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| Colonia Iulia Augusta, assarion, Claudius, city founder | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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11.1.2025
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Ancient Roman Coins.Help attribute. |
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Rome, 12.1.2025
Dear Sir,the following are the significant elements regarding the figure coin: Assarion1, mint of Berytus2, 41-54 A. D., RPC I 4545 Summary description (worn or otherwise illegible
parts of the legend are indicated in red): A web search for coins of the figure type yielded the following results:
Cordial greetings. Notes: (1) Assarion (provincial as). Assarion is the Hellenized form of the Roman as. The as, which weighed 255g and more in the republican era, in the 3rd century B.C., gradually shrank until it reached, in the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D., about 10g. The assarion was widely used in the Aegean and Asia Minor, usually weighing even less than the Roman as - see link). I collect in the table below the physical characteristics of the assarions of the figure type found in the web:
(2) Berytus (Romanized: Biruta; Ancient Greek: Βηρυτός, Romanized: Bērytós; Latin: Bērȳtus; Arabic: بَيرُوتَة), known briefly as Laodicea in Phoenicia (Ancient Greek: Λαοδίκεια ἡ ἐν Φοινίκῃ; Arabic: لاذقية كنعان) or Laodicea in Canaan from the 2nd century to 64 BCE. Berytus was the ancient city of Beirut (in present-day Lebanon) from the Roman Republic until the Roman Empire and the early Byzantine/Late Antiquity period. Berytus became a Roman colony that would be the center of the Roman presence on the eastern Mediterranean coast south of Anatolia. Veterans of two Roman legions under Augustus settled in the city (the fifth Macedonian and the third Gallic), which later became rapidly Romanized. It was the only Latin-speaking city in the Syria-Phoenicia region until the fourth century. Although Berytus was still an important city after the earthquakes, around 400 AD it was Tyre that was made the capital of the Roman province of Phoenicia. Among the great law schools of Rome, Constantinople and Berytus, that of Berytus was prominent. The Code of Justinian (a part of the Corpus Juris Civilis, the codification of Roman law ordered in the early 6th century AD by Justinian I and written entirely in Latin) was largely created in this school. (3) TI CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERM IMP (TIberivs CLAVDius CAESAR AVGvstvs GERManicus IMPerator). The conspiracy of 41, involving senators, knights and the praetorium, led to Caligula's death. The latter, driven by a desire for absolutist self-assertion, had been responsible for unwise finance. In order to cope with foolish expenditures aimed at beautifying Rome (such as the planting of lake fleets or the transfer from Egypt of the Vatican obelisk, etc.) he had resorted extensively to condemnations followed by the confiscation of property under the banner of the most blatant arbitrariness; in foreign policy he had faltered by initiating logistical preparations for the invasion of Britain without then proceeding to conquest. It was the Praetorians who assassinated him and decided the name of his successor without questioning the Senate. No one questioned that the succession should take place within the framework of dynastic continuity. In this spirit Claudius, who was the late emperor's uncle, was chosen (consult the family tree of the Julio-Claudian family on this site). Imperial continuity was a point of reference for the army and a factor of security for the provinces. Those who chose him, however, must have recognized qualities and abilities in Claudius that the naysayers (basically the senators and potential alternative figures in the imperial court) on the contrary disregarded, despising the new emperor's literary tastes (he had written a History of Etruria and a history of Carthage, introduced three new letters in the Latin alphabet) and lack of experience. In practice Claudius, upon assuming power, demanded respect for the imperial house and enforced the punishment of Caligula's slayers; he sought reconciliation with the senators without, however, giving them much leeway. In foreign policy he created a series of new provinces, Mauretania Caesarense (Algeria) and Tigitana (Morocco), Lycia, Thrace, and Judea, then completed the conquest of Britain where he stayed for sixteen days between late 43 and 44. He promoted colonization in Gaul, the Danubian provinces, and Italy by transferring veterans there. He granted Gallic mayors the “ius honorum” and consequently opened access to the senate to them, extended the granting of Roman citizenship to non-citizen veterans. He enacted a reform of the imperial administration based on four offices, for finance, pleadings, instruction of cases referred to the prince, and correspondence, and entrusted them to the management of four very capable freedmen. He initiated colossal public works such as the construction of the port of Rome at the mouth of the Tiber River in 42 and the partial draining of Lake Fucino in 52. Through the bureaucratic centralization he removed the provinces from the embezzlement of Republican lieutenants. He had four wives: from the first two he divorced; from the third, Messalina, he had a son named Britannicus and a daughter named Claudia Octavia. His marriage to Messalina ended with the death of the latter, who was executed along with her lover for organizing a conspiracy against Claudius in 48; his last wife was Agrippina Minor, daughter of a brother (Germanicus), who was divorced in turn because she had married Gnaeus Domitius Enobarbus in the first marriage and bore him a son, Nero. Under pressure from Agrippina, in 50 Claudius adopted Nero, gave him his own daughter in marriage, and finally recognized him as an heir on a par with Britannicus. In 54 Agrippina, in order to secure succession for her own son, killed her husband with a dish of poisoned mushrooms, then had the praetorians acclaim Nero as emperor by putting everyone before a fait accompli. In 55 Agrippina had Britannicus killed, thus eliminating a dangerous competitor [News from Guido Clemente's “Guide to Roman History”]. (4) COL•IVL/AVG (Col(onia) Iul(ia) Aug(usta). In 14 B.C., during the reign of Herod the Great, Berytus became an important Roman colony. The city was named Colonia Iulia Augusta Felix Berytus in honor of Julia the Elder, the only biological daughter of Augustus and his second wife, Scribonia. Julia was also half-sister and second wife of Emperor Tiberius, maternal grandmother of Emperor Caligula and Empress Agrippina the Younger, grandmother of Emperor Claudius, and maternal great-grandmother of Emperor Nero. The appellation “major” distinguishes her from her daughter, Julia Minor. (5) The coin's reverse recalls the first act of founding a Roman city, which consisted of drawing, using an oxen yoke, a circular furrow delineating its outermost perimeter, along which the city walls (sulcus primigenius) would later be erected. |
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