June 8th: the Death of the Emperor who never saw Rome.

..welp, according to wiki, Marcrinus WAS the 1st who never saw Rome....learn sumpin' new every day...

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

I "discovered" this short lived emperor at the Summer FUN show. It was my last purchase for the event. It is Diadumenian who was Macrinus' son.

Here is the page I added to my Roman emperors notebook, which helps me to learn the history:

Diadumenian

Lived 208 to 218, Co-emperor for About Three Weeks in 218



Denarius of Diadumenian as caesar, Obverse: M OPEL ANT DIADVMENIAN CAE “Marcus Opellius Diadumenianus caesar.” Reverse: PRINC IVVENTVTIS “Prince of the youth.” Diadumenian dressed in military garb holding a standard and scepter. Two more standards are planted in the ground. Sear 7449

· Marcus Opellius Diadumenianus was the son of Macrinus.

· Very soon after his father was elevated to emperor, the soldiers and the Roman Sentate declared that Diadumenian was caesar or second in command of the government. He received the additional name, Antoninus.

· Coinage in all metals was struck in Diadumenian’s name until May 18 when Elagabalus’ revolt began.

· Macrinus responded by naming his son co-emperor. There was a very small coinage of denarii bearing Diadumenianus name as emperor.

· After Macrinus forces suffered a military defeat on June 8, he entrusted his son to loyal soldiers. Their mission was to Diadumenian to the court of the Parthian king.

They were overtaken at Zeugma where Diadumenian was executed. He was nine years old.

The coin above was issued when Diadumenian was a caesar. Coins were issued for his brief time as a co-emperor, but they are quite scarce and expensive.

 

RI
Didumenian and Macrinus
217-218 CE
AE28
Markianopolis mint
Serapis modius

 

I can't compete with the beautiful examples already shown -- great job, guys! -- but for the sake of completeness, here are mine.

 

By chance I got some a while ago in an unidentified lot at one of Frank's auctions; have already posted them in these threads

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/a-short-lived-emperor-macrinus.370538/
https://www.cointalk.com/threads/offer-attributing-of-nikopolis-coins.334530
https://www.cointalk.com/threads/she-wolf-image.370220

Short-bearded Macrinus:
Æ Tetrassarion, Moesia Inferior, Nikopolis ad Istrum:


Æ Pentassarion, Moesia Inferior, Nikopolis ad Istrum



Diadumedianus, Æ 30, Seleucis and Pieria, Laodicea ad Mare:

 

MACRINUS, Tetradrachm
Carrhae, 217-218
Prieur 835
13.59 g - 25 mm
AYT.K.M.OΠ.CЄ.MAKPINOC.CЄ • •
ΔHMAPX.ЄΞ.YΠATOC. Eagle facing, head to right, Star, Crescent, • •

 

Impressive! Minted in Carrhae (today's Harran) where on May 28, 53 BC Publius Crassus was defeated by the Parthians, and most of the Roman soldiers (about 6000) were killed and the insignia were lost.

 

Long Beard Macrinus

 

His Son Diadumenian

 

I really enjoy your shop! Bought a lot of Gold from you all.

 

Well... This cannot be proven. Macrinus had been appointed Praetorian Prefect by Caracalla, despite the fact he was of African origin and had been a member of Plautianus' African clan when the imperial court was deeply divided, Africans vs Syrians. Caracalla killed Plautianus, had also his wife Plautilla killed (she was Plautianus' daughter). In good logic he should also have eliminated or at least dismissed all the Africans, but not this one! Obviously the emperor had very good reasons to trust Macrinus and, if this story of prophecy was true, I am sure Caracalla would have immediately stricken first.
Caracalla's murderer, like Lee Oswald, was immediately killed on the spot. Thus he did not talk and we cannot state we know Macrinus had organized this assassination.
At this time Macrinus seems to have been very popular in the army and even in Rome's Senate who confirmed his election. The soldiers loved Caracalla, it is extremely unlikely they would have immediately elected a man suspected of being Caracalla's assassin. Even more: Macrinus was the first member of the Equestrian Order ever to be elected Augustus, with the approval of the Senate, even if it was a major breach of the tradition!
I am thus extremely cautious with this prophecy story, and with the accusations against Macrinus that sound too much like Julia Maesa's propaganda the following year.

 

Well...if you mean that no eye-witnesses are still alive to confirm the story, I agree with you. But Cassius Dio reported exactly what happened in his Epitome of Book LXXIX.4-5.
I understand that it is popular to doubt the veracity of historians of the past, but if they are not trusted, who can we trust to know the Roman history of 2000 years ago?

