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Biblical/Judean / AUGUSTUS, Marcus Ambibulus , Hendin-1329Augustus / Marcus Ambibulus, procurator of Judea under Augustus.
Marcus Ambibulus, procurator of Judea under Augustus, 9-12 AD, bronze prutah of 16 mm, 2.14 grams. Struck in the year 9 AD.
Jerusalem mint.
Obverse: Ear of grain, KAICA POC.
Reverse: Palm tree with 2 bunches of dates and date : LMO
Reference: Hendin-1329.

*Jesus was born sometime between 6 B.C. and 4 B.C.
According to St. Matthew, King Herod as the ruler during the time of the Nativity, and Herod died in 4 B.C. , according the dates of the later on struck coins with the new ruler name and dates (see note)
Later, to kill Jesus and eliminate him as a rival king, Herod ordered the "Massacre of the Innocents" - the killing of all male children in Bethlehem aged two years and under. This means that Jesus may have been up to two years old already by that time, and this sets the Nativity between 6 and 4 B.C.
**Surely All coins at that time were struck under the Roman emperor (who happened to be the first Roman emperor in history Augustus (Octavian) Not Julius Caesar as commonly known, Julius was only a dictator and Caesar during the Roman Republic time, never considered Emperor despite the title IMP on some of his coins).
The dates on coins struck during the time of Nativity, before that time, and even later, completely different story depends on the mint home , the ruler year and the kingdom or empire. Using AD (Anno Domini) was much later.

“Swear to me, young women of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or by the does of the field, that you won’t awaken or arouse love before its proper time.” Song of Solomon.

The Sam Mansourati Collection.
Given as a souvenir to a great man, a dear friend and brother Rev. Robert E. Burnock , on 2/25/2020.
2 commentsSam

Hugh Magnus: denier (Orléans)Hugh Magnus (Hugues de France in french) (1007-1025)
Denier (Orléans)

Billon, 1.28 g, diameter 17.5 mm, die axis 12h
O/ +D-I DEXTRA BE; city gate with an H on the left, a V below, a G on the right and a O on the top
R/ +AVRELIANIS CIVITAS; cross pattée

Hugh was the elder son of Robert II (the Pious), second capetian king of the Franks (996-1031). Hugues was crowned as an associate king in 1017. However, he died before his father and consequently he never ruled. No other son of a king of France had been called Hugh.

The obverse legend is a Christian one: dei dextra benedictus (blessed on God's right). As usual for Orléans mint, the I after the L in Avrelianis is in the angle.

D.375 Charles II the Bald (denier, class 2, Courcessin?)Charles the Bald, king of the Franks (840-877)
GDR denier (Courcessin?, class 2, 864-875)

Silver, 1.43 g, 19 mm diameter, die axis 12h

O/ +GRÎ›TIÎ› D-I REX; carolingian monogram
R/ +I.CVRTISÎ›SONIEH; cross pattée

In 864, Charles the Bald promulgated the edict of Pîtres, huge reform whose aim was to protect the kingdom from Viking raids. It also reinforced royal authority on minting, and created a new type of deniers . The new coins could be only struck at 10 mints (Palace, Chalon sur Saône, Melle, Narbonne, Orléans, Paris, Quentovic, Reims, Rouen and Sens). This limitation had never been applied, more than 110 mints struck the new coinage. This can be understood as a lack of control of the central autority. However it seems that several mints shared dies... Grierson and Blackburn proposed that only 10 main mints produced dies and partially outsourced coinage production ?
On the obverse is written GRATIA D-I REX (GDR) around a carolingian monogram. The alliance with Roman Church goes on... The reverse already existed for Class 1, with the mint name around a cross pattée.
Class 2 of Charles' coinage is made of these GDR deniers.

The precise localization of the mint in Normandie (north of France) is still not clear. According to Grierson and Blackburn, Courti(s) Sasonien(sis) may come from some groups of Saxons settled in northern part of Gaul.

Dy.202A Philip III (the Bold): Gros tournois Philip III, king of France (1270-1285)
Gros tournois (1270-1280)

Silver (958 ‰), 4.04 g, diameter 26 mm, die axis 1h30
O: inner circle: +PhILIPVS.REX; cross pattée; outer circle: BNDICTVâ‹®SITâ‹®HOmÐ„â‹®DNIâ‹®nRIâ‹®DÐ„Iâ‹®IhV.XPI
R: inner circle: +TVRONV.S.CIVIS; châtel tournois; outer circle: a circlet of 12 fleur-de-lis

This type exactly continued the Gros tournois of Saint Louis, Philip's father.

Dy.213 Philip IV (the Fair): Gros tournois with a round OPhilip IV, king of France (1285-1314)
Gros tournois with a round O (1280-1290)

Silver (958 ‰), 4.07 g, diameter 26 mm, die axis 12h
O: inner circle: +PhILIPPVS REX; cross pattée; outer circle: BNDICTVâ‹®SITâ‹®HOmÐ„â‹®DNIâ‹®nRIâ‹®DÐ„Iâ‹®IhV.XPI
R: inner circle: +TVRONVS.CIVIS; châtel tournois; outer circle: a circlet of 12 fleur-de-lis

This type was struck during 1280-1285 (end of Philipp III's reign) and 1285-1290 (beginning of Philip IV's reign). The only difference with the Gros tournois of the first part of Philip III's reign is PHILIPPVS, spelled with 2 P intead of 1.

Dy.214 Philip IV (the Fair): Gros tournois with a long 0Philip IV, king of France (1285-1314)
Gros tournois with long 0 (1290-1295)

Silver (958 ‰), 3.96 g, diameter 26 mm, die axis 11h
O: inner circle: +PhILIPPVS REX; cross pattée; outer circle: BNDICTVâ‹®SITâ‹®HOmÐ„â‹®DNIâ‹®nRIâ‹®DÐ„Iâ‹®IhV.XPI
R: inner circle: +TVR0NVS CIVIS; châtel tournois; outer circle: a circlet of 12 fleur-de-lis

The only difference between this emission and the previous one is the 0 in TVR0NVS, which is now long instead of round.

Dy.217 Philip IV (the Fair): Gros tournois with a long 0 and a lilyPhilip IV, king of France (1285-1314)
Gros tournois with long 0 and a lily (1298)

Silver (958 ‰), 3.98 g, diameter 27 mm, die axis 7h
O: inner circle: +PhILIPPVS(ringlet)REX; cross pattée; outer circle: BNDICTVâ‹®SITâ‹®HOmÐ„â‹®DNIâ‹®nRIâ‹®DÐ„Iâ‹®IhV.XPI
R: inner circle: +TVR0NVS*CIVIS; châtel tournois; outer circle: a circlet of 12 fleur-de-lis

Dy.219d Philip IV (the Fair): maille tierce with a round OPhilip IV, king of France (1285-1314)
Maille tierce with round O (09/1306)

Silver (958 ‰), 1.27 g, diameter 18.5 mm, die axis 11h
O: inner circle: +PhILIPPVS REX; cross pattée; outer circle: BHDICTV⋮SIT⋮HOmЄn⋮DOmInI
R: inner circle: +TVRONVS CIVIS; châtel tournois; outer circle: a circlet of 10 fleur-de-lis

Dy.238 Philip V (the Tall): Gros tournois Philip V, king of France (1316-1322)
Gros tournois (1318)

Silver (958 ‰), 3.93 g, diameter 26mm, die axis 12h

O: inner circle: +PhILIPPVS(hammer)REX; cross pattée; outer circle: BHDICTVâ‹®
SITâ‹®HOmÐ„â‹®DNIâ‹®nRIâ‹®DÐ„Iâ‹®IhVâ‹®XPI
R: inner circle: +TVRONVS(hammer)CIVIS; châtel tournois;
outer circle: a circlet of 12 fleur-de-lis

At first sight, Philip V's gros tournois are very similar to his father's ones. However, the general style is quite different: Philip V's tournois have a stretched castle, thiner letters with more space between them (especially for TVRONVS CIVIS), n of nOmÐ„ is an n but not an N) and ⋮ instead of . between IhV and XPI. Moreover, it is commonly thought that a hammer (like here) or a crescent separating TVRONVS/CIVIS and PHILIPPVS/REX is a typical feature of Philip V.

Philip V's gros tournois are scarcer than Philip IV's. His reign was shorter and a silver lack prevented him from minting as much as he wanted. Philip had to forbid the production of silver items like dishes in order to keep silver for minting.

Dy.243 Charles IV (the Fair): maille blanche, 1st emissionCharles IV, king of France (1322-1328)
Maille blanche, 1st emission (03/02/1324)

Silver (798 ‰), 1.82 g, diameter 22 mm, die axis 2h
O: inner circle: +kAROLVS(diamond)REX; cross pattée; outer circle: BHDICTV⋮SIT#8942nOmÐ„⋮DHI⋮nRI
R: inner circle: +FRANChORVm*; châtel tournois; outer circle: a circlet of 10 fleur-de-lis

The h of FRANChORVm is characteristic of the first emission.

Charles was the younger and third son of former king Philip the Fair. He was consequently not supposed to rule. However, as his two brothers successively died without any living son, he became king in 1322. Six years later, he also died without a male heir. So ended up the capetian senior line in 1328.
The legend began then... Jacques de Molay, last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, had cursed King Philip the Fair and his descendants from his execution pyr in 1314. Was the curse finally efficient ?
Charles'cousin, his nearest parent, became then king of France as Philip VI.

Dy.243A Charles IV (the Fair): maille blanche, 2ond emissionCharles IV, king of France (1322-1328)
Maille blanche, 2ond emission (07/1324)

Silver (798 ‰), 1.74 g, diameter 21-22 mm, die axis 10h
O: inner circle: +(spade)kAROLVS REX; cross pattée; outer circle: BHDICTV⋮SIT(ring)nOmÐ„⋮DHI⋮nRI
R: inner circle: +FRANCORVm(ring); châtel tournois; outer circle: a circlet of 10 fleur-de-lis, the top one being between 2 dots, which is characteristic of the 2ond emission

Dy.243D Charles IV (the Fair): maille blanche, 3rd emissionCharles IV, king of France (1322-1328)
Maille blanche, 3rd emission (07/23/1326)

Silver (718 ‰), 1.64 g, diameter 22 mm, die axis 11h
O: inner circle: +kAROLVS(square)RE•X•; cross pattée; outer circle: BHDICTV⋮SIT(ring)nOmÐ„⋮DHI⋮nRI
R: inner circle: +FRANCORVm; châtel tournois; outer circle: a circlet of 10 fleur-de-lis, the top one being between 2 dots

The RE•X• on the reverse is characteristic of the 3rd emission. Most of the time, the top fleur-de-lis is also surrounded by two dots, similarly to the 2ond emission.

Dy.262 Philip VI (of Valois): Gros à la couronne, 1st emissionPhilip VI, king of France (1328-1350)
Gros à la couronne, 1st emission (01/01/1337)

Silver (851 ‰), 2.51 g, diameter 25 mm, die axis 5h
O: inner circle: (ringlet)PhI-LIP-PVS-REX; legend interrupted by a cross pattée; outer circle: BnDICTV⋮SIT⋮nOmÐ„⋮DNIâ‹®nRI⋮DÐ„I
R: inner circle: +FRANCORVm; châtel tournois under a crown, with 3 bullets inside; outer circle: a circlet of 11 fleur-de-lis

Philip VI is the first non direct capetian king. He was the cousin of the 3 previous kings.
The Gros tournois hadn't changed since its creation by Saint Louis. During Philip VI's reign, 3 new types of Gros were struck, with lighter weight and less silver. These monetary difficulties may be related to the premisses of the One Hundred Years' war and French military defeats.

The 3 bullets in the chatel (without any star below) are characteristic of the 1st emission.

Dy.262A1 Philip VI (of Valois): Gros à la couronne, 2ond emissionPhilip VI, king of France (1328-1350)
Gros à la couronne, 2ond emission (10/31/1338)

Silver (639 ‰), 2.44 g, diameter 23 mm, die axis 12h
O: inner circle: (ringlet)PhI-LIP-PVS-REX; legend interrupted by a cross pattée; outer circle: BnDICTV⋮SIT⋮nOmÐ„⋮DNIâ‹®nRI⋮DÐ„I
R: inner circle: +FRANCORVm(T); châtel tournois under a crown, with 3 bullets inside and a star below; outer circle: a circlet of 11 fleur-de-lis
(slightly double struck) reverse

The 3 bullets in the chatel and the star below are characteristic of the 2ond emission.

Dy.262B Philip VI (of Valois): Gros à la couronne, 3rd emissionPhilip VI, king of France (1328-1350)
Gros à la couronne, 3rd emission (01/29/1340)

Silver (559 ‰), 2.33 g, diameter 24 mm, die axis 3h
O: inner circle: PhI-LIP-PVS-REX; legend interrupted by a cross pattée; outer circle: BnDICTV⋮SITâ‹®HOmÐ„⋮DNIâ‹®nRI⋮DÐ„I
R: inner circle: +FRANCORVm; châtel tournois under a crown, with 2x inside and a ringlet below; outer circle: a circlet of 11 fleur-de-lis

As expected, the silver percentage is lower than for the previous emission.
The 2 x in the chatel (quite hard to distinguish !) and the ringlet below are characteristic of the 3rd emission.

Dy.262C Philip VI (of Valois): Gros à la couronne, 4th emissionPhilip VI, king of France (1328-1350)
Gros à la couronne, 4th emission (04/06/1340)

White billon (479 ‰), 2.16 g, diameter 24 mm, die axis 3h
O: inner circle: PhI-LIP-PVS-REX; legend interrupted by a cross pattée and 4 ringlets at its boundaries; outer circle: BnDICTV⋮SIT⋮nOmÐ„⋮DNIâ‹®nRI⋮DÐ„I
R: inner circle: +FRANCORVm; châtel tournois under a crown and 2 fleurs-de-lis, with a ring inside; a circlet of 10 fleur-de-lis and a small cross

The silver content goes on lowering.
The ring in the chatel is characteristic of the 4th emission.

Dy.263 Philip VI (of Valois): Gros à la fleur de lis, 2ond emission ?Philip VI, king of France (1328-1350)
Gros à la fleur de lis (3 emissions between 1341 and 1343)

White billon (479 ‰), 2.50 g, diameter 24 mm, die axis 6h
O: inner circle: +PhILIPPVS.REX; cross pattée with a fleur-de-lis in the NE quadrant; outer circle: BnDICTV⋮SIT⋮HOmÐ„⋮DNIâ‹®nRI⋮DÐ„I
R: inner circle: +FRANCORVm; fleur-de-lis; outer circle: a circle of 10 fleur-de-lis

The 3 emissions are very similar, the weight is the only difference. This coin may belong to the 2ond emission.

Dy.265 Philip VI (of Valois): Gros à la queuePhilip VI, king of France (1328-1350)
Gros à la queue (09/27/1348 and 01/15/1349)

White billon (479 ‰), 3.33 g, diameter 26 mm, die axis 6h
O: inner circle: (crown)PhILIP-PVS.REX; legend interrupted by a cross pattée; outer circle: BnDICTV⋮SIT⋮nOmÐ„⋮DNIâ‹®nRI⋮DÐ„I⋮IhV⋮XPI
R: inner circle: +TVRONVS.CIVIS; châtel tournois with 3 archs under a crown; outer circle: a circlet of 12 fleur-de-lis

This Gros was struck at the end of Philip's reign and contains a quite small amount of silver.

(500a) Roman Republic, 119 BC, M. Furius Philius - Furia 18Roman Republic, 119 BC, M. Furius Philius - Furia 18. Crawford 281/1, Sydenham 529; 19mm, 3.23 grams. aVF, Rome; Obverse: laureate head of Janus, M FORVRI L F around; Reverse: Roma standing left erecting trophy, Galic arms around, PHLI in exergue. Ex Ephesus Numismatics.

Gauis Marius
As a novus homo, or new man, Marius found the rise in the Roman cursus honorum ( "course of honours"-- the sequential order of public offices held by aspiring politicians in the Roman Republic) a daunting challenge. It is certain that he used his old family client contacts and his military relations as a source of support. Among these contacts were the powerful Metelli family, and their early support was to prove to be a disaster for them. Just a few short years after his service as Quaestor, Marius was elected Tribune of the Plebes in 119 BC. In this position so soon after the political turmoil and murder of the Gracchi brothers (Gaius murdered 123 BC), Marius chose to follow the populares path, making a name for himself under similar auspices. As Tribune, he would ensure the animosity of the conservative faction of the Senate, and the Metelli, by passing popular laws forbidding the inspection of ballot boxes. In do doing, he directly opposed the powerful elite, who used ballot inspection as a way to intimidate voters in the citizen assembly elections.

Marius would go on to be elected Consul seven times and figure prominantly in the civil unrest of the early eighties as Lucius Cornelius Sulla's opponent. In 88 BC, Sulla had been elected Consul. There was now a choice before the Senate about which general to send to Asia (a potentially lucrative command): either Marius or Sulla. The Senate chose Sulla, but soon the Assembly appointed Marius. In this unsavory episode of low politics, Marius had been helped by the unscrupulous actions of Publius Sulpicius Rufus, whose debts Marius had promised to erase. Sulla refused to acknowledge the validity of the Assembly's action.

Sulla left Rome and traveled to "his"army waiting in Nola, the army the Senate had asked him to lead to Asia. Sulla urged his legions to defy the Assembly's orders and accept him as their rightful leader. Sulla was successful, and the legions murdered the representatives from the Assembly. Sulla then commanded six legions to march with him opon Rome and institute a civil war.

This was a momentous event, and was unforeseen by Marius, as no Roman army had ever marched upon Rome—it was forbidden by law and ancient tradition.

Sulla was to eventually rule Rome as Dictator. In his book Rubicon, historian Tom Holland argues that Sulla's actions had no lasting negative effect upon the health of the Republic, that Sulla was at heart a Republican. However, once a Roman general has defied Republican tradition, once a Roman general has used his command to combat fellow Romans, once a Roman general has set-up himself as Dictator--it follows that the decision to replicate these decsions (think: Caesar and Rubicon) is that much more easiely taken.

