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XXI

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Webb Carausius Legends and Types

THE LEGENDS AND TYPES.

The moneyers of Carausius, both British and Continental, by no means confined themselves to trite and common types; they notionally gathered suggestions from other coinages of the century, but also introduced several new and interesting varieties. A comparison of their work with that of previous reigns shows that their principal inspiration was drawn from the very varied types employed by Gallienus, while Postumus, Victorinus, the two Tetrici, and Probus were freely laid under contribution for types not issued by the first-named Emperor. Claudius Gothicus, Aurelian, Tacitus, Cams, and Carinus also supplied a few extra varieties, and the scarce pieces of Marius were not overlooked.

The coinage of these Emperors formed the bulk of the money then in circulation in Britain, as appears indeed from the composition of the Blackmoor and other hoards, but the imitation of it extended to types which must even then have been rare, such as the Hercules Devsoniensi of Postumus and the legionary coins of Gallienus, while the types and legends of the older coins were often varied by Carausius. These variations sometimes arose from the errors of illiterate moneyers, but in other cases they were intentional. For instance, the rendering of the legend of Postumus above referred to as HERC. DEUSENIENSI arose from ignorance, while the legends EXPECTATE VENI, GENIO BRITANNI, and some others were intentionally and very aptly selected.

 Some of the blundered legends were no doubt the work of barbarous imitators of the authorized die-sinkers. The forger in all ages, however well he may imitate the type, seems to have a difficulty in correctly reproducing the legend; but errors are so frequent on coins of Carausius which were evidently officially recognized, being found in the principal hoards, that they cannot all be attributed to forgers, and we must, as above mentioned, assume them to be the work of early, and inefficient moneyers.

On the British pieces which may be attributed to the early years of Carausius, and on his Continental pieces, mistakes and peculiarities in lettering are frequent. -

The Rouen moneyers often used IVG for AVG; the celebrated coin which has been read VlTAVl, "I have escaped," is almost certainly a blunder based upon VIRTVS Ave, and we find COMIS for COMES, ECVITAS for AEQVITAS, PIAETAS for PIETAS, RAEDVX for REDVX, LAETIA, LITIT, and LETITIA for LAETITIA, MONITA for MONETA, RVMANO for ROMANO, and so on. Other cases of unusual and erroneous orthography occur besides numerous instances in which the letters are blundered and the words more or less illegible, such as AVGNA, perhaps for ANNONA, VORIVIA for VICTORIA, PAZ for PAX, and AVS for AVG. One die-sinker, whose draughtsmanship is not entirely bad, has merely repeated the letter 0 four or five times in' place of an intelligible reverse legend, and a few pieces have been discovered which never had any legend at all on the reverse.

The great number of different obverse legends employed is responsible for many varieties. The names and titles of the Emperor are stated, including blundered spellings, in some seventy different inscriptions. There is ground for the surmise that the longer inscriptions may be attributed to the later years of the reign. The abbreviation of reverse legends is also the source of much unimportant variation. For instance, the type Providentia appears with some twenty-four varieties of reverse legend, while the joint effect of obverse and reverse variations of legend and type is to produce upwards of eighty varieties of coins dedicated to that divinity.

Apart, however, from these somewhat trivial differences a considerable number of unusual types are found. Of [these perhaps the most interesting is that above referred to reading EXPECTATE VENI ("Come, O expected one!"), and depicting Britain, personified as a woman, clasping the Emperor’s hand. There are several slight varieties of this type. These coins, and those reading ADVENTVS AVG, commemorate the arrival of the Emperor in Britain; but it has been already pointed out that they are generally of sufficiently good style to suggest that they were not issued until sometime after that event. The unique coin in Sir John Evans’s collection reading GENIO BRITANNI, on which Britain is represented by a youthful male genius standing by an altar, holding a patera and cornucopiae, is an adaptation to local circumstances of a well-known type.

The scarce silver and bronze pieces reading FORTVNA AVG, and bearing the reverse type described by Cohen as "the bust of a woman to right having behind her an unknown symbol, perhaps the pastoral staff, and holding a flower; a laurel wreath between the bust and legend," have given rise to much discussion. The die was imperfect, or the known specimens of the coins have by coincidence so cracked that the first letter of the legend is always missing, and the imaginative Dr. Stukeley, misled by a weakness in the impression of the upper part of the letter T, read ORIVNA AVG., and believed that the Emperor "celebrated his Empress Oriuna," a lady of whom historical record is entirely lacking. Cohen hardly less fancifully says in a footnote to his description quoted above, "On examination we think the reverse may be interpreted as follows, Laureate bust (Maximian Hercules) to right with a collar and the lion’s skin, holding in his right hand a wreath, his left hand raised."

