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| Cyzicus, Aurelian,
"Restitutor Orbis" |
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29.6.2022
..da
Ancient Medieval Coins.Please help identify . Thanks. |
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Roma, 30.6.2022
Dear,below I report the significant elements regarding the coin above: Antoninianus1,
Cyzicus mint, (270 - 275) a. D.2, RIC V/I
369 (pag. 306), Cohen
VI 208 (pag. 198), rarity index
"C". Summary description: The search of coins of the type above gave rise to the following results:
Best regards. ---------------------------------- Note:
(2) The dating (270 - 275) a. D., is generic as it refers to the entire span of Aurelian's reign. (3) IMP AVRELIANVS AVG (IMPerator AVRELIANVS AVGustus). Aurelian is the successor of Claudius II, if one excludes the short reign of Quintillus. In only five years, from 270 to 275, Aurelian fights all the enemies of Rome one by one, consolidates one by one all the weak points of the empire, succeeds in an almost impossible undertaking: to reunify the Roman Empire. Thanks to him, all the provinces of the empire returned under the authority of Rome. It is rightly so that the coins exalt the emperor as "Restitutor Orbis", the Restorer of the World. The greatest danger for Rome is not the Gallic Empire, rather closed in on itself, but the Empire of Palmyra, in the far east of the Empire. Palmira, a city of Persian and Hellenistic tradition rather than Roman, risks falling into the hands of the Persians with its empire. In short, the Roman Empire, amputated from its eastern part, is in danger of halving. Aurelian puts an end to the regime of Palmyra, over which Valabata, son of Odenate and Zenobia, reigns with the title of “Dux Romanorum”! But Aurelian is not content with reunifying the Empire. It must prepare it for the future, reform it. In addition, mighty Rome must be surrounded by walls (Aurelian's walls), for fear of the descents of the barbarians, capable of crossing all of Italy and reaching it. The economy of the empire must also be healed. The economic crisis, aggravated under the reign of Gallienus, had transformed some good Antoninian silver into copper coins. The monetary reform organized by Aurelian marks the desire to mint beautiful coins of equivalent quality whatever the mints, with a sufficiently guaranteed metal content. The state must no longer appear as a false coin holder, putting coins of base metal into circulation to pass as silver coins. State security is at stake. Aurelian has a predilection for the cult of the Sun, very popular among the military and in Illyria of which he is a native. He imposes this god, making him an object of official worship. Sol, this oriental divinity added to the Roman Pantheon, will come to replace a sick Jupiter, tired of the ritual offerings that have been offered to him for centuries. Unique in the history of Rome, his death will leave room for an inter-kingdom: for almost a month, the Empire has no emperor, as if no man, whatever he was, in the Empire possessed the stature to succeed him. (4) RESTITVTOR ORBIS, RESTITVTOR EXERCITI, ORIENTIS, GALLIARVM, SAECVLI, GENERIS HVMANI are as many legends of Aurelian as "Restitutor", People remembered that just eleven years before the rise of Aurelian, another emperor, Valerian, had suffered the shame of capture by the Persians and death in slavery. They therefore needed to be reassured and, as Kovaliov reports, Aurelian threw all his strength into the fight against the barbarians who continued to threaten the borders of the Empire. The Jutungi tribe, who lived in southern Germany, broke into Italy through the Alps, savagely devastating the area before Aurelian managed to reach and defeat them definitively. Immediately after this episode the emperor had to rush to Pannonia against the Sarmatians and the Vandals. These tribes were also defeated and the Vandals were forced to make available to the Romans 2,000 knights in permanent service. Aurelian associated with the Roman army barbarian contingents to a greater extent than his predecessors. In 271, while the emperor was in Pannonia, Alemanni, Jutungi, Marcomanni and other Nordic tribes in compact masses broke in again in Italy.These peoples demanded the payment of the usual cash subsidies to which they had been accustomed by Aurelian's predecessors. The emperor, having left a part of the army on the Danube, rushed with the rest to Italy. The Po valley had already been sacked, the fortresses of Piacenza, Pollenza and others had been stormed. One of Aurelian's armies was defeated; the barbarians passed the Apennines. With great efforts Aurelian succeeded in recompiling his armies and on the Metauro river he arrested the advance of the barbarians. Gradually the latter were pushed back into the Po valley and finally, over Ticino, the Romans achieved a decisive victory. Instructed by the experience of recent decades, in which the capital itself had more than once found itself exposed to serious dangers, Aurelian began the works to surround Rome with a grandiose system of fortified walls. The work was later completed by his successors. (5) B/XXI According to RIC, the group XXI would mean that 20 (XX) of these Antoninians have the value of one aureus. However, others give a different interpretation. According to Mairat, the silver content of a post-reform Antoninianus of Aurelian is about 5% and therefore XXI would mean: "20 of these coins are equivalent to a piece of equal weight of pure silver." The letter B above exergue identifies the second of 6 workshops coins at the time operating in Cyzicus. (6) The female character handing the crown to the "restorer of the world" could be the Earth personified (orbis terrarum), or peace. |
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