Base AR Antoninianus of Emperor Valerian

While there was only a handful of good emperors throughout the whole of the Third Century, I've recently gotten interested in the Crisis of that century. The father-and-son pair of emperors, Valerian and Gallienus, present interesting areas of study. Valerian's capture and imprisonment by the Persians marks perhaps the low point of the whole of the Roman Empire's history. His son, on the other hand, facing terrible odds, held on, won a series of impressive victories against the Germans while aggressively going after breakaway usurpers, and kept the empire from completely going under.

Valerian doesn't rank high on my personal list of emperors. In fact, besides being captured by Shapur I, he's best known for his particularly nasty persecutions of the Christians. Yet, he seems to have been fairly competent (his capture notwithstanding) and appears to have been something of a reformer of the empire's woes. Foreshadowing Diocletian, Valerian split the empire's administration in two, sharing responsibility for running the empire with his son Gallienus. So I decided to pick up a coin of Valerian, the base silver antoninianus shown below. Most of Valerian's coinage in my price range is crude and wholly unimpressive, but this coin is wonderful. The legends are clearly readable, the portrait is crisp and expressive, the reverse image still carries good detail, and it feels great in the hand.

In the administrative division, Gallienus received the west, while Valerian took charge of the east. The coin's reverse image is of a female figure of the Orient handing a wreath to Valerian; the legend reads RESTITVT ORIENTIS. It probably refers to Valerian's victories in the east in 253/254 AD, when he suppressed the usurpation of Uranius Antoninus and recaptured Antioch from the Persians. I find it wonderfully ironic that Valerian wished to portray himself as the "Restorer of the East" when he'd eventually become infamous in posterity for being captured and imprisoned by the Persian king Shapur I - which, mind you, threw the east into chaos.

The obverse features a great radiate, draped and cuirassed bust of Valerian facing right; the legend reads IMP C P LIC VALERIANVS P F AVG. The coin was struck sometime around 254 AD at an Asian mint, probably Antioch or Samosata. Reference is RIC 287. Weight is 4.05g.







Technorati Tags: Crisis of the Third Century, Valerian, Gallienus, Roman history, numismatics

Air America's Randi Rhodes Suspended for Tirade

I wonder what this does to Randi Rhodes's feminist credentials:




Probably nothing, since it's a well-known secret that identity politics has little to do with "identity" and everything to do with "ideology." In my opinion, it's just one of many inherent contradictions in the modern liberal worldview.

In any event, can the Democratic primary get any uglier? It makes for great entertainment, does it not?

Technorati Tags: Randi Rhodes, Air America

Ancient Coin Collecting Advice

For all you newbies out there. Nice convo shaping up, from the guys (and gals, too) at the Forvm Discussion Board.

Technorati Tags: numismatics

No Lie Too Big

Jake Tapper of ABC News provides the laughter for the day, reporting that Bill Clinton claims that Hillary had once tried to enlist in the U.S. Army:

Possibly to avoid being one-upped on Indiana national security politics, former President Bill Clinton told a crowd in Columbus, Indiana, today that his wife had tried to join the Army. ...

"I remember when we were young, right out of law school, she went down and tried to join the Army and they said 'Your eyes are so bad, nobody will take you,'" he said, after heralding her record on issues of concern to the military, such as body armor and access to health care.

Hillary's own version, told once in 1994, is that it was the Marines she tried to enlist in.

Whether Bill's version, or Hillary's version, the Army, or the Marines, the idea that an anti-Vietnam War hardcore McGovernite fresh out of Yale Law School who's husband had dodged the draft would even consider enlisting in the military in the Vietnam era is absolutely ridiculous.

But, fortunately for the Clintons, no lie is too ridiculous to tell...

Technorati Tags: Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Jake Tapper

Numismatic Carnival!

Nathan at Curator and Collector has the second Numismatic Carnival up.

Technorati Tags: numismatics

Ancient Septimius Severus Counterfeit Denarius

This is an interesting little coin I picked up on the cheap. It's an ancient counterfeit denarius of Septimius Severus. As a counterfeit, it's made of copper or bronze, not silver. Yet, it was meant to circulate as an original. It was once washed with a silver coating to make it appear more realistic.

The coin was probably produced at the limes, the frontiers of the Roman Empire. As it was with the American frontier of the west, things were a bit looser in the Empire's frontier areas, and coins like this were often produced for trade with various barbarian tribes. These types of counterfeits were made by casting a true coin and then washing it with silver.

The coin measures 16mm in diameter and, though it's not uncommon to find true Severus denarii weighing under 3 grams, this specimen weighs in far below at 2.42 grams. The obverse features a laureate portrait facing right of Septimius Severus with the legend IMP CAE L SEP SEV PERT AVG COS II. The reverse image is of Victory advancing left, holding a trophy and a wreath; the legend reads VICT AVG. It's probably based on a coin struck in 194 AD at, I think, Emesa, commemorating Severus's victory over Niger.

Technorati Tags: Septimius Severus, Roman military history, numismatics

Political Commentary In Lieu of More Coin Posts

I've been a bit lazy uploading some of my new coins (an antoninianus of Valerian, an ancient counterfeit Septimius Severus denarius, etc.) so you're stuck with some political commentary for the time being. Fortunately, Jake Tapper reports that a Democratic Party official refers to Hillary Clinton's desire to win the presidential nomination at all costs as the "Tonya Harding Option":

The delegate math is difficult for Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, the official said. But it's not a question of CAN she achieve it. Of course she can, the official said.

The question is -- what will Clinton have to do in order to achieve it?

What will she have to do to Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, in order to eke out her improbable victory?

She will have to "break his back," the official said. She will have to destroy Obama, make Obama completely unacceptable.

"Her securing the nomination is certainly possible - but it will require exercising the 'Tonya Harding option.'" the official said. "Is that really what we Democrats want?"

Whether or not Hillary really would do this (and I have no doubt she would) notwithstanding, what does it say about American politics that we read about and write about this sort of stuff -- a politician so viciously, so brazenly, and so obviously out to destroy her opponent in the same party -- without so much as batting an eyelash? So much of the Clinton baggage is accepted prima facie. Who could vote for someone like that in the general election?

Though I don't think it'll destroy the Democratic Party, I think what we're seeing is the destruction of the Democratic Party's chances for the White House in November 2008. To borrow a phrase from Barack Obama's outrageously racist minister, Jeremiah Wright, the Democratic Party's "chickens are coming home to roost." You live by identity politics, sooner or later you're going to die by identity politics...

Technorati Tags: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Democrats, Jeremiah Wright