Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XIV 21 Sep 2017
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Marcus Aurelius AV Aureus. Rome, December AD 166-167. M ANTONINVS AVG ARM PARTH MAX, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right / TR P XXI IMP IIII COS III, Victory advancing left, holding wreath in right hand and palm branch over left shoulder. RIC 174; C. 883; Calicó 1995. 7.31g, 21mm, 12h.
Fleur De Coin.
Despite later tendencies to view the reign of Marcus Aurelius as a golden age of peace and prosperity, in truth it was neither of these things. The years prior to the striking of this coinage had witnessed a successful invasion of Parthian territory that ensured peace with Parthia for many years, but the returning legionaries brought with them a terrible disease that would come to be known as the Antonine Plague, or the Plague of Galen, which may have been either smallpox or measles. This epidemic may have claimed the life of Lucius Verus, and lasted for some fifteen years. In all, some five million Romans are believed to have died from the plague, with the historian Cassius Dio recording that it had a mortality rate of about one in four, and at its height it caused up to two thousand deaths a day in Rome. As much as a third of the population of some areas was wiped out, and the Roman army too was severely depleted by the plague.
In 166 the Lombards invaded Pannonia, and though they were swiftly defeated, Dacia too was invaded, and conflict erupted on the Danube frontier with the Marcomanni tribe. 167, the year this coin was struck, saw the Marcomanni incursion win a decisive victory over a Roman army of 20,000 at Carnuntum. They proceeded to raze Opitergium and besiege Aquileia, destroying aqueducts and irrigation conduits and routing a Roman relief army; the Pax Romana that had lasted since the days of Augustus had come to an abrupt end. Vandals and Sarmatians continued their attacks against the province of Dacia, and the Costoboci invaded Moesia, Macedonia and Greece, sacking the sanctuary of Eleusis near Athens. Though the invaders would ultimately all be repulsed through Marcus Aurelius' efforts, the Romans suffered at least two serious defeats and the empire, already ravaged by the plague, was now severely weakened. On the coinage, the victory types of previous years were repeated in 167, but it would take the rest of Marcus Aurelius' life and near-constant military campaigning to re-establish a measure of stability on the empire's Germanic frontiers.
Fleur De Coin.
Despite later tendencies to view the reign of Marcus Aurelius as a golden age of peace and prosperity, in truth it was neither of these things. The years prior to the striking of this coinage had witnessed a successful invasion of Parthian territory that ensured peace with Parthia for many years, but the returning legionaries brought with them a terrible disease that would come to be known as the Antonine Plague, or the Plague of Galen, which may have been either smallpox or measles. This epidemic may have claimed the life of Lucius Verus, and lasted for some fifteen years. In all, some five million Romans are believed to have died from the plague, with the historian Cassius Dio recording that it had a mortality rate of about one in four, and at its height it caused up to two thousand deaths a day in Rome. As much as a third of the population of some areas was wiped out, and the Roman army too was severely depleted by the plague.
In 166 the Lombards invaded Pannonia, and though they were swiftly defeated, Dacia too was invaded, and conflict erupted on the Danube frontier with the Marcomanni tribe. 167, the year this coin was struck, saw the Marcomanni incursion win a decisive victory over a Roman army of 20,000 at Carnuntum. They proceeded to raze Opitergium and besiege Aquileia, destroying aqueducts and irrigation conduits and routing a Roman relief army; the Pax Romana that had lasted since the days of Augustus had come to an abrupt end. Vandals and Sarmatians continued their attacks against the province of Dacia, and the Costoboci invaded Moesia, Macedonia and Greece, sacking the sanctuary of Eleusis near Athens. Though the invaders would ultimately all be repulsed through Marcus Aurelius' efforts, the Romans suffered at least two serious defeats and the empire, already ravaged by the plague, was now severely weakened. On the coinage, the victory types of previous years were repeated in 167, but it would take the rest of Marcus Aurelius' life and near-constant military campaigning to re-establish a measure of stability on the empire's Germanic frontiers.