Reply to Thread

Message:: [QUOTE="jamesicus, post: 2917140, member: 14873"]I have been absent from Coin Talk for some time - I simply had to devote my time and energy to performing long neglected maintenance on my Calligraphy & Bookbinding and Vintage Woodworking Hand Tools web pages. So now I have a lot of catching up to do here. I also reorganized and re-wrote some of my Ancient coin web pages one of which I am posting here (Title in the Thread header). It is quite lengthy and so I will post it in several parts. Here is Part 1: DIOCLETIAN'S TETRARCHIC SYSTEM OF GOVERNANCE Diocletian was proclaimed Augustus in AD 284. The following year he appointed Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maximianus, a close military comrade, as his Caesar elevating him to co-Augustus a year later. In 293 Diocletian finalized the Institution of a Tetrarchy -- government of the Empire by four interacting rulers -- two Augusti assisted by two subordinate Caesars, which each Augustus would personally select. The two Caesars, chosen because of their proven leadership abilities, assisted the Augusti with civil administration and command of the armies. Caius Galerius Valerius Maximianus was chosen by Diocletian to be his Caesar of the East and Flavius Valerius Constantius was chosen by Maximian Herculius be his Caesar of the West. The Empire was divided into four geographical areas of governance: Diocletian and Galerius Maximian maintained their eastern headquarters at Nicomedia and Thessalonica respectively, while Maximian Herculius and Constantius maintained their western headquarters at Milan and Trier respectively. Although most references describe this historical period as "The Tetrarchy", there were technically three separately constituted Tetrarchies. THE BRITANNIC INVASION COINAGE OF CONSTANTIUS The first assignment given Constantius by Maximian Herculius was to remove Carausius, the usurper Augustus of secessionist Britain, and restore that former possession to the Empire. Constantius thereupon besieged and captured Boulogne and then wrested coastal Gaul from Carausius. Constantius now set about planning the invasion, occupation and restoration of secessionist Britain to the Empire. One of the first orders of business for Constantius in 294 was to insure that a supply of reformed aes coinage (folles) - now the commonplace legal tender of the Roman Empire - was available for use not only by his occupying force, but also by the British civilian populace. To that end Constantius established a Mint in Gaul (exact location usually listed as unknown, although some French sources list it as Boulogne), manned by Lugdunese mint workers, to produce this invasion coinage - unmarked (i.e. without a mint mark) issued in the names of Diocletian & Maximian Herculius as Augusti and Constantius & Galerius Maximian as Caesars. The coin obverses in this series feature laureate, bare neck, truncated busts with the wreath long ribbon tie laying on the neck. The reverses depict a representation of the Genius of the Roman People standing, facing left, head surmounted by a modius, naked except for a chlamys over the left shoulder, holding a patera in the right hand and cradling a cornucopia in the left arm. Both the obverse and reverse inscriptional lettering is somewhat large and delicate with the legends reading clockwise around the periphery of the coin. The reverse legend is consistently GENIO POPVLI ROMANI. There is no mint mark in the exergue. In describing the reformed, unreduced, folles (bronze with a silver wash) on this web page that are cataloged in THE ROMAN IMPERIAL COINAGE (RIC), Volume VI, I employ the Imperial name forms used in the headers by Sutherland. The following depiction includes the alternate name forms frequently used by collectors, dealers and authors of historical texts and reference documents: DIOCLETIAN .......................... (no other names commonly used)MAXIMIAN HERCULIUS ...... Maximianus, HerculiusCONSTANTIUS ........................ Constantius I, Constantius ChlorusGALERIUS MAXIMIAN ......... GaleriusSEVERUS .................................. Severus II,MAXIMINUS ............................ Maximinus II, Maximinus Daia, DazaCONSTANTINE ........................ Constantine I, Constantinus Note: Caution should be exercised when attributing folles of Galerius Maximian (Caius Galerius Valerius Maximianus) & Maximian Herculius (Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maximianus) due to the similarity of their titulature. Galerius Maximian was both Caesar and Augustus during this time period whereas Maximian Herculius was always only Augustus. Therefor coins bearing the titulature MAXIMIANVS plus NOBIL CAES, NOB CAES, NOBIL C, etc., can only be those of Galerius Maximian. There is a special problem with Galerius as Augustus coins: The titulature is mostly exactly the same as that of Maximian Herculius and frequently the only way to differentiate between the two is by the portraiture on the coin obverse. RIC Volume VI, Lugdunum, No. 14a, Diocletian, Augustus of the East: <img src="http://jp29.org/lug14ao1.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /><img src="http://jp29.org/lug14ar1.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" />IMP C DIOCLETIANVS PF AVG ............................. GENIO POPV -- LI ROMANI 9.8 gm. RIC Volume VI, Lugdunum, No. 14b, Maximian Herculius, Augustus of the West: <img src="http://jp29.org/lug14bo1.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /><img src="http://jp29.org/lug14br1.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" />IMP C MAXIMIANVS PF AVG ................................. GENIO POP -- VLI ROMANI 8.9 gm. RIC Volume VI, Lugdunum, No. 17a, Constantius, Caesar of the West: <img src="http://jp29.org/lug17ao1.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /><img src="http://jp29.org/lug17ar1.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" />FL VAL CONSTANTIVS NOB C .............................. GENIO POPV -- LI ROMANI Fully silvered.Earliest obverse legend form10.1 gm. RIC Volume VI, Lugdunum, No. 17b, Galerius Maximian, Caesar of the East: <img src="http://jp29.org/lug17bo1.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /><img src="http://jp29.org/lug17br1.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" />C VAL MAXIMIANVS NOB C .................... GENIO POPV — LI ROMANI  Earliest obverse legend form9.7 gm .......... to be continued.[/QUOTE]

Create my FREE Account!

Log in or Sign up

Reply to Thread

Useful Searches