Restoring the World

One of the things we like to do here is write and read about the interesting characters of antiquity. Often we like to evaluate their performance as part of our interests. Today I would like to have us take a closer look at the Roman Emperor known to us as Aurelianus. if one were to ask of us or the average man-in-the-street passer by to name some important Roman emperors, I would venture that Aurelianus would not be among them but those of us who know their emperors might rate him as one of the most capable of rulers who did more in his five years of rule (270-275AD) than most did over a much longer period and one who had to face enormous difficulties from the first to his last day in office and every day in between.

First a word about our sources for this remarkable emperor. We simply do not have the sources available that we have for other periods of Roman History. No Tacitus or Suetonius, no Dio Cassius or Herodian. We have a contemporary of Aurelianus, one Publius Herrenius Dexippus who was not that much of an historian (but as a civilian official may have had some claim to fame as a defender of Athens in the 260's from a Gothic incursion). He did know the emperor first hand. An Athenian historian by the name of Philostratus also mentions him a bit and a later Roman, (or early Byzantine) by the name of Zosimus mentions him. Dexippus seems to have been cited by the author(s) of the later Historia Augusta (which as good history is about as reliable as a Ouija board for weather forecasting). Not that much out there which is a shame as from what we do know about the man, the more we wish we had to go on.

Aurelianus was born about 214 AD, probably in Illyricum to what appear to have been free Roman peasants and perhaps were citizens only after Caracalla's gift of citizenship to most free Romans in 212 AD. As a young man he joined the army about the time of the death of Severus Alexander (235), did well, and rose in rank. That was not necessarily that hard to do as this was a period of intense fighting for the Empire and promotions from high casualties must have helped a talented (and lucky) soldier move up quickly. By the reign of Claudius II (Gothicus) Aurelianus was Magister Equitum (master of horse) and commander of the elite Dalmatian cavalry. After the death of Claudius II, probably from disease, a rare cause of death for a Third Century emperor, he assumed the purple after the former emperor's brother was disposed of.

The actual years of Aurelian's reign are fairly well known. He assumed the throne at a time when the empire had literally gone to pieces with the Eastern provinces, savaged earlier by the resurgent Sassanian Persians, now under the rule of Zenobia, a fascinating ruler herself, who having saved her Palmyra from the Persians planned on keeping it for herself and son. Twice Aurelianus had to invade Palmyra before he was able to restore it to Rome where Zenobia graced his Triumph with her presence. By the way, the emperor did not have her killed. She remained in Rome, married a Roman senator and presumably lived happily ever after. What was even more of a problem was the Gallic Empire set up by Postumus who fought tooth and nail to keep that breakaway portion of the Empire from returning to Roman administration. Aurelianus, however pulled it off and while doing it, managed to fight off waves of Germanic invaders. At the time of his murder by his own officers in 275, the Empire , though now shorn of Dacia, looked pretty good.

Now this brings us to the most interesting part of his restoration of the world, that is, his "reform of the coinage". Some numismatists here know that the double denarius (antoninianus) of the Third century had been declining in the fineness of its silver (ca. 50% initially) from almost the moment it was first minted ca. 215 AD. By the time of Claudius II the coin looked to have no silver in it at all. Most modern readers of Roman History have assumed that this constant debasement of the coinage must have led to rampant inflation. Oddly enough the evidence is that it did not. Reading the works of Kenneth Harl, (Coinage in the Roman Economy,pp. 146-147, David S. Potter, the Roman Empire at Bay, pp. 273 and following, and the article in chapter 29 of the Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Coinage by Sylviane Estiot pp. 538-548, and Christopher Howgego, Ancient History from Coins, pp.125-127, it appears that Romans had adjusted to the decreasing fineness of their silver as long as it was convertible to the gold aureus at the official rate of 25 silver denarii to one pure gold aureus. In a sense the once almost pure silver denarius (and its double, the antoninianus) had become a token coinage whose value depended on its official status and acceptance in the market place, not its intrinsic bullion value. That seems to have been the case up until the coinage reforms of Aurelian. His silver coinage looked silver and its style made it a much more handsome coin. It also touched off a raging inflation as prices seem to have risen some five fold very quickly. It appears that all previous coinage was demonetized and called in leaving the average Roman consumer with handsome silvered coins of Aurelian and a lot of now useless mostly copper junk. There is still much uncertainty about his monetary reform but in his effort to get his coins into circulation (and his predecessors out of circulation) he may have seriously damaged the economy by questioning the credibility of a fiduciary token coinage. Perhaps in this area Aurelianus's reform was not a plus for the Empire. Readers may want to investigate this last matter further, themselves. Still not a bad run at all.

