial court, however, was dominated by formidable women who arranged the succession of Elagabalus in 218 A.D., and Alexander Severus, the last of the line, in 222 A.D. In the last phase of the Severan principate, the power of the Senate was finally revived and a number of fiscal reforms were enacted. The fatal flaw of its last emperor, however, was his failure to control the army, eventually leading to mutiny and his assassination. The death of Alexander Severus signaled the age of the soldier-emperors and almost a half-century of civil war and strife."

Department of Greek and Roman Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/seve/hd_seve.htm

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The Diodochi: Greek Hellenistic Period (336 -- 30 B.C.)


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The Diodochi: Greek Hellenistic Period (336 -- 30 B.C.)


Diadochi, the plural of Diadochus, is the common Latin form of the Greek Διάδοχοι, transcripted Diadokhoi, which in general means "successors." Specifically, in Hellenistic history, the Diadochi were the rival successors to Alexander the Great, also called Epigonoi (Greek: Επίγονοι), and their Wars of the Diadochi followed Alexander's death. This was the beginning of the Hellenistic period of Greek history, the time when many people who were not Greek themselves adopted Greek philosophy and styles, Greek urban life, and aspects of the Greek religion.

When Alexander the Great died (June 10, 323 BC), he left behind a huge empire which was composed of many essentially independent territories. Alexander's empire stretched from his homeland of Macedon itself, along with the Greek city-states that his father had subdued, to Bactria and some parts of India in the east, including Anatolia, the Levant, Egypt, Babylonia, and Persia.

Upon Alexander's death, there was almost immediately a dispute among his generals as to who his successor should be. Meleager and the infantry supported the candidacy of Alexander's half-brother, Arrhidaeus, while Perdiccas, the leading cavalry commander, supported waiting until the birth of Alexander's unborn child by Roxane. A compromise was arranged – Arrhidaeus (as Philip III) should become King, and should rule jointly with Roxane's child, assuming that it was a boy (as it was, becoming Alexander IV). Perdiccas himself would become Regent of the entire Empire, and Meleager his lieutenant (waiting “in the wings” was Seleucus—as a Chiliarch, he was the commander of 1,000 men. The Hellenistic office was an adaptation by Alexander the Great of the Persian Achaemenid empire's hazarapatish. A chiliarch held duties both martial and civil—he would betray Perdiccas). First, however, Perdiccas would have Meleager and the other infantry leaders murdered, and he would assume full control.

The other cavalry generals who had supported Perdiccas were rewarded by becoming satraps of the various parts of the Empire:

Ptolemy received Egypt;

Laomedon received Syria and Phoenicia; Philotas took Cilicia; Peithon took Media; Antigonus received Phrygia, Lycia and Pamphylia; Asander received Caria; Menander received Lydia; Leonnatus received Hellespontine Phrygia;

Lysimachus received Thrace.


Macedon and Greece were to be under the joint rule of Antipater, who had governed them for Alexander, and Craterus, Alexander's most able lieutenant;

Alexander's old secretary, Eumenes of Cardia, a Greek, was to receive Cappadocia and Paphlagonia.


In the east, Perdiccas largely left Alexander's arrangements intact:

Taxiles and Porus ruled over their kingdoms in India; Alexander's father-in-law Oxyartes ruled Gandara; Sibyrtius ruled Arachosia and Gedrosia; Stasanor ruled Aria and Drangiana; Philip ruled Bactria and Sogdiana; Phrataphernes ruled Parthia and Hyrcania; Peucestas governed Persis; Tlepolemus had charge over Carmania; Atropates governed northern Media; Archon got Babylonia; Arcesilas ruled northern Mesopotamia.

Soon, however, conflict broke out.


The Wars of the Diadochi lasted for more than twenty years (322-301? 285? BC):


First War of the Diadochi, 322-320 BC

Second War of the Diadochi, 319-315 BC

Third War of the Diadochi, 314-311 BC

Fourth War of the Diadochi, 308-301 BC



After these Wars of the Diadochi, there would still be

The Struggle over Macedon, 298-285 BC ("What's in a name? that which we call a "struggle would . . ." ),

The Struggle between Lysimachus and Seleucus, 285-281 BC ("What's in a name? that which we call a "struggle" would . . ." )

and

The Gallic Invasions and Consolidation, 280 - 275 BC .

Finally (whew! . . . who's left standing?), at long last, almost fifty years after Alexander's death, some sort of order was restored. Ptolemy ruled over Egypt, southern Syria (known as Coele-Syria), and various territories on the southern coast of Asia Minor. Antiochus ruled the vast Asian territories of the Empire, while Macedon and Greece (with the exception of the Aetolian League), fell to Antigonus. Philetairos(282 B.C. – 263 B.C.) began the Attalid Dynasty in Pergamon.

This division was to last for a century, before the Antigonid Kingdom finally fell to Rome, and the Seleucids were harried from Persia by the Parthians. The Attalids ruled Pergamon until Attalus III bequeathed the Attalid Kingdom to the Roman Republic in 133 BC to avoid a likely succession crisis. A rump Seleucid Kingdom limped on in Syria until finally put to rest by Pompey in 64 BC. The Ptolemies lasted longer in Alexandria: Egypt finally fell to Rome in 30 BC.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diadochi

Edited by J. P. Fitzgerald, Jr.

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The Roman Imperators (49 -- 27 B.C.)


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Imperator is a title that originates in the Republic of Rome. It means victorious general. Originally, this title was accorded to a military commander who had won an impressive battle or who had led a successful military campaign. Usually, but not always, an Imperator was also given a triumph—this religious rite and civil ceremony was a kind of "parade of victory" through the capital where the victorious general displayed his “spoils of war.” After his triumph, the honored general was to relinquish the title “Imperator.”

During the history of the Roman Empire the title Imperator experienced a change in connotation as it became part of the emperor’s cognomen.

Famous Imperators include:

Pompey Magnus

Julius Caesar

Brutus

Octavian

Marc Antony
.


I have chosen the dates 49 -- 27 B.C. because this is the period of time that is delineated by David R. Sear in his text The History and Coinage of the Roman Imperators 49 - 27 B.C..

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The Tetrarchy (Rome, 284-324 A.D.)


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The Tetrarchy (AD 284-364)

A time of reform when Emperors were able to resolve many of the "problems" caused by the ascendancy of the Persian (Sasanian) Empire. Effective governance of the Empire was reestablished by Diocletian, who divided the Empire into four administrative districts ruled by himself, a co-emperor, and two "caesars." This "era" was the harbinger of a necessary division of the Empire between the West and the East.

Name
Birth
Made Caesar
Further stages of career
Death

DIOCLETIAN
Gaius Aurelius Diocletianus (Diocles)
b. Dec. 22, ca. 245 in Dalmatia
Emperor November 20, 284
Abdicated May 1, 305.
Died of natural causes in 316 at Split.

MAXIMIAN
Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maximianus
b. ca. 250 near Sirmium
Co-emperor from April 286 for the Rhine
Co-emperor for the western Mediterranean from 293; abdicated May 1, 305; brought back in November 306; forcibly abdicated November 308; took power again in Spring 310.
Died a few weeks after taking power in 310.

GALERIUS
Gaius Galerius Valerius Maximianus
b. ca 250, Illyricum near Serdica.
Caesar from March 1, 293.
Eastern emperor from May 1, 305.
Died of natural causes in May 311.

CONSTANTIUS I CHLORUS
Flavius Valerius Constantius
b. ca. 250 in Dardana
Caesar from March 1, 293 for the area north of the Alps.
Western emperor from May 1, 305.
Died of natural causes on July 25, 306, at York.

