Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XVI 26 Sep 2018
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Carausius AR Denarius. London, circa AD 289-290. IMP CARAVSIVS P F AVG, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right / VIRTVS SAEC C, radiate lion walking to left with thunderbolt held in mouth; RSR in exergue. PAS HAMP-2E6A12 (this coin); RIC -, cf. 591-2 for type with different rev. legend; Shiel -; Webb -; RSC -; cf. PAS BM-B49CF4 (obv. bust type var.) = Timeline Auctions, 30 May 2015, lot 2221 (sold for £17,360). 3.66g, 22mm, 7h.
Good Extremely Fine; attractive original tone, as excavated. One of the very finest denarii of Carausius in private hands. Unique.
Found in the parish of Itchen Stoke and Ovington near Winchester, Hampshire, United Kingdom, on Sunday 5 November 2017 and registered with the Portable Antiquities Scheme: HAMP-2E6A12.
When Carausius settled in Britain in 286 the Roman currency was in a degenerate state, made up almost exclusively of base-metal issues; he saw an opportunity to use the platform of coinage as a means to present himself, his regime and his new ideology for the breakaway 'British Empire', and gold and silver issues superior to those made by the legitimate empire were the principal manifestation of his traditional standards and virtues.
It is in the exergual mark of RSR that Carausius' use of classical allusion as propaganda can be seen: G. de la Bédoyère, in his paper for the Numismatic Chronicle (158, 1998, 79-88), made a strong case for a Virgilian reading of the RSR mark, based on its use on a bronze medallion of Carausius (BM 1972-7-17-1), very similar in style to a second bronze medallion with the exergual mark of INPCDA (BM 1967 9-1-1), and the reverse legend employed by Carausius of EXPECTATE VENI, 'Come, long awaited one' (cf. RIC 554-8, 439-40 and Aeneid ii, 283), which usually appears on the silver coinage. He suggests that the RSR mark is an abbreviation of "redeunt Saturnia regna" (the Saturnian kingdoms return), from Virgil's Eclogues IV, from which the following line is "iam nova progenies caelo demittitur alto" (INPCDA, now a generation is let down from heaven above).
Virgil's Eclogues text is entirely appropriate for the image that Carausius was trying to promote of the 'British Empire' as a haven of traditional Roman values, and the Saturnian age was a commonly used theme of Roman literature to symbolise a lost paradise, both of which are employed here to legitimise Carausius' rule and appeal to the Romano-British inhabitants of his new empire to support him in his desire to uphold the Roman ideal.
The device of a lion bearing a thunderbolt currently defies logical explanation. As a type, it was previously used under the emperors Caracalla, Philip I, Aurelian and Probus who all variously claimed mastery over the East, however in the context of Carausius' reign its significance cannot be the same unless we allow for gross hubris on Carausius' part, having 'defeated' an invasion fleet of Maximianus' in 289 (a panegyric delivered to Constantius Chlorus attributes this failure to bad weather, but notes that Carausius claimed a military victory). The type may be in reference to one of Carausius' military units, Legio IIII Flavia Felix (or a detachment thereof), whose lion insignia was depicted on other contemporary issues.
Good Extremely Fine; attractive original tone, as excavated. One of the very finest denarii of Carausius in private hands. Unique.
Found in the parish of Itchen Stoke and Ovington near Winchester, Hampshire, United Kingdom, on Sunday 5 November 2017 and registered with the Portable Antiquities Scheme: HAMP-2E6A12.
When Carausius settled in Britain in 286 the Roman currency was in a degenerate state, made up almost exclusively of base-metal issues; he saw an opportunity to use the platform of coinage as a means to present himself, his regime and his new ideology for the breakaway 'British Empire', and gold and silver issues superior to those made by the legitimate empire were the principal manifestation of his traditional standards and virtues.
It is in the exergual mark of RSR that Carausius' use of classical allusion as propaganda can be seen: G. de la Bédoyère, in his paper for the Numismatic Chronicle (158, 1998, 79-88), made a strong case for a Virgilian reading of the RSR mark, based on its use on a bronze medallion of Carausius (BM 1972-7-17-1), very similar in style to a second bronze medallion with the exergual mark of INPCDA (BM 1967 9-1-1), and the reverse legend employed by Carausius of EXPECTATE VENI, 'Come, long awaited one' (cf. RIC 554-8, 439-40 and Aeneid ii, 283), which usually appears on the silver coinage. He suggests that the RSR mark is an abbreviation of "redeunt Saturnia regna" (the Saturnian kingdoms return), from Virgil's Eclogues IV, from which the following line is "iam nova progenies caelo demittitur alto" (INPCDA, now a generation is let down from heaven above).
Virgil's Eclogues text is entirely appropriate for the image that Carausius was trying to promote of the 'British Empire' as a haven of traditional Roman values, and the Saturnian age was a commonly used theme of Roman literature to symbolise a lost paradise, both of which are employed here to legitimise Carausius' rule and appeal to the Romano-British inhabitants of his new empire to support him in his desire to uphold the Roman ideal.
The device of a lion bearing a thunderbolt currently defies logical explanation. As a type, it was previously used under the emperors Caracalla, Philip I, Aurelian and Probus who all variously claimed mastery over the East, however in the context of Carausius' reign its significance cannot be the same unless we allow for gross hubris on Carausius' part, having 'defeated' an invasion fleet of Maximianus' in 289 (a panegyric delivered to Constantius Chlorus attributes this failure to bad weather, but notes that Carausius claimed a military victory). The type may be in reference to one of Carausius' military units, Legio IIII Flavia Felix (or a detachment thereof), whose lion insignia was depicted on other contemporary issues.