Reply to Thread

Message:: [QUOTE="GinoLR, post: 23508294, member: 128351"]Philip the Arab is very common on coins, Roman and provincial, but some historians think we know very little about him. Probably it’s because he has no personal biography in the Historia Augusta, and the other late Roman biographers like Aurelius Victor do not tell much more about him. [ATTACH=full]1546342[/ATTACH]Philippus I (244-249 AD). AR Tetradrachm, 249 AD, Antiochia ad Orontem, Syria (now Turkey).Obv.: AVTOK M IOYΛI ΦIΛIΠΠOC CЄB, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right, seen from behind.Rev.: ΔHMAPX EΞOYCIAC YΠATO Δ, eagle standing left with wings spread, wreath in beak; below, ANTIOXIA / S C.Prieur 444. Photo taken in the open, sorry for the brutal solar lighting... All we know is that he was called Philip the Arab, he was a Praetorian Prefect under Gordian III, elected emperor by the army after Gordian’s death during a war in Mesopotamia, and reigned 5 years from 244 to 249. He is said having made a humiliating peace with Shapur I, king of kings of the Sassanid Persian Empire; and having celebrated in Rome the Millenium of the city founded by Romulus on April 21th 753 BCE. We also know that Eusebius’ Church History mentions him as a Christian. He was eventually toppled and assassinated with his son by mutinous soldiers. But more can be said. He was born c. AD 204, his full name was Marcus Julius Philippus, he had a father, Julius Marinus, a brother, Gaius Julius Priscus, a wife, Marcia Otacilia Severa, and a son, Marcus Julius Philippus like his father. He is currently called “Philip the Arab” because it is his origo. His father Marinus (or Marinos in Greek) had an Aramaic name: Maren or Marin means “Our Lord” in Aramaic. Being a “Julius” means he was given Roman citizenship by some “Julius” or “Julia”: he was one of these innumerable 3rd c. “Aurelii” and “Julii” who acquired citizenship in 212 thanks to the edict of Caracalla (Marcus Aurelius Antoninus) and his mother Julia Domna. Since the age of 8 Philip was a Roman citizen, but he had no local civic citizenship, because he was not born in a city with a polis status like Damascus, Bostra, Palmyra, Emesa… He was born in Saba (today Shahba), a small town South of Damascus. It was not a polis, had no Greek institutions like a boule (senate) or magistrates, no mint… It was just an indigenous town of the province of Arabia, and its inhabitants were just registered as “Arabs”. In their young years Philip and his brother Priscus had the opportunity to be introduced to a powerful personality, Timesitheus. In 218 this man was procurator of the province of Arabia and in 218 and 222 he even assumed the governor’s office. In 222 Philip was aged 18, the age for joining the army and start a career. Because many years later we find Philip and his brother Priscus holding positions very close to Timesitheus, we can suppose they were admitted in the Equestrian Order and  attached to Timesitheus' staff at Bostra, the capital of Arabia, 40 km from Shahba, as soon as 222. In the early 3rd c. Christianity was already widespread in Arabia, particularly in its capital Bostra. In 214 the governor had written to the bishop of Alexandria, kindly asking for his help for quelling unrest among the local Christians. Later, Origenes, head of Alexandria’s Christian school, was received at the court of the empress Julia Mamaea (a Syrian born lady), when she was in Orient. It would then be no surprise if Philip and his brother had been Christians: this religion was perfectly accepted among Syrians and Arabs. Timesitheus had a great carrier under Severus Alexander, with important responsibilities, mostly of fiscal or financial nature. He reached his climax when he was made a Praetorian Prefect under the young Gordian III and even married his daughter Tranquillina to the emperor. When Gordian III left Rome to make war against the Persians, he appointed a second Praetorian Prefect who was none other than Priscus, Philip’s brother. The two prefects had different roles : Priscus commanded the Praetorian Guard on the field, Timesitheus was in charge of finances and logistics, with Philip as his aide. The campaign was doing well, the Romans were victorious at Rhesaina (Ras al-‘Ayn, Syria), retaking cities that had fallen to the Persians, but in 243 Timesitheus fell ill and died. He was immediately