SEVERUS II
Flavius Valerius Severus
b. ca. 250, Illyricum, Pannonia
Caesar from May 1, 305.
Western emperor from July 25, 306. Imprisoned by Maximimian Maxentius.
Executed summer of 307.

MAXIMINUS II DAIA
Caius Valerius Galerius Maximinus
b. 20 November 270, Danubian region (nephew of Galerius)
Caesar from May 1, 305.
Eastern emperor from 309.
Died (killed?) in the autumn of 313 at Tarsus.

MAXENTIUS
Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maxentius
b. ca.278
Western emperor from October 28, 306.
Brought father (Maximian) out of retirement for support against Severus II.
Died in the Tiber on October 28, 312 in the Battle of Milvian Bridge against
Constantine I.

LICINIUS
Valerius Licianus Licinius
b. ca. 265, Dacia
November 308 made Augustus over the Danube.
Eastern emperor in 311, but deposed by Constantine I in 325.
Executed by Constantine I in 325.

VALENS
Aurelius Valerius Valens
b. ?
Licinius declared him co-emperor in 314 during the war with Constantine.
Deposed in 314.
Executed by Licinius in 314.

MARTINIAN
Marcus Martinianus
b. ?
co-emperor late summer 324; proclaimed by Licinus.
Deposed by Constantine I in 324.
Executed by Constantine I in 325.

http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/bl_tetrarchytable.htm

Edited by J. P. Fitzgerald, Jr.

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Twelve Caesars


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The Twelve Caesars

"Gaius Suetonius Tranquillius was born in about A.D. 69 (the 'year of the four Emperors'). His family probably came from Hippo Regius (Annaba in Algeria [and the city where, in the late fourth and early fifth centuries A.D., St. Augustine was bishop for decades]). . .

The Lives of the Caesars are biographies of the 'Twelve Caesars', from Julius (d. 44 B.C.) to Domitian (d. A.D. 96). The work is preserved, except for a few chapters of Julius' life. . . Suetonius is the first Latin biographer whose works have come down to us. He was aware that he must strike out in a different direction from the writers of history, which was regarded as a different genre. This seemed all the more important for Suetonius because of the overpowering contemporary work of Tacitus, which could not be rivalled. . .

Suetonius' principal contribution, however lies in his relatively high degree of objectivity. With him we have moved away from the traditional eulogistic treatment, and have entered a much more astringent atmosphere, in which the men whom he is describing are looked at with a cooler and more disenchanted eye. . .

The best quality of his work is his power to create rapid, dramatic and often moving narrative, including, at times impressive set-pieces, among which the death of Nero is especially notable. The stories are generally told in a clear and straight-forward manner, though his curiously disjointed and staccato diction can lead to obscurity. . .

The period about which Suetonius is writing is one of the most important, critical and formative in the history of the western world, and with the exception of the Greek Dio Cassius (who is much later, incomplete and often anachronistic), Suetonius and Tacitus are our only major literary sources for the epoch. Tacitus, for all his superlative merits, colours and patterns his facts; Suetonius' deadpan method, despite his inadequacies, is often a very valuable corrective, and the personal touches which he so abundantly provides are something we scarcely find in Tacitus at all" (Grant, Michael. "Introduction", Suetonius.The Twelve Caesars. Trans. Robert Graves. London: Penguin Books, 1979. i-x).

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Last additions - Cleisthenes's Gallery
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711a, Titus, 24 June 79 - 13 September 81 A.D. TITUS AUGUSTUS AR silver denarius. Struck at Rome, 80 AD. IMP TITVS CAESAR VESPASIAN AVG PM, laureate head right. Reverse - TRP IX IMP XV COS VIII PP, elephant walking left. Fully legible legends, about Very Fine, nice golden toning. Commemmorates the completion and dedication of the Colosseum and the opening of games. SCARCE. RCV 2512, valued at $544 in EF. 17mm, 3.1g. Ex Incitatus.

De Imperatoribus Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Rulers and their Families

Titus Flavius Vespasianus (A.D. 79-81)


John Donahue
College of William and Mary

Titus Flavius Vespasianus was born on December 30, 39 A.D. He was the oldest of the three children of the founder of the Flavian Dynasty, Vespasian. Beginning in the year 70 Titus was named Cæsar and coregent; he was highly educated and a brilliant poet and orator in both Latin and Greek. He won military fame during the Jewish Revolt of 69-70. In April, 70, he appeared before the walls of Jerusalem, and conquered and destroyed the city after a siege of five months. He wished to preserve the Temple, but in the struggle with the Jews who rushed out of it a soldier threw a brand into the building. The siege and taking of the city were accompanied by barbarous cruelties. The next year Titus celebrated his victory by a triumph; to increase the fame of the Flavian dynasty the inscription on the triumphal arch represented the overthrow of the helpless people as a heroic achievement. Titus succeeded his father as Emperor in 79.

Before becoming emperor, tradition records that Titus was feared as the next Nero, a perception that may have developed from his association with Berenice, his alleged heavy-handedness as praetorian prefect, and tales of sexual debauchery. Once in office, however, both emperor and his reign were portrayed in universally positive terms. The suddenness of this transformation raises immediate suspicions, yet it is difficult to know whether the historical tradition is suspect or if Titus was in fact adept at taking off one mask for another. What is clear, however, is that Titus sought to present the Flavians as the legitimate successors of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Proof came through the issuing of a series of restoration coins of previous emperors, the most popular being Augustus and Claudius. In A.D. 80 Titus also set out to establish an imperial cult in honor of Vespasian. The temple, in which cult (the first that was not connected with the Julio-Claudians) was housed, was completed by Domitian and was known as the Temple of Vespasian and Domitian.
Legitimacy was also sought through various economic measures, which Titus enthusiastically funded. Vast amounts of capital poured into extensive building schemes in Rome, especially the Flavian Amphitheater, popularly known as the Colosseum. In celebration of additions made to the structure, Titus provided a grand 100-day festival, with sea fights staged on an artificial lake, infantry battles, wild beast hunts, and similar activities. He also constructed new imperial baths to the south-east of the Amphitheater and began work on the celebrated Arch of Titus, a memorial to his Jewish victories. Large sums were directed to Italy and the provinces as well, especially for road building. In response to the eruption of Vesuvius in A.D. 79, Titus spent large sums to relieve distress in that area; likewise, the imperial purse contributed heavily to rebuilding Rome after a devastating fire destroyed large sections of the city in A.D. 80. As a result of these actions, Titus earned a reputation for generosity and geniality. For these reasons he gained the honourable title of "amor et deliciæ generis humani" (the darling and admiration of the human race). Even so, his financial acumen must not be under-estimated. He left the treasury with a surplus, as he had found it, and dealt promptly and efficiently with costly natural disasters. The Greek historian of the third-century A.D., Cassius Dio, perhaps offered the most accurate and succinct assessment of Titus' economic policy: "In money matters, Titus was frugal and made no unnecessary expenditure." In other areas, the brevity of Titus' reign limits our ability to detect major emphases or trends in policy. As far as can be discerned from the limited evidence, senior officials and amici were well chosen, and his legislative activity tended to focus on popular social measures, with the army as a particular beneficiary in the areas of land ownership, marriage, and testamentary freedom. In the provinces, Titus continued his father's policies by strengthening roads and forts in the East and along the Danube.

