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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Gavin Richardson, post: 3988613, member: 83956&quot;]<img src="https://www.cngcoins.com/photos/enlarged/819971.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>PHOTO: CNG RESEARCH (NOT MINE, ALAS). <b>Galerius. </b>AD 305-311. Æ Follis (26mm, 6.55 g, 6h). Cyzicus mint, 2nd officina. Struck circa AD 308-309. GAL MAXIMIANVS P F AVG, laureate bust right / VIRTVTI E-XERCITVS, Mars advancing right, holding trophy and transverse spear.</p><p><br /></p><p>So students of the First Tetrarchy know that Diocletian identified the Eastern Empire with Jove, while the West under Maximian was associated with Hercules. But things get complicated when each Augustus and his Caesar adopt protective deities. I’ve encountered contradictory information on this score.</p><p><br /></p><p>Paul Stephenson, in <i>Constantine: Roman Emperor, Christian Victor</i>, states, “The situation was complicated further when the Caesars took patron gods of their own, with <span style="color: #ff0000">Constantius favouring Mars, popular in the west, and Galerius venerating the eastern favourite, Sol Invictus</span>” (91).</p><p><br /></p><p>Timothy Barnes, however, in <i>Constantine: Dynasty, Religion and Power in the Later Roman Empire</i> (56-57) writes that “each Caesar also had his own special individual divine protector. In 303 the governor of Numidia dedicated four altars to the tutelary deities of the Tetrarchs (CIL 8.2343-2345 - ILS 631-633: Thamugadi). The inscriptions of three of them survive: to Jupiter Optimus Maximus the <i>conservator</i> of Diocletian, to Hercules Augustus the <i>conservator</i> of Maximian and to the <i>Genius Virtutum <span style="color: #ff0000">Mars Augustus</span></i><span style="color: #ff0000"> the <i>conservator</i> of Galerius</span>, whom Lactantius ridicules for claiming to be the son of Mars (<i>Mort Pers</i>. 8.9). Originally there must have been a fourth altar dedicated to the <i>conservator</i> of <span style="color: #ff0000">Constantius, whose tutelary deity was the Unconquered Sun, otherwise known as Apollo</span> (Julian, <i>Orat</i>. 7, 228d, cf. Castritius 1969: 29-30). (Barnes 56-57)</p><p><br /></p><p><span style="color: #ff0000"><b>In short, Stephenson claims that Constantius’s protective deity was Mars and Galerius’s was Sol; Barnes reverses that order.</b></span></p><p><br /></p><p>Can anyone clarify the contradiction? Could both be true in some fashion? Is one scholar wrong?</p><p><br /></p><p>With Galerius striking coins featuring Virtus/Mars, I find more numismatic evidence for Barnes’s position. But both writers are careful scholars. Stephenson’s bibliographical essays at the back of his biography, alas, don’t seem to document this particular detail, unless I missed it.</p><p><br /></p><p>Any speculation is appreciated, as well as coins of Constantius or Galerius that feature either deity. Constantine adopts Mars as preserver early in his career. Might he have done so out of paternal influence?[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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