Who Do You Admire Among the Anceints?

I've been collecting bronze coins of Constantine the Great for awhile now (http://feltemp.com/Constantine_1.html). Yet the more I learn about the man the less I admire him. Would it make more sense to collect coins of someone I admire? If so, who?

Seems like a good question to throw out to the discussion group. Who among the ancient leaders depicted on ancient coins do you admire, and why? I'll go first. Although I don't know that much about him as a person, I really admire Marcus Aurelius because he was able to successfully lead the empire through such grave difficulties, including plague and barbarian invasions, while still remaining--at least, as far as I know--a genuinely decent person.



Provincial Bronze (AE26)
Moesia Inferior, Nikopolis ad Istrum, before A.D. 161
Obv: AVPHΛIOC OVHPOC KAICAP
Rev: NEIKOΠOΛEITΩNΠPOC IC - Serapis, standing left, holding scepter and sacrificing with patera over altar.
Unlisted in Moushmov or RPC; unpublished?

Post your coins of people that you admire along with your reason(s) for doing so.
26mm, 11.0g.

 

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Out of all the Emperors, I personally think Antoninus Pius is the gentler, kindest, and most even headed Emperor. Probably the only one who wouldn't be a genocidal, psychotic war criminal by modern standards.

 

Marcus Aurelius, Hadrian, and Aurelian are among my favorite emperors to read about.

I'm sure I would not have personally liked any of them, had I been living through that period.

 

Menander after reading his book.

 

I think Gibbon said that, if one could choose when to live during the Roman Empire, the reign of Antoninus Pius would be the most desirable period.

 

Yeap, agree, living under Antoninus Pius reign would be my favourite period too.

 

I agree with the consensus: Being born at the time of Nerva and cashing in your chips by the reign of Marcus Aurelius has always seemed to me to be the best time to have been alive during the Roman Empire.....I have numerous reasons to admire all of the 'Good Emperors'.

 

Hard to argue with that. But you have to admit, these were relatively easy times to reign. Are there other leaders who reigned during more challenging times worthy of admiration? Certainly Aurelian comes to mind as a great military strategist, although I know little about what he was like as a human being.

Menander is a fascinating suggestion. I know close to nothing about him (although I've owned a few coins of his in the past). I'll have to track down that book.

 

Julia Domna. She joined her husband, Septimius Severus, and her son, Caracalla, and their armies in their travels and was on hand for most of these emperors' decisions. She had considerable influence as a behind-the-scenes force and was distrusted by rivals of the Severan dynasty for this very reason.

Moreover, she was the center of a literary circle and a patron of the arts.




You can read about her in these fascinating books:

 

What do I admire among the ancients?

Doug!

Chris

 

I think the OP question presents us with the Mussolini problem. Mussolini made the trains run on time. But I'm not sure I would enjoy a glass of wine with him. Diocletian proved an administrator capable enough of ending that long third-century period of chaos. He was also a ruthless persecutor of Christians. Why does Constantine delay his baptism until his deathbed? Because he knows an Emperor, by virtue of the office, has a lot of sinning to do. Even the pater patriae Augustus has his (adoptive) half-brother Caesarion killed as one of his first imperial actions. Admire might be a tough word for us to apply to an emperor, really, given the commonplace brutality that was part of the ancient world. Maybe the philosopher Emperor Marcus Aurelius indeed might the best bet here. At least he is seems intentional about crafting some kind of coherent ethical vision, and he was a capable administrator. Do we know to what extent he actually tried to live by his philosophy?

 

What Gibbon suggests is totally irrelevant as his works are outdated and no longer used in the academia as secondary source anymore these days as his theories and contradictions about the fall of the Roman Empire, his fallacies about Byzantium and the Middle Ages have been thoroughly refuted by the scholars. However the most of the casual readers often don’t know better and since Gibbon’s outdated works are most readily available in Anglophone countries they decide to read him without realizing his suspicious materials are from the 18th century.