Titus died in September, A.D. 81 after only 26 months in office. Suetonius recorded that Titus died on his way to the Sabine country of his ancestors in the same villa as his father. A competing tradition persistently implicated his brother and successor, Domitian, as having had a hand in the emperor's demise, but the evidence is highly contradictory and any wrongdoing is difficult to prove. Domitian himself delivered the funeral eulogy and had Titus deified. He also built several monuments in honor of Titus and completed the Temple of Vespasian and Titus, changing the name of the structure to include his brother's and setting up his cult statue in the Temple itself.

Titus was the beneficiary of considerable intelligence and talent, endowments that were carefully cultivated at every step of his career, from his early education to his role under his father's principate. Cassius Dio suggested that Titus' reputation was enhanced by his early death. It is true that the ancient sources tend to heroicize Titus, yet based upon the evidence, his reign must be considered a positive one. He capably continued the work of his father in establishing the Flavian Dynasty and he maintained a high degree of economic and administrative competence in Italy and beyond. In so doing, he solidified the role of the emperor as paternalistic autocrat, a model that would serve Trajan and his successors well. Titus was used as a model by later emperors, especially those known as the Five Good Emperors (Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius).

Copyright (C) 1997, John Donahue.
Published: De Imperatoribus Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Rulers and their Families http://www.roman-emperors.org/startup.htm. Used by permission.

Catholic Encyclopedia, http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14746b.htm

Edited by J. P. Fitzgerald, Jr.
CleisthenesDec 01, 2010
AR8Reales1921.jpg
Colonial Mexico, Ferdinand VII, King of Spain, 1808 - 1833 A.D., 1821 D CG 8RSilver 8 reales, KM 111.2, aVF, areas of pitting, Durango mint, weight 26.755g, maximum diameter 38.6mm, die axis 0o, 1821 A.D.; obverse •FERDIN • VII • DEI • GRATIA •, laureate and draped bust of Ferdinand right, date 1821 below; reverse • HISPAN • ET IND • REX • D • 8R • C • G •, crowned Spanish coat of arms, flanked by pillars of Hercules draped with banner reading "PLVS VLTRA;" ex FORVM.

The Spanish dollar (also known as the piece of eight, the real de a ocho or the eight-real coin) is a silver coin, of approximately 50mm Ø, worth eight reales, that was minted in the Spanish Empire after a Spanish currency reform in 1497. Its purpose was to correspond to the German thaler. It was the coin upon which the US dollar was based, and it remained legal tender in the United States until the Coinage Act of 1857 discontinued the practice. Because it was widely used in Europe, the Americas, and the Far East, it became the first world currency by the late 18th century. Many existing currencies, such as the Canadian dollar, United States dollar, and the Chinese yuan, as well as currencies in Latin America and the Philippine peso, were initially based on the Spanish dollar and other 8-reales coins.
Silver 8 real coin of Ferdinand VII of Spain, 1821

CleisthenesNov 26, 2010
KnidosCaria.jpg
Knidos, Caria, c. 465 - 449 B.CSilver drachm, Cahn 80 (V38/R53), SNG Keckman 132 (same dies), SNG Cop 232 (same dies), aVF, toned, Knidos mint, weight 6.057g, maximum diameter 16.5mm, die axis 270o, c. 465 - 449 B.C.; obverse forepart of roaring lion right; reverse archaic head of Aphrodite right, hair bound with taenia, within incuse square; ex Barry P. Murphy

CARIA, Knidos. Circa 465-449 BC. AR Drachm - 16mm (6.06 g). Obverse: forepart of roaring lion right; Reverse: archaic head of Aphrodite right, hair bound with taenia. Cahn 80 (V38/R53); SNG Helsinki 132 (same dies); SNG Copenhagen 232 (same dies). Toned, near VF, good metal. Ex Barry P. Murphy.

While this coin falls within the time frame that numismatists call "Classical" Greek coinage, I have chosen to place it in both the "Archaic" (coin 020a) and "Classical" Greek sections of my collection. This specimen is one of those wonderful examples of transition--it incorporates many elements of the "Archaic" era, although it is struck during the "Classical" Greek period and anticipates characteristics of the later period.

As noted art historian Patricia Lawrence has pointed out, "[this specimen portrays] A noble-headed lion, a lovely Late Archaic Aphrodite, and [is made from]. . . beautiful metal." The Archaic Aphrodite is reminiscent of certain portraits of Arethusa found on tetradrachms produced in Syracuse in the first decade of the 5th century BC.

Knidos was a city of high antiquity and as a Hellenic city probably of Lacedaemonian colonization. Along with Halicarnassus (present day Bodrum, Turkey) and Kos, and the Rhodian cities of Lindos, Kamiros and Ialyssos it formed the Dorian Hexapolis, which held its confederate assemblies on the Triopian headland, and there celebrated games in honour of Apollo, Poseidon and the nymphs.

The city was at first governed by an oligarchic senate, composed of sixty members, and presided over by a magistrate; but, though it is proved by inscriptions that the old names continued to a very late period, the constitution underwent a popular transformation. The situation of the city was favourable for commerce, and the Knidians acquired considerable wealth, and were able to colonize the island of Lipara, and founded a city on Corcyra Nigra in the Adriatic. They ultimately submitted to Cyrus, and from the battle of Eurymedon to the latter part of the Peloponnesian War they were subject to Athens.

In their expansion into the region, the Romans easily obtained the allegiance of Knidians, and rewarded them for help given against Antiochus by leaving them the freedom of their city.

During the Byzantine period there must still have been a considerable population: for the ruins contain a large number of buildings belonging to the Byzantine style, and Christian sepulchres are common in the neighbourhood.

Eudoxus, the astronomer, Ctesias, the writer on Persian history, and Sostratus, the builder of the celebrated Pharos at Alexandria, are the most remarkable of the Knidians mentioned in history.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cnidus

Edited by J. P. Fitzgerald, Jr.
1 commentsCleisthenesOct 22, 2010
LeoWise.jpg
[1640ai] Leo VI, the Wise, 6 January 870 - 11 May 912 A.D.LEO VI (The Wise) AE follis. 866-912 AD. +LEOnbA S ILEVSROm'. Facing half-length portrait with short beard, wearing modified loros and crown with cross. Reverse - +LEOn EnOEObA ILEVSR OmEOn in four lines. 26.5mm, 6.7g.

Overstruck at the mint over the same issue, evidently after a severely off-center first strike. The 'EO bA RO' that would have been part of the legend at the right side of the coin appears on the very edge of the top part of the coin at 12 o'clock.
CleisthenesOct 20, 2010
PhilipIIMacedonLifetimeTet.jpg
Macedonian Kingdom, Philip II, 359 - 336 B.C., Lifetime IssueSilver tetradrachm, Le Rider 233 (D130/R188); SNG ANS 385 ff., VF, Pella, 14.163g, 25.4mm, 225o, 342 - 336 B.C.; obverse laureate head of Zeus right; reverse "FILIPPOU", naked youth on horse pacing right on horseback holding palm, thunderbolt below; ex CNG 214, 82; very high relief sculptural portrait, nice style, lifetime issue. Ex FORVM.

Philip II expanded the size and influence of the Macedonian Kingdom, but is perhaps best known as the father of Alexander the Great. He personally selected the design of his coins.

Philip II of Macedon (382 BC–336 BC; in Greek Φίλιππος = φίλος (friend) + ίππος (horse), transliterated Philippos) was the King of Macedon from 359 BC until his assassination. He was the father of Alexander the Great, Phillip III Arrhidaeus, and possibly Ptolemy I Soter, founder of the Ptolemaic dynasty.