J. P. Fitzgerald, Jr.

Cleisthenes

00 - 01 - Marco Junio BrutoMarcus Junius Brutus, al ser adoptado por su Tío toma el nombre de Quintus Servilius Caepio Brutus

AR Denario 18,00 mm de 3,60 gr.

Anv: "BRVTVS", Busto a cabeza desnuda de Lucio Junio Bruto a der.
1er.Consul y fundador de la República Romana en el 509 A.C., luego de participar activamente en la conspiración para derrocar a Tarquino "El Soberbio", último Rey de Roma
Rev: "AHALA", Busto a cabeza desnuda de Cayo Servilio Ahala a der.
Magister Equitum (Maestro de caballos) en el 439 D.C., autor del magnicidio del Dictador Espurio Melio en defensa de la República auque muchos autores atribuyen este asesinato a su deseo de convertirse en Rey de Roma

Acuñada por, quizás, el mas famosos de los asesinos de Julio Cesar, unos 10 años antes y a la edad de 31 años cuando desempeñaba uno de sus primeros cargos públicos como Magistrado Monetario. A travéz de esta moneda se atribuye la descendencia paterna de Lucio Junio Bruto y Materna de Cayo Servilio Ahala, dos defensores de la República y magnicidas; además muestra su fuerte defensa de la Res Pública, oposición a la tiranía y convencimiento que existía el homicidio justificable, valores que pondría mas tarde en práctica.
También se cree que esta moneda es una advertencia a Pompeyo "El Grande", quien tenía intensiones de convertirse en Dictador.

Acuñada durante los años 54 A.C. (s/RRC) ó 59 A.C. (s/BMCRR)
Ceca: Roma.

Referencias: Craw.RRC 433/2 - Syd. CRR #907 - BMCRR Roma #3864 - RSC vol.I #Junia 30, p.56 y #Servilia 17, p.89 - Sear RCTV Vol.I #398, p.149 - Albert #1362 - Mabbott #4079 - Catalli #617, p.2001 - Vagi #82 - Harlan RRM #3-4, pag.20mdelvalle

000a. L. Sulla and L. Manlius ToruatusL. Sulla and L. Manlius Torquatus. 82 BC. AR Denarius (18mm, 3.89 g, 7h). Military mint moving with Sulla. Helmeted head of Roma right / Sulla driving triumphal quadriga right, holding branch and reins, being crowned by Victory flying left. Crawford 367/5; Sydenham 757 or 757a; Manlia 4 or 5. Near VF, toned, a few light scratches on the obverse.

From the Elwood Rafn Collection.

As consul for the year 88 BC, Sulla was awarded the coveted assignment of suppressing the revolt of Mithradates VI of Pontus, but political maneuvers resulted in this assignment being transferred to Marius. In response, Sulla turned his army on Rome, captured it, and reclaimed his command against Mithradates. His prosecution of the first Mithradatic War was successful, but he spared the Pontic king for personal gain. In 83 BC, Sulla returned to Italy as an outlaw, but he was able to win the support of many of the leading Romans. Within a year, he fought his way to Rome, where he was elected dictator. It was during this campaign to Rome that this denarius was struck. The obverse type represents Sulla's claim to be acting in Rome's best interest. The reverse shows Sulla enjoying the highest honor to which a Roman could aspire: the celebration of a triumph at Rome.ecoli

001a. Julius CaesarBorn in a patrician family, but he became identified as an advocate for the Roman public, as opposed to the Senatorial class. In 60 BC, he, Crassus, and Pompey formed the First Triumvirate. This alliance crumbled and Pompey became an opponent. Caesar had major successes in his campaigns in Gaul, but faced a political crisis in Rome. As a result, he occupied Rome with his legions in 49 BC. He won the civil war against Pompey and his adherents, but generally pardoned his opponents. He was appointed as dictator, first for limited terms and then for life. He was assassinated on 15 March 44 BC.

Coin: Denarius. 46-45 BC. Spanish mint. Obv: Diademed head of Venus right, Cupid on her shoulder. Rev: CAESAR below Gallia and Gaulish captive seated beneath trophy of Gallic arms. Crawford 468/1.lawrence c

001j. Octavian001j. Octavian
Great-nephew of Julius Caesar, who named him as heir in his will. Octavian used this de facto legitimacy to maneuver for power. In 43 BC he, Mark Antony and Marcus Lepidus formed the Second Triumvirate to defeat the assassins of Caesar. The Triumvirate began proscriptions in which over 2,000 (mostly wealthy) Romans were branded as traitors, deprived of their property, and either executed or driven into exile. This served both to eliminate enemies, and to fill the coffers of the three. Following their victory at the Battle of Philippi (42 BC), the Triumvirate divided the Roman Republic among themselves and ruled as de facto dictators. The Triumvirate collapsed, and Octavian and Antony eventually fell into all-out war. Primarily due to the military leadership of Agrippa, Octavian won the war, with the decisive victory at Actium in 31 BC. Although Octavian made displays of personal bravery on several occasions, he demonstrated little aptitude for generalship. Octavian then consolidated his power in Rome. A note on naming: he was born Gaius Octavius; after Julius Caesar's death, Octavian insisted on being called Caesar. It was primarily his opponents who continued to call him Octavian. It is now primarily a matter of convenience to use the name Octavian for him in the pre-Augustus period prior to 27 BC.

Coin: Summer 37 BC. AR Denarius (18.5mm, 3.68 g, 12h). Mint in southern or central Italy. Bare head right, wearing beard / Emblems of the augurate and pontificate: simpulum, aspergillum, guttus, and lituus. Crawford 538/1; CRI 312; Sydenham 1334; RSC 91; RBW 1826. From the Kalevala Collection. Ex Bacchus Collection (Heritage 61175, 25 October 2020), lot 97135. CNG Triton XXVII – Session 5, Lot 5665 (17 Jan 2024)1 commentslawrence c

006. Nero (54 AD - 68 AD) Nero, last of the Julio-Claudians, had been placed in the difficult position of absolute authority at a young age coupled with the often-contradictory efforts of those in a position to manipulate him. Augustus, however, had not been much older when he began his bid for power, and so a great deal of the responsibility for Nero's conduct must also rest with the man himself. Nero's reign was not without military operations (e.g., the campaigns of Corbulo against the Parthians, the suppression of the revolt of Boudicca in Britain), but his neglect of the armies was a critical error.

Nero As, 26x27 mm, 10.0 g. Obverse: Nero laureate right, NERO CAESAR AVG GERM IMP. Reverse: Temple of Janus, with latticed window to left and closed double doors to right, PACE PR VBIQ PARTA IANVM CLVSIT, SC.

Check1 commentsecoli

01 05 Julius CaesarJulius Caesar. AR Denarius. Utica? Mint. 46 A.D. (3.7g, 16mm, 10h). Obv: DICT ITER COS TERT, head of Ceres right, wreathed with grain. Rev: AVGVR PONT MAX, emblems of the augurate and pontificate; aspergillum, guttus, and lituus; M (munus=gift) to right. Craw. 467/1b, Syd. 1024.

This was likely used as a donative by Caesar during his triumph of 46 B.C. While porous, this example is well centered, and the M is clearly on the flan.1 commentsLucas H

011 HarthacnutPenny of Harthacnut, king of Denmark 1035-1042 and England 1040-1042
Danish issue as king of Denmark
Moneyer: Toci
Mint: Lund
S. 1170, Hbg 28 (var.)
Hauberg 28
O: NARÐECII
R: TOOCI ON LVNDI

Danish coin of Harthacnut, imitating the long cross type of Aethelred II. Harthacnut faces left with a nice head of bushy hair, looking somewhat more like a rooster's comb. In front of him is an extended hand, which seems to be clothed in a gauntlet. The lanky fingers look almost skeletal. The significance of this hand may be related to similar imagery of the 'benediction hand' on other coins of Aethelred II. This similar hand is also seen on late Roman coins. This image only appears on coins of Toci. Toci also struck coins for Cnut the Great, Magnus the Good, and Cnut IV.

Ex- Hafnia coins, Künker Auction 194 (lot 2132)St. George's Collection

013. M. Junius Brutus.Denarius, 54 BC, Rome mint.
Obverse: BRVTVS / Bust of L. Junius Brutus.
Reverse: AHALA / Bust of C. Servilius Ahala.
4.09 gm., 19 mm.
Syd. #907; RSC #Junia 30; Sear #398.

The moneyer of this coin is the same Brutus who killed Julius Caesar. However, this coin was minted about a decade earlier. It portrays two ancestors of Brutus:

1. L. Junius Brutus lead the Romans to expel their king L. Tarquinius Superbus. He was one of the founding fathers of the Roman Republic, and was elected one of the first consuls in 509 BC.

2. C. Cervilius Ahala. In 439 BC, during a food shortage in Rome, Spurius Maelius, the richest patrician, bought as much food as he could and sold it cheaply to the people. The Romans, always fearful of kings, thought he wanted to be king. So an emergency was declared and L. Cincinnatus was proclaimed Dictator. Maelius was ordered to appear before Cincinnatus, but refused. So Ahala, as Magister Equitam, killed him in the Forum. Ahala was tried for this act, but escaped condemnation by voluntary exile. 4 commentsCallimachus

0163 Hadrian Orichalcum Sestertius, Roma 118 AD Hadrian and Liberalitas Reference.
RIC II, 552; Strack 516; Hunter II 324, BMCRE III 1137, Cohen II 914, SRCV II 3606 var. (band over shoulder, S - C at sides); Banti 488; RIC III, 163

Bust A4

Obv. IMP CAESAR TRAIANVS HADRIANVS AVG
Laureate bust with drapery.

Rev. PONT MAX TR POT COS II / S C LIBERALITAS AVG
Hadrian seated left on curule chair set on platform, hand extended towards attendant, seated left, who is making distribution to citizen scaling platform steps with fold of toga held out; in background Liberalitas standing left, holding up coin scoop

25.81 gr
35 mm
6h

Note.
The generosity and munificent largesses of Hadrian, after having been recorded many times on various coins and in diverse ways, are on the reverse of a first brass medal of great rarity, glorified altogether by the above splendid title, "The Benefactor of the World," a superlative the more remarkable, inasmuch as, neither before nor afterward, is it found conferred on any other emperor. -- Dictionary| of Roman| Coins|
FORVM coin5 commentsokidoki

02 - 04 - Julio Cesar (49 - 44 A.C.)AR Denario 20/18 mm de 3,5 gr.

Anv: COS·TERT·DICT·ITER, Cabeza de Ceres a der.
Rev: AVGVR / PONT MAX , D (Donativum) en campo der., Emblemas sacerdotales, Simpulum (Copa pequeña con mango), aspergillum/aspersorio (Instrumento para espolvorear o rociar), capis y Lituus/lituo (bastón ritual augural).

Esta serie fue acuñada, probablemente, para el pago de las Legiones Victoriosas en la batalla de Thapsus/Tapso (Túnez), en la cual Julio César consiguió una victoria importante sobre Metelo Escipión y el rey númida Juba I, el 6 de abril del 46 A.C.. Por otro lado Ceres es un emblema de África.

Acuñada 46 A.C.
Ceca: Movil legionaria durante sus campañas probablemente en Útica (Norte de África).

Referencias: Craw. 467/1a, Syd. #1023, BMCRR (África)#21, RSC I Caesar #4a P.106, Babelon II Iulia #16 P.14, Sear RCTV I #1403/1 P.268, Cohen I #4 P.8, Sear Imperators #57mdelvalle

0371 Hadrian Denarius Roma 119-23 AD Libertas Reference.
RIC 371; Strack 75; RIC II, 128; BMC 290; C. 907.

Bust A2

Obv. IMP CAESAR TRAIAN-HADRIANVS AVG
Laureate bust, with drapery

Rev. P M TR P COS-III LIB | PVB in field
Libertas standing left, holding pileus and vindicta

3.30 gr
mm
h1 commentsokidoki

0373A Hadrian Denarius Roma 119-23 AD LibertasReference.
RIC 373A.; Strack 75; RIC II, 128; BMC 290; C. 907.

Bust C2

Obv. IMP CAESAR TRAIAN-HADRIANVS AVG
Laureate, draped, bust viewed from back

Rev. P M TR P COS-III LIB | PVB in field
Libertas standing left, holding pileus and vindicta

3.36 gr
20 mm
6h2 commentsokidoki

07 02 Galba, RIC I 211Galba. AD 68-69. AR Denarius. Rome mint. (18mm, 2.88 g, 6h). Obv: IMP SER GALBA CAESAR AVG, laureate head right. Rev: SALVS GEN HVMANI, Salus advancing left, foot on globe, holding patera over altar and carrying rudder. RIC I 211; RSC 238. CNG 264, lot 391.

According to the Roman Dictionary of Coins, this type alludes to Galba’s taking over revolt during Vindex’s revolt due to his high birth and political connections. The reverse inscription invokes the safety, health, and wellbeing of the human race.Lucas H

0718 Hadrian Denarius Roma 124-127 AD Libertas Reference.
RIC 718; Strack 142; cf RIC 175 (HADRIANVS AVGVSTVS)

Bust A2

Obv. HADRIANVS AVGVST
Laureate head with drapery.

Rev. COS III
Libertas standing left holding pileus and long vindicta/rod

3.34 gr
18 mm
6hokidoki

0720 Hadrian Denarius Roma 124-127 AD Libertas Reference.
RIC 175d; Strack 169; RIC 720

Bust A2

Obv. HADRIANVS AVGVSTVS
Laureate head with drapery

Rev. COS III
Libertas standing left holding pileus and vindicta/rod

2.83 gr
20 mm
hokidoki

0720 Hadrian Denarius Roma 124-127 AD LibertasReference.
RIC 175d; Strack 169; RIC 720

Bust A2

Obv. HADRIANVS AVGVSTVS
Laureate head with drapery

Rev. COS III
Libertas standing left holding pileus and vindicta/rod

3.20 gr
19 mm
6hokidoki

077 - Severus Alexander denarius - RIC 095Obv:– IMP SEV ALEXAND AVG Laureate head right
Rev:– P M TR P VIII COS II P P, Libertas standing left holding pileus and vindicta
References:– VM 44/5, RIC 95, RSC 731maridvnvm

079a. Constantius ICaesar under Maximianus 293-305
Western emperor 305-306

Illyrian. Refused to implement Diocletian’s edict against Christians. Excellent military commander. Died in York. Father of Constantine I.
lawrence c

0ab Lucius Cornelius Sulla FelixL Manlivs, moneyer
82-72 BC

Denarius

Head of Roma, right, MANLI before, PRO Q behind
Sulla in walking quadriga, crowned by Victory, L SVLLA IM in ex.

Seaby, Manlia 4

Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix (c. 138 BC – 78 BC) was a Roman general and conservative statesman. He had the distinction of holding the office of consul twice, as well as reviving the dictatorship. Sulla was awarded a grass crown, the most prestigious and rarest Roman military honor, during the Social War. He was the first man to lead an army to Rome to settle a political dispute, in this case with Marius. In late 81 BC, he stunned the world by resigning his near-absolute powers, restoring constitutional government. After seeing election to and holding a second consulship, he retired to private life and died shortly after.

As to the person, Plutarch wrote: LUCIUS Cornelius Sylla was descended of a patrician or noble family. . . . His general personal appearance may be known by his statues; only his blue, eyes, of themselves extremely keen and glaring, were rendered all the more forbidding and terrible by the complexion of his face, in which white was mixed with rough blotches of fiery red. . . . And when supreme master of all, he was often wont to muster together the most impudent players and stage-followers of the town, and to drink and bandy jests with them without regard to his age or the dignity of his place, and to the prejudice of important affairs that required his attention. When he was once at table, it was not in Sylla's nature to admit of anything that was serious, and whereas at other times he was a man of business and austere of countenance, he underwent all of a sudden, at his first entrance upon wine and good-fellowship, a total revolution, and was gentle and tractable with common singers and dancers, and ready to oblige any one that spoke with him. It seems to have been a sort of diseased result of this laxity that he was so prone to amorous pleasures, and yielded without resistance to any temptation of voluptuousness, from which even in his old age he could not refrain. He had a long attachment for Metrobius, a player. In his first amours, it happened that he made court to a common but rich lady, Nicopolis by name, and what by the air of his youth, and what by long intimacy, won so far on her affections, that she rather than he was the lover, and at her death she bequeathed him her whole property. He likewise inherited the estate of a step-mother who loved him as her own son. By these means he had pretty well advanced his fortunes. . . . In general he would seem to have been of a very irregular character, full of inconsistencies with himself much given to rapine, to prodigality yet more; in promoting or disgracing whom he pleased, alike unaccountable; cringing to those he stood in need of, and domineering over others who stood in need of him, so that it was hard to tell whether his nature had more in it of pride or of servility. As to his unequal distribution of punishments, as, for example, that upon slight grounds he would put to the torture, and again would bear patiently with the greatest wrongs; would readily forgive and he reconciled after the most heinous acts of enmity, and yet would visit small and inconsiderable offences with death and confiscation of goods; one might judge that in himself he was really of a violent and revengeful nature, which, however, he could qualify, upon reflection, for his interest.
Blindado

100 Réis - Getúlio Vargas 1940 CE

Obverse: Portrait of Getúlio Dornelles Vargas (1882-1954) left, President of Brazil, first as dictator, from 1930 to 1945, and in a democratically elected term from 1951 until his suicide in 1954. GETULIO VARGAS
Engraver: Orlando Moutinho Maia

Reverse: Denomination above date encircled by Marajoara decoration collar. BRASIL - 100 - RÉIS - 1940
Engraver: Leopoldo Alves CamposPericles J2

1078-1081 AD - Nicephorus III - Sear 1889 - Anonymous FollisEmperor: Nicephorus III (r. 1078-1081 AD)
Date: 1078-1081 AD
Condition: Fair
Denomination: Anonymous Follis (Class I)

Obverse: Bust of Christ facing, wearing nimbus cruciger, pallium and colobium, and raising right hand in benediction; in left hand, book of Gospels; to left,

; to right,

; normal border.

