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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Claudius_Gothicus, post: 7949724, member: 116315&quot;]<p style="text-align: left">If T-Bone can have a Tuesday, and the two Faustinae a Friday, then why can&#039;t Tacitus get a day for himself as well <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie7" alt=":p" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />? </p> <p style="text-align: left"><br /></p> <p style="text-align: left">Obviously, though, we won&#039;t be talking about the historian who wrote many significative works on Roman History, but rather the other important (if we can call important a ruler who lasted less than a year - indeed, <a href="http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/eutropius/trans9.html#16" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/eutropius/trans9.html#16" rel="nofollow">Eutropius</a> says that &quot;he was unable, however, to show the world anything remarkable&quot;) individual with that name, the emperor Marcus Claudius Tacitus. However, even though his reign might have been short-lived, his coinage is anything but boring and, in my opinion, certainly deserves a comprehensive overview - besides having the title of being the last emperor to have had provincial coins struck for him outside of Alexandria, his antoniniani were struck at a great number of Imperial mints, with a large variety of different styles and bust types, and he also introduced quite a few new reverses while also resurrecting old ones. This series will not be weekly like [USER=75937]@Roman Collector[/USER]&#039;s, as I wouldn&#039;t manage to obtain new coins as fast as him, but I hope I&#039;ll be able to still update it periodically with new entries. As for this first edition, I&#039;d like to make it special, so I&#039;m going to post something that will definitely stand out - this antoninianus, besides featuring a rare and historically important reverse type (I think [USER=19463]@dougsmit[/USER] is the only other one on the forum to own one with the same legend), is also unique and can boast of a very important provenance:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1377142[/ATTACH]</p><p>Roman Empire, Tacitus (275-276), Antoninianus, Serdica mint.</p><p>Obverse: IMP C M CL TACITVS AVG, radiate, draped and cuirassed bust right, seen from the front;</p><p>Reverse: VICTORI-IA PERPE-TVA AVG, Victory standing right, holding wreath in right hand and palm against left shoulder, facing Emperor in military dress standing left, right hand outstretched and holding long sceptre in left hand; star in field, KA(•)Γ(•) in exergue;</p><p>RIC V - (c.f. RIC V 201), RIC V Online 3955 <i>(this coin)</i>, Mazzini 167 <i>(this coin)</i>, Estiot 96, 472 <i>(this coin)</i></p><p><br /></p><p>Before analyzing the historical meaning of this coin, let&#039;s quickly talk about the original owner of this coin, Giuseppe Mazzini (not to be confused with a more famous Italian patriot of the same name): he was born in Livorno in 1887, which is coincidentally the birthplace of Giovanni Dattari as well, and he died in Torino in 1961; he was a member of Parliament and held many important positions in several Italian industries such as Montecatini and Ilva. Besides this, though, he also wrote for the Italian Journal of Numismatics and was a dedicated collector of Roman coins, assembling a collection containing over 8000 coins in all metals, which where published in a series of five volumes by Mario Ratto, who also auctioned his collection in Milan after his death ([USER=89514]@curtislclay[/USER] told me that he was able to purchase several coins from the collection in 1967). This coin was illustrated in the old black and white book and, being unique, that photo also had to be reused for Estiot&#039;s as well as RIC V Online:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1377150[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Now, let&#039;s talk about the reverse type itself: it belongs to the third and final issue of Tacitus from the Serdica mint, struck in the first part of 276, and it is listed in RIC only as coming from the fourth officina (RIC V 201-203). It is also worth mentioning that it mentions the existance of a VICTORIA PONTICA AVG type as well (RIC V 204), but I&#039;ve been unable to find an example, so it might have been a forgery or a tooled coin. Going back to the PERPETVA type, it was only used in Serdica, though it is clearly a parallel to the VICTORIA GOTTHI antoniniani struck at Ticinum at the same time, and they must refer to the same victories obtained by the emperor in his Gothic campaign:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1377164[/ATTACH]</p><p><i>(Image courtesy of Roma Numismatics)</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p>Unfortunately, as with everything else from the reign of Tacitus, the historical information regarding this campaign is very scarce, though the few sources that mention it in some detail (Zonaras) say that the &quot;Scythians&quot; had come from the Maeotian Swamp (today known as the Sea of Azov) and had then invaded the Eastern provinces of the empire through Colchis, going as far as Cilicia, where they were finally crushed by the emperor. However, Tacitus was unable to enjoy his victory for long (It certainly wasn&#039;t PERPETVA as the coins claim <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie2" alt=";)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />), because he perished soon afterwards in uncertain circumstances: while the Historia Augusta says that he died of disease, Zosimus and Zonaras instead claim that he was murdered in a plot, by a group of conspirators who eliminated him after having killed his cousin, the governor of Syria Maximinus, due to being a bad administrator. If their version is the true one, then it is interesting to wonder whether the future emperor Probus could have been involved in the assassination too, as he certainly would&#039;ve gained from it - though Zosimus says that after obtaining the throne he had them condemned to death for their crimes.</p><p><br /></p><p>At the time, the Serdica mint had four officinae, though it appears that the first one didn&#039;t strike this type for whatever reason, as no examples have surfaced yet. The fourth officina was the most prolific one in issuing it, as it used four different obverse legends: IMP C M CL TACITVS AVG, IMP C M CL TACITVS P AVG, IMP C M CL TACITVS P F AVG and finally IMP C TACITVS INVICTVS AVG. On the other hand, the third officina only used the first legend (my coin, the only known example) and the last one, and the second is known only from one example with the INVICTVS legend, though my guess is that, eventually, a coin with the shorter legend will surface as well. This type was also continued during Florian&#039;s reign, though it is even scarcer; while they are all very hard to find, I&#039;ll make sure to pick up all the ones I spot at auction and see how far into building a set of them I can go.</p><p><br /></p><p>That&#039;s all for now; post your antoniniani of Tacitus from Serdica, your coins with Victory, your coins with an important provenance, or anything else you feel like might be relevant <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />!</p><p><br /></p><p>Sources:</p><p>- <a href="http://www.socnumit.org/doc/Numismatici/MAZZINI_Giuseppe.pdf" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.socnumit.org/doc/Numismatici/MAZZINI_Giuseppe.pdf" rel="nofollow">Biography of Giuseppe Mazzini</a>;</p><p>- <a href="https://ric.mom.fr/en/home" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://ric.mom.fr/en/home" rel="nofollow">RIC V Online</a>;</p><p>- <i><a href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta/Tacitus*.html#ref45" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta/Tacitus*.html#ref45" rel="nofollow">Historia Augusta, Life of the Emperor Tacitus</a>;</i></p><p><i>- <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20080521191250/http://www.ancientsites.com/aw/Post/1049415" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://web.archive.org/web/20080521191250/http://www.ancientsites.com/aw/Post/1049415" rel="nofollow">Zonaras, Alexander Severus to Diocletian</a>;</i></p><p><i>- <a href="http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/eutropius/trans9.html#16" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/eutropius/trans9.html#16" rel="nofollow">Eutropius, Abridgement of Roman History, Book 9</a>;</i></p><p><i>- <a href="https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/zosimus01_book1.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/zosimus01_book1.htm" rel="nofollow">Zosimus, New History, Book 1</a>;</i>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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