Born in Pella, Philip was the youngest son of King Amyntas III and Eurydice. In his youth, (ca. 368 BC–365 BC) Philip was a hostage in Thebes, which was the leading city of Greece during the Theban hegemony. While a captive there, Philip received a military and diplomatic education from Epaminondas, was involved in a pederastic relationship with Pelopidas and lived with Pammenes, who was an enthusiastic advocate of the Sacred Band of Thebes. In 364 BC, Philip returned to Macedonia. The deaths of Philip's elder brothers, King Alexander II and Perdiccas III, allowed him to take the throne in 359 BC. Originally appointed regent for his infant nephew Amyntas IV, who was the son of Perdiccas III, Philip managed to take the kingdom for himself that same year.

Philip's military skills and expansionist vision of Macedonian greatness brought him early success. The hill tribes were broken by a single battle in 358 BC, and Philip established his authority inland as far as Lake Ohrid. He used the Social War as an opportunity for expansion. In 357 BC, he took the Athenian colony of Amphipolis, which commanded the gold mines of Mount Pangaion. That same year Philip married the Epirote princess Olympias, who was the daughter of the king of the Molossians. In 356 BC, Philip conquered the town of Crenides and changed its name to Philippi. Philip also attacked Abdera and Maronea, on the Thracian sea-board. Also in 356 Alexander was born and his race horse won in the Olympics in He took Methone in 354 BC, a town which had belonged to Athens. During the siege of Methone, Philip lost an eye.

Not until his armies were opposed by Athens at Thermopylae in 352 BC did Philip face any serious resistance. Philip did not attempt to advance into central Greece because the Athenians had occupied Thermopylae. Also in 352 BC, the Macedonian army won a complete victory over the Phocians at the Battle of Crocus Field. This battle made Philip tagus of Thessaly, and he claimed as his own Magnesia, with the important harbour of Pagasae.
Hostilities with Athens did not yet take place, but Athens was threatened by the Macedonian party which Philip's gold created in Euboea. From 352 to 346 BC, Philip did not again come south. He was active in completing the subjugation of the Balkan hill-country to the west and north, and in reducing the Greek cities of the coast as far as the Hebrus (Maritza). For the chief of these coastal cities, Olynthus, Philip continued to profess friendship until its neighboring cities were in his hands.

In 349 BC, Philip started the siege of Olynthus. Olynthus at first allied itself with Philip, but later shifted its allegiance to Athens. The Athenians did nothing to help Olynthus. Philip finally took Olynthus in 348 BC and razed the city to the ground. In 346 BC, he intervened effectively in the war between Thebes and the Phocians, but his wars with Athens continued intermittently.

Macedonia and the regions adjoining it having now been securely consolidated, Philip celebrated his Olympic games at Dium. In 347 BC, Philip advanced to the conquest of the eastern districts about the Hebrus, and compelled the submission of the Thracian prince Cersobleptes. Meanwhile, Athens had made overtures for peace, and when Philip, in 346 BC, again moved south, peace was sworn in Thessaly. With key Greek city-states in submission, Philip turned to Sparta; he sent them a message, "You are advised to submit without further delay, for if I bring my army into your land, I will destroy your farms, slay your people, and raze your city." Their reply was "If." Philip and Alexander would both leave them alone. Later, the Macedonian arms were carried across Epirus to the Adriatic Sea. In 342 BC, Philip led a great military expedition north against the Scythians, conquering the Thracian fortified settlement Eumolpia to give it his name, Philippoupolis (modern Plovdiv).

In 340 BC, Philip started the siege of Perinthus. Philip began another siege in 339 BC of the city of Byzantium. After unsuccessful sieges of both cities, Philip's influence all over Greece was compromised. However, Philip successfully reasserted his authority in the Aegean by defeating an alliance of Thebans and Athenians at the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC. He erected a memorial of a marble lion to the Sacred Band of Thebes for their bravery that still stands today. Philip created and led the League of Corinth in 337 BC. Members of the League agreed never to wage war against each other, unless it was to suppress revolution. Philip was elected as leader (hegemon) of the army of invasion against the Persian Empire. In 336 BC, when the invasion of Persia was in its very early stage, Philip was assassinated, and was succeeded on the throne of Macedon by his son Alexander the Great.

Philip’s Assassination

The murder happened in October of 336 BC, at Aegae, the ancient capital of the kingdom of Macedon. The court had gathered there for the celebration of the marriage between Alexander of Epirus and Philip's daughter. While the king was entering unprotected into the town's theatre (highlighting his approachability to the Greek diplomats present), he was killed by Pausanias of Orestis, one of Philip's seven bodyguards. The assassin immediately tried to escape and reach his associates who were waiting for him with horses at the entrance of Aegae. He was pursued by three of Philip's bodyguards and died by their hands.
The reasons for Pausanias' assassination of Phillip are difficult to fully expound, since there was controversy already among ancient historians. The only contemporary account in our possession is that of Aristotle, who states rather tersely that Philip was killed because Pausanias had been offended by the followers of Attalus, the king's father-in-law.

Whatever else that may be written about Philip II it must be recognized that he was responsible for making Macedon the ascendant Greek power. He reorganized the Macedonian army. It was this army that Alexander the Great inherited. Phillip II trained some of Alexander’s best generals: Antigonus Cyclops, Antipater, Nearchus, Parmenion, and Perdiccas.

According to the Greek historian Theopompus of Chios, Europe had never seen a man like king Philip of Macedonia, and he called his history of the mid-fourth century BCE the Philippic History. Theopompus had a point. Not even his better known son Alexander has done so much to change the course of Greek history. Philip reorganized his kingdom, gave it access to the sea, expanded its power so that it could defeat the Achaemenid Empire, and subdued the Greek city-states, which never regained their independence again. To achieve this, he modernized the Macedonian economy, improved the army, and concluded several marital alliances. The result was a superpower with one weakness: it was as strong as its king. When Philip's son Alexander died, the institutions were too weak, and Macedonia never recovered.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_II_of_Macedon
http://www.livius.org/phi-php/philip/philip_ii.htm
Ed. by J. P. Fitzgerald, Jr.
1 commentsCleisthenesJun 30, 2010
ptolemy1soterLG.jpg
legioxxiiLG.jpg
Mark Antony, Triumvir and Imperator, 44 - 30 B.C.MARCUS ANTONIUS (Marc Antony) AR silver legionary denarius. Legion XXIII. 18mm, 3.5g. Struck at a military mint, likely Patrae, 32-31 BC. Obverse: ANT AVG III VIR R P C, Praetorian galley sailing. Reverse: LEG XXIII, eagle between standards. Ex Incitatus.

Legion XXII, the 22nd, is the second-last legion in the series and one of the scarcer types of the regular numbered legions.

Marcus Antonius (in Latin: M·ANTONIVS·M·F·M·N[1]) (January 14, 83 BC – August 1, 30 BC), known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and general. He was an important supporter and the loyal friend of Gaius Julius Caesar as a military commander and administrator, despite his blood ties, through his mother Iulia, to the branch of Caesars opposed to the Marians and murdered by them. After Caesar's assassination, Antony formed an official political alliance with Octavian (Augustus) and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, known to historians today as the Second Triumvirate.

The triumvirate broke up in 33 BC. Disagreement between Octavian and Antony erupted into civil war, the Final War of the Roman Republic, in 31 BC. Antony was defeated by Octavian at the naval Battle of Actium, and in a brief land battle at Alexandria. He and his lover Cleopatra committed suicide shortly thereafter.