Reverse: Latin cross, with X at centre, and globule and two pellets at each extremity; in lower field, on either side, floral ornament; in upper field, on either side, crescent.

Constantinople mint
Sear 1889
3.35g; 25.6mm; 180°Pep

107b. EudoxiaAelia Eudoxia. Wife of Arcadius. Daughter of Frankish general. She controlled Arcadius during much of his reign. Died 404. Very pious Christian who influenced Arcadius in his religious edicts.lawrence c

117-138 AD - HADRIAN AR denarius - struck 118 ADobv: IMP CAESAR TRAIAN HADRIANVS AVG (laureate bust right, cuirassed, draped far shoulder)
rev: P M TR P COS II (Justice is seated on the curule chair, as on a tribunal: with the insignia of the hasta pura and the extended patera she displays her care for religion), IVSTITIA in ex.
ref: RIC II 42, RSC 877
mint: Rome
3.25gms, 19mm

Rare cuirassed bust, RIC not describes (c - not in RIC). Unfortunately the reverse is burned, but still valuable.
The reverse perhaps refer to the edictum perpetuum or Pretorian edict, what was an annual declaration made by the praetor urbanus in which he laid out the principles by which he would exercise his jurisdiction for his year in office. Under Hadrian, the edict became fixed and unchangeable.
And there's an other fact that can refer this reverse. When Hadrian arrived in Rome in July 118 to a hostile reception on the part of the senate, because of the death of the four consulars. The four men were Cornelius Palma, governor of Syria, Avidius Nigrinus, governor of Dacia, Publilius Celsus and Lusius Quietus, governor of Judaea, they were all Trajan's men, and their elimination certainly made Hadrian's course easier. But an Emperor had right everytime, and he was the justice.berserker

1199-1216, John, AR Penny, Struck 1207 - 1211 at Dublin, IrelandObverse: IOHANNES REX around triangle enclosing a crowned and draped facing bust of King John holding, in his right hand, a sceptre tipped with a cross pommée which extends through the side of the triangle into the legend. Quatrefoil to right of bust.
Reverse: ROBERD ON DIVE around triangle containing sun over crescent moon and a star in each angle. Cross pattée at apex of each point of the triangle and above legend on each of the three sides. Moneyer: Roberd, cognate with the modern English name of Robin.
Diameter: 18mm | Weight: 1.2gms | Die Axis: 4h
SPINK: 6228

Third issue "REX" coinage. This was the only coinage struck by King John in his own name.

John was King of England from 1199 until his death in 1216. The baronial revolt at the end of John's reign led to the sealing of the first Magna Carta, a document sometimes considered an early step in the evolution of the constitution of the United Kingdom.
John, the youngest of the five sons of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, was not expected to inherit significant lands which resulted in him being given the nickname John Lackland. However, after the failed rebellion of his elder brothers between 1173 and 1174, John became Henry's favourite child. He was appointed Lord of Ireland in 1177 and given lands in England and on the continent. John's elder brothers William, Henry and Geoffrey died young and when Richard I became king in 1189, John was the potential heir to the throne. John unsuccessfully attempted a rebellion against Richard's administration whilst his brother was participating in the Third Crusade but despite this, after Richard died in 1199, John was proclaimed King of England.
King John contracted dysentery at Lynn in 1216 but, just before his death, he managed to dictate a brief will. This will still survives and as part of it John requested: "I will that my body be buried in the church of St. Mary and St. Wulfstan of Worcester".
Some of King John's favourite hunting grounds were in Worcester, at Kinver and Feckenham, and he had a special affection for Saint Wulfstan, one of the two great Anglo-Saxon saints whose shrines and tombs were also at Worcester. Both Saint Wulfstan and Saint Oswald can be seen in miniature beside the head of the effigy of King John on his tomb.
Medieval effigies usually show the subject in the prime of life, however the effigy on King John's tomb is unique in that not only is it a life-like image of him, it is also the oldest royal effigy in England.
King John's tomb has been opened twice, once in 1529 and again in 1797. At the first opening it was said that John's head was covered with a monk's cowl, however it is now thought that this was probably his coronation cap. When the tomb was opened for the second time the antiquarians responsible discovered that a robe of crimson damask had originally covered the king's body but, by 1797, most of the embroidery had deteriorated. They also found the remains of a sword which lay down the left side of the body along with parts of its scabbard.
3 comments*Alex

1301a, Diocletian, 284-305 A.D. (Antioch)DIOCLETIAN (284 – 305 AD) AE Antoninianus, 293-95 AD, RIC V 322, Cohen 34. 20.70 mm/3.1 gm, aVF, Antioch. Obverse: IMP C C VAL DIOCLETIANVS P F AVG, Radiate bust right, draped & cuirassed; Reverse: CONCORDIA MILITVM, Jupiter presents Victory on a globe to Diocletian, I/XXI. Early Diocletian with dusty earthen green patina.

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

Diocletian ( 284-305 A.D.)

Ralph W. Mathisen
University of South Carolina

Summary and Introduction
The Emperor Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus (A.D. 284-305) put an end to the disastrous phase of Roman history known as the "Military Anarchy" or the "Imperial Crisis" (235-284). He established an obvious military despotism and was responsible for laying the groundwork for the second phase of the Roman Empire, which is known variously as the "Dominate," the "Tetrarchy," the "Later Roman Empire," or the "Byzantine Empire." His reforms ensured the continuity of the Roman Empire in the east for more than a thousand years.

Diocletian's Early Life and Reign
Diocletian was born ca. 236/237 on the Dalmatian coast, perhaps at Salona. He was of very humble birth, and was originally named Diocles. He would have received little education beyond an elementary literacy and he was apparently deeply imbued with religious piety He had a wife Prisca and a daughter Valeria, both of whom reputedly were Christians. During Diocletian's early life, the Roman empire was in the midst of turmoil. In the early years of the third century, emperors increasingly insecure on their thrones had granted inflationary pay raises to the soldiers. The only meaningful income the soldiers now received was in the form of gold donatives granted by newly acclaimed emperors. Beginning in 235, armies throughout the empire began to set up their generals as rival emperors. The resultant civil wars opened up the empire to invasion in both the north, by the Franks, Alamanni, and Goths, and the east, by the Sassanid Persians. Another reason for the unrest in the army was the great gap between the social background of the common soldiers and the officer corps.

Diocletian sought his fortune in the army. He showed himself to be a shrewd, able, and ambitious individual. He is first attested as "Duke of Moesia" (an area on the banks of the lower Danube River), with responsibility for border defense. He was a prudent and methodical officer, a seeker of victory rather than glory. In 282, the legions of the upper Danube proclaimed the praetorian prefect Carus as emperor. Diocletian found favor under the new emperor, and was promoted to Count of the Domestics, the commander of the cavalry arm of the imperial bodyguard. In 283 he was granted the honor of a consulate.

In 284, in the midst of a campaign against the Persians, Carus was killed, struck by a bolt of lightning which one writer noted might have been forged in a legionary armory. This left the empire in the hands of his two young sons, Numerian in the east and Carinus in the west. Soon thereafter, Numerian died under mysterious circumstances near Nicomedia, and Diocletian was acclaimed emperor in his place. At this time he changed his name from Diocles to Diocletian. In 285 Carinus was killed in a battle near Belgrade, and Diocletian gained control of the entire empire.

Diocletian's Administrative and Military Reforms
As emperor, Diocletian was faced with many problems. His most immediate concerns were to bring the mutinous and increasingly barbarized Roman armies back under control and to make the frontiers once again secure from invasion. His long-term goals were to restore effective government and economic prosperity to the empire. Diocletian concluded that stern measures were necessary if these problems were to be solved. He felt that it was the responsibility of the imperial government to take whatever steps were necessary, no matter how harsh or innovative, to bring the empire back under control.

Diocletian was able to bring the army back under control by making several changes. He subdivided the roughly fifty existing provinces into approximately one hundred. The provinces also were apportioned among twelve "dioceses," each under a "vicar," and later also among four "prefectures," each under a "praetorian prefect." As a result, the imperial bureaucracy became increasingly bloated. He institutionalized the policy of separating civil and military careers. He divided the army itself into so-called "border troops," actually an ineffective citizen militia, and "palace troops," the real field army, which often was led by the emperor in person.

Following the precedent of Aurelian (A.D.270-275), Diocletian transformed the emperorship into an out-and-out oriental monarchy. Access to him became restricted; he now was addressed not as First Citizen (Princeps) or the soldierly general (Imperator), but as Lord and Master (Dominus Noster) . Those in audience were required to prostrate themselves on the ground before him.

Diocletian also concluded that the empire was too large and complex to be ruled by only a single emperor. Therefore, in order to provide an imperial presence throughout the empire, he introduced the "Tetrarchy," or "Rule by Four." In 285, he named his lieutenant Maximianus "Caesar," and assigned him the western half of the empire. This practice began the process which would culminate with the de facto split of the empire in 395. Both Diocletian and Maximianus adopted divine attributes. Diocletian was identified with Jupiter and Maximianus with Hercules. In 286, Diocletian promoted Maximianus to the rank of Augustus, "Senior Emperor," and in 293 he appointed two new Caesars, Constantius (the father of Constantine I ), who was given Gaul and Britain in the west, and Galerius, who was assigned the Balkans in the east.

By instituting his Tetrarchy, Diocletian also hoped to solve another problem. In the Augustan Principate, there had been no constitutional method for choosing new emperors. According to Diocletian's plan, the successor of each Augustus would be the respective Caesar, who then would name a new Caesar. Initially, the Tetrarchy operated smoothly and effectively.

Once the army was under control, Diocletian could turn his attention to other problems. The borders were restored and strengthened. In the early years of his reign, Diocletian and his subordinates were able to defeat foreign enemies such as Alamanni, Sarmatians, Saracens, Franks, and Persians, and to put down rebellions in Britain and Egypt. The easter frontier was actually expanded.

.
Diocletian's Economic Reforms
Another problem was the economy, which was in an especially sorry state. The coinage had become so debased as to be virtually worthless. Diocletian's attempt to reissue good gold and silver coins failed because there simply was not enough gold and silver available to restore confidence in the currency. A "Maximum Price Edict" issued in 301, intended to curb inflation, served only to drive goods onto the black market. Diocletian finally accepted the ruin of the money economy and revised the tax system so that it was based on payments in kind . The soldiers too came to be paid in kind.

In order to assure the long term survival of the empire, Diocletian identified certain occupations which he felt would have to be performed. These were known as the "compulsory services." They included such occupations as soldiers, bakers, members of town councils, and tenant farmers. These functions became hereditary, and those engaging in them were inhibited from changing their careers. The repetitious nature of these laws, however, suggests that they were not widely obeyed. Diocletian also expanded the policy of third-century emperors of restricting the entry of senators into high-ranking governmental posts, especially military ones.

Diocletian attempted to use the state religion as a unifying element. Encouraged by the Caesar Galerius, Diocletian in 303 issued a series of four increasingly harsh decrees designed to compel Christians to take part in the imperial cult, the traditional means by which allegiance was pledged to the empire. This began the so-called "Great Persecution."

Diocletian's Resignation and Death
On 1 May 305, wearied by his twenty years in office, and determined to implement his method for the imperial succession, Diocletian abdicated. He compelled his co-regent Maximianus to do the same. Constantius and Galerius then became the new Augusti, and two new Caesars were selected, Maximinus (305-313) in the east and Severus (305- 307) in the west. Diocletian then retired to his palace at Split on the Croatian coast. In 308 he declined an offer to resume the purple, and the aged ex-emperor died at Split on 3 December 316.

Copyright (C) 1996, Ralph W. Mathisen, University of South Carolina
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.

1 commentsCleisthenes

1301b, Diocletian, 20 November 284 - 1 March 305 A.D.Diocletian. RIC V Part II Cyzicus 256 var. Not listed with pellet in exegrue
Item ref: RI141f. VF. Minted in Cyzicus (B in centre field, XXI dot in exegrue)Obverse:- IMP CC VAL DIOCLETIANVS AVG, Radiate, draped and cuirassed bust right. Reverse:- CONCORDIA MILITVM, Diocletian standing right, holding parazonium, receiving Victory from Jupiter standing left with scepter.
A post reform radiate of Diocletian. Ex Maridvnvm.

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

Diocletian ( 284-305 A.D.)

Ralph W. Mathisen
University of South Carolina

Summary and Introduction
The Emperor Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus (A.D. 284-305) put an end to the disastrous phase of Roman history known as the "Military Anarchy" or the "Imperial Crisis" (235-284). He established an obvious military despotism and was responsible for laying the groundwork for the second phase of the Roman Empire, which is known variously as the "Dominate," the "Tetrarchy," the "Later Roman Empire," or the "Byzantine Empire." His reforms ensured the continuity of the Roman Empire in the east for more than a thousand years.

Diocletian's Early Life and Reign
Diocletian was born ca. 236/237 on the Dalmatian coast, perhaps at Salona. He was of very humble birth, and was originally named Diocles. He would have received little education beyond an elementary literacy and he was apparently deeply imbued with religious piety He had a wife Prisca and a daughter Valeria, both of whom reputedly were Christians. During Diocletian's early life, the Roman empire was in the midst of turmoil. In the early years of the third century, emperors increasingly insecure on their thrones had granted inflationary pay raises to the soldiers. The only meaningful income the soldiers now received was in the form of gold donatives granted by newly acclaimed emperors. Beginning in 235, armies throughout the empire began to set up their generals as rival emperors. The resultant civil wars opened up the empire to invasion in both the north, by the Franks, Alamanni, and Goths, and the east, by the Sassanid Persians. Another reason for the unrest in the army was the great gap between the social background of the common soldiers and the officer corps.

Diocletian sought his fortune in the army. He showed himself to be a shrewd, able, and ambitious individual. He is first attested as "Duke of Moesia" (an area on the banks of the lower Danube River), with responsibility for border defense. He was a prudent and methodical officer, a seeker of victory rather than glory. In 282, the legions of the upper Danube proclaimed the praetorian prefect Carus as emperor. Diocletian found favor under the new emperor, and was promoted to Count of the Domestics, the commander of the cavalry arm of the imperial bodyguard. In 283 he was granted the honor of a consulate.

In 284, in the midst of a campaign against the Persians, Carus was killed, struck by a bolt of lightning which one writer noted might have been forged in a legionary armory. This left the empire in the hands of his two young sons, Numerian in the east and Carinus in the west. Soon thereafter, Numerian died under mysterious circumstances near Nicomedia, and Diocletian was acclaimed emperor in his place. At this time he changed his name from Diocles to Diocletian. In 285 Carinus was killed in a battle near Belgrade, and Diocletian gained control of the entire empire.

Diocletian's Administrative and Military Reforms
As emperor, Diocletian was faced with many problems. His most immediate concerns were to bring the mutinous and increasingly barbarized Roman armies back under control and to make the frontiers once again secure from invasion. His long-term goals were to restore effective government and economic prosperity to the empire. Diocletian concluded that stern measures were necessary if these problems were to be solved. He felt that it was the responsibility of the imperial government to take whatever steps were necessary, no matter how harsh or innovative, to bring the empire back under control.

Diocletian was able to bring the army back under control by making several changes. He subdivided the roughly fifty existing provinces into approximately one hundred. The provinces also were apportioned among twelve "dioceses," each under a "vicar," and later also among four "prefectures," each under a "praetorian prefect." As a result, the imperial bureaucracy became increasingly bloated. He institutionalized the policy of separating civil and military careers. He divided the army itself into so-called "border troops," actually an ineffective citizen militia, and "palace troops," the real field army, which often was led by the emperor in person.

Following the precedent of Aurelian (A.D.270-275), Diocletian transformed the emperorship into an out-and-out oriental monarchy. Access to him became restricted; he now was addressed not as First Citizen (Princeps) or the soldierly general (Imperator), but as Lord and Master (Dominus Noster) . Those in audience were required to prostrate themselves on the ground before him.

Diocletian also concluded that the empire was too large and complex to be ruled by only a single emperor. Therefore, in order to provide an imperial presence throughout the empire, he introduced the "Tetrarchy," or "Rule by Four." In 285, he named his lieutenant Maximianus "Caesar," and assigned him the western half of the empire. This practice began the process which would culminate with the de facto split of the empire in 395. Both Diocletian and Maximianus adopted divine attributes. Diocletian was identified with Jupiter and Maximianus with Hercules. In 286, Diocletian promoted Maximianus to the rank of Augustus, "Senior Emperor," and in 293 he appointed two new Caesars, Constantius (the father of Constantine I ), who was given Gaul and Britain in the west, and Galerius, who was assigned the Balkans in the east.

By instituting his Tetrarchy, Diocletian also hoped to solve another problem. In the Augustan Principate, there had been no constitutional method for choosing new emperors. According to Diocletian's plan, the successor of each Augustus would be the respective Caesar, who then would name a new Caesar. Initially, the Tetrarchy operated smoothly and effectively.

Once the army was under control, Diocletian could turn his attention to other problems. The borders were restored and strengthened. In the early years of his reign, Diocletian and his subordinates were able to defeat foreign enemies such as Alamanni, Sarmatians, Saracens, Franks, and Persians, and to put down rebellions in Britain and Egypt. The easter frontier was actually expanded.

.
Diocletian's Economic Reforms
Another problem was the economy, which was in an especially sorry state. The coinage had become so debased as to be virtually worthless. Diocletian's attempt to reissue good gold and silver coins failed because there simply was not enough gold and silver available to restore confidence in the currency. A "Maximum Price Edict" issued in 301, intended to curb inflation, served only to drive goods onto the black market. Diocletian finally accepted the ruin of the money economy and revised the tax system so that it was based on payments in kind . The soldiers too came to be paid in kind.