There seems no substantial foundation for this. A very careful examination of the pieces shows that the portrait does not closely resemble that of Maximian, and that the object described as the lion’s skin is the right forearm of the figure held horizontally across the body from left to right of the spectator, the hand holding an object which is perhaps a flower, but more probably an olive branch. It is clearly not the "left hand raised," but something held in the right hand, and it therefore follows that the object to left of the spectator, behind the figure, is not held in the right, nor in fact in either hand. This latter object is somewhat obscure, but a comparison of the specimens in the Bibliothèque Nationale and the British Museum with Stukeley’s plate shows that it is probably a flower, and perhaps the arum lily. It is with diffidence submitted that the bust is, in accordance with the legend, that of Fortuna, who, having led the Emperor through war to peace, holds in her hand before her the peaceful symbol of the olive branch, while behind her is the arum martialis, the flower of Mars. It will be remembered that this flower appears as the badge of the Marcia family on two denarii issued by them; or so the small object beneath the horse depicted on those coins has been described.

Another interesting type rests on the authority of Dr. Stukeley alone; he quotes it from Serjeant Eyre’s collection, and says that the letters are "fair and distinct," but unfortunately the coin cannot now be found. The reverse shows the Emperor helmeted and in military attire riding to right, his right hand holding a spear, his left raised in salutation, with the legend IO X., which Stukeley reads "Io decies!" – "ten times hail!" The word IO appears on a rather scarce tessera or small bronze coin attributed to Domitian, reading IO IO TRIVMPHE (the triumphant shout), and on a much scarcer piece mentioned by Eckhel,18 reading IO SAT(urnalia) I0, in allusion, of course, to the riotous winter festival in honour of Saturn. This latter piece is supposed by some authorities to have been struck in Britain in the reign of Claudius. There is also a scarce coin of Gallienus, reading IO CANTAB, in probable reference to Cantabria, Biscay, in Spain. Serjeant Eyre’s coin having disappeared, we must accept Dr. Stukeley’s description and interpretation with some reserve, for although he does not appear to have falsified or misstated what he believed he saw, his enthusiasm often carried him away, and it is im possible to avoid a suspicion that what he actually should have seen in this case was a blundered version of the word PAX, coupled with an unusual type taken perhaps from the coins reading ADVENTVS AVG. There are other instances in which the legend and type are inaptly combined; the inscription PAX AVG, for example, is used with the type of a female figure holding in each hand a military ensign usually associated with the legend CONCORDIA MILITVM and FIDES MILITVM. The same inscription is also found combined with the personifications of Fortuna, Providentia, Moneta, and Salus, and even in one case with the armed military figure which usually typifies VIRTVS.

Many of the coins of both Carausius and Allectus were dedicated to Virtues and Genii, whose personifications appear as types, and in this the moneyers imitated the third brass of their predecessors of the third century, on which such types are found with wearisome frequency. The inscription TVTELA (Protection), used on the Rouen coins of Carausius, is uncommon, the only previous example during the period being on a rather scarce third brass of Tetricus the Elder. It is, however, found on several pieces struck during the first century A.D. With the exception of one scarce piece reading DIANAE REDVOI, and a few which bear the name of Jove, Allectus dedicated no coins to the gods or goddesses; Carausius was not perhaps more gallant, for the only goddess he celebrates is Diana, but he showed more religious feeling. Diocletian had taken the name of Jovius and Maximian that of Herculeus, and both their patron deities were celebrated, not only by themselves, but also by their "brother," the British Emperor, who seems, with a fine appreciation of the importance of sea-power, to have placed himself under the special protection of Neptune, to whom he dedicated a few coins. Apollo, the sun-god, was a favourite deity; his bust radiate with whip in hand sometimes appears on an obverse jugate with that of the Emperor, while his figure with a radiate crown is frequently found on reverses. The double bust sometimes arises from double striking, and where the whip is absent a careful examination of the coin is necessary before the second profile is accepted as that of the deity. On two coins reading PACATOR ORBIS, the reverse type is a radiate draped bust of the same god.