For anyone tempted to laud Marcus Antonius, to Antony's great shame read what Plutarch wrote about what Antony did to Cicero:

Plutarch: Cicero's Death

But in the meantime the assassins were come with a band of soldiers, Herennius, a centurion, and Popillius, a tribune, whom Cicero had formerly defended when prosecuted for the murder of his father. Finding the doors shut, they broke them open, and Cicero not appearing, and those within saying they knew not where he was, it is stated that a youth, who had been educated by Cicero in the liberal arts and sciences, an emancipated slave of his brother Quintus, Philologus by name, informed the tribune that the litter was on its way to the sea through the close and shady walks. The tribune, taking a few with him, ran to the place where he was to come out. And Cicero, perceiving Herennius running in the walks, commanded his servants to set down the litter; and stroking his chin, as he used to do, with his left hand, he looked steadfastly upon his murderers, his person covered with dust, his beard and hair untrimmed, and his face worn with his troubles. So that the greatest part of those that stood by covered their faces whilst Herennius slew him. And thus was he murdered, stretching forth his neck out of the litter, being now in his sixty-fourth year. Herennius cut off his head, and, by Antony's command, his hands also, by which his Philippics were written; for so Cicero styled those orations he wrote against Antony, and so they are called to this day.

When these members of Cicero were brought to Rome, Antony was holding an assembly for the choice of public officers; and when he heard it, and saw them, he cried out, "Now let there be an end of our proscriptions." He commanded his head and hands to be fastened up over the rostra, where the orators spoke; a sight which the Roman people shuddered to behold, and they believed they saw there, not the face of Cicero, but the image of Antony's own soul.

Translation by John Dryden: http://intranet.grundel.nl/thinkquest/moord_cicero_plu.html

Edited by J. P. Fitzgerald, Jr.
CleisthenesJun 28, 2010
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Ptolemy_I_Soter.jpg
Elizabeth_I_sixpence.jpg
Elizabeth I, 1558 - 1603England, Elizabeth I, 1558 - 1603. Silver sixpence, Spink 2578B, North 2015, tun mintmark, VF, light scratches, toned, Tower mint, weight 2.838g, maximum diameter 27.5mm, die axis 270o, 1592. Obverse: ELIZAB D'G' ANG'FR:ET:HIB REGI, crowned bust left, rose behind; Reverse POSVI DEV ADIVTOREM MEV (I have made God my helper), quartered coat-of-arms (passant lions and fleurs-de-lis) on long cross fourchée, 1592 above shield; ex A.H. Baldwin & Sons Ltd., Autumn Argentum Auction 2009. Ex FORVM.

Elizabeth I, 1558 - 1603
Elizabeth Tudor is considered by many to be the greatest monarch in English history. When she became queen in 1558, she was twenty-five years old, a survivor of scandal and danger, and considered illegitimate by most Europeans. She inherited a bankrupt nation, torn by religious discord, a weakened pawn between the great powers of France and Spain. She was only the third queen to rule England in her own right; the other two examples, her cousin Lady Jane Grey and half-sister Mary I, were disastrous. Even her supporters believed her position dangerous and uncertain. Her only hope, they counseled, was to marry quickly and lean upon her husband for support. But Elizabeth had other ideas.
She ruled alone for nearly half a century, lending her name to a glorious epoch in world history. She dazzled even her greatest enemies. Her sense of duty was admirable, though it came at great personal cost. She was committed above all else to preserving English peace and stability; her genuine love for her subjects was legendary. Only a few years after her death in 1603, they lamented her passing. In her greatest speech to Parliament, she told them, 'I count the glory of my crown that I have reigned with your love.'

http://englishhistory.net/tudor/monarchs/eliz1.html
Edited by J.P.Fitzgerald, Jr.
1 commentsCleisthenesApr 10, 2010
Titus_Colosseum_Commem_AR_denarius.jpg
711a, Titus, 24 June 79 - 13 September 81 A.D.Titus, 24 June 79 - 13 September 81 A.D. AR denarius, RCV 2512, aVF, struck at Rome, 80 A.D., 17.5mm, 3.4g. Obverse: IMP TITVS CAESAR VESPASIAN AVG PM, laureate head right; Reverse: TRP IX IMP XV COS VIII PP, elephant walking left. Fully legible legends; nice golden toning. This coin was struck in order to commemorate the completion and dedication of the Flavian Amphitheatre (the Colosseum) and its opening games. Very scarce. Ex Incitatus; photo courtesy Incitatus.

De Imperatoribus Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Rulers and their Families

Titus Flavius Vespasianus (A.D. 79-81)


John Donahue
College of William and Mary

Titus Flavius Vespasianus was born on December 30, 39 A.D. He was the oldest of the three children of the founder of the Flavian Dynasty, Vespasian. Beginning in the year 70 Titus was named Cæsar and coregent; he was highly educated and a brilliant poet and orator in both Latin and Greek. He won military fame during the Jewish Revolt of 69-70. In April, 70, he appeared before the walls of Jerusalem, and conquered and destroyed the city after a siege of five months. He wished to preserve the Temple, but in the struggle with the Jews who rushed out of it a soldier threw a brand into the building. The siege and taking of the city were accompanied by barbarous cruelties. The next year Titus celebrated his victory by a triumph; to increase the fame of the Flavian dynasty the inscription on the triumphal arch represented the overthrow of the helpless people as a heroic achievement. Titus succeeded his father as Emperor in 79.

Before becoming emperor, tradition records that Titus was feared as the next Nero, a perception that may have developed from his association with Berenice, his alleged heavy-handedness as praetorian prefect, and tales of sexual debauchery. Once in office, however, both emperor and his reign were portrayed in universally positive terms. The suddenness of this transformation raises immediate suspicions, yet it is difficult to know whether the historical tradition is suspect or if Titus was in fact adept at taking off one mask for another. What is clear, however, is that Titus sought to present the Flavians as the legitimate successors of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Proof came through the issuing of a series of restoration coins of previous emperors, the most popular being Augustus and Claudius. In A.D. 80 Titus also set out to establish an imperial cult in honor of Vespasian. The temple, in which cult (the first that was not connected with the Julio-Claudians) was housed, was completed by Domitian and was known as the Temple of Vespasian and Domitian.
Legitimacy was also sought through various economic measures, which Titus enthusiastically funded. Vast amounts of capital poured into extensive building schemes in Rome, especially the Flavian Amphitheater, popularly known as the Colosseum. In celebration of additions made to the structure, Titus provided a grand 100-day festival, with sea fights staged on an artificial lake, infantry battles, wild beast hunts, and similar activities. He also constructed new imperial baths to the south-east of the Amphitheater and began work on the celebrated Arch of Titus, a memorial to his Jewish victories. Large sums were directed to Italy and the provinces as well, especially for road building. In response to the eruption of Vesuvius in A.D. 79, Titus spent large sums to relieve distress in that area; likewise, the imperial purse contributed heavily to rebuilding Rome after a devastating fire destroyed large sections of the city in A.D. 80. As a result of these actions, Titus earned a reputation for generosity and geniality. For these reasons he gained the honourable title of "amor et deliciæ generis humani" (the darling and admiration of the human race). Even so, his financial acumen must not be under-estimated. He left the treasury with a surplus, as he had found it, and dealt promptly and efficiently with costly natural disasters. The Greek historian of the third-century A.D., Cassius Dio, perhaps offered the most accurate and succinct assessment of Titus' economic policy: "In money matters, Titus was frugal and made no unnecessary expenditure." In other areas, the brevity of Titus' reign limits our ability to detect major emphases or trends in policy. As far as can be discerned from the limited evidence, senior officials and amici were well chosen, and his legislative activity tended to focus on popular social measures, with the army as a particular beneficiary in the areas of land ownership, marriage, and testamentary freedom. In the provinces, Titus continued his father's policies by strengthening roads and forts in the East and along the Danube.

