12/30/2023 0 Comments Aurelian coin restitutor orbis![]() Restitutor had appeared on imperial coinage from the Flavian period on, and had enjoyed a particular prominence under the Antonine emperors, with Hadrian in particular heralded as the “restorer” of several provinces (see Hadrian, Roman soldiers and Asia). However, the most important and symbolic attestations are given after these traditional military and magisterial honours, when Aurelian is described as “restorer of the world, the most brave and most victorious princeps” ( restitutor orbis / fortissimus et victoriosissimus / princeps). Aurelian is commemorated in the inscription with a list of honorific titles, including those that recognised his military successes in particular places – Gothicus Maximus, Germanicus Maximus, Parthicus Maximus, Carpicus Maximus – and the traditional magisterial offices of consul, proconsul, imperator and Augustus. Zur Devotionsformel in Weihinschriften der römischen Kaiserzeit,” p. 128-150). The dedication was made to the “divine spirit and majesty” of the emperor ( devotus numini maiestatique eius), which had been enshrined within the imperial cult and its practices since the dedication of Tiberius’s Ara Numinis Augusti (the Altar of the divine spirit of Augustus) (Fishwick, The Imperial Cult in the Latin West, II.1, p. 388 for the formula devotus numina maiesatique eius – which is a new innovation in the early third century CE, see Gundel, “Devotus numina maistatique eius. The text was dedicated by one Virius Orfitus, a member of the Senate (as indicated by his status as vir clarissimus) and “Prefect of the City” ( praefectus Urbi) – the most powerful magistracy after that of the emperor. It is this “restoration” of order to the empire as a whole that is celebrated in this inscription. Subsequent uprisings of the northern tribes, including the Alamanni, led to further military incursions in the same year, including the invasion of Milan by the Jugunthi, but Aurelian was able to conclude this at least temporarily, and focus on Rome’s greatest areas of weakness, namely the loss of Palmyra and the provinces that now formed the ‘Gallic’ Empire the restoration of these regions to Roman control was to prove his greatest achievement, and the foundation upon which the Tetrarchy were later able to base their own consolidation of the empire. ![]() Having concluded his campaign with the Jugunthi and Vandals in Raetia and established a temporary peace, he left for Rome, managing en route to put down the rival claims and usurpations of Septiminus, Domitianus and Urbanus, meaning that any challenge to his rule had potentially been identified and eradicated by the time he arrived in the capital in 271 CE (Southern, The Roman Empire from Severus to Constantine, p. 112-113). Already one of the most important military officers in Claudius’s entourage, Aurelian was proclaimed emperor by the troops, although the exact circumstances – including the date – that led to his accession remain as unclear as the earlier details of his life (see Southern, The Roman Empire from Severus to Constantine, p. 110-114 Watson, Aurelian and the Third Century, p. 1-10 the career recorded in the Historia Augusta, Life of Aurelian 5-15 has been dismissed as fictitious). ![]() Aurelian had come to power in 270 CE little is known of his cursus honorum before this date, other than that he had had a successful military career and was engaged in a campaign against the Jugunthi and Vandals when the emperor Claudius II Gothicus died. ![]()
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