Below are some of the coins of the period. First, in the middle, is a wretched coin of Claudius II (Sear 3215) which, for us, at 2.5 grams, does not inspire much confidence from its appearance. Next, right and left, are two coins of the breakaway Gallic Empire of Postumus a double denarius of 3.4 grams (Sear 10936) which still has enough silver in it to look silverish and a double sestertius (16.4 grams, Sear 11043). Next are two of the reformed coins of Aurelianus which do appear to be of good style and enough silver to make them presentable in appearance (Sear11587 , 11572) both weigh 4.3 grams. The last coin is a double denarius of Probus who ruled a few years after Aurelianus. It looks even more impressive in its silvering and weighs 4.2 grams.

So tell us what you think of the emperor credited with being the "Restitutor Orbis" or about what his coinage reforms actually represented beyond a better appearance.

 

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Nice collection of coins Kevin. Here is my Aurelian RESTITVT ORBIS example.

Heroes of the Third Century: Aurelian and Severina

Roman Empire
Aurelian, AD 270-275
BI Antoninianus, Serdica Mint, struck ca. AD 274/5
Wt.: 4.1 g
Dia.: 25 mm, 12h
Obv.: IMP C AVERLIANVS PF AVG; Radiate, cuirassed bust right.
Rev.: RESTITVT ORBIS; Woman standing right presents wreath to Aurelian standing left holding spear, star between, KAA in exergue
Ref.: RIC 288

 

Thanks for the article. It would seem that Aurelian (and Probus) offered an enormous variety of reverse types and even (in the case of Probus) a variety of obverse types. One has to give credit to Aurelian for getting rid of the Palmyrene empire which at the time controlled Syria, Palestine, Arabia, and Egypt. Similarly he also managed to subvert the Gallic empire. So over a 5 year period he was a very busy man.

 

I have read authors saying that he really should be up there with Augustus, Vespasian and Trajan as one of the most capable, one of the best of Rome's emperors.

 

In my country even little children learn about Aurelian in the history classes.
Trajan and Aurelian are considered the most important emperors in our point of view - Trajan because he conquered the territory we live in (105 AD) and Aurelian because he withdrew the Roman administration in 273 AD.

From what I know, no historian has complained about his style/skills.
My only coin from Aurelian so far is also a Restitutor Orbis, looks better in hand but my photographic skills are ....

Obv IMP C AVRELIANVS AVG
Rev RESTITVTOR ORBIS
Victory, standing right, holding palm, presenting wreath to Aurelian, standing left, holding spear
Mintmark BC so I think this is RIC V Aurelian 368

 

It seems that you are from Romania by what you write. I have a question I have to ask. From having studied Latin and French and Italian I have a pretty good idea of how Latin morphed into those two languages but know no one who speaks the Romanian language. Do you know if the Latin of Romania was like the Latin of other provinces? Can a modern speaker of Romanian read Latin texts? Is Romanian close enough to Italian and Spanish to be mutually understood? Thanks for any information you can offer.

 

Here’s my Cyzicus example. It’s got rather thick silver remnants which I like

 

Hi @kevin McGonigal , yes, you are correct.
I will try to answer your questions from what I know.
"Do you know if the Latin of Romania was like the Latin of other provinces"
I studied (some) Latin in school, but beginner's level. From what I learned in history classes, the Latin used after conquering Dacia was not the "official" Latin, so some kind of a dialect or a lingua franca if we can say this. The colonists who settled in Dacia were, most likely, from Moesia and surrounding provinces that were already conquered by the Empire, so not "truly" Romans. Latin speakers, of course, but in what degree Latin, I don't know.
There is a theory that Dacian language was also very close to Latin.

"Can a modern speaker of Romanian read Latin texts"
If you ask me if I can understand Latin, the answer is no. They "sound" very much the same and from what I remember from 20 years ago, the grammar rules are somehow similar (our grammar is very different from English, for example).
But in this particular case, the RESTITUTOR ORBIS coin - Restorer of the world, in Romanian this would be translated as "Restauratorul lumii".
So Restorer is quite similar, but the word for Orbis .....
Another example - a Roman saying I remember from school - Vita nostra brevis est (Our life is short). in Romanian it would be "Viața noastră este scurtă". The ț in "viata" is pronounced like a tz. So, not exactly similar. The verb is almost identical but the position in the sentence changes.
For me it is very easy to READ a text in Latin because we use the same kind of accent and pronunciation but I will understand, perhaps 30-40% of the words.
I know that a native English or German speaker would have difficulties in pronouncing Latin words. For me it feels natural.


"Is Romanian close enough to Italian and Spanish to be mutually understood"
Better than an Englishman, yes, but a conversation is impossible. I do not speak these languages, I can DETERMIN or guess what someone is saying much better than, let's say, Norwegian or Hungarian - just two examples of languages that have nothing in common with Romanian.
But it's much easier to learn these languages for us that it would be for a German for example, because of the accent and similar grammar rules.
Using Google translate - I wrote a simple sentece in Romanian - "I like this forum because I learn new things about old coins".
Romanian: "Îmi place acest forum pentru că învăț lucruri noi despre bani vechi." (notice again the diacritics)
Italian translation - cannot even be sure if it is accurate: "Mi piace questo forum perché imparo cose nuove sui vecchi soldi." This example is almost identical but the "soldi" doesn't have a clear correspondent in Romanian for money, although the word "soldă" means the payment received by a SOLDIER, in Romanian "soldat".
Spanish: "Me gusta este foro porque aprendo cosas nuevas sobre el dinero antiguo" - so not quite similar.

