Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XXII 7-8 Oct 2021
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Aurelian AV Binio (Double Aureus). Siscia, autumn 274 - spring 275. IMP C AVRELIANVS AVG, radiate and cuirassed bust to right / ORIENS AVG, radiate Sol standing facing, head to left, holding globe and raising right hand; IL in exergue. RIC V.1 18 (Rome) & 188 (Siscia); MER-RIC 2345 (temporary) = BN 887 = Estiot 150a = MIR 218b (same obv. die); C. 138; Calicó 4015. 6.47g, 23mm, 1h.
Mint State; hairline scratches in fields, otherwise highly lustrous and attractive.
From a private UK collection;
Ex Gorny & Mosch Giessener Münzhandlung, Auction 265, 14 October 2019, lot 1500.
Aurelian is best known as the emperor who brought an end to the so-called Crisis of the Third Century, a period characterised by loss of empire and frequent usurpations of the imperial throne.
In AD 272, Aurelian turned his attention to the lost eastern provinces of the empire, the so-called Palmyrene Empire ruled by Queen Zenobia, which encompassed Syria, Palestine, Egypt and large parts of Asia Minor. Despite a pragmatic acknowledgement of Zenobia and Vabalathus at the beginning of his reign, and having granted them both the titles they craved, Aurelian's driving ambition was to reunify and secure the sundered parts of the Roman empire.
Marching east, Asia Minor was recovered with minimal resistance. Every city but Byzantium and Tyana surrendered quickly, and having spared Tyana from sack and despoliation supposedly because Apollonius of Tyana (a first century philosopher whom he greatly admired) appeared to him in a dream and implored him to mercy, many more cities submitted peacefully knowing that they would be treated leniently. Within six months, Aurelian stood at the gates of Palmyra. Zenobia was captured while attempting to flee, and paraded in golden chains in Aurelian's triumph in Rome. The recovery of Egypt by the future emperor Probus and a return to Palmyra to deal with a Palmyrene rebel named Antiochus finally secured the eastern provinces. Aurelian was given the title of 'Restitutor Orientis' (Restorer of the East) by the Senate.
Sol, a god deeply associated with the East as the location of the rising sun, was particularly celebrated in this part of the empire. Aurelian himself actively promoted Sol as his patron deity and attempted to secure the deity's primacy over the Roman pantheon, introducing the cult of Sol into the army, restoring the Temple of Sol at Palmyra after his victory, and dedicating a new Temple of Sol at Rome with the establishment of a new priestly college for the worship of Sol. This connection between sun-god and emperor is emphasised by the depiction of both emperor and Sol radiate, while the reverse legend ORIENS AVG (the rising Sun of the Emperor) seeks to equate the two while reflecting Aurelian's own trajectory as an ascendant emperor from out of the chaos of the mid-third century and the new dawn which his military conquests, monetary reforms and amnesties promised. Boundaries between human and divine were certainly blurred by this association: Aurelian is the first emperor for whom the title 'dominus et deus', originally demanded by Domitian, occurred in written form on official documents, helping to pave the way for the dominate system of government that would come into being less than a decade after Aurelian's death.
Aurelian would in 274 be bestowed with the title of 'Restitutor Orbis' (Restorer of the World) by the Senate when he brought the breakaway Gallic provinces back into the fold, thus reunifying the empire, and in 275 he was preparing another campaign against the Sassanids. The deaths of Shapur I and Hormizd I in quick succession (272 and 273 respectively), and the rise to power of a weaker ruler (Bahram I), set the conditions for an invasion of the Sassanid Empire. Aurelian however never reached Asia Minor. He was assassinated by officers of the Praetorian guard who had been tricked by one of the emperor's secretaries into believing Aurelius had ordered their executions. Zosimus tells us the secretary's name was Eros, and that he feared punishment because he had told a lie on a minor issue. Thus perished one of the most competent and promising emperors of the age.
Mint State; hairline scratches in fields, otherwise highly lustrous and attractive.
From a private UK collection;
Ex Gorny & Mosch Giessener Münzhandlung, Auction 265, 14 October 2019, lot 1500.
Aurelian is best known as the emperor who brought an end to the so-called Crisis of the Third Century, a period characterised by loss of empire and frequent usurpations of the imperial throne.
In AD 272, Aurelian turned his attention to the lost eastern provinces of the empire, the so-called Palmyrene Empire ruled by Queen Zenobia, which encompassed Syria, Palestine, Egypt and large parts of Asia Minor. Despite a pragmatic acknowledgement of Zenobia and Vabalathus at the beginning of his reign, and having granted them both the titles they craved, Aurelian's driving ambition was to reunify and secure the sundered parts of the Roman empire.
Marching east, Asia Minor was recovered with minimal resistance. Every city but Byzantium and Tyana surrendered quickly, and having spared Tyana from sack and despoliation supposedly because Apollonius of Tyana (a first century philosopher whom he greatly admired) appeared to him in a dream and implored him to mercy, many more cities submitted peacefully knowing that they would be treated leniently. Within six months, Aurelian stood at the gates of Palmyra. Zenobia was captured while attempting to flee, and paraded in golden chains in Aurelian's triumph in Rome. The recovery of Egypt by the future emperor Probus and a return to Palmyra to deal with a Palmyrene rebel named Antiochus finally secured the eastern provinces. Aurelian was given the title of 'Restitutor Orientis' (Restorer of the East) by the Senate.
Sol, a god deeply associated with the East as the location of the rising sun, was particularly celebrated in this part of the empire. Aurelian himself actively promoted Sol as his patron deity and attempted to secure the deity's primacy over the Roman pantheon, introducing the cult of Sol into the army, restoring the Temple of Sol at Palmyra after his victory, and dedicating a new Temple of Sol at Rome with the establishment of a new priestly college for the worship of Sol. This connection between sun-god and emperor is emphasised by the depiction of both emperor and Sol radiate, while the reverse legend ORIENS AVG (the rising Sun of the Emperor) seeks to equate the two while reflecting Aurelian's own trajectory as an ascendant emperor from out of the chaos of the mid-third century and the new dawn which his military conquests, monetary reforms and amnesties promised. Boundaries between human and divine were certainly blurred by this association: Aurelian is the first emperor for whom the title 'dominus et deus', originally demanded by Domitian, occurred in written form on official documents, helping to pave the way for the dominate system of government that would come into being less than a decade after Aurelian's death.
Aurelian would in 274 be bestowed with the title of 'Restitutor Orbis' (Restorer of the World) by the Senate when he brought the breakaway Gallic provinces back into the fold, thus reunifying the empire, and in 275 he was preparing another campaign against the Sassanids. The deaths of Shapur I and Hormizd I in quick succession (272 and 273 respectively), and the rise to power of a weaker ruler (Bahram I), set the conditions for an invasion of the Sassanid Empire. Aurelian however never reached Asia Minor. He was assassinated by officers of the Praetorian guard who had been tricked by one of the emperor's secretaries into believing Aurelius had ordered their executions. Zosimus tells us the secretary's name was Eros, and that he feared punishment because he had told a lie on a minor issue. Thus perished one of the most competent and promising emperors of the age.