Aurelian is just so Third Century
.
Capital idea, as a focal point.
Aurelian seems to have a sizable issuance in
his name and that of the empress,
Severina. Other names to look out for, on the Palmyrene front:
Vabalathus and
Zenobia.
Vabalathus was son of Odenathus and
Zenobia of Palmyra.
Zenobia assumed the purple upon Odenathus' (rather suspicious) death, with
Vabalathus as nominal
king. One of the issues pairing
Vabalathus with
Aurelian would fit in nicely here.
Zenobia is quite the
rarity.
Even as a
French speaker, I
still find it tiring to read some of the numismatic works, such as
RPC 7.1 (M. Spoerri
Butcher). It's the wading through a multitude of languages (
French, Latin, Greek...). Other writers are not a problem.
Learning
'numismatic' French will at least
help you with some other works. I'm not interested in learning
Bulgarian, so am hunting for Varbanov's English translation of
his Greek Imperial Coins series.
Anaximander