Here some lectures about Roman Empire at the Yale, try to scroll to 28:00 and note what he says about Gibbon’s works and theories:





Who I admire most? – I don’t know since it is all a discourse. It is perhaps easier to suggest who I despise most. If the criterion were military success, religious toleration and legacy then Augustus and Constantine the Great would surely top it.

Augustus laid the foundation of the empire, and the month August is named to honor him. Constantine the Great did every things right: military he succeeded 100% as he won the empire from a base in York, he was tolerant as he reversed the policy of Diolectian’s persecution and instead allowed religious toleration, he also founded the Nova Roma(later Constantinople) that after 395 when the Empire was divided should secure Byzantine Empire for about 1000 years and which would be the most stable state throughout Middle Ages.

Diocletian was clever both militarily and politically but his persecution of Manicheans, Christians and others will downgrade him. Theodosius was also good but his persecution of Pagans will also downgrade him. Apart from the Crisis of the Third Century, the bad emperors that pops up are Caracalla(insane?) and Elagabalus(imbecile?), and maybe Commodus. Julian the Apostate definitely was also a bad emperor as he was a completely disaster against the Persians and lost much land what was gained by Diolectian and Constantine the Great prior and not to mention his abysmal policies where he alienated himself in the bureaucracy.

Most may have seen them already, but in case new readers have came here are my coins of late Roman Empire(the Emperors listed are not necessarily my favourites):

Contantine: first Rome with Sol Invictus, the second Siscia minted:




Constantius, first Nummus Thessaloniki minted, the second a siliqua minted in Arles






Theodosius: Nummus, Siscia minted,

 

Marcus Aurelius and Caracalla

 

Admire? How about Boudicca? Now there is a woman that commanded forces that gave the Romans a rough time. I don't have any coins associated with her though.

 

Maybe Otho -- how many bad things can you do in three months? But why limit this to just the Roman leaders. There are some worthy candidates among the Greeks. But my personal favorite is Cnut, ruler of England in the early 11th century, who is famous for goading the royal court into proclaiming that he had the power to stop the tide from coming in. He then lined them all up at low tide, ordered the tide not to come in and ordered the court not to move until he said so. Right before they all drowned, he let them all retreat -- and then ordered them to stop flattering him all the time! I keep one of his coins on my desk as a reminder that we all have our limits.

 

As has been pointed out the ancients were by todays standards quite brutal, but they were a product of their time and place. Having said that, I do admire Marcus Aurelius. If you havent read his Meditations, you really should. It's quite enamoring. One of my favorite quotes is "To refrain from imitation is the best revenge".

 

That's an interesting story, I had not heard it. There have been many rulers who have employed such humbling tactics (most of which have been misunderstood by historians). Caligula was not the person or madman we think, but one who truly understood society (his own at the time) and even his own limitations. People like to point out (as an example) how insane he was when he had the legions pick up rocks on the beach when he tried to invade Britain. That wasnt insanity but a clear 'dressing down' of his troops. Anyway, look it up. I cant say for certain he wasnt insane (as no one can), but his reign is really interesting. But I digress and have to say that he is not one I admire.

 

I would have to say Trajan would be the emperor I admire the most, he really got stuck into building some fantastic architecture in Rome, probably one of the best preserved sites in Rome are Trajan's markets and nearby column. Below are a couple of pics of the markets for those of you that have not been. He also was responsible for great building achievements in and outside Rome , Trajan built the Traiana aqueduct and his famous bridge over the Danube shown on my coin below.

 

The ancient I most admire was not a political leader and thus never made it onto a coin, as far as I know. That would be the physician, Hippocrates. I prefer as persons of admiration those who spent their lives alleviating the suffering of others, not adding to the casualty lists.

 

Menander is a fascinating suggestion. I know close to nothing about him (although I've owned a few coins of his in the past). I'll have to track down that book.

Try this link: http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/milinda.pdf