Mars was a frequent object of the warlike Emperor’s worship, Mercury more rarely appears, and Aesculapius, a minor god, appears on one rare piece inscribed SALVS AVG only; and of this, as of so many other rarities of Carausius, there is a prototype in the reign of Gallienus. The entirely unique coin, published by Professor Oman, and still in his collection, which bears the inscription HERO DEUSENIENSI, is referred to above. This Hercules of Deuso, whether Deuso be Deutz opposite Cologne or one of the Duisburgs, was a god of the German and not the British land, and it may well be that the Emperor, in this legend and in those reading VICTORIA GERM and GERMANICVS MAX V, was commemorating the part which he bore in the German victories of Probus. It is possible, however, that the former legend was but a slavish copy of the coin of Postumus, and we have seen that the latter may have no better justification. VICTORIA GERM is used by several Emperors, GERMANICVS MAX V appears on coins of Gallienus and Postumus, and the existence of coins of Valerian and Gallienus reading GERMANICVS MAX TER, seems to show that the final V should be read as a numeral, and that the Emperor claimed five victories over the Germans.

Rome is alluded to on several coins, the types used > being the armed Minerva, the goddess or personification of the city, or the wolf and twins. Mr. O. F. Keary 19 has pointed out the influence which the latter device and that of the Galley had on the Anglo-Saxon sceattas, many of which are barbaric imitations of these types which were common in Britain through their frequent use by Carausius and Allectus.

The revival of the inscription ROM(ae) ET AVG(ueto), common in the days of Augustus and Tiberius, is interesting. The well-known type, the altar of Lyons, was not used, its place being taken by a female figure, probably Roma, offering a sacrifice or, as some think, holding a rudder.

It is not surprising to find that the warrior Carausius frequently adopted the helmeted, armoured bust which is common in the reign of his old master Probus, and was also used by Gallienus and others. This bust is often associated with the warlike legends VIRTVS CARAVSI and VICTORI CARAVSI. -

Other military types abound. The Praetorian cohort, the bodyguard of the Emperor, is celebrated on several coins which bear as a reverse device four military ensigns, and there is a long and very remarkable series of coins bearing the names and devices of several legions. It will be remembered that the legions into which the Roman army was divided each contained a greater number of men than a modern regiment, and corresponded in that respect more nearly to a division, but the organization was regimental, the cohorts representing the companies. In republican times the number of soldiers composing a legion was three thousand, but this was afterwards increased till it reached six thousand foot with a few hundred cavalry. In early days the legions were few, but as the Roman power grew, additional ones were enrolled as occasion required, and distinguished by consecutive numbers in the order of their formation. At the fall of the republic there appear to have been no less than thirty under arms. Even at this period some of them were known by name as well as number, and, owing to a practice which grew up under the Empire of forming more than one legion under one number, the name became as important as the number.

In 31 B.C. Mark Antony, who was preparing for that last war of his which ended in the shameful defeat of Actium, issued some gold and a great number of silver coins bearing on one side a galley and on the other a legionary eagle between two military ensigns, with inscriptions comprising the numbers of the legions from I to XXX, and in three cases also their names. From the first to the twenty-third legion the denarii are common, and have often been found in Britain, but specimens bearing higher numbers are very rare. The legionary denarii of Clodius Macer, struck in Africa in 68 A.D., are so rare and of so distant an origin that they can hardly have been known to the moneyers of Carausius; but Septimius Severus, who died at York in 211, commemorated some twelve of his legions on gold and silver coins, and one on bronze, while Gallienus, Emperor 253—268, struck more than fifty varieties of legionary billon or white metal coins. Victorinus, 265—267, also struck a very few, mostly in gold. In these types, as in so many others, we find that Carausius sought his inspiration from the coins of Gallienus, for that Emperor, departing from the conventional eagle and ensign type used by Antony and Severus, employed as a reverse type the legionary badge, a ram, 0. centaur, a lion, or other device. Sir John Evans, dealing with legionary coins of Carausius in the Numismatic Chronicle, 1905, pp. 28, 29, suggests that it is possible to distinguish those coins of Carausius that are probably mere imitations of earlier coins, and those that are probably connected with legions serving under Carausius, by comparing the title of the legion and its device on the coins of the two Emperors, and if on both the title and device are identical, regarding the coin of Carausius as possibly a mere imitation of one of Gallienus, but if there is a difference either in the title or device, regarding it as probably an original production of the mint of Carausius.

