Another New Roman - Philip the Arab

Aethelred

The following coin was minted during reign of Philip the Arab. Philip was the son of a Arabian chieftain who was also a Roman citizen and upon becoming an adult he joined the Roman army where he quickly rose through the ranks. By the end of the reign of Gordian III (who I will talk about in a future post) he was placed in charge of a campaign against the Persians where by design or accident he found himself proclaimed emperor by the Legions. He quickly returned to Rome and was there proclaimed emperor by the senate and settled into a happy and peaceful period that lasted for about 3 minutes. The empire was invaded by Dacians and Germans and revolts broke out in Syria, Cappadocia and Moesia. The general Trajan Decius was sent to Moesia to deal with the revolt there.

While all of this was going on the 1000th anniversary of the founding of Rome took place and Philip staged a celebration that included games, spectacles and demonstrations of every kind. Soon afterwards the Legions proclaimed Decius emperor and he marched on Italia to meet Philip and settle the matter. Philip offered to resign as emperor, but the senate still supported him and refused to accept his resignation. Philip met Decius in battle in AD 249 and was killed after a reign of five years.

The following coin was minted in Rome from AD 244-247, it is a silver Antoninianus (double Denarius) listed as RIC IV 28c. The coin is much nicer in person than the photo would suggest as it retains considerable luster.


Photograph courtesy of the seller.

JCMhouston

That looks very nice, congrats.

lordmarcovan

That's a really broad flan. Congrats- nice coin. The silver ants of this period sure do pack a lot of bang for the buck.



I was thinking that looked sort of like the one in my old 2007-08 collection so I went back to look. Turns out I had two different Philip I ants- I must have upgraded at some point.

asheland

I like it!

Jackthecat1

A great coin and bonus history lesson.