Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XIX 26-27 Mar 2020
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Carausius AR Denarius. 'RSR' mint, AD 286-293. IMP CARAVSIVS P F AVG, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right / CONCORDIA MILITVM, clasped hands; RSR below. RIC 548; RSC 24; Shiel 16-9. 3.83g, 21mm, 7h.
Good Very Fine. Very Rare.
From a private UK collection.
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.
Good Very Fine. Very Rare.
From a private UK collection.
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.