 

Here is my two Macrinus sestertii.

 

Super nice coins ! And by the way, welcome to CT. I can assure you’ll have fun and will learn something new every day if you stick around.

 

Wonderful write up, as usual. Thank you so much for your "this day in history" series.

Here are two tets of Macrinus.

Roman Empire, Macrinus, 217-218 AD
BI Tetradrachm of Beroea, Cyrrhestica.
AYT•K•M•OΠ•CЄ•MAKPIN[OC CЄ], laureate, draped and cuirassed bust to right, seen from front / ΔHMAPX•ЄΞ•YΠATOC•Δ•, eagle standing facing with wings spread and head to left with wreath in beak; B-Є flanking bird standing below. (Lot 546, Roma XXII)
Prieur 891. 15.00g, 26mm, 12h.
Extremely Fine; struck in high relief, light cabinet tone over lustrous metal. Rare.
From a private Dutch collection;
Ex Roma Numismatics Ltd., Auction X, 27 September 2015, lot 629;
Ex Belgian collection, Tradart S.A., Auction 5, 16 November 1995, lot 205.




Roman Empire, 217-218 AD
BI Tetradrachm
Heliopolis
Macrinus
Obverse: AVT K M OΠ CЄ MAKPINOC CЄ. Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right.
Reverse: ΔHMAPX ЄΞ VΠATOC Π Π. Eagle standing facing, head left, with wings spread, holding wreath in beak; between legs, star above lion advancing right.
Prieur 1202.
Crudely struck on a somewhat narrow, thick flan. Lightly porous surfaces.
Scarce

14.08 grams



This coin was sold to me as an Antioch tetradrachm, when in fact it is from Heliopolis. The MA Shops seller missed the weakly struck lion below the eagle and star.

 

Dio's tale is full of details, names, motivations, he even tells what the characters think. Dio's tale is written from the point of view of an omniscient narrator, in other terms it is the prose of a novelist, not a historian. Today's historians, thus, must consider the following question: how, from which source did Cassius Dio know all this?

In 217, soon after Caracalla's assassination, it seems obvious that nobody knew this. There is no word in any source about any opposition to Macrinus' elevation. The army proclaimed Macrinus Augustus immediately, and in Rome the Senate confirmed this election, despite the unprecedented fact that the new Augustus was from the equestrian order. This was a real revolution, you know. More than an alleged plot involving a handful of conspirators named Macrinus, Nemesianus, Apollinaris, Julius Martialis, etc. the simple fact that such a revolution took place shows that there was a consensus in the army and in Rome. In Rome there were other people, especially members of the Antonine family, who could have claimed more legitimacy than Macrinus, a mere praetorian prefect. The Antonine dynasty was still the reference at this time: Caracalla (Marcus Aurelius Antoninus) was officially supposed to be Marcus Aurelius' grandson, and Elegabalus (M. Aurelius Antoninus too) married a certain Annia Faustina, from the Antonine family. But in 217 everybody recognized Macrinus, an homo novus, as Augustus.

Thus I only ask this simple question: how could Cassius Dio, a senator, know all those details about Macrinus' alleged conspiracy? Especially if some key characters like the Egyptian soothsayer Serapion or the assassin Martialis had been killed... If Dio's tale is true, it is obvious that nobody knew these facts in 217 when Macrinus was elevated to succeed Caracalla without raising opposition. Even Julia Domna Augusta retired to Emesa without trying to protest, Macrinus even granted her a special guard, evidence that she at least officially recognized the new power.

A possible reason for Macrinus' elevation by the troops on the spot was that, as the praetorian prefect, he had the control of the expedition cash and was the only man with the power of immediately distributing the expected donativum... And if the Senate recognized him so easily, it was probably because he was appreciated in Rome and was trusted by the Severian dynasty: despite having been one of the key Plautianus' men, he had avoided death or dismissing, had been authorized to add Severus to his name and made a praetorian prefect.

There was obviously no word of his alleged treason and conspiracy in 217. On the opposite, this story corresponds perfectly with Julia Maesa's propaganda in 218 when she rebelled against Macrinus. "Alternative facts" were her speciality: she claimed that it was Caracalla who had fathered her daughters' sons Bassianus and Alexianus, and she had also to justify why Macrinus was an illegitimate usurper...

Cassius Dio was writing and publishing his history under the reign of Severus Alexander, Julia Maesa's grandson, owing all his legitimacy as an emperor to his supposed Severian ancestry and his grandmother's version of history in 218. Could Cassius Dio write he doubted the story of Macrinus conspiracy?...

 

Thank you, i is very informative. I have already learned a lot.