It may be doubted if this is not at once somewhat more and less than fair to Carausius. On the one hand, allowance must be made for the blunders of his moneyers, especially those at Colchester, who seem to have considered that the centaur was a fitting type for almost any legionary coin, and for the extremely imperfect striking and condition of many of the existing pieces which have caused the publication of doubtful readings; while, on the other hand, it will appear that Carausius, even though in many cases he copied the type of the earlier coin more or less exactly, had other and better reasons than those of the copyist for using it.

The following table showing the numbers, names, and billets of the legions stationed in Europe during the latter part of the third century, has been kindly supplied by Professor Oman, and will be of the greatest assistance in the consideration of the coins in detail. It shows that Carausius commemorated no legion from which he did not receive, or at any rate had no hope of receiving, support. It may be that, as a political measure, com parable to the issue of the coins with legends terminating in AVGGG, to publish the union of the three Emperors, he threw his net wide, and included what he aspired to as well as the accomplished facts, but, especially if the coins were issued while he held Continental power, he did not exceed the possibilities.

No.

Name.

Billet.

Badge.

I

Minervia

Lower Rhine

Ram

I

Adjutrix

Pannonia

Capricorn

I

Italica

Lower Moesia

Boar

II

Augusta

Britain

Capricorn

II

Adjutrix

Pannonia

Pegasus

II

Italica

Noricum

Wolf and twins

II

Parthica

Italy, afterwards Gaul

Centaur

III

Italica

Rhaetia

Stork

IV

Flavia Felix

Moesia, afterwards Gaul

Lion, or bust and two lions

V

Macedonica

Dacia, afterwards Moesia

Victory and eagle

VI

Victrix

Britain

Doubtful

VII

Claudia

Moesia, afterwards Gaul

Bull

VIII

Augusta

Upper Rhine

Bull

X

Gemina

Pannonia

Bull

XI

Claudia

Moesia

Neptune, or boar

XIII

Gemina

Dacia, afterwards Moesia

Lion

XIV

Gemina

Pannonia

Capricorn

XX

Valeria Victrix

Britain

Boar

XXII

Primigenia

Upper Rhine

Capricorn

XXX

Ulpia Victrix

Lower Rhine

Neptune

We find coins of Carausius, of which the reading is undoubted, referring to the following legions, viz. :—

No.

Name.

Billet.

Badge.

Badge used by Gallienus.

I

Minervia

Lower Rhine

Ram

Figure of Minerva

II

Augusta

Britain

Capricorn

Gallienus omits the legion

II

Parthica

Gaul

Centaur

Centaur

IIII

Flavia

Gaul

Lion, or bust and two lions

Lion

VII

Claudia

Gaul

Bull or lion

Bull or lion

VIII

Augusta

Upper Rhine

Bull

Bull

XX

Valeria Victrix

Britain

Boar

Capricorn

XXII

Primigenia

Upper Rhine

Capricorn

Capricorn

XXX

Ulpia Victrix

Lower Rhine

Neptune

Neptune or Capricorn

Here we have all the legions which were stationed in or near the territory which was subject to Carausius when at the zenith of his power, and in most cases the badges used by him to distinguish them are similar to those used by Gallienus.

The instances of difference are the less important because we know from the series of Gallienus that some legions used two badges, and it has been suggested by Sir John Evans that when a portion only of a legion gave its adherence to the cause of Carausius, it adopted a new device.

