Tacitus: An Emperor and his Aegis

Authors

  • Andrei Bontas

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.32028/k.v4i.1116

Abstract

Although he ruled briefly during a highly volatile period, Tacitus had a varied mass of billon/base metal coins minted in his name from a variety of mints both in the East and in the West. And the series are sometimes as complex as one would expect from an emperor with a longer reign, rather than an emperor who did not stay in power for a full year.

This short note deals with one particular, peculiar and particularly rare strike, coming in the context of an overly-abundant series minted at Rome from around the beginning to mid 276, represented by the image at Figure 1.

References

Mattingly, H. and Sydenham, E. A. (eds). 1972 (reprint). Roman Imperial Coinage. Volume V Part 1. London: Spink.

Estiot, S. and Mairat, J. 2012. Monnaies de l’Empire Romain 268-276 / Roman Imperial Coinage 268-276. http://www.ric.mom.fr/en/home. Accessed April 7 2021.

CoinTalk Forums. https://www.cointalk.com/forums/. Accessed April 7 2021.

Historia Augusta. https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/ Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta/home.html. Accessed April 7 2021.

ACSearch Archive. 2009-2021. https://www.acsearch.info/. Accessed April 2nd 2021.

Gibbon, E. 1932. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. New York: Modern Library. Groag, E. and Stein, A. 1936. Prosopographia Imperii Romani. Pars II. Berlin.

Estiot, S. 2004. Catalogue des monnaies de l’Empire romain BNC MER XII.1. D’Aurélien à Florien. Paris-Strasbourg.

The British Museum website. https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1867-0507-484. Accessed April 7 2021.

Published

31/12/2021

How to Cite

Bontas, A. (2021). Tacitus: An Emperor and his Aegis. KOINON: The International Journal of Classical Numismatic Studies, 4, 196–202. https://doi.org/10.32028/k.v4i.1116

Issue

Section

Roman Coinage