In order to assure the long term survival of the empire, Diocletian identified certain occupations which he felt would have to be performed. These were known as the "compulsory services." They included such occupations as soldiers, bakers, members of town councils, and tenant farmers. These functions became hereditary, and those engaging in them were inhibited from changing their careers. The repetitious nature of these laws, however, suggests that they were not widely obeyed. Diocletian also expanded the policy of third-century emperors of restricting the entry of senators into high-ranking governmental posts, especially military ones.

Diocletian attempted to use the state religion as a unifying element. Encouraged by the Caesar Galerius, Diocletian in 303 issued a series of four increasingly harsh decrees designed to compel Christians to take part in the imperial cult, the traditional means by which allegiance was pledged to the empire. This began the so-called "Great Persecution."

Diocletian's Resignation and Death
On 1 May 305, wearied by his twenty years in office, and determined to implement his method for the imperial succession, Diocletian abdicated. He compelled his co-regent Maximianus to do the same. Constantius and Galerius then became the new Augusti, and two new Caesars were selected, Maximinus (305-313) in the east and Severus (305- 307) in the west. Diocletian then retired to his palace at Split on the Croatian coast. In 308 he declined an offer to resume the purple, and the aged ex-emperor died at Split on 3 December 316.

Copyright (C) 1996, Ralph W. Mathisen, University of South Carolina
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

1308b, Licinius I, 308 - 324 A.D. (Siscia)Licinius I, 11 November 308 - 18 September 324 A.D. Bronze follis, RIC 4, F, Siscia, 3.257g, 21.6mm, 0o, 313 - 315 A.D. Obverse: IMP LIC LICINIVS P F AVG, laureate head right; Reverse IOVI CONSERVATORI AVGG NN, Jupiter standing left holding Victory on globe and scepter, eagle with wreath in beak left, E right, SIS in exergue.

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

Licinius (308-324 A.D.)

Michael DiMaio, Jr.
Salve Regina University

Licinius' Heritage

Valerius Licinianus Licinius, more commonly known as Licinius, may have been born ca. 265. Of peasant origin, his family was from Dacia. A close friend and comrade of arms of the Emperor Galerius, he accompanied him on his Persian expedition in 297. When campaigns by Severus and Galerius in late 306 or early 307 and in the summer of 307, respectively, failed to dislodge Maxentius who, with the luke warm support of his father Maximianus Herculius, was acclaimed princeps on 28 October 306, he was sent by the eastern emperor to Maxentius as an ambassador; the diplomatic mission, however, failed because the usurper refused to submit to the authority of his father-in-law Galerius. At the Conference of Carnuntum which was held in October or November of 308, Licinius was made an Augustus on 11 November 308; his realm included Thrace, Illyricum, and Pannonia.

Licinius' Early Reign

Although Licinius was initially appointed by Galerius to replace Severus to end the revolt of Maxentius , Licinius (perhaps wisely) made no effort to move against the usurper. In fact, his first attested victory was against the Sarmatians probably in the late spring, but no later than the end of June in 310. When the Emperor Galerius died in 311, Licinius met Maximinus Daia at the Bosporus during the early summer of that year; they concluded a treaty and divided Galerius' realm between them. It was little more than a year later that the Emperor Constantine defeated Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge on 28 October 312. After the defeat of the usurper, Constantine and Licinius met at Mediolanum (Milan) where Licinius married the former's sister Constantia; one child was born of this union: Valerius Licinianus Licinius. Licinius had another son, born of a slave woman, whose name is unknown. It appears that both emperors promulgated the so-called Edict of Milan, in which Constantine and Licinius granted Christians the freedom to practice their faith without any interference from the state.

As soon as he seems to have learned about the marital alliance between Licinius and Constantine and the death of Maxentius, who had been his ally, Daia traversed Asia Minor and, in April 313, he crossed the Bosporus and went to Byzantium, which he took from Licinius after an eleven day siege. On 30 April 313 the armies of both emperors clashed on the Campus Ergenus; in the ensuing battle Daia's forces were routed. A last ditch stand by Daia at the Cilician Gates failed; the eastern emperor subsequently died in the area of Tarsus probably in July or August 313. As soon as he arrived in Nicomedeia, Licinius promulgated the Edict of Milan. As soon as he had matters in Nicomedeia straightened out, Licinius campaigned against the Persians in the remaining part of 313 and the opening months of 314.

The First Civil War Between Licinius and Constantine

Once Licinius had defeated Maximinus Daia, the sole rulers of the Roman world were he and Constantine. It is obvious that the marriage of Licinius to Constantia was simply a union of convenience. In any case, there is evidence in the sources that both emperors were looking for an excuse to attack the other. The affair involving Bassianus (the husband of Constantius I's daughter Anastasia ), mentioned in the text of Anonymus Valesianus (5.14ff), may have sparked the falling out between the two emperors. In any case, Constantine' s forces joined battle with those of Licinius at Cibalae in Pannonia on 8 October 314. When the battle was over, Constantine prevailed; his victory, however, was Pyrrhic. Both emperors had been involved in exhausting military campaigns in the previous year and the months leading up to Cibalae and each of their realms had expanded so fast that their manpower reserves must have been stretched to the limit. Both men retreated to their own territory to lick their wounds. It may well be that the two emperors made an agreement, which has left no direct trace in the historical record, which would effectively restore the status quo.

Both emperors were variously engaged in different activities between 315 and 316. In addition to campaigning against the Germans while residing in Augusta Treverorum (Trier) in 315, Constantine dealt with aspects of the Donatist controversy; he also traveled to Rome where he celebrated his Decennalia. Licinius, possibly residing at Sirmium, was probably waging war against the Goths. Although not much else is known about Licinius' activities during this period, it is probable that he spent much of his time preparing for his impending war against Constantine; the latter,who spent the spring and summer of 316 in Augusta Treverorum, was probably doing much the same thing. In any case, by December 316, the western emperor was in Sardica with his army. Sometime between 1 December and 28 February 317, both emperors' armies joined battle on the Campus Ardiensis; as was the case in the previous engagement, Constantine' s forces were victorious. On 1 March 317, both sides agreed to a cessation of hostilities; possibly because of the intervention of his wife Constantia, Licinius was able to keep his throne, although he had to agree to the execution of his colleague Valens, who the eastern emperor had appointed as his colleague before the battle, as well as to cede some of his territory to his brother-in-law.

Licinius and the Christians

Although the historical record is not completely clear, Licinius seems to have campaigned against the Sarmatians in 318. He also appears to have been in Byzantium in the summer of 318 and later in June 323. Beyond these few facts, not much else is known about his residences until mid summer of 324. Although he and Constantine had issued the Edict of Milan in early 313, Licinius turned on the Christians in his realm seemingly in 320. The first law that Licinius issued prevented bishops from communicating with each other and from holding synods to discuss matters of interest to them. The second law prohibited men and women from attending services together and young girls from receiving instruction from their bishop or schools. When this law was issued, he also gave orders that Christians could hold services only outside of city walls. Additionally, he deprived officers in the army of their commissions if they did not sacrifice to the gods. Licinius may have been trying to incite Constantine to attack him. In any case, the growing tension between the two rulers is reflected in the consular Fasti of the period.

The Second Civil War Between Licinius and Constantine and Licinius' Death

War actually broke out in 321 when Constantine pursued some Sarmatians, who had been ravaging some territory in his realm, across the Danube. When he checked a similar invasion of the Goths, who were devastating Thrace, Licinius complained that Constantine had broken the treaty between them. Having assembled a fleet and army at Thessalonica, Constantine advanced toward Adrianople. Licinius engaged the forces of his brother-in-law near the banks of the Hebrus River on 3 July 324 where he was routed; with as many men as he could gather, he headed for his fleet which was in the Hellespont. Those of his soldiers who were not killed or put to flight, surrendered to the enemy. Licinius fled to Byzantium, where he was besieged by Constantine. Licinius' fleet, under the command of the admiral Abantus, was overcome by bad weather and by Constantine' s fleet which was under the command of his son Crispus. Hard pressed in Byzantium, Licinius abandoned the city to his rival and fled to Chalcedon in Bithynia. Leaving Martinianus, his former magister officiorum and now his co-ruler, to impede Constantine' s progress, Licinius regrouped his forces and engaged his enemy at Chrysopolis where he was again routed on 18 September 324. He fled to Nicomedeia which Constantine began to besiege. On the next day Licinius abdicated and was sent to Thessalonica, where he was kept under house arrest. Both Licinius and his associate were put to death by Constantine. Martinianus may have been put to death before the end of 324, whereas Licinius was not put to death until the spring of 325. Rumors circulated that Licinius had been put to death because he attempted another rebellion against Constantine.

Copyright (C) 1996, Michael DiMaio, Jr.
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

1308c, Licinius I, 308-324 A.D. (Alexandria)Licinius I, 308-324 A.D. AE Follis, 3.60g, VF, 315 A.D., Alexandria. Obverse: IMP C VAL LICIN LICINIVS P F AVG - Laureate head right; Reverse: IOVI CONS-ERVATORI AVGG - Jupiter standing left, holding Victory on a globe and scepter; exergue: ALE / (wreath) over "B" over "N." Ref: RIC VII, 10 (B = r2) Rare, page 705 - Hunterian Museum, Glasgow, Scotland.

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

Licinius (308-324 A.D.)

Michael DiMaio, Jr.
Salve Regina University

Licinius' Heritage

Valerius Licinianus Licinius, more commonly known as Licinius, may have been born ca. 265. Of peasant origin, his family was from Dacia. A close friend and comrade of arms of the Emperor Galerius, he accompanied him on his Persian expedition in 297. When campaigns by Severus and Galerius in late 306 or early 307 and in the summer of 307, respectively, failed to dislodge Maxentius who, with the luke warm support of his father Maximianus Herculius, was acclaimed princeps on 28 October 306, he was sent by the eastern emperor to Maxentius as an ambassador; the diplomatic mission, however, failed because the usurper refused to submit to the authority of his father-in-law Galerius. At the Conference of Carnuntum which was held in October or November of 308, Licinius was made an Augustus on 11 November 308; his realm included Thrace, Illyricum, and Pannonia.

Licinius' Early Reign

Although Licinius was initially appointed by Galerius to replace Severus to end the revolt of Maxentius , Licinius (perhaps wisely) made no effort to move against the usurper. In fact, his first attested victory was against the Sarmatians probably in the late spring, but no later than the end of June in 310. When the Emperor Galerius died in 311, Licinius met Maximinus Daia at the Bosporus during the early summer of that year; they concluded a treaty and divided Galerius' realm between them. It was little more than a year later that the Emperor Constantine defeated Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge on 28 October 312. After the defeat of the usurper, Constantine and Licinius met at Mediolanum (Milan) where Licinius married the former's sister Constantia; one child was born of this union: Valerius Licinianus Licinius. Licinius had another son, born of a slave woman, whose name is unknown. It appears that both emperors promulgated the so-called Edict of Milan, in which Constantine and Licinius granted Christians the freedom to practice their faith without any interference from the state.

As soon as he seems to have learned about the marital alliance between Licinius and Constantine and the death of Maxentius, who had been his ally, Daia traversed Asia Minor and, in April 313, he crossed the Bosporus and went to Byzantium, which he took from Licinius after an eleven day siege. On 30 April 313 the armies of both emperors clashed on the Campus Ergenus; in the ensuing battle Daia's forces were routed. A last ditch stand by Daia at the Cilician Gates failed; the eastern emperor subsequently died in the area of Tarsus probably in July or August 313. As soon as he arrived in Nicomedeia, Licinius promulgated the Edict of Milan. As soon as he had matters in Nicomedeia straightened out, Licinius campaigned against the Persians in the remaining part of 313 and the opening months of 314.

The First Civil War Between Licinius and Constantine

Once Licinius had defeated Maximinus Daia, the sole rulers of the Roman world were he and Constantine. It is obvious that the marriage of Licinius to Constantia was simply a union of convenience. In any case, there is evidence in the sources that both emperors were looking for an excuse to attack the other. The affair involving Bassianus (the husband of Constantius I's daughter Anastasia ), mentioned in the text of Anonymus Valesianus (5.14ff), may have sparked the falling out between the two emperors. In any case, Constantine' s forces joined battle with those of Licinius at Cibalae in Pannonia on 8 October 314. When the battle was over, Constantine prevailed; his victory, however, was Pyrrhic. Both emperors had been involved in exhausting military campaigns in the previous year and the months leading up to Cibalae and each of their realms had expanded so fast that their manpower reserves must have been stretched to the limit. Both men retreated to their own territory to lick their wounds. It may well be that the two emperors made an agreement, which has left no direct trace in the historical record, which would effectively restore the status quo.

Both emperors were variously engaged in different activities between 315 and 316. In addition to campaigning against the Germans while residing in Augusta Treverorum (Trier) in 315, Constantine dealt with aspects of the Donatist controversy; he also traveled to Rome where he celebrated his Decennalia. Licinius, possibly residing at Sirmium, was probably waging war against the Goths. Although not much else is known about Licinius' activities during this period, it is probable that he spent much of his time preparing for his impending war against Constantine; the latter,who spent the spring and summer of 316 in Augusta Treverorum, was probably doing much the same thing. In any case, by December 316, the western emperor was in Sardica with his army. Sometime between 1 December and 28 February 317, both emperors' armies joined battle on the Campus Ardiensis; as was the case in the previous engagement, Constantine' s forces were victorious. On 1 March 317, both sides agreed to a cessation of hostilities; possibly because of the intervention of his wife Constantia, Licinius was able to keep his throne, although he had to agree to the execution of his colleague Valens, who the eastern emperor had appointed as his colleague before the battle, as well as to cede some of his territory to his brother-in-law.

Licinius and the Christians

Although the historical record is not completely clear, Licinius seems to have campaigned against the Sarmatians in 318. He also appears to have been in Byzantium in the summer of 318 and later in June 323. Beyond these few facts, not much else is known about his residences until mid summer of 324. Although he and Constantine had issued the Edict of Milan in early 313, Licinius turned on the Christians in his realm seemingly in 320. The first law that Licinius issued prevented bishops from communicating with each other and from holding synods to discuss matters of interest to them. The second law prohibited men and women from attending services together and young girls from receiving instruction from their bishop or schools. When this law was issued, he also gave orders that Christians could hold services only outside of city walls. Additionally, he deprived officers in the army of their commissions if they did not sacrifice to the gods. Licinius may have been trying to incite Constantine to attack him. In any case, the growing tension between the two rulers is reflected in the consular Fasti of the period.

The Second Civil War Between Licinius and Constantine and Licinius' Death

War actually broke out in 321 when Constantine pursued some Sarmatians, who had been ravaging some territory in his realm, across the Danube. When he checked a similar invasion of the Goths, who were devastating Thrace, Licinius complained that Constantine had broken the treaty between them. Having assembled a fleet and army at Thessalonica, Constantine advanced toward Adrianople. Licinius engaged the forces of his brother-in-law near the banks of the Hebrus River on 3 July 324 where he was routed; with as many men as he could gather, he headed for his fleet which was in the Hellespont. Those of his soldiers who were not killed or put to flight, surrendered to the enemy. Licinius fled to Byzantium, where he was besieged by Constantine. Licinius' fleet, under the command of the admiral Abantus, was overcome by bad weather and by Constantine' s fleet which was under the command of his son Crispus. Hard pressed in Byzantium, Licinius abandoned the city to his rival and fled to Chalcedon in Bithynia. Leaving Martinianus, his former magister officiorum and now his co-ruler, to impede Constantine' s progress, Licinius regrouped his forces and engaged his enemy at Chrysopolis where he was again routed on 18 September 324. He fled to Nicomedeia which Constantine began to besiege. On the next day Licinius abdicated and was sent to Thessalonica, where he was kept under house arrest. Both Licinius and his associate were put to death by Constantine. Martinianus may have been put to death before the end of 324, whereas Licinius was not put to death until the spring of 325. Rumors circulated that Licinius had been put to death because he attempted another rebellion against Constantine.

Copyright (C) 1996, Michael DiMaio, Jr.
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

1355 - 1375, Edward the Black Prince, AR Hardi d'Argent, Struck 1362 -1372 at Limoges, Aquitaine, FranceObverse: ED PO GNS REGI AGEL. Facing robed half-length figure of Edward wearing a coronet of a simple band around his head (as opposed to the crown of a king) under Gothic canopy, holding sword in right hand, left hand raised with finger pointing in benedictory position. Rosette either side of coronet.
Reverse: ✤ PRI-CPS ✤ AQIT-ANE Long cross collarino, pattée at the ends, extending through legend. Fleur de lis in first and second quarters; lion passant, guardant in second and third quarters. Rosettes (marked in text by ✤) in legend.
Diameter: 19.1mm | Weight: 1.033gms | Axis 6h
SPINK: 8134 | Elias: 204
Ex. FORVM Ancient Coins
Scarce

This coin was struck for use in the English territory held in France, it had the value of an English silver penny.