Titus died in September, A.D. 81 after only 26 months in office. Suetonius recorded that Titus died on his way to the Sabine country of his ancestors in the same villa as his father. A competing tradition persistently implicated his brother and successor, Domitian, as having had a hand in the emperor's demise, but the evidence is highly contradictory and any wrongdoing is difficult to prove. Domitian himself delivered the funeral eulogy and had Titus deified. He also built several monuments in honor of Titus and completed the Temple of Vespasian and Titus, changing the name of the structure to include his brother's and setting up his cult statue in the Temple itself.

Titus was the beneficiary of considerable intelligence and talent, endowments that were carefully cultivated at every step of his career, from his early education to his role under his father's principate. Cassius Dio suggested that Titus' reputation was enhanced by his early death. It is true that the ancient sources tend to heroicize Titus, yet based upon the evidence, his reign must be considered a positive one. He capably continued the work of his father in establishing the Flavian Dynasty and he maintained a high degree of economic and administrative competence in Italy and beyond. In so doing, he solidified the role of the emperor as paternalistic autocrat, a model that would serve Trajan and his successors well. Titus was used as a model by later emperors, especially those known as the Five Good Emperors (Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius).

Copyright (C) 1997, John Donahue.
Published: De Imperatoribus Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Rulers and their Families http://www.roman-emperors.org/startup.htm. Used by permission.

Catholic Encyclopedia, http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14746b.htm

Edited by J. P. Fitzgerald, Jr.
3 commentsCleisthenesDec 23, 2009
[901a]_NervaAntiochAE26.jpg
Nerva, 18 September 96 - 25 January 98 A.D., Antioch, SyriaBronze AE 26, BMC Syria, p. 182, 261, aVF, Antioch mint, weight 13.524g, maximum diameter 25.0mm, die axis 0o, Jan - Sep 97 A.D.; Obverse: IMP CAESAR NERVA AVG III COS, laureate head right; Reverse: large S C in wreath, D below; unbelievable portrait. Ex FORVM. Photo courtesy FORVM.

De Imperatoribus Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Rulers and their Families
Nerva (96-98 A.D.)


David Wend

Introduction
Although short, the reign of Marcus Cocceius Nerva (A.D. 96-98) is pivotal. The first of Edward Gibbon's so-called "Five Good Emperors," Nerva is credited with beginning the practice of adopting his heir rather than selecting a blood relative. Claimed as an ancestor by all the emperors down to Severus Alexander, he has traditionally been regarded with much good will at the expense of his predecessor, Domitian.

Ancestry
Nerva could claim eminent ancestry on both sides of his family. On the paternal side, his great-grandfather, M. Cocceius Nerva, was consul in 36 B.C.; his grandfather, a distinguished jurist of the same name, accompanied Tiberius on his retirement to Capri in 26 A.D. On his mother's side an aunt, Rubellia Bassa, was the great-granddaughter of Tiberius. In addition, a great-uncle, L. Cocceius Nerva, played a part in the negotiations that secured a treaty between Octavian and Antony in 40 B.C

Early Career and Life under Domitian
Nerva was born on 8 November, 30 A.D. Little is known of his upbringing beyond the fact that he belonged to a senatorial family and pursued neither a military nor a public speaking career. On the other hand, he did hold various priesthoods and was a praetor-designate. More importantly, as praetor designate in 65, Nerva was instrumental in revealing the conspiracy of Piso against the emperor Nero.

As a result, he received triumphal ornaments and his statue was placed in the palace. Following Nero's fall in 68, Nerva must have realized that support of Vespasian and the Flavian cause was in his best interests. In 71 his loyalty was rewarded with a joint consulship with the emperor, the only time that Vespasian ever held the office without his son Titus. It was under the reign of Vespasian's other son, Domitian, that Nerva's political fortunes were ultimately determined, however. He shared the ordinary consulship with Domitian in 90, an honor that was perhaps the result of his alerting the emperor about the revolt of Antonius Saturninus, the governor of Upper Germany, in 89. Even so, like so many others of the senatorial class, Nerva came under scrutiny in the final years of Domitian's reign, when the emperor was unwilling to tolerate any criticism.

Whether or not Nerva was forced to withdraw from public life during Domitian's final years remains an open question. What is not in dispute is that he was named emperor on the same day that Domitian was assassinated in September, 96. Indeed, in some respects the accession was improbable, since it placed the Empire under the control of a feeble sexagenarian and long-time Flavian supporter with close ties to the unpopular Domitian. On the other hand, Nerva had proven to be a capable senator, one with political connections and an ability to negotiate. Moreover, he had no children, thereby ensuring that the state would not become his hereditary possession.

Imperial Initiatives
Upon taking office, Nerva made immediate changes. He ordered the palace of Domitian to be renamed the House of the People, while he himself resided at the Horti Sallustiani, the favorite residence of Vespasian. More significantly, he took an oath before the senate that he would refrain from executing its members. He also released those who had been imprisoned by Domitian and recalled exiles not found guilty of serious crimes. Nevertheless, Nerva still allowed the prosecution of informers by the senate, a measure that led to chaos, as everyone acted in his own interests while trying to settle scores with personal enemies.

In the area of economic administration Nerva, like Domitian, was keen on maintaining a balanced budget. In early 97, after appointing a commission of five consular senators to give advice on reducing expenditures, he proceeded to abolish many sacrifices, races, and games. Similarly, he allowed no gold or silver statues to be made of himself. Even so, there was some room for municipal expenditure. For the urban poor of Italy he granted allotments of land worth 60 million sesterces, and he exempted parents and their children from a 5% inheritance tax. He also made loans to Italian landowners on the condition that they pay interest of 5% to their municipality to support the children of needy families. These alimentary schemes were later extended by Trajan, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius.

Because he reigned only briefly, Nerva's public works were few. By early 98 he dedicated the forum that Domitian had built to connect the Forum of Augustus with the Forum of Peace. It became known as the Forum of Nerva, or the Forum Transitorium. Nerva also built granaries, made repairs to the Colosseum when the Tiber flooded, and continued the program of road building and repairs inaugurated under the Flavians. In addition, pantomime performances, supressed by Domitian, were restored.

In the military realm, Nerva established veterans' colonies in Africa, a practice that was continued by the emperor Trajan. Normal military privileges were continued and some auxiliary units assumed the epithet Nervia or Nerviana. We are not well informed beyond these details, and any military action that may have occurred while Nerva was emperor is known sketchy at best.

Nature of Nerva's Government
Nerva's major appointments favored men whom he knew and trusted, and who had long served and been rewarded by the Flavians. Typical was Sextus Julius Frontinus. A consul under Vespasian and governor of Britain twenty years earlier, Frontinus came out of retirement to become curator of the water supply, an office that had long been subject to abuse and mismanagement. He helped to put an end to the abuses and published a significant work on Rome's water supply, De aquis urbis Romae. As a reward for his service, Frontinus was named consul for the second time in 98. Similarly, the emperor's own amici were often senators with Flavian ties, men who, by virtue of their links to the previous regime, were valuable to Nerva for what they knew. Thus do we find the likes of A. Didius Gallus Fabricius Veiiento, one of Domitian's ill-reputed counselors, seated next to Nerva at an imperial dinner. Nerva was less willing to consult the Senate as a whole. In many cases he preferred the opinions of his own consilium, and was less submissive than many senators would have liked. This attitude may have been responsible for hostile discontent among several senators.