There are some pieces, reading LEG ll PARTH or PARTHICA, with the boar as a badge; they are scarce, but, sufficiently numerous to render it probable that this badge was used by this legion as well as the centaur. The coins which have been read LEG III with a bull for device, are almost certainly imperfectly struck pieces of A coin in the Bibliothèque Nationale, which reads LEG III (type, a lion), is probably an incomplete piece of the fourth legion, Flavia; while the coins which apparently read LEG Vlll IN, with the ram, are blunders for LEG I MIN; and those which read LEG XX, or XXI VLPIA, are also blundered, and should read XXX. The silver coin, published by Cohen (No. 138), as LEG Ill SIPC, is an imperfect and blundered specimen of the type ADVENTVS AVG. It was totally misread by Cohen’s authority, probably Petrie, and is omitted from the present catalogue. The combination of the centaur with the legend LEG Illl FLAVIA occurs only on coins struck at Colchester, and is, it is submitted, with much deference to the contrary opinion of Sir John Evans, probably a blunder of the moneyer there, whose experience of legionary coins was small, and who appears, with one exception, to have used the centaur badge on all his issues of the series. There remains, therefore, some obscurity about one type only, that reading LEG Vlll or Vllll GE. Some authors allege that the ninth legion bore the title Augusta Gemina, and was stationed in Armorica, North Western Gaul, and if we might accept this as correct, these extremely rare coins would fall into the class of those legions over which Carausius had or hoped to have control, a class which would then comprise all his legionary types except those which, as above mentioned, are almost certainly blundered. Unfortunately, modern research hardly supports the allegation. It does not appear that the ninth legion was ever reformed after its extermination in Britain during the reign of Hadrian, and at the end of the third century the only legion named Gemina which bore the bull was the tenth, which was then stationed on the Danube, in Pannonia, Hungary, too far away, it would seem, to come within the political scope of Carausius. The title was also borne by the thirteenth and fourteenth legions, whose badges were the capricorn and the lion respectively, but both these legions were also on Danubian stations. It would seem, therefore, that the coins must be blundered or misread. Nearly all the legionary coins either bear the London mark or are without mint-letter, and may probably be attributed to that mint. A great number of them are of poor workmanship and irregularly struck. It seems probable that these are among the early issues, but that the type was not abandoned till late in the reign. The only similar coin of Allectus reads LEG II with a lion badge, and is no doubt a blunder.

One coin of Carausius very worthy of special mention, the most interesting of all the many interesting pieces issued by him, is the well-known third brass bearing the legend CARAVSIVS ET FRATRES SVI, with the jugate busts of Diocletian, Maximian, and Carausius facing to the left of the spectator, and the reverse legend PAX AVGGG. Although by reason of its unusual design and great historic interest it is one of the most valuable small bronze coins in existence, it is by no means unique. The Bibliothèque Nationale possesses two specimens, one of which, presented by Baron Rothschild, is no doubt the finest known. The British Museum and the Royal Cabinet at Berlin have each a good specimen; the Fitzwilliam Museum has a poor one; Sir John Evans, M. Naville, and Mr. J. W. Brooke have one each, the last recently found near Marlborough; while another, found at Waycock, Berks, is described in the Archaeological Journal, vol. vi. p. 119, and one or two others are to be found in private collections. It is doubtful if any two of them are from the same die, and there are at least three slight varieties in the details of the busts. The coin was struck in celebration of the Peace of 290 A.D. The mint-mark is always that of Colchester. Stukeley20 says that the first published specimen "of this most elegant and singular coin" was then in the collection of "John Wale’s Esq. of Colne," and was "picked out of a vast heap of Roman coins in Mr. Wale’s custody found at the neighbouring Roman station of Canonium, Chesterford; 'tis an invaluable monument of our Emperor’s glory...of excellent workmanship and perfect preservation, the faces of the three Emperors distinct and easily known; Diocletian in the middle, Carausius on his right, Maximian uppermost, exactly according to the rule of manners.'"

Eckhel21 describes another specimen in the collection of the Abbate Persico at Genoa as bearing "three busts jugated, the first of which is a radiated one of Carausius, the second laureated of Diocletian, and the third with the lion’s skin of Maximian Herculius." Stevenson22 considers that in some specimens the bust of Carausius is uppermost, and is alone radiate, and he animadverts on the Emperor’s conduct in radiating his own head, "while assigning the Caesarian honors of the caput nudum to the two Augusti, fratres sui."

It is inconceivable that Carausius, astute, politic, and anxious, as his coinage clearly shows, to obtain the fullest recognition of the peace which he had gained by the success of his arms, and of his position as a colleague in the Roman Empire, could have desired to offer such a gross and public insult to the two Emperors, and he did not do so. The writer has had the opportunity of examining six specimens of the coin; one of them shows very clearly, and three others less clearly, but beyond reasonable doubt, that all the heads are crowned, while the remaining two pieces are so poor in condition that their exact design is doubtful. The relative position of the busts appears in every case to be, Maximian upper most, Diocletian, the senior Emperor, in the centre, and Carausius, the author of the coin, in the most modest and retired position on his right—that is, furthest from the spectator — "exactly according to the rule of manners." The other coins having the bust of Carausius on the obverse with reverse legends terminating with AVGGG have been mentioned above. There are a considerable number of types and varieties, but specimens of most of the types are scarce; of both types and specimens those from the Colchester mint are somewhat more numerous than those of London. The reverse legends and types are generally trite and common, the metal employed is bronze, except in one instance, that with the legend CONSERVATORI AVGGG, which has only been found in gold, and of which two specimens only are known. Of other types, PAX and PROVID are common, SALVS and VIRTVS fairly so, while comes, HILARITAS, LAETITIA, MONETA, PIETAS, and PROVIDEN are rare. The coins are of good style, and were evidently struck after the mints were well established. They are of distinctly British fabric and, in this respect, differ from the pieces issued by Carausius, but bearing the busts of Diocletian and Maximian with similar reverse legends, whose engravers appear, as has been pointed out above, to have attempted to give them a Continental appearance so as to suggest that they were actually issued by the Emperors whose names they bear.

