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Message:: [QUOTE="Ocatarinetabellatchitchix, post: 5230214, member: 99554"][ATTACH=full]1217015[/ATTACH] An earthquake -and a big one- struck Antioch in Roman Syria on December 13, 115 AD. Its estimated magnitude is 7.5 on the Richter scale. Antioch and the surrounding areas are devastated with significant human and material losses. It triggers a local tsunami which seriously damages the port of Caesarea Maritima. The Roman Emperor Trajan, as well as his successor Hadrian, then engaged in the war against the Parthians, are present at the scene during the earthquake. They get away with only minor injuries. A description of the earthquake is included by historian Dion Cassius (Roman history, LXVIII, 24-25): "First there came, on a sudden, a great bellowing roar, and this was followed by a tremendous quaking. The whole earth was upheaved, and buildings leaped into the air; some were carried aloft only to collapse and be broken in pieces, while others were tossed this way and that as if by the surge of the sea, and overturned, and the wreckage spread out over a great extent even of the open country.  The crash of grinding and breaking timbers together with tiles and stones was most frightful; and an inconceivable amount of dust arose, so that it was impossible for one to see anything or to speak or hear a word.(...) Trajan made his way out through a window of the room in which he was staying. Some being, of greater than human stature, had come to him and led him forth, so that he escaped with only a few slight injuries; and as the shocks extended over several days, he lived out of doors in the hippodrome". Over the past 2000 years, the entire area has been affected by many major earthquakes: on average, one major earthquake every 150 years. The city of Apamea is also destroyed by the earthquake and Beirut suffers significant damage. Gaza, further south, is wiped off the map, and the tsunami appears to have weakly reached Alexandria, Egypt.The tsunami caused by the earthquake hit the Lebanese coast, in particular Caesarea and Yavneh. The port of Caesarea is probably destroyed according to an interpretation based on the dating of a thick deposit of half a meter lying outside the port. The estimate of the number of deaths at 260,000 is very uncertain and seems to appear only in works published in the last hundred years. This would make it one of the deadliest earthquakes in history. Some historians put forward the figure of 500,000 dead, taking into account the damage caused in the hinterland of Antioch. Caesarea Maritima[ATTACH=full]1217016[/ATTACH] About the mints: Coins were minted at Caesarea Maritima for almost 250 years. From its founding until the mid-third century, the local mint issued a wide variety of coins, under such authorities as its founder, Herod, his grandson Agrippa II, Roman prefects, procurators and legates, and finally by the colonia itself. Twenty four Emperors struck coins there, from Claudius to Trebonianus Gallus in 253 AD. My only coin from Ceasarea MaritimaTrebonianus Gallus[ATTACH=full]1217009[/ATTACH] The mint of Antioch produced a very high volume of coins during the period of the first and second tetrarchies. In the beginning it started with eight officinae and increased to ten in 299 AD and to eleven later in 312 AD. The mint had to provide the coins with which the legions stationed at the border with the Persian Empire will be payed. During the sole reign of Maximinus Daia (311-313) Antioch reached its maximum number of officinae: fifteen, a number reduced to eight in 321 AD. Constantine The Great will add two additional workshops in 326. His son Constantius II, who needed money to face his commitments in the east, will increase the production of the mint to his maximum number of workshops: fifteen, amount that will remain until 362 AD during the reign of Julian the Apostate, when it is reduced to only four. Under Valens it will operate again with ten officinae, which will be reduced to six in the last months of 378. Theodosius I (379-395) eliminates two other monetary workshops, leaving four operatives until the reign of Theodosius II in which they are reduced first to three and then to only one.Some examples from Antioch:Gallienus[ATTACH=full]1217014[/ATTACH] Diocletian[ATTACH=full]1217011[/ATTACH] Carus[ATTACH=full]1217012[/ATTACH] Vabalathus [ATTACH=full]1217013[/ATTACH] Valentinian II[ATTACH=full]1217010[/ATTACH] On the day of the BIG earthquake, please show me your coins of ANTIOCH and CAESAREA MARITIMA ![/QUOTE]

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