The Last Emperor of Britain

Finally, I acquired a coin of Magnus Maximus (my 81th emperor on the Eric II list). I wanted a nice one because of this emperor's ties to Wales.

He was born about 335 AD in Galicia (Spain). According to some, he was of Welsh descent, whereas others say he was a grandson of Constantine the Great. Raised by an important officer, Count Theodosius, young Maximus became a leading officer, too, to whom important assignments were entrusted in the 370s. In 380 he was made top general of the field army in Britain, comes Brittannicus. A year later, he defeated an incursion of Picts and Scots. Two years later, he was made an emperor by his army. Possibly he was an unwilling emperor (like there were so many before him - and well they might, for usurpator is a taxing occupation and also a guarantee for a short and violent life), but there he was.

Magnus Maximus was not the first British emperor; Carausius had been an emperor a century earlier, and you might discuss the Roman emperors who visited Britain.
Maximus was married several times and had influential offspring. Flavius Victor was his eldest son and caesar, perishing on the same day in 388 AD. But according to this article by Peter Kessler his three eldest sons were to become kings of North, Mid and South Wales, whereas the fourth was a saint: St. Peblig ap Macsen. And his two daughters were married to Tudwal, king of Dumnonia, and Vortigern, king of Powys. So - an emperor well rooted in British early history.

Had Maximus stayed in Britain, things might have gone different, but he tried to enlarge his territory by engaging the emperor Gratian, and thereafter the other lords of the Roman realm. After a promising beginning, where he proved to be an apt administrator of his part of the empire: Britain, Spain, Gaul and North Africa, in 388 the tide turned and he was defeated and executed by the Eastern emperor Theodosius, the son of Maximus' benefactor Count Theodosius.

I wanted an attractive coin and decided on this one, a larger AE with nice details. Issued in Lyons. Obv.: Diademed, draped and cuirassed bust right. D N MAG MAXIMVS P F AVG. Rev.: Magnus Maximus standing left, holding crowning Victory on globus and extending hand to Fortuna kneeling right. REPARATIO REIPVB / LVGS. 23 mm, 5.02 gr. RIC 32.

 

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Great coin and super write up @Pellinore .

I spent 3 years in Wales, and loved every moment.

My only Magnus Maximus that I can offer:


RI Magnus Maximus 383-388 CE AE Follis

 

I visited Wales myself on two occasions and loved the country

My MM siliqua


Magnus Maximus, Siliqua Trier mint, 2nd officina
D N MAG MAX IMVS P F AVG, draped, cuirassed and diademed bust right
VIRTVS RO MASORVM (sic !!) Roma seated facing, holding globe and spear.
TRPS at exergue
1.91 gr
Ref : Cohen # 20 var, Roman coins # 4201

Q

 

What a terrific coin and write-up !!!

Super posts guys!!!

My example is a budget/impulse purchase but it does fill that pesky 'album hole'...
and it has a nice reverse:

 

I agree with @Mikey Zee. Great coin and write up

 

Nice coin. He was a recent addition for me too.


Magnus Maximus (383 - 388 A.D.)
Æ13
O: D N MAG MAXIMVS P F AVG; Pearl-diademed, draped and cuirassed bust right.
R: SPES ROMANORVM; Camp-gate with star between its two turrets // RT
Rome Mint 387-388 A.D.
13mm
1.1g
RIC IX 59.3, p. 131, rare.

From the Doug Smith Collection #1507

 

All nice coins and a great write up and totally unexpected to read about my homeland today. I live to the West of Powys. Yet another Emperor to put on my list.......

 

I used to be a voracious reader of the great author, John Cowper Powys, a Welshman who lived in the USA for decades. Today, inspired by the find of the coin of Magnus Maximus, I started again in his voluminous novel Porius playing in the Welsh town of Corwen, Merioneth, in the year 499 AD, when Roman life is still tangible, but dwindling. Magnus Maximus is still within living memory.
Arthur is there too, in the book, as a great general and a half Roman lord.
Anyway, if you want to see the end of the Ancient World alive in Britain, read this book. But take your time, it is well over 800 pp.

 

Nice coin @Pellinore ! I don't have an MM example in my collection yet.

 

Thank you Pellinore I have read his work on Owen Glendower 40 years ago as I was forced to. I will not be forced into reading Porius however.

 

Nice coin, and thanks for the novel suggestion above!

I was excited recently to pick up a very rare coin of Magnus Maximus, issued in Constantinople during the very brief period when he was recognized by Theodosius. The obverse legend (DN MAXIMUS PF AVG) and reverse type aren't found from any other mint.

 

Nice coin and write up @Pellinore

I've been trying fairly to get a siliqua of these dude for the last several months (two birds with one stone..coin type and ruler) but it just hasn't panned out.

 

Nice!

 

the story goes further


Towards the end of the 4th century Britain came under increasing pressure from barbarian attacks, and there were not enough troops to mount an effective defence. After elevating two disappointing usurpers, the army chose a soldier, Constantine III, to become emperor in 407. He crossed to Gaul but was defeated by Honorius; it is unclear how many troops remained or ever returned, or whether a commander-in-chief in Britain was ever reappointed. A Saxon incursion in 408 was apparently repelled by the Britons, and in 409 Zosimus records that the natives expelled the Roman civilian administration. However, Zosimus may be referring to the Bacaudic rebellion of the Breton inhabitants of Armorica since he describes how, in the aftermath of the revolt, all of Armorica and the rest of Gaul followed the example of the Brettaniai. A letter from Emperor Honorius in 410 has traditionally been seen as rejecting a British appeal for help, but it may have been addressed to Bruttium or Bologna.[62] With the imperial layers of the military and civil government gone, administration and justice fell to municipal authorities, and local warlords gradually emerged all over Britain, still utilizing Romano-British ideals and conventions. Laycock has investigated this process and emphasised elements of continuity from the British tribes in the pre-Roman and Roman periods, through to the native post-Roman kingdoms.[63]

In British/Welsh tradition, pagan Saxons were invited by Vortigern to assist in fighting the Picts and Irish, though Germanic migration into Roman Britannia may have begun much earlier. There is recorded evidence, for example, of Germanic auxiliaries supporting the legions in Britain in the 1st and 2nd centuries. The new arrivals rebelled, plunging the country into a series of wars that eventually led to the Saxon occupation of Lowland Britain by 600. Around this time many Britons fled to Brittany (hence its name), Galicia and probably Ireland. A significant date in sub-Roman Britain is the Groans of the Britons, an unanswered appeal to Aetius, leading general of the western Empire, for assistance against Saxon invasion in 446. Another is the Battle of Deorham in 577, after which the significant cities of Bath, Cirencester and Gloucester fell and the Saxons reached the western sea.

Most scholars reject the historicity of the later legends of King Arthur, which seem to be set in this period, but some such as John Morris think there may be some truth to them



My Question is those emperors ever so brittain/ was it not only controlled by generals

 

not the last emperor/ off brittain

 

Honorius was the last one of brittain

 

Here re "my" Magnentius Maximus coin, one with the Christian XP on reverse.

 

Here are "my" Magnentius Maximus coins, one with the Christian XP on reverse.