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Home ▸ Catalog ▸ |Roman Coins| ▸ |Constantinian Era| ▸ |Jovian||View Options:   | | | After Julian was mortally wounded and died while retreating from Persia, the soldiers made Jovian emperor. To ensure his own safety, Jovian negotiated a disgraceful peace with the Sassanians, giving up five Roman provinces and the cities Nisibis and Singara. Enroute to back to Constantinople, Jovian was found dead in his tent, suffocated by carbon monoxide fumes from a charcoal brazier. During his short reign, Jovian reestablished Christianity as the state church, ending Julian's brief pagan revival. |
After evacuating Persia, upon arriving at Antioch, Jovian revoked the edicts of Julian against Christians. The Labarum of Constantine the Great again became the standard of the army. He issued an edict of toleration, to the effect that, while the exercise of magical rites would be punished, his subjects should enjoy full liberty of conscience. However, soon after he ordered burning down the Library of Antioch and on 11 September issued an edict that punishing those who worshiped ancestral gods with the death penalty. He extended the same punishment on 23 December to participation in any pagan ceremony (even private ones). In Syriac literature Jovian became the hero of a Christian romance. From Jovian's reign until the 15th century Christianity remained the dominant religion of both the Western and Eastern Roman Empires, until the Fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453.SH37582. Gold solidus, RIC VIII Antioch 223, VF, rim bumps, weight 4.073 g, maximum diameter 20.9 mm, die axis 0o, 3rd officina, Antioch (Antakya, Turkey) mint, 27 Jun 363 - 16 Feb 364 A.D.; obverse D N IOVIAN-VS PE P AVG, pearl-diademed, draped, and cuirassed bust right; reverse SECVRITAS REIPVBLICAE (security of the Republic), Roma holding spear, and Constantinopolis holding scepter and foot on prow, enthroned facing, holding shield inscribed VOT V MVLT X, ANTΓ in exergue; rare (RIC R2); SOLD
In 351, Constantius Gallus built a new church in honor of Saint Babylas at Daphne, a suburb of Antioch, and transferred the remains of the bishop to it to neutralize the pagan effects of the nearby temple of Apollo. In 362, Julian consulted the oracle of Apollo at the temple in Daphne, but received no answer, and was told that it was because of the proximity of the saint. He had the sarcophagus of the martyr exhumed and removed. A few days later, on October 22, a mysterious fire broke out consuming the roof of the temple and the statue of the god, copied from Phidias' statue of Zeus at Olympia. Julian, suspecting angry Christians, closed the cathedral of Antioch and ordered an investigation. Ammianus Marcellinus reports "a frivolous rumor" laid blame on candles lit by a worshipper late the previous night (XXII, 13). John Chrysostom claimed a bolt of lightning set the temple on fire. The remains of Babylas were reinterred in a church dedicated to him on the other side of the River Orontes.SH46443. Gold solidus, RIC VIII Antioch 223, aVF, light clipping, weight 3.894 g, maximum diameter 20.2 mm, die axis 180o, Antioch, 9th officina (Antakya, Turkey) mint, 27 Jun 363 - 16 Feb 364 A.D.; obverse D N IOVIAN-VS PEP AVG, pearl-diademed, draped, and cuirassed bust right; reverse SECVRITAS REIPVBLICAE (security of the Republic), Roma holding spear, and Constantinopolis holding scepter and foot on prow, enthroned facing, holding shield inscribed VOT V MVLT X, ANTΘ in exergue; rare (RIC R2); SOLD
After evacuating Persia, upon arriving at Antioch, Jovian revoked the edicts of Julian against Christians. The Labarum of Constantine the Great again became the standard of the army. He issued an edict of toleration, to the effect that, while the exercise of magical rites would be punished, his subjects should enjoy full liberty of conscience. However, soon after he ordered burning down the Library of Antioch and on 11 September issued an edict that punishing those who worshiped ancestral gods with the death penalty. He extended the same punishment on 23 December to participation in any pagan ceremony (even private ones). In Syriac literature Jovian became the hero of a Christian romance. From Jovian's reign until the 15th century Christianity remained the dominant religion of both the Western and Eastern Roman Empires, until the Fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453.SH08999. Gold solidus, RIC VIII Antioch 223, near VF/F, holed & plugged, edge filing, weight 4.13 g, maximum diameter 21.4 mm, die axis 135o, 5th officina, Antioch (Antakya, Turkey) mint, 27 Jun 363 - 16 Feb 364 A.D.; obverse D N IOVIANVS PEP AVG, pearl diademed draped and cuirassed bust right; reverse SECVRITAS REIPVBLICAE (security of the Republic), Roma holding spear, and Constantinopolis holding scepter and foot on prow, enthroned facing, holding shield inscribed VOT V MVLT X, ANTE in exergue; Certificate of Authenticity issued by David R. Sear; rare; SOLD
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