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<p>[QUOTE="John Conduitt, post: 5151682, member: 109923"]When I started collecting Roman coins, I was impressed by how many I emperors knew. I can barely name a dozen British prime ministers, and I’ve lived through 9 of them. I think. But rulers from 2000 years ago? No problem. Caesar, Caligula, Hadrian, Nero etc.</p><p><br /></p><p>But since collecting, I’ve realised I knew nothing. Quite a few emperors I’d heard of but knew nothing about. Diocletian, Antoninus Pius, Septimius Severus, Julian… They’re like family now. Others I’d never heard of. The likes of Carausius, Tetricus I and Constans. But I thought I’d reached the bottom of it. I have a list of them to collect after all.</p><p><br /></p><p>Yet still more come out of the woodwork. <i>Who on Earth is Delmatius?</i> I asked, just as I bought this coin earlier this month:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1208674[/ATTACH]</p><p><b>Delmatius bronze follis, 335-337, Trier, second officina. 15mm, 1.64g. FL DELMATI-VS NOB CAES. GLOR-IA EXERC-ITVS. From the Nether Compton Hoard, Dorset, England (RIC VII 594).</b></p><p><br /></p><p>Flavius Dalmatius Caesar was, apparently, a nephew of Constantine I. He was Caesar of Thracia, Achaea and Macedonia until he was killed by his own soldiers as part of Constantius II’s purge. It seems he didn’t have many coins struck at Trier, and being a collector of coins found in Britain (which often come from Trier), I hadn’t come across him before.</p><p><br /></p><p>Then not so long ago, I posted a barbarous Helena on here. Immediately [USER=91461]@Ryro[/USER] came back and suggested it might instead be Theodora. Theodora? Who’s she? The Explorer? Not Justinian’s saintly wife anyway…</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1208675[/ATTACH]</p><p><b>Theodora/Constantinopolis barbarous hybrid, c340AD. Found in Britain. 13mm, 0.95g.</b></p><p>The blundered legend is backwards, as if copied from the impression of another coin. So ZPT in exergue might originally have been TRS for Trier.</p><p><br /></p><p>It was sold as Helena and looks like Helena (bearing in mind it’s barbarous), who’s more familiar to me as a collector of London coins. But the legend includes two Os, separated by the top of her head. Theodora's Trier coins have the legend FL MAX THEO-DORAE AVG, which looks like the HO-O AIIG on this coin (read backwards). Thank you [USER=91461]@Ryro[/USER].</p><p><br /></p><p>Flavia Maximiana Theodora, it turns out, was Constantius Chlorus’s second wife (after Helena - a bit creepy they look so similar) and possibly Maximian's daughter. Oh <i>that</i> Theodora. It so happens she was also Dalmatius’s grandmother.</p><p><br /></p><p>Coins continue to educate me. How else would I know all the English monarchs in order? Or the geographical extent of the Parthian Empire? But they also reveal the chasm of my ignorance. Has anyone else found their collection full of Romans they’d never heard of?[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="John Conduitt, post: 5151682, member: 109923"]When I started collecting Roman coins, I was impressed by how many I emperors knew. I can barely name a dozen British prime ministers, and I’ve lived through 9 of them. I think. But rulers from 2000 years ago? No problem. Caesar, Caligula, Hadrian, Nero etc. But since collecting, I’ve realised I knew nothing. Quite a few emperors I’d heard of but knew nothing about. Diocletian, Antoninus Pius, Septimius Severus, Julian… They’re like family now. Others I’d never heard of. The likes of Carausius, Tetricus I and Constans. But I thought I’d reached the bottom of it. I have a list of them to collect after all. Yet still more come out of the woodwork. [I]Who on Earth is Delmatius?[/I] I asked, just as I bought this coin earlier this month: [ATTACH=full]1208674[/ATTACH] [B]Delmatius bronze follis, 335-337, Trier, second officina. 15mm, 1.64g. FL DELMATI-VS NOB CAES. GLOR-IA EXERC-ITVS. From the Nether Compton Hoard, Dorset, England (RIC VII 594).[/B] Flavius Dalmatius Caesar was, apparently, a nephew of Constantine I. He was Caesar of Thracia, Achaea and Macedonia until he was killed by his own soldiers as part of Constantius II’s purge. It seems he didn’t have many coins struck at Trier, and being a collector of coins found in Britain (which often come from Trier), I hadn’t come across him before. Then not so long ago, I posted a barbarous Helena on here. Immediately [USER=91461]@Ryro[/USER] came back and suggested it might instead be Theodora. Theodora? Who’s she? The Explorer? Not Justinian’s saintly wife anyway… [ATTACH=full]1208675[/ATTACH] [B]Theodora/Constantinopolis barbarous hybrid, c340AD. Found in Britain. 13mm, 0.95g.[/B] The blundered legend is backwards, as if copied from the impression of another coin. So ZPT in exergue might originally have been TRS for Trier. It was sold as Helena and looks like Helena (bearing in mind it’s barbarous), who’s more familiar to me as a collector of London coins. But the legend includes two Os, separated by the top of her head. Theodora's Trier coins have the legend FL MAX THEO-DORAE AVG, which looks like the HO-O AIIG on this coin (read backwards). Thank you [USER=91461]@Ryro[/USER]. Flavia Maximiana Theodora, it turns out, was Constantius Chlorus’s second wife (after Helena - a bit creepy they look so similar) and possibly Maximian's daughter. Oh [I]that[/I] Theodora. It so happens she was also Dalmatius’s grandmother. Coins continue to educate me. How else would I know all the English monarchs in order? Or the geographical extent of the Parthian Empire? But they also reveal the chasm of my ignorance. Has anyone else found their collection full of Romans they’d never heard of?[/QUOTE]
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