3 coins of 3 bad hombresianuses: Let's see your bad dudes

Nice trio of baddies, @Ryro! (I still don't have a Julianus! ) That Caracalla is amazingly crisp!

Here's my Commodus as Hercules, an As, and the only major purchase I ever made from NFA back in the day:


I'll add three to the list of baddies, guys that one doesn't immediately think of. First, late in the west, Honorius and Valentinian III were both extremely bad spoiled-brat emperors:



And moving into the Byzantine era, Phocas was a notorious brute and incompetent statesman:

This is a new half-siliqua for me, issued in Carthage just before the uprising of Heraclius.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

You don’t see that one too often, do you? Nice catch!

 

Music has its 3 Bs of greatness: Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms.

Roman history has its 3 Cs of badness: Caligula, Commodus, and Caracalla! (4, if you throw in Constantine.) These boys are bad!




Caligula, AD 37-41.
Roman provincial Æ 20 mm, 6.74 g.
Peloponnese, Corinthia, Corinth, Ae. P. Vipsanius Agrippa and M. Bellius Proculus, duoviri, AD 37-38.
Obv: C CAESAR AVGVSTV, bare head right.
Rev: M BELLIO PROCVLO IIVIR / COR, Pegasus flying right.
Refs: RPC I 1173; Amandry (1988) XVII; BCD Corinth 405-6.


Commodus, AD 177-192.
Roman AR denarius, 3.42 g, 18 mm, 12 h.
Rome, AD 180.
Obv: M COMMODVS ANTONINVS AVG, laureate and cuirassed bust right.
Rev: LIB AVG TR P V IMP IIII COS II P P, Liberalitas standing left, holding tessera and cornucopiae.
Refs: RIC 10a; Cohen 301; BMC 4.


Caracalla AD 198-217.
Roman AR Denarius 3.37 g, 19.7 mm.
Rome mint, AD 211.
Obv: ANTONINVS PIVS AVG BRIT, laureate head, right.
Rev: INDVLG FECVNDAE, Julia Domna as Indulgentia, wearing polos, seated left on cerule chair, extending right hand and holding scepter.
Refs: RIC 214; BMCRE 73; RCV 6805.

 

Here are a trio of Byzantine rogues....

Justinian II "Nose job Emperor" cruel despot/ was deposed got his nose split/ ouch! Then came back wearing a golden nose/ wreaked more havoc/ finally sent to the guy with the axe.
Basil II aka "Bulgar Slayer" another butcher. He was know for blinding tens of thousands of Bulgarian POWS

Nicephorus I
He waged wars vs the Bulgars. He managed to defeat the Bulgar King Krum/ then sacked/ murdered/ raped the populace of Pliska (Bulgar capital)
After looting all the valuables, the Emperor and his army were bushwacked by Krum's army on way back to Constantinople. Krum later used the fallen Emperor's skull as a drinking cup.