Mutiny of the Praetorians and the Adoption of Trajan
It was not long before the assassination of Domitian came to work against the new emperor. Dissatisfied that Domitian had not been deified after his death, the praetorian guards mutinied under Casperius Aelianus in October 97. Taking the emperor as hostage, they demanded that Nerva hand over Domitian's murderers. The emperor not only relented, but was forced to give a public speech of thanks to the mutineers for their actions. His authority compomised, Nerva used the occasion of a victory in Pannonia over the Germans in late October, 97 to announce the adoption of Marcus Ulpius Traianus, governor of Upper Germany, as his successor. The new Caesar was immediately acclaimed imperator and granted the tribunicia potestas. Nerva's public announcement of the adoption settled succession as fact; he allowed no time to oppose his decision. From the German victory, Nerva assumed the epithet Germanicus and conferred the title on Trajan as well. He also made Trajan his consular colleague in 98.

Death and Deification
On January 1, 98, the start of his fourth consulship, Nerva suffered a stroke during a private audience. Three weeks later he died at his villa in the Gardens of Sallust. From his headquarters at Cologne, Trajan insisted that Nerva's ashes be placed in the mausoleum of Augustus and asked the senate to vote on his deification. We are further told that he dedicated a temple to Nerva, yet no trace of it has ever been found. Nor was a commemorative series of coins issued for the Deified Nerva in the wake of his death, but only ten years later.

Conclusion
Nerva's reign was more concerned with the continuation of an existing political system than with the birth of a new age. Indeed, his economic policies, his relationship with the senate, and the men whom he chose to govern and to offer him advice all show signs of Flavian influence. In many respects, Nerva was the right man at the right time. His immediate accession following Domitian's murder prevented anarchy and civil war, while his age, poor health and moderate views were perfect attributes for a government that offered a bridge between Domitian's stormy reign and the emperorships of the stable rulers to follow.

Copyright (C) 1998, David Wend.
Published: De Imperatoribus Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Rulers and their Families http://www.roman-emperors.org/startup.htm. Used by permission.

Edited by J. P. Fitzgerald, Jr.
CleisthenesOct 25, 2009

Random files - Cleisthenes's Gallery
Cnstntius2b.jpg
1407h, Constantius II, 337-361 A.D. (Heraclea)Constantius II 337-361 A.D. AE3, 2.80 grams, 330-333, Heraclea, aVF. Obverse: FL IVL CONSTANTIVS NOB C - Laureate bust right, draped and cuirassed; Reverse: GLOR-IA EXERC-ITVS - Two soldiers looking in at each other and both holding a spear; between them, two standards; SMHB in exergue.

Constantius II was born in Illyricum in August AD 317, the son of Constantine the Great and Fausta, and was proclaimed Caesar in AD 323.

In AD 337, at the death of his father Constantine, he acceded to the throne together with his two brothers Constantine II and Constans. But this accession by the three brothers was tainted by the murder of their cousins Dalmatius and Hannibalianus, whom Constantine had also intended as joint heirs. These murders are believed to have been masterminded by Constantius II.

Eventually, Constantius II was left as the sole emperor of the Roman empire. Constantius elevated his cousin, Julian, to the rank of Caesar (junior emperor) and gave him his sister Helena in marriage. Julian was assigned the task of dealing with the Frankish leader, Silvanus, who had proclaimed himself emepror at Colonia Agrippina. Julian's success led his men to declare him Augustus. Julian, while reluctant to take the throne, accepted.

Constantius II, therefore, left the Mesopotamian frontier and marched his troops west, seeking to deal with the usurper. As he reached Cilicia in the winter of AD 361, he was overcome by a sudden fever and died at Mopsucrene. Julian, the Apostate, succeded him as Emperor.

Our chief source for Constantius' reign is the great historian Ammianus Marcellinus. He presents a mixed view of that emperor. In some ways a sound administrator and competent general, Constantius is also portrayed as easily influenced by those around him such as his wives, courtiers and the eunuchs of the court (Ammianus 21. 16. 16). Ammianus (21.16.18) also attacks Constantius' great interest in Church affairs--alleging that he bankrupted the courier service with calls for Church councils. Of course, imperial interest in Church affairs was a major policy of his father Constantine and it may be that Constantius was trying to emulate his model (if only with mixed success). Indeed, Constantius II (like his brothers Constantine II and Constans) was raised a Christian. Among his many laws is the famous CTh 16.10.2 of 341 which either prohibited or re-issued his father's prohibition of pagan sacrifices. Sympathetic to Arianism, he spent a great deal of his reign calling Church councils. One of the longest-reigned emperors in Roman history, Constantius is hard for the modern historian to fully understand both due to his own actions and due to the interests of the authors of primary sources for his reign.
By Michael DiMaio, Jr., Salve Regina University & Robert Frakes, Clarion University
Published: De Imperatoribus Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Rulers and their Families http://www.roman-emperors.org/startup.htm. Used by permission.

Edited by J. P. Fitzgerald, Jr.
Cleisthenes
Istros_XPA_ArStater.jpg
[103ist] Istros, Thrace, 400 - 350 B.C.Silver stater, SNG Cop 196, S 1669, EF, Istros mint, 5.984g, 17.3mm, 0o, 400 - 350 B.C. Obverse: Facing male heads, right inverted; Reverse: ISTRIH, sea-eagle grasping a dolphin with talons, D between, XPA monogram below. Ex FORVM.

Istros is probably the oldest Greek colony on the Black Sea, and was founded in 657 - 656 B.C. or sometime between 630 and 620 B.C. by Milesian settlers in a strategic position near the Danube Delta. The first monetary emissions consisted of cast arrow-heads, later marked with a wheel or inscribed IST. Proper coins were minted from the 5th century: attic standard didrachms with an incuse square reverse and cast small bronzes marked with a wheel. Later the staters suffered several weight reductions, and the incuse technique was discontinued. In parallel, Istros minted silver fractions, and after the silver issues were halted in the Lysimachos era, the city struck gold staters. Later, the city issued autonomous bronze coinage and Roman Provincial coinage.

The obverse type has been variously interpreted as representing the Dioscuri, the rising and setting sun, and the two branches of the river Danube. - Greek Coins and Their Values, by David Sear.

http://www.forumancientcoins.com/catalog/indexfrm.asp

Edited by J. P. Fitzgerald, Jr.
Cleisthenes
VitelliusARdenariusVesta.jpg
709a, Vitellius, 2 January - 20 December 69 A.D.VITELLIUS AR silver denarius. RSC 72, RCV 2200. 19mm, 3.2 g. Obverse: A VITELLIVS GERM IMP AVG TR P, laureate head right; Reverse - PONT MAXIM, Vesta seated right, holding scepter and patera. Quite decent. Ex. Incitatus Coins. Photo courtesy of Incitatus Coins.

De Imperatoribus Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Rulers and their Families

Vitellius (69 A.D.)


John F. Donahue
College of William and Mary


It is often difficult to separate fact from fiction in assessing the life and reign of Vitellius. Maligned in the ancient sources as gluttonous and cruel, he was also a victim of a hostile biographical tradition established in the regime of the Flavians who had overthrown him. Nevertheless, his decision to march against Rome in 69 was pivotal, since his subsequent defeat signalled the end of military anarchy and the beginning of an extended period of political stability under Vespasian and his successors.

Early Life and Career

Aulus Vitellius was born in September, 15 AD, the son of Lucius Vitellius and his wife Sestilia. One of the most successful public figures of the Julio-Claudian period, Lucius Vitellius was a three-time consul and a fellow censor with the emperor Claudius. Aulus seems to have moved with equal ease in aristocratic circles, successively winning the attention of the emperors Gaius, Claudius, and Nero through flattery and political skill.