THE BLACK PRINCE
Edward the Black Prince (1330-1376) was the eldest son of Edward III and Philippa of Hainaut. He was an excellent military leader and his victory over the French at the battle of Crécy in 1346 made him very popular at home in England. He was strongly impressed by the chivalrous attitude of John the Blind, King of Bohemia, who preferred to die rather than bear the dishonour of defeat and Edward took as his heraldic arms the ostrich feathers which the King of Bohemia had already worn. In 1356 Edward crushed the French at Poitiers, taking King Jean le Bon prisoner. The Treaty of Brétigny in May 1360, confirmed the independence of Aquitaine and Edward was its first prince (from 1362 to 1372). In 1369, war resumed with France but, after the first English defeats in Aquitaine, in 1371 the Black Prince returned to England and renounced his principality the following year. He died in 1376, his father Edward III died the next year, 1377, and Richard II, who was the son of the Black Prince, ascended the throne. The Black Prince, was the first English Prince of Wales not to become King of England.*Alex

138-161 AD - ANTONINUS PIUS AR denarius - struck 140-143 ADobv: ANTONINVS AVG PIVS P P TR P COS III (laureate head right)
rev: ITALIA (Italia, towered, seated left on globe, holding cornucopiae and sceptre)
ref: RIC III 73 (C), RSC463 (5frcs), BMC 214
mint: Rome
2.63gms, 18mm,
Scarce

Antoninus had been entrusted with the government of this province as proconsul. He was chosen by Hadrian from among the four men of consular rank under whose jurisdiction Italy was placed, to administer that particular part of Italy in which the greater part of his own holdings lay. The coin probably commemorate this.berserker

1399 - 1413, Henry IV, AR Hardi d'Argent, Struck 1399 -1453 at Bordeaux, Aquitaine, FranceObverse: ERIC R ANGLIE ✤ Crowned and robed half-length figure of Henry facing under Gothic canopy, holding sword in right hand, left hand raised with finger pointing in benedictory position. Mullet over crown, rosette either side of crown. Rosette (marked in text by ✤) in legend.
Reverse: FRA-CIE ✤ DNS AQI ✤ Long cross collarino, pattée at the ends, extending through legend. Fleur de lis with roundel underneath in second and third quarters; lion passant, guardant in first and fourth quarters, roundel over lion in fourth quarter. Rosettes (marked in text by ✤) in legend.
Diameter: 18mm | Weight: 1.13gms | Axis 10h
SPINK: 8147 | Elias: 233h
Ex. Bazas Hoard | Ex. Jean Elsen (Belgium) | Scarce

The last series of these Anglo-Gallic coins was likely struck under more than one Henry and they have not currently been differentiated by ruler because the legends and types are generic. However, over time, Anglo-Gallic issues suffered from regular debasement and a deterioration in workmanship, the size, weight and quality of the strike of this coin would therefore all seem to point to it being an early example.

Henry IV
In 1399, Henry, Duke of Lancaster, overthrew his cousin, Richard II and took the throne as Henry IV, ruling until his death in 1413. Henry's first major problem as monarch was what to do with the deposed Richard. In January 1400, soon after an early assassination plot against Henry was foiled, Richard died in prison, allegedly of starvation. Though Henry was suspected of having had Richard murdered, it was also claimed that he took his own life.
Henry, also known as Henry Bolingbroke, was a grandson of Edward III and when he took the throne he asserted his grandfather's claim to the Kingdom of France. He founded the Lancaster branch of the House of Plantagenet and he was the first King of England since the Norman Conquest whose mother tongue was English rather than French.
Early in his reign, Henry hosted the visit of Manuel II Palaiologos, the only Byzantine emperor ever to visit England, and he gave monetary support to Manuel II to aid him against the Ottoman Empire.
Despite the example set by most of his recent predecessors, after their deaths, Henry and his second wife, Joan of Navarre, Queen of England, were buried not at Westminster Abbey but at Canterbury Cathedral, on the north side of Trinity Chapel and directly adjacent to the shrine of St Thomas Becket.

The Bazas Hoard
This hoard was discovered in May 2004 by a builder at Bazas in south West France when he was renovating a house. Bazas was a regional centre in the middle ages. The hoard consisted of a mixture of medieval coins which had been minted in Spain, Portugal, Italy, England, the Netherlands and various French duchies. Of the 1010 coins found, 157 were gold, 300 were silver and the remainder were billon. The oldest coin was a King Jean II franc from 1360 and the rarest coin was a gold castellano from the time of Henry IV of Castile, of which only one other example is known to exist.

Henry is depicted here standing in a similar pose to that shown on this coin.3 comments*Alex

1403c, Constantine I (the Great), early 307 - 22 May 337 A.D.Bronze AE 3, RIC VII 35, choice aEF, Constantinople mint, 3.336g, 20.0mm, 180o, 328 A.D.; Obverse: CONSTANTI-NVS MAX AVG, laurel and rosette diademed, draped and cuirassed bust right; Reverse: CONSTANTINI-ANA DAFNE, Victory seated left on cippus, head right, palm frond in each hand, trophy and captive before, CONS in exergue, B left; scarce. Ex FORVM.

"The information about Constantine's campaign across [the Danube] is obscure and untrustworthy. The question, therefore, of what he achieved by this enterprise was, and is, subject to contradictory interpretations. On the one hand, the Panegyrists claimed that he had repeated the triumphs of Trajan. On the other, his own nephew, Julian the Apostate, spoke for many when he expressed the view that this second 'conquest' of Dacia was incomplete and extremely brief . . . monetary commemoration was accorded to the building, at about the same time [AD 328], of the river frontier fortress of Constantiniana Dafne (Spantov, near Oltenita) . . ." (Grant, Michael. The Emperor Constantine. London: Phoenix, 1998. 58-9).

The Emperor Constantine I was effectively the sole ruler of the Roman world between 324 and 337 A.D.; his reign was perhaps one of the most crucial of all the emperors in determining the future course of western civilization. By beginning the process of making Christianity the religious foundation of his realm, he set the religious course for the future of Europe which remains in place to this very day. Because he replaced Rome with Constantinople as the center of imperial power, he made it clear that the city of Rome was no longer the center of power and he also set the stage for the Middle Ages. His philosophical view of monarchy, largely spelled out in some of the works of Eusebius of Caesarea, became the foundation for the concept of the divine right of kings which prevailed in Europe.

Constantine was not a "Christian convert" in any traditional sense. He was not baptized until close to death, and while that was not an uncommon practice, the mention of Christ in his speeches and decrees is conspicuous by its absence. Eusebius, Church historian and Constantine biographer, is responsible for much of the valorization of Constantine as the Christian Emperor. The somnambulant "sign" in which Constantine was to become victor at the Milvian Bridge is, not so surprisingly, revealed to posterity long after the "fact." Throughout his reign, Constantine continues to portray himself on coins as a sun god (Freeman, Charles. Egypt, Greece and Rome: Civilizations of the Ancient Mediterranean; Second Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. 582). Above all, Constantine was a pragmatist. It would be cynical to egregiously disavow his commitment to Christianity, but it would be equally wrong to think that he would allow Christianity to meddle in the governance of his empire. As he reputedly told a group of bishops, "You are bishops of those within the church, but I am perhaps a bishop appointed by God of those outside." Whatever the motives for his decision to support Christianity, Christianity benefitted from the arrangement. So, too, did Constantine. It was a match made in heaven.
J. P. Fitzgerald, Jr.

For perhaps the best Constantine The Great site on the web, see Victor Clark's Constantine The Great Coins: http://www.constantinethegreatcoins.com/1 commentsCleisthenes

1409a, Julian II "the Philosopher," February 360 - 26 June 363 A.D.Julian II, A.D. 360-363; RIC 167; VF; 2.7g, 20mm; Constantinople mint; Obverse: DN FL CL IVLIANVS P F AVG, helmeted & cuirassed bust right, holding spear & shield; Reverse: VOT X MVLT XX in four lines within wreath; CONSPB in exergue; Attractive green patina. Ex Nemesis.

De Imperatoribus Romanis,
An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Emperors

Julian the Apostate (360-363 A.D.)

Walter E. Roberts, Emory University
Michael DiMaio, Jr., Salve Regina University

Introduction

The emperor Flavius Claudius Julianus reigned from 360 to 26 June 363, when he was killed fighting against the Persians. Despite his short rule, his emperorship was pivotal in the development of the history of the later Roman empire. This essay is not meant to be a comprehensive look at the various issues central to the reign of Julian and the history of the later empire. Rather, this short work is meant to be a brief history and introduction for the general reader. Julian was the last direct descendent of the Constantinian line to ascend to the purple, and it is one of history's great ironies that he was the last non-Christian emperor. As such, he has been vilified by most Christian sources, beginning with John Chrysostom and Gregory Nazianzus in the later fourth century. This tradition was picked up by the fifth century Eusebian continuators Sozomen, Socrates Scholasticus, and Theodoret and passed on to scholars down through the 20th century. Most contemporary sources, however, paint a much more balanced picture of Julian and his reign. The adoption of Christianity by emperors and society, while still a vital concern, was but one of several issues that concerned Julian.

It is fortunate that extensive writings from Julian himself exist, which help interpret his reign in the light of contemporary evidence. Still extant are some letters, several panegyrics, and a few satires. Other contemporary sources include the soldier Ammianus Marcellinus' history, correspondence between Julian and Libanius of Antioch, several panegyrics, laws from the Theodosian Code, inscriptions, and coinage. These sources show Julian's emphasis on restoration. He saw himself as the restorer of the traditional values of Roman society. Of course much of this was rhetoric, meant to defend Julian against charges that he was a usurper. At the same time this theme of restoration was central to all emperors of the fourth century. Julian thought that he was the one emperor who could regain what was viewed as the lost glory of the Roman empire. To achieve this goal he courted select groups of social elites to get across his message of restoration. This was the way that emperors functioned in the fourth century. By choosing whom to include in the sharing of power, they sought to shape society.

Early Life

Julian was born at Constantinople in 331. His father was Julius Constantius, half-brother of the emperor Constantine through Constantius Chlorus, and his mother was Basilina, Julius' second wife. Julian had two half-brothers via Julius' first marriage. One of these was Gallus, who played a major role in Julian's life. Julian appeared destined for a bright future via his father's connection to the Constantinian house. After many years of tense relations with his three half-brothers, Constantine seemed to have welcomed them into the fold of the imperial family. From 333 to 335, Constantine conferred a series of honors upon his three half-siblings, including appointing Julius Constantius as one of the consuls for 335. Julian's mother was equally distinguished. Ammianus related that she was from a noble family. This is supported by Libanius, who claimed that she was the daughter of Julius Julianus, a Praetorian Prefect under Licinius, who was such a model of administrative virtue that he was pardoned and honored by Constantine.

Despite the fact that his mother died shortly after giving birth to him, Julian experienced an idyllic early childhood. This ended when Constantius II conducted a purge of many of his relatives shortly after Constantine's death in 337, particularly targeting the families of Constantine's half-brothers. ulian and Gallus were spared, probably due to their young age. Julian was put under the care of Mardonius, a Scythian eunuch who had tutored his mother, in 339, and was raised in the Greek philosophical tradition, and probably lived in Nicomedia. Ammianus also supplied the fact that while in Nicomedia, Julian was cared for by the local bishop Eusebius, of whom the future emperor was a distant relation. Julian was educated by some of the most famous names in grammar and rhetoric in the Greek world at that time, including Nicocles and Hecebolius. In 344 Constantius II sent Julian and Gallus to Macellum in Cappadocia, where they remained for six years. In 351, Gallus was made Caesar by Constantius II and Julian was allowed to return to Nicomedia, where he studied under Aedesius, Eusebius, and Chrysanthius, all famed philosophers, and was exposed to the Neo-Platonism that would become such a prominent part of his life. But Julian was most proud of the time he spent studying under Maximus of Ephesus, a noted Neo-Platonic philospher and theurgist. It was Maximus who completed Julian's full-scale conversion to Neo-Platonism. Later, when he was Caesar, Julian told of how he put letters from this philosopher under his pillows so that he would continue to absorb wisdom while he slept, and while campaigning on the Rhine, he sent his speeches to Maximus for approval before letting others hear them. When Gallus was executed in 354 for treason by Constantius II, Julian was summoned to Italy and essentially kept under house arrest at Comum, near Milan, for seven months before Constantius' wife Eusebia convinced the emperor that Julian posed no threat. This allowed Julian to return to Greece and continue his life as a scholar where he studied under the Neo-Platonist Priscus. Julian's life of scholarly pursuit, however, ended abruptly when he was summoned to the imperial court and made Caesar by Constantius II on 6 November 355.

Julian as Caesar

Constantius II realized an essential truth of the empire that had been evident since the time of the Tetrarchy--the empire was too big to be ruled effectively by one man. Julian was pressed into service as Caesar, or subordinate emperor, because an imperial presence was needed in the west, in particular in the Gallic provinces. Julian, due to the emperor's earlier purges, was the only viable candidate of the imperial family left who could act as Caesar. Constantius enjoined Julian with the task of restoring order along the Rhine frontier. A few days after he was made Caesar, Julian was married to Constantius' sister Helena in order to cement the alliance between the two men. On 1 December 355, Julian journeyed north, and in Augusta Taurinorum he learned that Alamannic raiders had destroyed Colonia Agrippina. He then proceeded to Vienne where he spent the winter. At Vienne, he learned that Augustudunum was also under siege, but was being held by a veteran garrison. He made this his first priority, and arrived there on 24 June 356. When he had assured himself that the city was in no immediate danger, he journeyed to Augusta Treverorum via Autessioduram, and from there to Durocortorum where he rendezvoused with his army. Julian had the army stage a series of punitive strikes around the Dieuse region, and then he moved them towards the Argentoratum/Mongontiacum region when word of barbarian incursions reached him.

From there, Julian moved on to Colonia Agrippina, and negotiated a peace with the local barbarian leaders who had assaulted the city. He then wintered at Senonae. He spent the early part of the campaigning season of 357 fighting off besiegers at Senonae, and then conducting operations around Lugdunum and Tres Tabernae. Later that summer, he encountered his watershed moment as a military general. Ammianus went into great detail about Julian's victory over seven rogue Alamannic chieftains near Argentoratum, and Julian himself bragged about it in his later writing. After this battle, the soldiers acclaimed Julian Augustus, but he rejected this title. After mounting a series of follow-up raids into Alamannic territory, he retired to winter quarters at Lutetia, and on the way defeated some Frankish raiders in the Mosa region. Julian considered this campaign one of the major events of his time as Caesar.

Julian began his 358 military campaigns early, hoping to catch the barbarians by surprise. His first target was the Franks in the northern Rhine region. He then proceeded to restore some forts in the Mosa region, but his soldiers threatened to mutiny because they were on short rations and had not been paid their donative since Julian had become Caesar. After he soothed his soldiers, Julian spent the rest of the summer negotiating a peace with various Alamannic leaders in the mid and lower Rhine areas, and retired to winter quarters at Lutetia. In 359, he prepared once again to carry out a series of punitive expeditions against the Alamanni in the Rhine region who were still hostile to the Roman presence. In preparation, the Caesar repopulated seven previously destroyed cities and set them up as supply bases and staging areas. This was done with the help of the people with whom Julian had negotiated a peace the year before. Julian then had a detachment of lightly armed soldiers cross the Rhine near Mogontiacum and conduct a guerilla strike against several chieftains. As a result of these campaigns, Julian was able to negotiate a peace with all but a handful of the Alamannic leaders, and he retired to winter quarters at Lutetia.

Of course, Julian did more than act as a general during his time as Caesar. According to Ammianus, Julian was an able administrator who took steps to correct the injustices of Constantius' appointees. Ammianus related the story of how Julian prevented Florentius, the Praetorian Prefect of Gaul, from raising taxes, and also how Julian actually took over as governor for the province of Belgica Secunda. Hilary, bishop of Poitiers, supported Ammianus' basic assessment of Julian in this regard when he reported that Julian was an able representative of the emperor to the Gallic provincials. There is also epigraphic evidence to support Julian's popularity amongst the provincial elites. An inscription found near Beneventum in Apulia reads:
"To Flavius Claudius Julianus, most noble and sanctified Caesar, from the caring Tocius Maximus, vir clarissimus, for the care of the res publica from Beneventum".

Tocius Maximus, as a vir clarissimus, was at the highest point in the social spectrum and was a leader in his local community. This inscription shows that Julian was successful in establishing a positive image amongst provincial elites while he was Caesar.

Julian Augustus

In early 360, Constantius, driven by jealousy of Julian's success, stripped Julian of many troops and officers, ostensibly because the emperor needed them for his upcoming campaign against the Persians. One of the legions ordered east, the Petulantes, did not want to leave Gaul because the majority of the soldiers in the unit were from this region. As a result they mutinied and hailed Julian as Augustus at Lutetia. Julian refused this acclamation as he had done at Argentoratum earlier, but the soldiers would have none of his denial. They raised him on a shield and adorned him with a neck chain, which had formerly been the possession of the standard-bearer of the Petulantes and symbolized a royal diadem. Julian appeared reluctantly to acquiesce to their wishes, and promised a generous donative. The exact date of his acclamation is unknown, but most scholars put it in February or March. Julian himself supported Ammianus' picture of a jealous Constantius. In his Letter to the Athenians, a document constructed to answer charges that he was a usurper, Julian stated that from the start he, as Caesar, had been meant as a figurehead to the soldiers and provincials. The real power he claimed lay with the generals and officials already present in Gaul. In fact, according to Julian, the generals were charged with watching him as much as the enemy. His account of the actual acclamation closely followed what Ammianus told us, but he stressed even more his reluctance to take power. Julian claimed that he did so only after praying to Zeus for guidance.

Fearing the reaction of Constantius, Julian sent a letter to his fellow emperor justifying the events at Lutetia and trying to arrange a peaceful solution. This letter berated Constantius for forcing the troops in Gaul into an untenable situation. Ammianus stated that Julian's letter blamed Constantius' decision to transfer Gallic legions east as the reason for the soldiers' rebellion. Julian once again asserted that he was an unwilling participant who was only following the desire of the soldiers. In both of these basic accounts Ammianus and Julian are playing upon the theme of restoration. Implicit in their version of Julian's acclamation is the argument that Constantius was unfit to rule. The soldiers were the vehicle of the gods' will. The Letter to the Athenians is full of references to the fact that Julian was assuming the mantle of Augustus at the instigation of the gods. Ammianus summed up this position nicely when he related the story of how, when Julian was agonizing over whether to accept the soldiers' acclamation, he had a dream in which he was visited by the Genius (guardian spirit) of the Roman state. The Genius told Julian that it had often tried to bestow high honors upon Julian but had been rebuffed. Now, the Genius went on to say, was Julian's final chance to take the power that was rightfully his. If the Caesar refused this chance, the Genius would depart forever, and both Julian and the state would rue Julian's rejection. Julian himself wrote a letter to his friend Maximus of Ephesus in November of 361 detailing his thoughts on his proclamation. In this letter, Julian stated that the soldiers proclaimed him Augustus against his will. Julian, however, defended his accession, saying that the gods willed it and that he had treated his enemies with clemency and justice. He went on to say that he led the troops in propitiating the traditional deities, because the gods commanded him to return to the traditional rites, and would reward him if he fulfilled this duty.