replaced by his top aide Philip the Arab. [ATTACH=full]1546352[/ATTACH]Shapur I, AR dirhamObv.: Pehlvi legend meaning "The Mazda worshipper, the divine Shapur, King of Kings of Iran, heaven descended of the Gods", bust r., wearing diad. and mural crown with korymbos.Rev.: Pehlvi "The fire of Shapur", fire altar flanked by attendants. In 244 at Misikhe (Falluja today, in Iraq) a part of the Roman army was defeated by Shapur. Many were taken prisoners, and Shapur in a famous inscription says there was among them a Praetorian Prefect, obviously Priscus. The emperor Gordian retreated with the rest of his troops along the Euphrates, but he died and was buried at Zaitha, near Doura Europos. The army needed an emperor and immediately elected the Praetorian Prefect Philip the Arab. Not because he was a great warrior or strategist, he was never reputed as such, but more probably because he had the keys of the imperial war treasure and was the only person in position of paying the soldiers and negotiate their comrades’ ransoms. Band of brothers… and, after all, his own brother was probably prisoner too. Shapur accepted to negotiate. The Roman army that had retreated after Misikhe was still powerful, and the Persian king thought it wiser to declare victory now and end the war. The new Caesar Philip liberated the prisoners for 500,000 aurei, but kept the cities retaken the year before. Philip had also a large quantity of silver antoniniani minted in some Oriental military mint (they are not from Antioch): on these coins he claims the title of PM which is not Pontifex Maximus but “Persicus Maximus” and the reverse figures Pax, the Peace, with the never seen before legend “Pax fundata cum Persis”: Peace made with the Persians. They are not rare at all; I shall buy one some day. [ATTACH=full]1546365[/ATTACH](not my coin) The two emperors, the Persian and the Roman, agreed on several other points. Philip would withdraw to Antioch and establish official relations with Shapur. It was an important point for the latter: his father Ardashir and himself had toppled the Arsacid dynasty twenty years ago, which was not accepted yet by many. Several Oriental kings could seek the Romans’ help to restore the Arsacids. Severus Alexander and Gordian III had not recognized Ardashir and Shapur, but Philip did. To materialize this new diplomacy, Shapur would build in Persia a city that would bear his own name, Bishapur, and do it thanks to the expertise of Roman craftsmen sent by the Caesar Philip. In the same time Philip would do the same in his land, build a new city that would bear his own name. It was done. Shapur built Bishapur near Kazerun, Iran. It is not at all a traditional circular city like the Parthians or even Shapur’s father Ardashir used to build, it is a Roman style city: [ATTACH=full]1546366[/ATTACH] Remains of Bishapur, Iran. City-planning is typically Hellenistic-Roman. A rock relief nearby commemorates the legitimacy of Shapur: [ATTACH=full]1546368[/ATTACH]Shapur (right) is facing the god Ahura Mazda (left) giving him the symbol of power. Mazda’s horse walks on the dead body of the evil god Ahriman while Shapur’s horse tramples the body of the Caesar Gordian III. Between them a kneeling Caesar Philip begging for clemency. There is no captured Valerian on this relief, and this is evidence it predates 260 and records only the triumph of Misikhe in 244. (photo Followinghadrianphotography.com) Philip built a similar city in Shahba, his native town. He called it Philippopolis, granted it colonial status with a city-mint. All visible structures seem to have been erected under his reign. It is now a Druze city named Shahba again (and lucky enough to have been spared by the civil war): [ATTACH=full]1546370[/ATTACH] Shahba, Syria, same scale as the Bishapur view. Most of Shahba is now occupied by modern buildings but the Roman plan is conspicuous. The city walls, the North and South gates, the theatre, the thermae are still visible on the ground, and it seems that all dates back to Philip's reign. Architects and archaeologists noticed the theatre masonry had much in common with the masonry of the Anahita temple in Bishapur, suggesting the same teams may have worked on both sites.  Please feel free to post your Philip the Arab or Shapur I coins ![/QUOTE]

Create my FREE Account!

Log in or Sign up

Reply to Thread

Useful Searches