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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 4218560, member: 19463&quot;]The auction tale is good Hollywood and probably has an element of truth with some polish.&nbsp; That 25000 figure expressed in denarii would be 6250 or 250 aurei.&nbsp; How (and if???) the money was paid is a question but one suggestion is that he was a bit short and did not deliver the full sum up front.&nbsp; I might even seem that soldiers learning that their windfall promise was to be paid over ten years or some such arrangement might have been less than thrilled with their selection.&nbsp; Septimius replaced the Praetorian Guard with his own select troops but I am also unclear on how many of the old Guard were executed rather than just fired. The old saying about history being written by the victors applies here so we do not have a fair record of the event details.&nbsp; I might add that history also is written by those brave enough to write it and 193 AD was not a good time to write anything not favorable to Septimius Severus.&nbsp; What we know about Didius and Pescennius&nbsp; most certainly has a Severan spin. </p><p><br /></p><p>It seems to me that there are a lot of coins of Didius, Manlia and Didia that have survived.&nbsp; Are there too many for a 66 day reign or was the payment made in a mixed bag of denominations?&nbsp; I have no idea.&nbsp; Does anyone?&nbsp; Today, Lottery/Powerball winners understand up front that their multimillion dollar winnings will be paid in 20 annual payments unless they opt for the considerably reduced lump sum payment.&nbsp; Would a soldier hearing Didius&#039; offer have expected a lump sum or were donatives usually paid on some &#039;plan&#039;?&nbsp; I don&#039;t know.&nbsp; We all wish more ancient people kept diaries full of little details but such things do not survive if they ever existed.&nbsp; As it is, we must walk a fine line between history from primary sources (however biased they might be) and historical fiction whether it was written within a thousand years or not.&nbsp;&nbsp; I find 193 AD a fascinating year but I am still quite glad I was not there to see these events play out in person.&nbsp; Betting on the wrong horse carried a penalty.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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