Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 3033511, member: 19463&quot;]I really like Valentinian&#039;s rant and agree with everything save one paragraph:</p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;<span style="color: #b30000">Julius Caesar is interesting. Nero is interesting. Claudius is interesting (at least to people who have seen the great PBS series &quot;I, Claudius,&quot; or who have read the book by Robert Graves). Constantine, the first emperor to support Christianity, and the subject of a dozen biographies, is interesting. Get the picture?</span>&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>This implies that &#039;interest&#039; is the same as &#039;well known&#039; or &#039;fodder for publishers and producers&#039;.&nbsp; There are many Roman Emperors every bit as interesting as the ones mentioned. These benefited from starring in well known books or movies.&nbsp; I&#039;m a little surprised the <i>Gladiator</i> and <i>Decline and Fall</i> exposure has not promoted Commodus to this level but perhaps his coins are just too common to allow them to be popular.&nbsp; They certainly are more interesting than 99% of the coins of Constantine who would certainly be as boring as Licinius were it not for the Christian connection. </p><p><br /></p><p>Here on CT we discuss Elagabalus with regularity and I am certain that a movie about his family would promote him to Nero level notoriety (I have proposed the mini-series be called &#039;Maesa&#039; and cover everything his grandmother saw).&nbsp; Unfortunately it is hard to make a PG rated film about a guy like Elagabalus so it would be up to HBO to do this one and that would limit the exposure greatly.&nbsp; We proved this point to a degree when the story of Caligula was produced as a somewhat pornographic film which people would not admit to liking even if they saw truth in the tale.</p><p><br /></p><p>I believe there is great interest in the story of Probus who showed us what happens to a ruler that tells his army that the time is near they won&#039;t be needed and puts them to work draining swamps. </p><p><br /></p><p>Coins can be too rare for their own good.&nbsp; When there are so few coins available that no one expects to be able to have one, the price is not promoted by interest.&nbsp; The EID MAR denarii of Brutus are a good example of fortunate balance.&nbsp; Were there only two rather than a hundred, most of us would have given up long ago and move our dreams to another venue.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in