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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Bing, post: 1987085, member: 44132&quot;]This is an auspicious day (ask any augur). Today is my 65th birthday (man I&#039;m gettin&#039; old) and it is Antonius Pius&#039; 1,876th birthday (talk about gettin&#039; old).&nbsp; So I thought it would be good to start a thread to honor AP.&nbsp; Even though I just showed this first coin in another thread, I think since the reverse looks like a birthday cake it is appropriate to show once again:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]355250[/ATTACH]</p><p>ANTONIUS PIUS AE Sestertius</p><p>OBVERSE: IDIVVS ANTONINVS, bare head right</p><p>REVERSE:&nbsp; CONSECRATIO, four tiered funeral pyre surmounted by Antoninus in a quadriga, SC in ex.</p><p>Struck at Rome 161 AD</p><p>25g, 31mm</p><p>RIC 1266 (Marcus Aurelius), BMC 880 (Marcus Aurelius), C 354</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]355253[/ATTACH]</p><p>ANTONIUS PIUS AR Didrachm&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; </p><p>OBVERSE:&nbsp; ANTWNEI-NOC CEBACTOC, laureate head right&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; </p><p>REVERSE:&nbsp; YPAT B PAT PATR, Helios, holding globe and sceptre, standing atop Mt. Argaeus; * in exergue&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; </p><p>Struck at Caesaria, Cappadocia, 139 AD&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; </p><p>6.2g, 21mm&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; </p><p>Syd 301c</p><p><br /></p><p>Born as the only child of Titus Aurelius Fulvus, consul in 89 whose family came from Nemausus (modern Nimes).</p><p><br /></p><p>On his accession, Antoninus&#039; name became &quot;Imperator Caesar Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Augustus Pontifex Maximus&quot;. One of his first acts as Emperor was to persuade the Senate to grant divine honors to Hadrian, which they had at first refused; his efforts to persuade the Senate to grant these honors is the most likely reason given for his title of <i>Pius</i> (dutiful in affection; compare pietas). Two other reasons for this title are that he would support his aged father-in-law with his hand at Senate meetings, and that he had saved those men that Hadrian, during his period of ill-health, had condemned to death.</p><p><br /></p><p>Antoninus built temples, theaters, and mausoleums, promoted the arts and sciences, and bestowed honours and financial rewards upon the teachers of rhetoric and philosophy<font size="2">.</font> Antoninus made few initial changes when he became emperor, leaving intact as far as possible the arrangements instituted by Hadrian.</p><p><br /></p><p>There are no records of any military related acts in his time in which he participated. One modern scholar has written &quot;It is almost certain not only that at no time in his life did he ever see, let alone command, a Roman army, but that, throughout the twenty-three years of his reign, he never went within five hundred miles of a legion&quot;.</p><p><br /></p><p>There were several military disturbances throughout the Empire in his time; nevertheless, Antoninus was virtually unique among emperors in that he dealt with these crises without leaving Italy once during his reign, but instead dealt with provincial matters of war and peace through their governors or through imperial letters to the cities such as Ephesus (of which some were publicly displayed). This style of government was highly praised by his contemporaries and by later generations.</p><p><br /></p><p>Two days before his death, the biographer reports, Antoninus was at his ancestral estate at Lorium, in Etruria, about twelve miles (19 km) from Rome. He ate Alpine cheese at dinner quite greedily. In the night he vomited; he had a fever the next day. The day after that, 7 March 161, he summoned the imperial council, and passed the state and his daughter to Marcus. The emperor gave the keynote to his life in the last word that he uttered when the tribune of the night-watch came to ask the password—&quot;aequanimitas&quot; (equanimity). He then turned over, as if going to sleep, and died. His death closed out the longest reign since Augustus (surpassing Tiberius by a couple of months).[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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