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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Sallent, post: 2317530, member: 76194&quot;]You guys are bad influences. All this love for Gordian just reminded me more about how much I wanted one, and well, I just bought one. Allow me to show you and then provide some background history about this coin and the images on it.</p><p><br /></p><p>Seller&#039;s Picture:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]467891[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>The image on the reverse features Jupiter, also known as Jove (hence the Iovi insciption) holding a thunderbolt in his right hand, and a scepter in his left ( the scepter is only partially there probably due to the die being close to the end of its life) and nude except for a cape draped over his shoulders, with the Emperor featured as a small figure standing next to Jove.</p><p><br /></p><p>This rendering of Jupiter made it&#039;s way into Roman coinage rather late. The first recorded instance of IOVI CONSERVATORI appearing on Roman coinage was during the reign of Domitian, when it appeared on a sestertius. We see it again briefly on a sestercius of Commodus as Caesar. However, it wasn&#039;t until the reign of Septimius Severus that we see this rendition of Jupiter finally on a silver coin. Septimius Severus used the image as&nbsp; way to thank Jupiter Optimus Maximus (the head God of the Roman Pantheon) for preserving him and assisting him during his bloody and violent path to the imperial purple.</p><p><br /></p><p>Why did Gordian III chose to depict the same image in his double denarius? Well, it certainly wasn&#039;t as thanks to Jupiter for preserving him or assisting him in a bloody struggle for the throne, that much we can say for sure. However, as a very young and vulnerable Emperor living in a violent era where Emperors died violent deaths following very short reigns, it would seem to me that this was an optimistic prayer and message. That message could have been that Jupiter favored and watched over this young Emperor and would keep him safe against any real or perceived dangers (and judging by his violent death at the hands of his troops a few years after this coin was minted, the danger was very real indeed.)[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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