The types selected for these latter coins were also trite, and the metal employed was always bronze, except in case of the aureus bearing the bust of Maximian and the reverse legend SALVS AVGGG. of which there are two specimens in the British Museum. All the pieces are scarce, those of Diocletian with types CONSERVAT, LAETITIA, PROVID, SALVS, VICTORIA, and VIRTVS, and 0f Maximian reading PROVIDENTIA, SALVS, and VIRTVS, decidedly so, while those of the PAX type of both Emperors are more common. They were issued from both the Colchester and London mints, are generally very well centred and neatly struck, and vary from 21 to 23 millimetres in diameter. The varieties of the obverse inscription are numerous.

One coin of Allectus bears the legend PAX AVGGG, and of this only two specimens are known, that in the British Museum having an obverse legend terminating in AVGG and being of somewhat rough workmanship. The issue is, therefore, probably attributable to an illiterate moneyer, and should not be taken as evidence that Allectus, like his predecessor, claimed to be a colleague of the Roman Emperors.

There are a few coins of Carausius whose reverse legends terminate AVGG, but they nearly always show signs of rough and barbarous execution. The types are trite and the specimens very scarce. Dr. Stukeley, carried away by his imagination, considers these coins to refer to the Emperor and his son Sylvius, but there does not appear to be any historical authority for such a conclusion, nor indeed for the existence of Sylvius. An examination of the coins leads to the belief that they are the work of illiterate moneyers, probably in imitation of the very common legends on coins struck by Diocletian and Maximian, in allusion to the union of those two Emperors.

Cohen (No. 51) publishes a coin with reverse legend COS III, his authority being a very badly executed specimen in the Hunter Collection, for the interpretation whereof he no doubt relied on the illustration in the Monumenta Historica Britannica (Pl. vii. 2). The type is a draped figure standing to left holding a globe in the right hand, the left resting on a buckler. Stukeley also quotes a "singular coin of my friend the Reverend Mr. Foote," bearing the legend COS IIII (Pl. xii. 3), of which he says, "In the obverse the Emperor’s bust has on the consular embroidered chlamys; in the reverse he stands in the complete consular robe, holding in his right hand the globe of Empire, in his left a scroll of paper or vellum as usual." His illustration shows the coin to be imperfect, and there is no trace of the scroll.

This coin has not been traced, and the writer has failed to read the consular inscription on the Hunter specimen, which appeared to him to bear traces of the legend COMES AVG. It is fair, however, to Dr. Stukeley to say that in several instances coins have been met with which do not appear at all in the Monumenta, or in Cohen, but are correctly described by him.

His coin (xxix. 2) which he reads PMORPTICOSIIII, perhaps a blunder for P M TR P COS llll, cannot be verified. He himself quoted it incorrectly from Hern’s preface to Walter of Hemingford. The Hunter coin, published as COR AVG is correctly read; it appears to be of barbarous workmanship, and is perhaps a blunder. The public vows are referred to on a few pieces of Carausius, but there is no mention of them on coins of Allectus. In 27 B.C. Augustus accepted the sovereign power from a servile Senate for a period of ten years only, and publicly celebrated his "Decennales," his vows to the gods of ten years of good government; in 18 B.C. he allowed himself to be prevailed upon to accept two more periods of five years; and in 8 B.C. and 4 and 13 AD. further periods of ten years were granted to him. His successors, though the farce of limited grants of power by the Senate had been abandoned, still celebrated periodical public vows to the gods.