What I must add, a lot of people have names of Latin origin. Can't say if this is just a trend starting in 19th century when Romania gained independence. Traian is a popular name in Romania, we even had a president with this name (2004-2014) - Traian Basescu. Not at all uncommon. Same situation with Aurelian - it is not uncommon to meet a Romanian with the given name Aurelian. Or Sever, Titus, Constantin (very popular in Romania), Liviu, Octavian, Cezar, Tiberiu, Horatiu, Sergiu. Same situation for ladies. My grandmother's name was Lucretia (paternal grandmother) and I also had a great aunt (my maternal grandfather's sister) with the same name.

 

...I'd like to second @kevin McGonigal. It's as innately fascinating a question as my ignorance is total!

 

@ambr0zie, Many thanks for your magnanimously expansive reply to @kevin McGonigal! All of this is truly great.
A couple of things about your observations struck me immediately. First, the Romanian scurtă, for 'brevis,' seems distinctly Germanic in origin. (Cf. the Old English --hence still very Germanic-- origin of 'short': 'scort, sceort.') ...Could any Germanic connection go back to the 4th century, if not even earlier ...perhaps more contemporaneously to Aurelian's withdrawal from Dacia?
Second, the whole question of the extent to which speakers of similar languages can understand eachother is very fun in its own right. (...I have about as much luck reading French as you do reading Latin.) Regarding the extant Celtic languages in northwestern Europe, I recall someone, who knew what they were talking about, saying that speakers of Welsh and of Breton (right, in Brittany, across the English Channel) could understand eachother, even in conversation. (...Presumably as long as the subject matter remained on an appropriately prosaic level!) A similar phenomenon (perhaps more nuanced, along the lines of Romanian and Latin, as you noted) seems to have occured between speakers of Old English and the Old Norse of Viking settlers in England.
...This was terrific fun! Thanks again for your reply.

 

No problems gentlemen, hope the off topic doesn't bother anyone.
Just checked a linguistic resource, the word 'scurt' seems to come from Latin 'excurtus'. Had no idea.

 

Informative write-up, @kevin McGonigal!

Here's a RESTITVTOR ORBIS of Aurelian for you:


Aurelian, AD 270-275.
Roman billon antoninianus, 3.94 g, 23.6 mm, 11 h.
Cyzicus, issue 8, phase 2, spring 273 – spring 274.
Obv: IMP C AVRELIANVS AVG, radiate and cuirassed bust, right.
Rev: RESTITVTOR ORBIS, female, draped, standing right, presenting wreath to Aurelian, standing left, holding spear or scepter.
Refs: MER/RIC temp 2988; RIC 437 var.; Cohen 210; La Venera 10345-46; RCV --.

 

...Thanks, @ambr0zie, for the reality check. (Cool to find out that my guess was completely wrong!!!)
Yes, @kevin McGonigal, your initial writeup easily matched a very cool assemblage of coins. Sorry it took me this long to get around to that.

 

Gratias tibi ago. Grazie mille. Thank you so very much. I have been very interested in the study of languages for many years. I once read a book on the history of languages by a a gentleman named Mario Pei who I think was a Romanian.

 

Interestingly I only have a few of this man's coins and not the one you posted.

 

And in Romanian we say "mulțumesc" (pronounced something like mool-tzoo-mesc)
Congratulations for the Aurelian coins, by the way, my only one is no match for you.
But an Aurelian example was a must have for me.
P.S. Mario Pei doesn't sound Romanian by name, just checked to be sure, he was Italian.

 

Oh well. It just shows how closely related Italians and Romanians still are, in language, at least.

 

..kool story and coins! he was one of the few in the 3rd century who lived long enough for his widow to collect life insurance..this gives me a chance to show off this (slightly damaged)coin of him i've had since i 1st started collecting(but wasn't aware of) i'd got in a lot of LRB's, but thanks to education and influence of the peeps here, i recently relooked at it( i thought it was kool back then cause it showed the Romans had invented the wheelchair early on) and was able to ID who it was

 

Nice article, @kevin McGonigal
I don't have a coin on Aurelian. Just one on his wife Severina.
However, the reverse does show Aurelian.


Severina, Augusta, AD 270-275
Antoninianus, 22mm, 4.60g.
Rome mint, 6th officina.
Obv: Draped bust right, wearing stephane, crescent behind.
Rev: Severina, holding unknown object, and Aurelian, holding scepter, facing and clasping right hands.

 

I wonder what that unknown object is?