During 360 an uneasy peace simmered between the two emperors. Julian spent the 360 campaigning season continuing his efforts to restore order along the Rhine, while Constantius continued operations against the Persians. Julian wintered in Vienne, and celebrated his Quinquennalia. It was at this time that his wife Helena died, and he sent her remains to Rome for a proper burial at his family villa on the Via Nomentana where the body of her sister was entombed. The uneasy peace held through the summer of 361, but Julian concentrated his military operations around harassing the Alamannic chieftain Vadomarius and his allies, who had concluded a peace treaty with Constantius some years earlier. By the end of the summer, Julian decided to put an end to the waiting and gathered his army to march east against Constantius. The empire teetered on the brink of another civil war. Constantius had spent the summer negotiating with the Persians and making preparations for possible military action against his cousin. When he was assured that the Persians would not attack, he summoned his army and sallied forth to meet Julian. As the armies drew inexorably closer to one another, the empire was saved from another bloody civil war when Constantius died unexpectedly of natural causes on 3 November near the town of Mopsucrenae in Cilicia, naming Julian -- the sources say-- as his legitimate successor.

Julian was in Dacia when he learned of his cousin's death. He made his way through Thrace and came to Constantinople on 11 December 361 where Julian honored the emperor with the funeral rites appropriate for a man of his station. Julian immediately set about putting his supporters in positions of power and trimming the imperial bureaucracy, which had become extremely overstaffed during Constantius' reign. Cooks and barbers had increased during the late emperor's reign and Julian expelled them from his court. Ammianus gave a mixed assessment of how the new emperor handled the followers of Constantius. Traditionally, emperors were supposed to show clemency to the supporters of a defeated enemy. Julian, however, gave some men over to death to appease the army. Ammianus used the case of Ursulus, Constantius' comes sacrum largitionum, to illustrate his point. Ursulus had actually tried to acquire money for the Gallic troops when Julian had first been appointed Caesar, but he had also made a disparaging remark about the ineffectiveness of the army after the battle of Amida. The soldiers remembered this, and when Julian became sole Augustus, they demanded Ursulus' head. Julian obliged, much to the disapproval of Ammianus. This seems to be a case of Julian courting the favor of the military leadership, and is indicative of a pattern in which Julian courted the goodwill of various societal elites to legitimize his position as emperor.

Another case in point is the officials who made up the imperial bureaucracy. Many of them were subjected to trial and punishment. To achieve this goal, during the last weeks of December 361 Julian assembled a military tribunal at Chalcedon, empanelling six judges to try the cases. The president of the tribunal was Salutius, just promoted to the rank of Praetorian Prefect; the five other members were Mamertinus, the orator, and four general officers: Jovinus, Agilo, Nevitta, and Arbetio. Relative to the proceedings of the tribunal, Ammianus noted that the judges, " . . . oversaw the cases more vehemently than was right or fair, with the exception of a few . . .." Ammianus' account of Julian's attempt at reform of the imperial bureaucracy is supported by legal evidence from the Theodosian Code. A series of laws sent to Mamertinus, Julian's appointee as Praetorian Prefect in Italy, Illyricum, and Africa, illustrate this point nicely. On 6 June 362, Mamertinus received a law that prohibited provincial governors from bypassing the Vicars when giving their reports to the Prefect. Traditionally, Vicars were given civil authority over a group of provinces, and were in theory meant to serve as a middle step between governors and Prefects. This law suggests that the Vicars were being left out, at least in Illyricum. Julian issued another edict to Mamertinus on 22 February 362 to stop abuse of the public post by governors. According to this law, only Mamertinus could issue post warrants, but the Vicars were given twelve blank warrants to be used as they saw fit, and each governor was given two. Continuing the trend of bureaucratic reform, Julian also imposed penalties on governors who purposefully delayed appeals in court cases they had heard. The emperor also established a new official to weigh solidi used in official government transactions to combat coin clipping.

For Julian, reigning in the abuses of imperial bureaucrats was one step in restoring the prestige of the office of emperor. Because he could not affect all elements of society personally, Julian, like other Neo-Flavian emperors, decided to concentrate on select groups of societal elites as intercessors between himself and the general populace. One of these groups was the imperial bureaucracy. Julian made it very clear that imperial officials were intercessors in a very real sense in a letter to Alypius, Vicar of Britain. In this letter, sent from Gaul sometime before 361, the emperor praises Alypius for his use of "mildness and moderation with courage and force" in his rule of the provincials. Such virtues were characteristic of the emperors, and it was good that Alypius is representing Julian in this way. Julian courted the army because it put him in power. Another group he sought to include in his rule was the traditional Senatorial aristocracy. One of his first appointments as consul was Claudius Mamertinus, a Gallic Senator and rhetorician. Mamertinus' speech in praise of Julian delivered at Constantinople in January of 362 is preserved. In this speech, Claudius presented his consular selection as inaugurating a new golden age and Julian as the restorer of the empire founded by Augustus. The image Mamertinus gave of his own consulate inaugurating a new golden age is not merely formulaic. The comparison of Julian to Augustus has very real, if implicit, relevance to Claudius' situation. Claudius emphasized the imperial period as the true age of renewal. Augustus ushered in a new era with his formation of a partnership between the emperor and the Senate based upon a series of honors and offices bestowed upon the Senate in return for their role as intercessor between emperor and populace. It was this system that Julian was restoring, and the consulate was one concrete example of this bond. To be chosen as a consul by the emperor, who himself had been divinely mandated, was a divine honor. In addition to being named consul, Mamertinus went on to hold several offices under Julian, including the Prefecture of Italy, Illyricum, and Africa. Similarly, inscriptional evidence illustrates a link between municipal elites and Julian during his time as Caesar, something which continued after he became emperor. One concrete example comes from the municipal senate of Aceruntia in Apulia, which established a monument on which Julian is styled as "Repairer of the World."

Julian seems to have given up actual Christian belief before his acclamation as emperor and was a practitioner of more traditional Greco-Roman religious beliefs, in particular, a follower of certain late antique Platonist philosophers who were especially adept at theurgy as was noted earlier. In fact Julian himself spoke of his conversion to Neo-Platonism in a letter to the Alexandrians written in 363. He stated that he had abandoned Christianity when he was twenty years old and been an adherent of the traditional Greco-Roman deities for the twelve years prior to writing this letter.

(For the complete text of this article see: http://www.roman-emperors.org/julian.htm)

Julian’s Persian Campaign

The exact goals Julian had for his ill-fated Persian campaign were never clear. The Sassanid Persians, and before them the Parthians, had been a traditional enemy from the time of the Late Republic, and indeed Constantius had been conducting a war against them before Julian's accession forced the former to forge an uneasy peace. Julian, however, had no concrete reason to reopen hostilities in the east. Socrates Scholasticus attributed Julian's motives to imitation of Alexander the Great, but perhaps the real reason lay in his need to gather the support of the army. Despite his acclamation by the Gallic legions, relations between Julian and the top military officers was uneasy at best. A war against the Persians would have brought prestige and power both to Julian and the army.

Julian set out on his fateful campaign on 5 March 363. Using his trademark strategy of striking quickly and where least expected, he moved his army through Heirapolis and from there speedily across the Euphrates and into the province of Mesopotamia, where he stopped at the town of Batnae. His plan was to eventually return through Armenia and winter in Tarsus. Once in Mesopotamia, Julian was faced with the decision of whether to travel south through the province of Babylonia or cross the Tigris into Assyria, and he eventually decided to move south through Babylonia and turn west into Assyria at a later date. By 27 March, he had the bulk of his army across the Euphrates, and had also arranged a flotilla to guard his supply line along the mighty river. He then left his generals Procopius and Sebastianus to help Arsacius, the king of Armenia and a Roman client, to guard the northern Tigris line. It was also during this time that he received the surrender of many prominent local leaders who had nominally supported the Persians. These men supplied Julian with money and troops for further military action against their former masters. Julian decided to turn south into Babylonia and proceeded along the Euphrates, coming to the fortress of Cercusium at the junction of the Abora and Euphrates Rivers around the first of April, and from there he took his army west to a region called Zaitha near the abandoned town of Dura where they visited the tomb of the emperor Gordian which was in the area. On April 7 he set out from there into the heart of Babylonia and towards Assyria.

Ammianus then stated that Julian and his army crossed into Assyria, which on the face of things appears very confusing. Julian still seems to be operating within the province of Babylonia between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The confusion is alleviated when one realizes that,for Ammianus, the region of Assyria encompassed the provinces of Babylonia and Assyria. On their march, Julian's forces took the fortress of Anatha, received the surrender and support of several more local princes, and ravaged the countryside of Assyria between the rivers. As the army continued south, they came across the fortresses Thilutha and Achaiachala, but these places were too well defended and Julian decided to leave them alone. Further south were the cities Diacira and Ozogardana, which the Roman forces sacked and burned. Soon, Julian came to Pirisabora and a brief siege ensued, but the city fell and was also looted and destroyed. It was also at this time that the Roman army met its first systematic resistance from the Persians. As the Romans penetrated further south and west, the local inhabitants began to flood their route. Nevertheless, the Roman forces pressed on and came to Maiozamalcha, a sizable city not far from Ctesiphon. After a short siege, this city too fell to Julian. Inexorably, Julian's forces zeroed in on Ctesiphon, but as they drew closer, the Persian resistance grew fiercer, with guerilla raids whittling at Julian's men and supplies. A sizable force of the army was lost and the emperor himself was almost killed taking a fort a few miles from the target city.
Finally, the army approached Ctesiphon following a canal that linked the Tigris and Euphrates. It soon became apparent after a few preliminary skirmishes that a protracted siege would be necessary to take this important city. Many of his generals, however, thought that pursuing this course of action would be foolish. Julian reluctantly agreed, but became enraged by this failure and ordered his fleet to be burned as he decided to march through the province of Assyria. Julian had planned for his army to live off the land, but the Persians employed a scorched-earth policy. When it became apparent that his army would perish (because his supplies were beginning to dwindle) from starvation and the heat if he continued his campaign, and also in the face of superior numbers of the enemy, Julian ordered a retreat on 16 June. As the Roman army retreated, they were constantly harassed by guerilla strikes. It was during one of these raids that Julian got caught up in the fighting and took a spear to his abdomen. Mortally wounded he was carried to his tent, where, after conferring with some of his officers, he died. The date was 26 June 363.

Conclusion

Thus an ignominious end for a man came about who had hoped to restore the glory of the Roman empire during his reign as emperor. Due to his intense hatred of Christianity, the opinion of posterity has not been kind to Julian. The contemporary opinion, however, was overall positive. The evidence shows that Julian was a complex ruler with a definite agenda to use traditional social institutions in order to revive what he saw as a collapsing empire. In the final assessment, he was not so different from any of the other emperors of the fourth century. He was a man grasping desperately to hang on to a Greco-Roman conception of leadership that was undergoing a subtle yet profound change.
Copyright (C) 2002, Walter E. Roberts and Michael DiMaio, Jr. Used by permission.

In reality, Julian worked to promote culture and philosophy in any manifestation. He tried to reduce taxes and the public debts of municipalities; he augmented administrative decentralisation; he promoted a campaign of austerity to reduce public expenditure (setting himself as the example). He reformed the postal service and eliminated the powerful secret police.
by Federico Morando; JULIAN II, The Apostate, See the Julian II Page on NumisWiki

Flavius Claudius Iulianus was born in 331 or maybe 332 A.D. in Constantinople. He ruled the Western Empire as Caesar from 355 to 360 and was hailed Augustus by his legions in Lutetia (Paris) in 360. Julian was a gifted administrator and military strategist. Famed as the last pagan emperor, his reinstatement of the pagan religion earned him the moniker "the Apostate." As evidenced by his brilliant writing, some of which has survived to the present day, the title "the Philosopher" may have been more appropriate. He died from wounds suffered during the Persian campaign of 363 A.D. Joseph Sermarini, FORVM.

Edited by J. P. Fitzgerald, Jr.

2 commentsCleisthenes

1413 - 1422, Henry V, Billon Niquet (Double Tournois) struck in 1421 at Rouen, FranceObverse: + H REX ANGL HERES FRANC. Crowned lion passant facing left, fleur-de-lis above. Pellet mintmark below first letter of legend = Rouen mint.
Reverse: + SIT NOME DNI BENEDICTV. Cross pattée with lis in angles and lombardic 'h' in centre. Pellet mintmark below first letter of legend.
Diameter: 24mm | Weight: 1.9gms | Die Axis: 9h
SPINK: 8162 | Elias: 260 (Scarce)

This Anglo-Gallic coin, colloquially called a "leopard" after its obverse design, bears the titles of Henry V as king of England and heir to the French kingdom.

CLICK ON IMAGE BELOW FOR INFO ON HENRY V

3 comments*Alex

1452 - Julius Caesar, DenariusDenarius minted in North Africa in 46 BC
COS TERT / DICT ITER, head of Ceres right
AVGVR / PONT MAX, simpulum, sprinkler, capis and lituum, D in right field
3,81 gr
Ref : HCRI # 57, RCV # 1403/1, RSC # 4a, Cohen # 45 commentsPotator II

1797 Undated AE Halfpenny Token. London, MiddlesexObverse: Mail Coach, with GR cypher on it's door, drawn by four horses galloping right; above, HALFPENNY PAYA-BLE IN LONDON; below, TO TRADE EXPEDIN & TO PROPERTY PROTECTION.
Reverse: THIS IS INSCRIBED âœ¤ TO J. PALMER ESQ. around AFH cypher within palm branches.
Edge: Plain.
Diameter 28mm | Die Axis 12
Dalton & Hamer: 366

There were several issues of Mail Coach halfpennies, the last dated issue being in 1797. This, the final token in the series is undated, its Mail Coach obverse is similar, but the inscription is different and the reverse has the cypher AFH which has been linked to Anthony Francis Holdinhand, a merchant of 51 St. Mary-Axe in London. St. Mary-Axe is now the site of the well-known "Gherkin" skyscraper which was opened there in 2004.

Though these “Mail Coach” tokens are associated with John Palmer, he did not issue them. Famous in his day the story goes that, on 2nd. August 1784 at 4.00 pm, Palmer began an experimental journey from the "Rummer" Tavern in Bristol. The coach reached the "Three Tuns" in Bath at 5.20 pm and, travelling overnight, arrived at "The Swan with Two Necks" Inn in London at 8.00 am. Palmer, who knew how to operate a fast system of chaises between Bath and Bristol in order to get a quick exchange of actors and properties, had predicted the sixteen hour journey which the Post Office surveyors had said was impossible. The Post Office's mounted 'Post Boys' were taking nearly two days to carry the mail from Bath to London at the time. Palmer's successful experiment led to his appointment as Comptroller-General of the Post Office and, helped by road improvements, a network of routes served by dedicated Mail Coaches spread rapidly.
1 comments*Alex

1812 AE Penny Token. Hull, Yorkshire.Obverse: No legend. View of Hull lead works with smoking chimneys in background; 1812 in exergue.
Reverse: PAYABLE IN BANK OF ENG.D OR HULL NOTES BY I.K.PICARD • around ONE PENNY / HULL / LEAD / WORKS in four lines with ornament below.
Edge: Grained.
Diameter 34mm | Die Axis 7
Davis: 82

The dies for this token were engraved by Thomas Halliday and it was manufactured by Edward Thomason.
The token was issued by John Kirby Picard, who had practised as an attorney-at-law in Trinity House-lane, become a barrister and been chosen as a Deputy-Recorder of Hull before he entered into the lead business of his father. He was a man of considerable wealth and frequently visited London on business and for pleasure. He mixed with the 'high' society of the period but became addicted to gambling. Picard used his tokens for the gambling parties he held in his house and after they gained the attention of the Prince Regent, the later George IV, he was invited to show them at court.
No mention of Picard has been found in any of the London Directories, but the 'London Gazette', on February 13th, 1827, announced that J. K. Pickard (sic), white lead merchant, Russell Street, Covent Garden, had been declared bankrupt. Picard died in reduced circumstances in 1843.

The legend “PAYABLE IN BANK OF ENGLAND NOTES” was placed on this token due to an Act of Parliament which was passed in 1809 requiring issuers of local tokens to meet claims for repayment in Bank of England notes. The government having seen the widespread use of private coinage in the form of tokens realised how much money was not being controlled by it, so by passing this act it effectively made these tokens into defacto currency. *Alex

1913 Alexius I Comnenus, AU Hyperpyron SBCV-1913
Alexius I Comnenus, 1081-1118. Hyperpyron (Gold, 31 mm, 4.30 g, 6 h)

Constantinople, post-reform coinage, 1092-1118. +ΚЄ ROHΘЄI Christ, nimbate, seated facing on throne, raising his right hand in benediction and holding book of Gospels in his left; in fields, IC - XC. Rev. A/ΛЄ/ΖΙω / ΔЄC/ΠΟ/ΤΗ; in right field, Tω / KO/MNH/Nω Alexius I standing facing, wearing crown, divitision and exaggerated jeweled chlamys, holding labarum with his right hand and globus cruciger with his left; in upper right field, manus Dei to left
This coin came with an original ticket for a dealer in Amsterdam. Jacques Schulman. From a sale in Jan 1956. Leu acquisitionSimon

1923 ALEXIUS METROPOLITAN TETARTERON S-1923 DOC 36 CLBC 2.4.4 OBV Christ bearded and nimbate, wearing tunic and kolobion, seated on throne without back; r. hand raised in benediction holds Gospels in l.