Among his attested public offices, Vitellius was a curator of public works, a senatorial post concerned with the maintenance and repair of public buildings in Rome, and he was also proconsul of North Africa, where he served as a deputy to his brother, perhaps about 55 A. D. In addition, he held at least two priesthoods, the first as a member of the Arval Brethren, in whose rituals he participated from 57 A.D., and the second, as one of the quindecemviri sacris faciundis, a sacred college famous for its feasts.

With respect to marriage and family, Vitellius first wed a certain Petroniana, the daughter of a consul, sometime in the early to mid thirties A.D. The union produced a son, Petronianus, allegedly blind in one eye and emancipated from his father's control as a result of being named his mother's heir. Tradition records that Vitellius killed the boy shortly after emancipation amid charges of parricide; the marriage soon ended in divorce. A second marriage, to Galeria Fundana, daughter of an ex-praetor, was more stable than the first. It produced another son, who was eventually killed by the Flavians after the overthrow of Vitellius, as well as a daughter. Galeria is praised by Tacitus for her good qualities, and in the end it was she who saw to Vitellius' burial.

Rise to Power and Emperorship

Without doubt, the most fortuitous moment in Vitellius' political career was his appointment as governor of Lower Germany by the emperor Galba late in 68. The decision seemed to have caught everybody by surprise, including Vitellius himself, who, according to Suetonius, was in straitened circumstances at the time. The choice may have been made to reduce the possibility of rebellion by the Rhine armies, disaffected by Galba's refusal to reward them for their part in suppressing the earlier uprising of Julius Vindex. Ironically, it was Vitellius' lack of military achievement and his reputation for gambling and gluttony that may have also figured in his selection. Galba perhaps calculated that a man with little military experience who could now plunder a province to satisfy his own stomach would never become disloyal. If so, it was a critical misjudgement by the emperor.

The rebellion began on January 1, 69 ("The Year of the Four Emperors"), when the legions of Upper Germany refused to renew their oath of allegiance to Galba. On January 2, Vitellius' own men, having heard of the previous day's events, saluted him as emperor at the instigation of the legionary legate Fabius Valens and his colleagues. Soon, in addition to the seven legions that Vitellius now had at his command in both Germanies, the forces in Gaul, Britain, and Raetia also came over to his side. Perhaps aware of his military inexperience, Vitellius did not immediately march on Rome himself. Instead, the advance was led by Valens and another legionary general, Aulus Caecina Alienus, with each man commanding a separate column. Vitellius would remain behind to mobilize a reserve force and follow later.

Caecina was already one hundred fifty miles on his way when news reached him that Galba had been overthrown and Otho had taken his place as emperor. Undeterred, he passed rapidly down the eastern borders of Gaul; Valens followed a more westerly route, quelling a mutiny along the way. By March both armies had successfully crossed the Alps and joined at Cremona, just north of the Po. Here they launced their Batavian auxiliaries against Otho's troops and routed them in the First Battle of Bedriacum. Otho killed himself on April 16, and three days later the soldiers in Rome swore their allegience to Vitellius. The senate too hailed him as emperor.

When Vitellius learned of these developments, he set out to Rome from Gaul. By all accounts the journey was a drunken feast marked by the lack of discipline of both the troops and the imperial entourage. Along the way he stopped at Lugdunum to present his six-year-old son Germanicus to the legions as his eventual successor. Later, at Cremona, Vitellius witnessed the corpse-filled battlefield of Otho's recent defeat with joy, unmoved by so many citizens denied a proper burial.

The emperor entered Rome in late June-early July. Conscious of making a break with the Julio-Claudian past, Vitellius was reluctant to assume the traditional titles of the princes, even though he enthusiastically made offerings to Nero and declared himself consul for life. To his credit, Vitellius did seem to show a measure of moderation in the transition to the principate. He assumed his powers gradually and was generally lenient to Otho's supporters, even pardoning Otho's brother Salvius Titianus, who had played a key role in the earlier regime. In addition, he participated in Senate meetings and continued the practice of providing entertainments for the Roman masses. An important practical change involved the awarding of posts customarily held by freedmen to equites, an indication of the growth of the imperial bureaucracy and its attractiveness to men of ambition.

In other matters, he replaced the existing praetorian guard and urban cohorts with sixteen praetorian cohorts and four urban units, all comprised of soldiers from the German armies. According to Tacitus, the decision prompted a mad scramble, with the men, and not their officers, choosing the branch of service that they preferred. The situation was clearly unsatisfactory but not surprising, given that Vitellius was a creation of his own troops. To secure his position further, he sent back to their old postings the legions that had fought for Otho, or he reassigned them to distant provinces. Yet discontent remained: the troops who had been defeated or betrayed at Bedriacum remained bitter, and detachments of three Moesian legions called upon by Otho were returned to their bases, having agitated against Vitellius at Aquileia.

Flavian Revolt

The Vitellian era at Rome was short-lived. By mid-July news had arrived that the legions of Egypt under Tiberius Julius Alexander had sworn allegiance to a rival emperor, Titus Flavius Vespasianus, the governor of Judaea and a successful and popular general. Vespasian was to hold Egypt while his colleague Mucianus, governor of Syria, was to invade Italy. Before the plan could be enacted, however, the Danube legions, former supporters of Otho, joined Vespasian's cause. Under the leadership of Antonius Primus, commander of the Sixth legion in Pannonia, and Cornelius Fuscus, imperial procurator in Illyricum, the legions made a rapid descent on Italy.

Although his forces were only half of what Vitellius commanded in Italy, Primus struck first before the emperor could muster additional reinforcements from Germany. To make matters worse for the Vitellians, Valens was ill, and Caecina, now consul, had begun collaborating with the Flavians. His troops refused to follow his lead, however, and arrested him at Hostilia near Cremona. They then joined the rest of the Vitellian forces trying to hold the Po River. With Vitellius still in Rome and his forces virtually leaderless, the two sides met in October in the Second Battle of Bedriacum. The emperor's troops were soundly defeated and Cremona was brutally sacked by the victors. In addition, Valens, whose health had recovered, was captured while raising an army for Vitellius in Gaul and Germany; he was eventually executed.

Meanwhile, Primus continued towards Rome. Vitellius made a weak attempt to thwart the advance at the Apennine passes, but his forces switched to the Flavian side without a fight at Narnia in mid-December. At Rome, matters were no better. Vespasian's elder brother, Titus Flavius Sabinus, the city prefect, was successful in an effort to convince Vitellius to abdicate but was frustrated by the mob in Rome and the emperor's soldiers. Forced to flee to the Capitol, Sabinus was set upon by Vitellius' German troops and soon killed, with the venerable Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus set ablaze in the process. Within two days, the Flavian army fought its way into Rome. In a pathetic final move, Vitellius disguised himself in dirty clothing and hid in the imperial doorkeeper's quarters, leaning a couch and a mattress against the door for protection. Dragged from his hiding place by the Flavian forces, he was hauled off half-naked to the Forum, where he was tortured, killed, and tossed into the Tiber. The principate could now pass to Vespasian.

Assessment

Vitellius has not escaped the hostility of his biographers. While he may well have been gluttonous, his depiction as indolent, cruel, and extravagant is based almost entirely on the propaganda of his enemies. On the other hand, whatever moderating tendencies he did show were overshadowed by his clear lack of military expertise, a deficiency that forced him to rely in critical situations on largely inneffective lieutenants. As a result he was no match for his Flavian successors, and his humiliating demise was perfectly in keeping with the overall failure of his reign.

Copyright (C) 1999, John Donahue.
Published: De Imperatoribus Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Rulers and their Families http://www.roman-emperors.org/startup.htm. Used by permission.

Edited by J. P. Fitzgerald, Jr.
Cleisthenes

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