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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GinoLR, post: 8155347, member: 128351&quot;][ATTACH=full]1422880[/ATTACH]&quot;<i>Liberalitas Augg</i>&quot;: &quot;liberality of the two Augusts&quot;. One could say that Philip the Arab and his son were damned liberals, which could explain why they were so hated by conservative senators like Decius. Well... that&#039;s not what <i>liberalitas </i>actually means. I like Philip the Arab. To begin with, if we admit what Eusebius wrote, he was probably the first Christian emperor - well before Constantine. When attending a Christian assembly for Easter in Caesarea, he humbly complied when the bishop ordered him to stand at the door with the penitents, because of his many sins. And when in Rome, he banned child prostitution, saying these poor boys were like his own son. He is also the only Roman emperor who proclaimed on his coins that he had negotiated peace rather than exterminated the enemies, I think of his antoniniani minted in Antioch with &quot;<i>Pax fundata cum Persis</i>&quot;. Though he was a Christian himself, and originated from a distant oriental province, he wanted to be the emperor of all Romans and did not attempt to impose his own religious beliefs to the whole society like Elagabalus had done: he celebrated the Secular Games, showing his <i>pietas </i>and his careful observance of the traditions, the <i>mos majorum</i>. </p><p><br /></p><p>On this sestertius minted in 248/9 he his overseeing with his son their 3rd congiarium. Both are togate, seated on curule chairs. The <i>Chronica Urbis Romae</i> remembers : &quot;<i>The two Philips ruled 5 years, 5 months and 29 days.&nbsp; They gave a largess of 350 denarii.&nbsp; They held the real secular games in the circus maximus.&nbsp; The older was killed at Verona, the younger at Rome in the praetorian camps.</i>&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>The <i>Chronica </i>lists all the emperors, their reign duration and the amount of their largesses to the people. We can suppose it is the total amount or all their liberalitates (3 for Philip) because it is roughly proportional to their reign duration.</p><p>Septimius Severus, 17 years, 1100 denarii.</p><p>Caracalla, 6 years, 400 d.</p><p>Macrinus, 1 year, 150 d.</p><p>Elagabalus, 6 years (sic), 250 d.</p><p>Severus Alexander, 13 years, 600 d.</p><p>Maximinus, 3 years, 150 d.</p><p>Balbinus and Pupienus, 99 days, 250 d. (that&#039;s a lot, but they had reinstated the antoninianus)</p><p>Gordian III, 5 years, 350 d.</p><p>the two Philips, 5 years, 350 d.</p><p>Trajan Decius, 1 year, 250 d.</p><p>Gallus and Volusianus, 2 years, 250 d.</p><p>Gallienus, 14 years, 1250 d plus 1 binio of gold. (By far the most generous !)</p><p>Claudius, 1 year, 250 d.</p><p>Quintillus, 77 days, &quot;He promised a largess but did not give it&quot;</p><p>Aurelian, 5 years, 500 d.</p><p>etc.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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