REV Full length figure of emperor wearing stemma, divitision, jeweled loros of simplified type, and sagion; holds in r. hand labarum on long shaft, and in l. gl.cr.

Size 15.64mm

Weight 4.6

Metropolitan Issues were minted in Constantinople, each of these coins had an added silver content of 3% and were also issued with a very light silver wash (Silver traces are common on Metropolitan issues but intact fully silvered coins are very rare.) These more than likely were tariffed at a higher rate than the Thessalonica issues that have been shown to have no silver content. Metropolitan issues are in general far scarcer than the Thessalonica issues.

DOC Catalog lists 4 examples with weights fairly consistent from 3.49 gm. to 3.99gm and size from 16mm to 18mm. My example is running heavy at 4.6gm Simon

1923 ALEXIUS METROPOLITAN TETARTERON S-1923 DOC 36 CLBC 2.4.4OBV Christ bearded and nimbate, wearing tunic and kolobion, seated on throne without back; r. hand raised in benediction holds Gospels in l.

REV Full length figure of emperor wearing stemma, divitision, jeweled loros of simplified type, and sagion; holds in r. hand labarum on long shaft, and in l. gl.cr.

Size 3.96

Weight 17.mm

A really nice example

Metropolitan Issues were minted in Constantinople, each of these coins had an added silver content of 3% and were also issued with a very light silver wash (Silver traces are common on Metropolitan issues but intact fully silvered coins are very rare.)

DOC Catalog lists 4 examples with weights fairly consistent from 3.49 gm. to 3.99gm and size from 16mm to 18mmSimon

1936 Alexius I Comnenus, 1081-1118. Aspron Trachy SBCV-1936
(Billon, 29 mm, 4.05 g, 6 h), Philippopolis (?). +ΚЄ RO AΛЄSIW Christ, nimbate, seated facing on throne, raising his right hand in benediction and holding book of Gospels in his left; in fields, IC - XC. Rev. Δ/ЄC/ΠΟ/ΤΗ TⲰ/KO/MN/N Alexius I standing facing, wearing crown, divitision and exagerrated jewelled chlamys, holding labarum in his right hand and globus cruciger in his left. DOC 31. SB 1936. Somewhat porous, otherwise, fine.Simon

1938 JOHN II HYPERPYRON NOMISMA IV DOC 1 Constantinople First Coinage SBCV-1938OBV Christ Bearded and Nimbate , wearing tunic and kolobion, seated upon a throne without back: r. hand raised in benediction , holds gospels in l.

REV Half length figure of emperor on l. and of Virgin , holding between them Partriarcghal cross on long shaft. Emperor wears stemma, divitision, collar piece, and paneled loros of simplified type; holds anexikakia in r. hand. Virgin wears tunic and maphorion. Manus Dei in upeer left field.

Size 30mm

Weight 4.0gm
.
DOC lists 17 examples with weights from 4.04gm to 4.40gm and sizes ranging from 30mm to 36mm

Not a perfect example but had a wonderful Provenance, has original ticket from J Schulman coin dealers in Amsterdam before WWII, (From the start Jacques Schulman kept meticulous records of every coin and medal in his inventory, sales, and auctions. These were index cards that formed a database in the exact same way libraries kept their catalogue card index for books, and other printed materials.Simon

1939 JOHN II HYPERPYRON NOMISMA IV DOC 2 Constantinople Second Coinage SBCV-1939

OBV IC XC in upper field.

Christ bearded and nimbate, wearing tunic and kolobion, seated upon throne without back: r hand raised in benediction , holds gospels in l.
REV Full length figure of emperor on l. , crowned by Virgin. Emperor wears stemma, divitision. Collar piece, and paneled loros of a simplified type; holds in r. hand labarum on long shaft, and in l., anexikakia. Virgin wears tunic and maphorion.

Size 32mm

Weight 4.38gm

DOC lists 22 examples with weights from 3.73gm to 4.45gm and sizes from 30 mm to 34mmSimon

1947 JOHN II HYPERPYRON NOMISMA IV DOC 1 Thessalonica First Coinage SBCV-1947

JOHN II HYPERPYRON NOMISMA IV DOC 1 Thessalonica First Coinage SBCV-1947
OBV Christ Bearded and Nimbate , wearing tunic and kolobion, seated upon a throne without back: r. hand raised in benediction , holds gospels in l.

REV Half length figure of emperor on l. and of Virgin , holding between them Partriarcghal cross on long shaft. Emperor wears stemma, divitision, collar piece, and paneled loros of simplified type; holds anexikakia in r. hand. Virgin wears tunic and maphorion. Manus Dei in upeer left field.

Size 29mm

Weight 4.5gm

Thicker metal than Constantinople issue, very difficult to differentiate between the same issue from different mints.Simon

1948A JOHN II HYPERPYRON NOMISMA IV DOC 8 SBCV-1948

JOHN II HYPERPYRON NOMISMA IV DOC 8 SBCV-1948
OBV Christ Bearded and Nimbate , wearing tunic and kolobion, seated upon a throne without back: r. hand raised in benediction , holds gospels in l.

REV Half length figure of emperor on l. and of Virgin , Emperor wears stemma, divitision, collar piece, and paneled loros of simplified type; holds hand labarum in r. hand. Virgin wears tunic and maphorion.

Size 28mm

Weight 4.61

VF

From the Peter J. Merani Collection, purchased from Glenn W. Woods. Ex Coin Galleries (17 July 1996), lot 1296. CNG 490 April 21

Thicker metal than Constantinople issue, very difficult to differentiate between the same issue from different mints.
Also John III created the same coin without a visual way to determine between the two
Simon

1954DV JOHN II AE HALF TETARTERON S-1954V DOC NL CLBC NL OBV Full length figure of Christ standing on a dais, bearded and nimbate, wearing tunic and kolobion; right hand raised high in benediction holds Gospels in l. hand.

REV. Bust of emperor wearing stemma, divitision and chlamys; holds in r. labrum headed scepter and in l. Globus cruciger.
This is a Thessalonica minted coin, it contains no silver. It is believed to be valued at 1/864 Hyperpyron and the Metropolitan (Constantinople) issues at 1/288 Hyperpyron. This coins are much more common than Metropolitan coins and very abundant in today’s marketplace.

Size 16mm

Weight 1.9gm
This coin even though in poor condition is also an example of the Right arm raised .l. However it is of mixed consensus to this being a new variation Simon

1954E JOHN II AE HALF TETARTERON S-1954 and S-1954VOBV Full length figure of Christ standing on a dais, bearded and nimbate, wearing tunic and kolobion; right hand raised high in benediction holds Gospels in l. hand.

REV. Bust of emperor wearing stemma, divitision and chlamys; holds in r. labrum headed scepter and in l. Globus cruciger.

Bothe examples are in excellent condition, the top is S-1954 Christ hand is on book. The bottom is the variation with Christ hands raised in benediction.

Size 19mm ( Bottom coin.)

Weight 2.6 gm

Several examples of this coin have been identified, the only variation is the l. hand is raised much higher than normal. However it is of mixed consensus to this being a new variation
Simon

1954var JOHN II AE HALF TETARTERON S-1954V DOC NL CLBC NL Hand Raised Variation
OBV Full length figure of Christ standing on a dais, bearded and nimbate, wearing tunic and kolobion; right hand raised high in benediction holds Gospels in l. hand.

REV. Bust of emperor wearing stemma, divitision and chlamys; holds in r. labrum headed scepter and in l. Globus cruciger.

Size 19mm

Weight 2.6 gm

Several examples of this coin have been identified; the only variation is the R. hand is raised much higher than normal as if a blessing. I have seen enough examples of this coin with the variation for it to be an unlisted issue. However, I did discuss this coin with Dr. Zervos and he did not agree, nor did Val (One of the authors of CLBC)Simon

1956 Manuel I Comnenus. 1143-1180. AV Hyperpyron (29mm, 4.34 g, 6h). Variety VConstantinople mint. Struck circa 1167-1183. Facing bust of beardless Christ, beardless, holding scroll and raising hand in benediction; nimbus with five pellets between double-lined cross arms / Manuel standing facing, holding labarum and patriarchal cross on globe, being crowned by manus Dei; nine pellets on collar; on chlamys, square below right arm. DOC 1(for type); SB 1956. Lightly toned, minor scratches. Good VF.

From the Peter J. Merani Collection, purchased from Glenn W. Woods. CNGSimon

1958 Manuel I Comnenus EL Aspron Trachy. Constantinople DOC 3a; Sear 1958. 4.57g, 34mm, 6hManuel I Comnenus EL Aspron Trachy. Constantinople, circa AD 1152-1167. Christ Pantokrator enthroned facing, raising hand in benediction and holding Gospels; IC-XC across fields / MAN૪HΛ [ΔЄCΠOTH], the Virgin and Manuel standing facing, each holding labarum and akakia; M between, OV to right. DOC 3a; Sear 1958. 4.57g, 34mm, 6h.

Extremely Fine.

From the Vitangelo Collection, collector's ticket includedSimon

1959 Manuel I Comnenus, 1143-1180. Aspron Trachy (Electrum, 31 mm, 4.28 g, 6 h), Constantinople, circa 1160-1164. ΙC - ΧC Christ Pantocrator, standing facing, nimbate and enrobed, raising right hand in benediction and holding Book of Gospels with his left; in field to left and right, star. Rev. MA-NVHΛ - O/ ΘЄ/O/Δ/ω/PO/C Manuel and St. Theodore standing facing, both holding a sword in their outer hand, and holding a long patriarchal cross set on a globe between them. DOC 4b. SB 1959. Light polishing marks, otherwise, good very fine.

From the Trausnitz Collection, acquired prior to 2007.Simon

1969A MANUEL METROPOLITIAN TETARTERON S-1969 DOC 16 CLBC 4.4.3OBV Full length figure of Christ standing on a dais, bearded and nimbate, wearing tunic and kolobion; right hand raised high in benediction holds Gospels in l. hand. Pellets in each limb of nimbus cross.

REV Full length figure of emperor, bearded, wearing stemma, divitision, collar piece, jeweled loros of a simplified type and Saigon; holds in right a labrum on a long shaft. On which X and in l. globus cruciger

Size 19.6mm

Weight 3.0

DOC lists 11 examples with weights from 2.76 to 4.14 gm and sizes from 18mm to 20mmSimon

1969B MANUEL METROPOLITIAN TETARTERON S-1969 DOC 16 CLBC 4.4.3 OBV Full length figure of Christ standing on a dais, bearded and nimbate, wearing tunic and kolobion; right hand raised high in benediction holds Gospels in l. hand. Pellets in each limb of nimbus cross.

REV Full length figure of emperor, bearded, wearing stemma, divitision, collar piece, jeweled loros of a simplified type and Saigon; holds in right a labrum on a long shaft. On which X and in l. globus cruciger

Size 21.5mm

Weight 4.2gm

Cosmopolitan Issue were minted in Constantinople, each of these coins had an added silver content of 3% and were also issued with a very light silver wash (Silver traces are common on Cosmopolitan issues but intact fully silvered coins are very rare.) These more than likely were tariffed at a higher rate than the Thessalonica issues that have been shown to have no silver content. Cosmopolitan issue are in general far scarcer than the Thessalonica issues

DOC lists 11 examples with weights from 2.76 to 4.14 gm and sizes from 18mm to 20mm

This is my second example added to the collection, condition is a bit sad VG/ aF however it shows the other details my other example lacks. This is the hardest of the Manuel tetartera to acquire.
Simon

1969C MANUEL METROPOLITIAN TETARTERON S-1969 DOC 16 CLBC 4.4.3 OBV Full length figure of Christ standing on a dais, bearded and nimbate, wearing tunic and kolobion; right hand raised high in benediction holds Gospels in l. hand. Pellets in each limb of nimbus cross.

REV Full length figure of emperor, bearded, wearing stemma, divitision, collar piece, jeweled loros of a simplified type and Saigon; holds in right a labrum on a long shaft. On which X and in l. globus cruciger

Size 22/17mm

Weight 2.7gm

DOC lists 11 examples with weights from 2.76 to 4.14 gm and sizes from 18mm to 20mm

This coin really leads me to believe it was modified to add the X on shaft, you will notice an additional x was used on the Gl. CR , this was either double struck or the x was added to the shaft after the coin had been struck. The design is very similar to a John II coin the only main difference in design being the X on the shaft.Simon

1969C MANUEL METROPOLITIAN TETARTERON S-1969 DOC 16 CLBC 4.4.3 Imitation?OBV Full length figure of Christ standing on a dais, bearded and nimbate, wearing tunic and kolobion; right hand raised high in benediction holds Gospels in l. hand. Pellets in each limb of nimbus cross.

REV Full length figure of emperor, bearded, wearing stemma, divitision, collar piece, jeweled loros of a simplified type and Saigon; holds in right a labrum on a long shaft. On which X and in l. globus cruciger

Size 19.84

Weight 1.8gm

Not certain but I now believe this to be an imitation, the biggest reason for this is the low weight and thin flan. Does not have the look of a Constantinople minted coin. This coin was found in Cyprus.
1 commentsSimon

1994 ISAAC COMNENUS OF CYPRUS AG TETARTERON S-1994 DOC 7CLBC 6.3.6A OBV Bust of Christ, bearded and nimbate, wearing tunic and kolobion; r. hand raised in benediction. Holds gospels in l.

REV Bust of emperor wearing stemma, skaramangion or divitision and saigon; holds in r. hand scepter cruciger and in l. ?

Size 20mm

Weight 2.39gm

Ex CNG

DOC list 2 examples with a weight of 2.67 gm and sized at 19mm and 21mmSimon

1998 ISAAC COMNENUS OF CYPRUS AG TETARTERON S-1998 DOC 610 CLBC 6.3.6AOBV Christ Emmanuel, beardless and nimbate, wearing tunic and kolobion, seated upon throne with back; r hand raised in benediction holds scroll in l. Pellet in each limb of nimbus cross.

REV Full length figure of emperor on l. crowned by virgin nimbate. Emperor wears stemma, divitision, collar piece, and jeweled loros of simplified type; holds in r hand scepter cruciger and in l. anexikakia. Virgin wears tunic and maphorion.

Size 22.52mm

Weight 2.7gm

This issues in Cyprus have a small amount of silver in them 1.5% make them more related to the Metropolitan issue of the empire.
Simon

1998 ISAAC COMNENUS OF CYPRUS AG TETARTERON S-1998 DOC 610 CLBC 6.3.6A OBV Christ Emmanuel, beardless and nimbate, wearing tunic and kolobion, seated upon throne with back; r hand raised in benediction holds scroll in l. Pellet in each limb of nimbus cross.

REV Full length figure of emperor on l. crowned by virgin nimbate. Emperor wears stemma, divitision, collar piece, and jeweled loros of simplified type; holds in r hand scepter cruciger and in l. anexikakia. Virgin wears tunic and maphorion.

Size 20.20mm

Weight 3.4gm

This issues in Cyprus have a small amount of silver in them 1.5% make them more related to the Metropolitan issue of the empire.

DOC list 4 examples with a weight of 2.81 to 2.84 and sized at 19mm to 21mm
Simon

1998 ISAAC COMNENUS OF CYPRUS AG TETARTERON S-1998 DOC 610 CLBC 6.3.6A
OBV Christ Emmanuel, beardless and nimbate, wearing tunic and kolobion, seated upon throne with back; r hand raised in benediction holds scroll in l. Pellet in each limb of nimbus cross.

REV Full length figure of emperor on l. crowned by virgin nimbate. Emperor wears stemma, divitision, collar piece, and jeweled loros of simplified type; holds in r hand scepter cruciger and in l. anexikakia. Virgin wears tunic and maphorion.

Size 18.5/20mm

Weight 4.2

This issues in Cyprus have a small amount of silver in them 1.5% make them more related to the Metropolitan issue of the empire. This issue is heavier than normal, Isaac is wearing a sash at waist.

DOC list 4 examples with a weight of 2.81 to 2.84 and sized at 19mm to 21mm

Really a nice example, all detail is still there , some wear but beautiful example.
Simon

1998 ISAAC COMNENUS OF CYPRUS AG TETARTERON S-1998 DOC 610 CLBC 6.3.6B

OBV Christ Emmanuel, beardless and nimbate, wearing tunic and kolobion, seated upon throne with back; r hand raised in benediction holds scroll in l. Pellet in each limb of nimbus cross. The coin differs with a Circular legend

REV Full length figure of emperor on l. crowned by virgin nimbate. Emperor wears stemma, divitision, collar piece, and jeweled loros of simplified type; holds in r hand scepter cruciger and in l. anexikakia. Virgin wears tunic and maphorion.

Size 20.35mm

Weight 2.2gm

This issuesSimon

1998A ISAAC COMNENUS OF CYPRUS AG TETARTERON S-1998 DOC 610 CLBC 6.3.6A OBV Christ Emmanuel, beardless and nimbate, wearing tunic and kolobion, seated upon throne with back; r hand raised in benediction holds scroll in l. Pellet in each limb of nimbus cross.

REV Full length figure of emperor on l. crowned by virgin nimbate. Emperor wears stemma, divitision, collar piece, and jeweled loros of simplified type; holds in r hand scepter cruciger and in l. anexikakia. Virgin wears tunic and maphorion.

Size 20.26mm

Weight 3.2gm

This issues in Cyprus have a small amount of silver in them 1.5% make them more related to the Metropolitan issue of the empire.

DOC list 4 examples with a weight of 2.81 to 2.84 and sized at 19mm to 21mm
Simon

1999 ISAAC COMNENUS OF CYPRUS AG TETARTERON S-1999 DOC 10B CLBC 6.3.7

OBV Christ Emmanuel, beardless and nimbate, wearing tunic and kolobion, seated upon throne with back; r hand raised in benediction holds scroll in l. Pellet in each limb of nimbus cross.

