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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GinoLR, post: 25745641, member: 128351&quot;][ATTACH=full]1644444[/ATTACH]</p><p>Philip II, Sestertius, Rome.</p><p><b>LIBERALITAS AVGG III</b> : this one was minted to celebrate the third <i>congiarium</i> given by Philip the Arab and his son, both Augusti. The <i>Chronica Urbis Romae</i> (in the <i>Calendar of 354</i>) states that the &quot;Two Philips&quot; gave a <i>congiarium </i>of 350 denarii. This is probably the total amount for each citizen in Rome of their 3 distributions.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1644449[/ATTACH]</p><p>Philip II as Augustus, AE octassarion, Antioch, 247-249</p><p><br /></p><p>These large bronze coins were minted in Antioch from Elagabalus (218-222) to Trebonianus Gallus, but not under Maximinus Thrax and Gordian III (who nevertheless minted in Antioch many billon tetradrachms). They were obviously the oriental equivalent of Roman sestertii (coins of 4 asses in theory), but were dubbed <i>octassaria</i>, &quot;8 assaria&quot; coins. Under Philip the Arab similar sestertius-like large bronzes were issued by other Syrian and oriental cities, but it happened that these not Antiochene <i>octassaria </i>were minted in Antioch and shipped to the issuing cities for circulation in their areas : some are obverse die-linked with Antiochene coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>The <i>octassaria </i>of Antioch are very common in Syria, East Turkey, even Jordan. A great number of cities in the oriental provinces (Palestine, Arabia, Phoenicia, Syria, Mesopotamia) issued their own local bronze coinage with a climax under Elagabalus. After Elagabalus and Severus Alexander many local mints closed, and local bronze coins were replaced in circulation by these large coins of Antioch from the reign of Philip on. A significant number of hoards with dozens, sometimes hundreds of these <i>octassaria </i>have been found. In Damascus in the 1980s I even acquired a handful of them I did not try to clean. They were coins from Antioch and 1 of Cyrrhus, from Elagabalus to Trebonianus Gallus, most of them of Philip I and II. It must have been the content of a purse, but unfortunately it was impossible to know its context, not even its provenance. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1644450[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>The minting of these sestertius-like coins ceased in Antioch under Valerian. One could think it was because Antioch was taken, destroyed and partially depopulated by the Persians in 260, but it may as well be linked to the end of the sestertius in Rome. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1644451[/ATTACH]</p><p>Philip I, octassarion of Samosata[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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