Quinquennalia and decennalia are commemorated on coins from the middle of the second to the middle of the fifth century, and during the lower Empire a practice arose of adding "Multa," an expression of the vows or acclamations of the people wishing the Emperor life and prosperity for ten, twenty, thirty, or forty years; vows and wishes which few Roman Emperors lived to fulfil. Carausius struck gold coins of the usual Pax type, bearing the legend VOT. V or MVLT. X in the exergue, and he also used the words VOTO PVBLICO or VOTVM PVBLICVM round an altar, inscribed MVLTIS xx IMP. on one bronze and several silver pieces; while one bronze coin .in the Bodleian Library bears the unique inscription VOTA QVI. GAE, "Vota Quinquennalia Caesaris," and depicts the Emperor receiving a victory from the hand of Roma. The varieties of the Pax type comprise a very large proportion, probably more than half, of the coins of the reign which have come down to us. Providentia types are very common, and so in a rather less degree are those dedicated to Moneta, Salus, Victoria, and Virtus. Laetitia, Concordia, and Hilaritas are well represented, Tutela (Protection) and Salus are common among the Continental issues, and a few more types are found with some frequency. Of the rest a surprisingly large number are now represented by only one or two known specimens. There is no other reign which has produced so great a number of what are apparently unique pieces. In the writer’s experience it seems impossible to examine a collection of thirty or forty of the coins of this Emperor without discovering at least one, and generally several, which differ more or less importantly from anything previously noted. He cannot, therefore, hope that the following catalogue, greatly enlarged though it is, comprises anything like the total number of varieties now in existence. One class of pieces is necessarily always represented by unique specimens, viz. the "freaks," formed by the over-striking of the coins of earlier Emperors above referred to. No serious attempt has been made to collect individual descriptions of all the specimens which occur, as, except as a class, they are of but little true numismatic interest. They are always of bronze, and were evidently somewhat numerous, as Lord Selborne has some twenty-four of them, which occurred in the Blackmoor hoard alone. The moneyers appear to have struck at haphazard, sometimes placing the obverse of the new coin on that of the old, and sometimes vice versa. The traces of the old types which remain are often very slight, but in some instances the bust of Carausius is deformed or his appearance altered, while in others portions of the old legend are visible within or without the circle of the new one, or even as a continuation of it. In a few pieces the old reverse type is still traceable, sometimes standing at an angle with the new one. On a most curious specimen illustrated [PL V. 8], the profile of Claudius Gothicus is plainly visible where the neck of Carausius should have been; on another [PL V. 9], struck on a coin of Tetricus the Younger, the obverse legend reads IMP CARAVSIVSICVS CAES.

On one of the Blackmoor coins the old and new reverse legends are so mixed as to read ZMOVA9, the Carausian legend having evidently been engraved retrograde. Another piece reads STTIAVC ii., and other similar nonsensical results of the combination of two imperfect legends occur. On some specimens the hair or the radii of the crown of the older Emperor are visible beside the reverse type. In the coin of the Felicitas (Galley type) in the Fitzwilliam Museum above referred to, which bears the mint-mark RSR, the radii of the old crown almost exactly coincide with the oars of the galley.  Another form of "freak" to which the moneyers of the period were somewhat prone arose from the shifting of the coin under the die during the striking, which produced a partial duplication of bust or type.  It is impossible to conclude these notes without a most grateful expression of the obligation under which their compiler feels himself to the very numerous friends and collectors who have most freely and kindly placed their collections and all the information in their power at bis service, and have been at the greatest trouble to assist him. It is impossible to mention them all by name, the list would comprise nearly all the best-known students and authorities on Roman numismatics. The compilation was suggested by the officials of the Depart­ment of Coins and Medals at the British Museum, and to their constant advice and assistance, coupled with that above acknowledged, such value as may attach to it is due. The coins illustrated are in the British, French, and German national collections, and in those of Comm. Francesco Gnecchi and others


18. Doct. Num. Vet., vol. viii. p. 816.
19. Numismatic Chronicle, 1879, p. 46.
20. Med. Hist, p. 105.
21. Doct. Nam. Vet, vol. viii. p. 47.
22. Dictionary of Roman Coins, pp. 181, 182.


Webb, P.H. The reign and coinage of Carausius. (London, 1908).

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Contents

Page

Prefaceiii—vi
Historical Summary - Historians - Panegyrists - English Chroniclers -
Scottish Chroniclers - Numismatic Evidence - Coinage - Mints -
Mint-marks - Table of Mintmarks - Legends and Types


1—88
Catalogue of Coins89—248
Supplement249—254
Index to Catalogue255—258
General Index
259—260
Plates
I—V



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