REV Full length figure of emperor on RIGHT. crowned by virgin nimbate on l.. Emperor wears stemma, divitision, collar piece, and jeweled loros of simplified type; holds in L hand scepter cruciger and in r. anexikakia. Virgin wears tunic and maphorion.

Size 18.72mm

Weight 2.9gm

This issues in Cyprus have a small amount of silver in them 1.5% make them more related to the Metropolitan issue of the empire.

DOC list 1 examples with a weight of 2.84 gm and sized at 19mm

This issue is considered to be very rare, 5/5 , Grierson considers it to be an error of S-1998 and I must agree, still a wonderful piece to add to my collection 1 commentsSimon

1aa Reign of SVLLAL Manlivs, moneyer
82-72 BC

Denarius

Head of Roma, right, MANLI before, PRO Q behind
Sulla in walking quadriga, crowned by Victory, L SVLLA IM in ex.

Seaby, Manlia 4

Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix (c. 138 BC – 78 BC) was a Roman general and conservative statesman. He had the distinction of holding the office of consul twice, as well as reviving the dictatorship. Sulla was awarded a grass crown, the most prestigious and rarest Roman military honor, during the Social War. He was the first man to lead an army to Rome to settle a political dispute, in this case with Marius. In late 81 BC, he stunned the world by resigning his near-absolute powers, restoring constitutional government. After seeing election to and holding a second consulship, he retired to private life and died shortly after.

As to the person, Plutarch wrote: LUCIUS Cornelius Sylla was descended of a patrician or noble family. . . . His general personal appearance may be known by his statues; only his blue, eyes, of themselves extremely keen and glaring, were rendered all the more forbidding and terrible by the complexion of his face, in which white was mixed with rough blotches of fiery red. . . . And when supreme master of all, he was often wont to muster together the most impudent players and stage-followers of the town, and to drink and bandy jests with them without regard to his age or the dignity of his place, and to the prejudice of important affairs that required his attention. When he was once at table, it was not in Sylla's nature to admit of anything that was serious, and whereas at other times he was a man of business and austere of countenance, he underwent all of a sudden, at his first entrance upon wine and good-fellowship, a total revolution, and was gentle and tractable with common singers and dancers, and ready to oblige any one that spoke with him. It seems to have been a sort of diseased result of this laxity that he was so prone to amorous pleasures, and yielded without resistance to any temptation of voluptuousness, from which even in his old age he could not refrain. He had a long attachment for Metrobius, a player. In his first amours, it happened that he made court to a common but rich lady, Nicopolis by name, and what by the air of his youth, and what by long intimacy, won so far on her affections, that she rather than he was the lover, and at her death she bequeathed him her whole property. He likewise inherited the estate of a step-mother who loved him as her own son. By these means he had pretty well advanced his fortunes. . . . In general he would seem to have been of a very irregular character, full of inconsistencies with himself much given to rapine, to prodigality yet more; in promoting or disgracing whom he pleased, alike unaccountable; cringing to those he stood in need of, and domineering over others who stood in need of him, so that it was hard to tell whether his nature had more in it of pride or of servility. As to his unequal distribution of punishments, as, for example, that upon slight grounds he would put to the torture, and again would bear patiently with the greatest wrongs; would readily forgive and he reconciled after the most heinous acts of enmity, and yet would visit small and inconsiderable offences with death and confiscation of goods; one might judge that in himself he was really of a violent and revengeful nature, which, however, he could qualify, upon reflection, for his interest. Blindado

1aa Julius Caesar60 BC (formation of the First Triumvirate)-44 BC (assassination)

Denarius
44 BC

Caesar's head, right, eight-pointed star behind. CAESAR IMP.
Venus standing left, holding victory and scepter. P SEPVLLIVS MACER.

RSC 41

Plutarch said of the first triumvirate: There is a law among the Romans, that whoever desires the honour of a triumph must stay without the city and expect his answer. And another, that those who stand for the consulship shall appear personally upon the place. Caesar was come home at the very time of choosing consuls, and being in a difficulty between these two opposite laws, sent to the senate to desire that, since he was obliged to be absent, he might sue for the consulship by his friends. Cato, being backed by the law, at first opposed his request; afterwards perceiving that Caesar had prevailed with a great part of the senate to comply with it, he made it his business to gain time, and went on wasting the whole day in speaking. Upon which Caesar thought fit to let the triumph fall, and pursued the consulship. Entering the town and coming forward immediately, he had recourse to a piece of state policy by which everybody was deceived but Cato. This was the reconciling of Crassus and Pompey, the two men who then were most powerful in Rome. There had been a quarrel between them, which he now succeeded in making up, and by this means strengthened himself by the united power of both, and so under the cover of an action which carried all the appearance of a piece of kindness and good-nature, caused what was in effect a revolution in the government. For it was not the quarrel between Pompey and Caesar, as most men imagine, which was the origin of the civil wars, but their union, their conspiring together at first to subvert the aristocracy, and so quarrelling afterwards between themselves.

Of Caesar's military leadership, Plutarch wrote: He was so much master of the good-will and hearty service of his soldiers that those who in other expeditions were but ordinary men displayed a courage past defeating or withstanding when they went upon any danger where Caesar's glory was concerned. . . . This love of honour and passion for distinction were inspired into them and cherished in them by Caesar himself, who, by his unsparing distribution of money and honours, showed them that he did not heap up wealth from the wars for his own luxury, or the gratifying his private pleasures, but that all he received was but a public fund laid by the reward and encouragement of valour, and that he looked upon all he gave to deserving soldiers as so much increase to his own riches. Added to this also, there was no danger to which he did not willingly expose himself, no labour from which he pleaded an exemption. His contempt of danger was not so much wondered at by his soldiers because they knew how much he coveted honour. But his enduring so much hardship, which he did to all appearance beyond his natural strength, very much astonished them. For he was a spare man, had a soft and white skin, was distempered in the head and subject to an epilepsy, which, it is said, first seized him at Corduba. But he did not make the weakness of his constitution a pretext for his ease, but rather used war as the best physic against his indispositions; whilst, by indefatigable journeys, coarse diet, frequent lodging in the field, and continual laborious exercise, he struggled with his diseases and fortified his body against all attacks. He slept generally in his chariots or litters, employing even his rest in pursuit of action. In the day he was thus carried to the forts, garrisons, and camps, one servant sitting with him, who used to write down what he dictated as he went, and a soldier attending behind him with his sword drawn. 2 commentsBlindado

1ap Claudius41-54

As
Bare head, left, TI CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG P M TR P IMP
Libertas, LIBERTAS AVGVSTA SC

RIC 97

According to Suetonius: Claudius was born at Lugdunum (Lyon) on the 1st of August 10BC in the consulship of Iullus Antonius and Fabius Africanus, on the day when the very first altar to Augustus was dedicated there, the child being given the name Tiberius Claudius Drusus. When his elder brother Germanicus was adopted into the Julian family (in 4 AD), he added the name Germanicus also. He lost his father when still an infant (in 9 BC), and throughout his childhood and youth was severely afflicted by various stubborn ailments so that his mind and body lacked vigour, and even when he attained his majority he was not considered capable of a public or private career.

Nevertheless, he applied himself to liberal studies from his earliest youth, and often published examples of his proficiency in each area, though even so he was excluded from public office and failed to inspire any brighter hopes for his future. His mother Antonia the Younger often condemned him as an unfinished freak of Nature, and when accusing someone of stupidity would say: ‘He’s a bigger fool than my son Claudius.’ His grandmother Augusta (Livia) always treated him with utter contempt, and rarely even spoke to him, admonishing him, when she chose to do so, in brief harsh missives, or via her messengers. When his sister Livilla heard the prophecy that he would be Emperor some day, she prayed openly and loudly that Rome might be spared so cruel and unmerited a fate.

Having spent the larger part of his life in such circumstances, he became emperor at the age of fifty (in AD41) by a remarkable stroke of fate. Caligula’s assassins had dispersed the crowd on the pretext that the Emperor wished for solitude, and Claudius, shut out with the rest, retired to a room called the Hermaeum, but shortly afterwards, terrified by news of the murder, crept off to a nearby balcony and hid behind the door-curtains. A Guard, who was wandering about the Palace at random, spotting a pair of feet beneath the curtain where Claudius was cowering, dragged the man out to identify him, and as Claudius fell to the ground in fear, recognised him, and acclaimed him Emperor.

Eutropius summarizes: His reign was of no striking character; he acted, in many respects, with gentleness and moderation, in some with cruelty and folly. He made war upon Britain, which no Roman since Julius Caesar had visited; and, having reduced it through the agency of Cnaeus Sentius and Aulus Plautius, illustrious and noble men, he celebrated a magnificent triumph. Certain islands also, called the Orcades, situated in the ocean, beyond Britain, he added to the Roman empire, and gave his son the name of Britannicus. . . . He lived to the age of sixty-four, and reigned fourteen years; and after his death was consecrated3 and deified.

This was the first "good" coin I ever bought and therefore marks the begiining of an addiction.Blindado

1ap_2 MessalinaThird wife of Claudius, married in 38 (?)

AE 20, Knossos mint

Bare head of Claudius left, CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERMANICVS

Draped bust of Messalina right, VALERIA MESSALINA [CAPITONE CYTHERONTE IIVIR] or [CYTHERO CAPITONE] (end of legend off flan)

According to Suetonius: [Claudius] was betrothed twice at an early age: to Aemilia Lepida, great-granddaughter of Augustus, and to Livia Medullina, who also had the surname of Camilla and was descended from the ancient family of Camillus the dictator. He put away the former before their marriage, because her parents had offended Augustus; the latter was taken ill and died on the very day which had been set for the wedding. He then married Plautia Urgulanilla, whose father had been honoured with a triumph, and later Aelia Paetina, daughter of an ex-consul. He divorced both these, Paetina for trivial offences, but Urgulanilla because of scandalous lewdness and the suspicion of murder. Then he married Valeria Messalina, daughter of his cousin Messala Barbatus. But when he learned that besides other shameful and wicked deeds she had actually married Gaius Silius, and that a formal contract had been signed in the presence of witnesses, he put her to death and declared before the assembled praetorian guard that inasmuch as his marriages did not turn out well, he would remain a widower, and if he did not keep his word, he would not refuse death at their hands. . . . [He later married Agrippina Jr.]

He had children by three of his wives: by Urgulanilla, Drusus and Claudia; by Paetina, Antonia; by Messalina, Octavia and a son, at first called Germanicus and later Britannicus. . . .

But it is beyond all belief, that at the marriage which Messalina had contracted with her paramour Silius he signed the contract for the dowry with his own hand, being induced to do so on the ground that the marriage was a feigned one, designed to avert and turn upon another a danger which was inferred from certain portents to threaten the emperor himself. . . .

He was so terror-stricken by unfounded reports of conspiracies that he had tried to abdicate. When, as I have mentioned before, a man with a dagger was caught near him as he was sacrificing, he summoned the senate in haste by criers and loudly and tearfully bewailed his lot, saying that there was no safety for him anywhere; and for a long time he would not appear in public. His ardent love for Messalina too was cooled, not so much by her unseemly and insulting conduct, as through fear of danger, since he believed that her paramour Silius aspired to the throne. . . .

Appius Silanus met his downfall. When Messalina and Narcissus had put their heads together to destroy him, they agreed on their parts and the latter rushed into his patron's bed-chamber before daybreak in pretended consternation, declaring that he had dreamed that Appius had made an attack on the emperor. Then Messalina, with assumed surprise, declared that she had had the same dream for several successive nights. A little later, as had been arranged, Appius, who had received orders the day before to come at that time, was reported to be forcing his way in, and as if were proof positive of the truth of the dream, his immediate accusation and death were ordered. . . .

1 commentsBlindado

1be Hadrian117-138

Sestertius
Laureate head, right, HADRIANVUS AVG COS III PP
Fortuna standing left with rudder on globe and cornucopia, FORTVNA AVG

RIC 759

According to the Historia Augusta, "Bereft of his father at the age of ten, he became the ward of Ulpius Trajanus, his cousin, then of praetorian rank, but afterwards emperor, and of Caelius Attianus, a knight. He then grew rather deeply devoted to Greek studies, to which his natural tastes inclined so much that some called him 'Greekling. . . .' In the 105-106 second Dacian war, Trajan appointed him to the command of the First Legion, the Minervia, and took him with him to the war; and in this campaign his many remarkable deeds won great renown. . . . On taking possession of the imperial power
Hadrian at once resumed the policy of the early emperors and devoted his attention to maintaining peace throughout the world. . . . [I]n this letter to the Senate he apologized because he had not left it the right to decide regarding his accession, explaining that the unseemly haste of the troops in acclaiming him emperor was due to the belief that the state could not be without an emperor. . . . He was, in the same person, austere and genial, dignified and playful, dilatory and quick to act, niggardly and generous, deceitful and straightforward, cruel and merciful, and always in all things changeable. . . . Hadrian's memory was vast and his ability was unlimited ; for instance, he personally dictated his speeches and gave opinions on all questions. He was also very witty. . . ."

After this Hadrian departed for Baiae, leaving Antoninus at Rome to carry on the government. But he received no benefit there, and he thereupon
sent for Antoninus, and in his presence he died there at Baiae on the sixth day before the Ides of July.

According to Eutropius: After the death of Trajan, AELIUS HADRIAN was made emperor, not from any wish to that effect having been expressed by Trajan himself, but through the influence of Plotina, Trajan's wife; for Trajan in his life-time had refused to adopt him, though he was the son of his cousin. He also was born at Italica in Spain. Envying Trajan's glory, he immediately gave up three of the provinces which Trajan had added to the empire, withdrawing the armies from Assyria, Mesopotamia, and Armenia, and deciding that the Euphrates should be the boundary of the empire. When he was proceeding, to act similarly with regard to Dacia, his friends dissuaded him, lest many Roman citizens should be left in the hands of the barbarians, because Trajan, after he had subdued Dacia, had transplanted thither an infinite number of men from the whole Roman world, to people the country and the cities; as the land had been exhausted of inhabitants in the long war maintained by Decebalus.

He enjoyed peace, however, through the whole course of his reign; the only war that he had, he committed to the conduct of a governor of a province. He went about through the Roman empire, and founded many edifices. He spoke with great eloquence in the Latin language, and was very learned in the Greek. He had no great reputation for clemency, but was very attentive to the state of the treasury and the discipline of the soldiers. He died in Campania, more than sixty years old, in the twenty-first year, tenth month, and twenty-ninth day of his reign. The senate was unwilling to allow him divine honours; but his successor Titus Aurelius Fulvius Antonius, earnestly insisting on it, carried his point, though all the senators were openly opposed to him. 1 commentsBlindado

1bs Septimius Severus193-211

Denarius

Laureate head, right, SEVERVS PIVS AVG
Septimius, togate and veiled, standing left holding olive branch, FVNDATOR PACIS

RIC 265

According to the Historia Augusta: After the murder of Didius Julianus, Severus, a native of Africa, gained the empire. His home town was Lepcis Magna, his father was Geta and his ancestors had been Roman knights before citizenship had been given to all. . . . He himself was born on the third day before the Ides of April, when Erucius Clarus, for the second time, and Severus were the consuls [11 April A.D.146]. . . .

After his departure to Germany he conducted himself in such a way in his governorship as to increase his reputation, which had already become noteworthy. Up to this point his military activity was as a private citizen. But then, after it had been learned that Commodus had been murdered and, moreover, that Julianus held the empire amid universal hatred, he was proclaimed emperor by the German legions at Carnuntum, on the Ides of August, although he did put up some resistance to the many who urged him on. He gave the soldiers . . . sesterces each. Then, after strengthening the provinces which he was leaving in his rear, he marched on Rome. All yielded to him wherever he went, while the armies of Illyricum and Gaul, under the pressure of their generals, had already sworn allegiance to him - for he was received by everyone as the avenger of Pertinax. At the same time, on the instigation of Julianus, Septimius Severus was declared a public enemy, and envoys were sent to the army who were to order the soldiers to desert him, on the instructions of the Senate. At first, when Severus heard that the envoys had been sent by authority of a senatorial decree, he was very frightened. Afterwards, by bribing the envoys, he ensured that they spoke in his favour before the army and crossed to his side. Having learned this, Julianus caused a decree ofthe Senate to be passed regarding his sharing of the empire with Severus. It is uncertain whether or not he did this as a trick, since he had already, before this, dispatched certain men, well known for their assassinations of generals, who were to kill Severus. Similarly he had sent men to assassinate Pescennius Niger, who had also assumed the position of emperor in opposition to him, on the instigation of the Syrian armies. But Severus escaped the hands of those that Julianus had sent to murder him and sent a letter to the praetorian guard, giving them the signal either to desertJulianus or to kill him. He was obeyed at once; Julianus was killed in the palace and Severus was invited to Rome. Thus Severus became the victor merely at will - something that had never happened to anyone - and hastened to Rome under arms. . . .

The same emperor, although implacable towards offences, likewise displayed singular judiciousness in encouraging all hard-working persons. He was quite interested in philosophy and the practice of rhetoric, and enthusiastic about learning in general. He took some measures against brigands everywhere. He composed a convincing autobiography dealing with both his private and his public life, making excuses only for the vice of cruelty. With regard to this, the Senate pronounced that either he ought not to have been born or that he ought not to die, since he appeared to be both excessively cruel and excessively useful to the republic. . . . . He died at Eboracum [York] in Britain, having subdued the tribes which appeared hostile to Britain, in the eighteeneh year of his reign, stricken by a very grave illness, now an old man. . . .

This emperor wore such meagre clothing that even his tunic scarcely had any purple, while he covered his shoulders with a shaggy cloak. He ate sparingly, being very addicted to his native vegetable, sometimes fond of wine, often abstaining from meat. His person was handsome, he was of huge size,(Dio Cassius, who knew Severus personally, says that he was small) with a long beard and curly white hair. His face inspired reverence, his voice was resonant but with a trace of an African accent right up to his old age. He was equally beloved after his death, when envy, or the fear of his cruelty, had disappeared.Blindado

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