Ancient Question

DesertRat · June 14, 2007 11:40AM

No, the question I have is not ancient but rather it is a question that relates to ancient Roman coinage.

I heard mentioned during a sermon recently about how during the "Great Persecution" of Christians under Diocletian and his eastern Ceaser, Galerius (beginning in AD 303), Diocletian supposedly had coinage minted bearing the inscription "Diocletian emperor who destroyed the Christian name" or something to that effect. I can only find one google reference to this (a Catholic website) but it gives no cooborating information or point of reference to find if this is true and if such coins did exist.

Does anyone know of such a coin and if so can you point me to a reference source on it?

Thanks!

Sapyx · June 14, 2007 3:35PM

I can't say I've ever heard of such a thing. The list of Diocletian coins on Wildwinds, while far from complete or comprehensive, does show the types of things normally placed on coins of this period. I don't see any coins there with an obverse or reverse legend that translates to anything like that.

Typical coins of this ruler are more along the lines of Jupiter and/or Hercules Protector, Genius of the Roman People, Agreement with or Virtue of the Military, Victory over the Sarmatians, and so on. When he and his co-emperor Maximian retired from office, a series of coins were struck with the theme "With divine foresight, the emperors retire in peace".

If such coins existed, not many were made, and his Christian subjects (or successors) must have destroyed them all.

Aethelred · June 14, 2007 10:47PM

I have never seen such a coin, but if it did exist I would want one!

STLNATS · June 14, 2007 11:17PM

No reference to such in RIC or any other reference that I've seen. Doesn't sound right since the challenges faced by the tetrachs were substantial and varied. From the roman point of view, the persecutions of various non-official religions should be seen in the context of the attempt to standardize/reorganize as much as possible to strengthen the state/emperors in the face of these challenges.

First explicit christian reference is on the coins of Constantine as substantially later.

If the reference has a basis in fact, it might be to much later christian medal of some type.

BTW, I'd interested in the web site address to see the citation.

WillieBoyd2 · June 14, 2007 11:23PM

Ask the guy who gave the sermon:

"Show me the money!"

DesertRat · June 15, 2007 4:36AM

<< <i>No reference to such in RIC or any other reference that I've seen. Doesn't sound right since the challenges faced by the tetrachs were substantial and varied. From the roman point of view, the persecutions of various non-official religions should be seen in the context of the attempt to standardize/reorganize as much as possible to strengthen the state/emperors in the face of these challenges.

First explicit christian reference is on the coins of Constantine as substantially later.

If the reference has a basis in fact, it might be to much later christian medal of some type.

BTW, I'd interested in the web site address to see the citation. >>

This website is the only one I could find mentioning it.

Aethelred · June 15, 2007 9:45AM

I wonder if there might be a "Greek Imperial" coin with that inscription?

Sapyx · June 15, 2007 11:00AM

<< <i>I wonder if there might be a "Greek Imperial" coin with that inscription? >>

Not likely. Diocletian shut down the "Greek Imperial" series with his mint reforms very early in his reign. Only Alexandria, Egypt was left anyhow, and the designs of those were fairly monotonous - small, dumpy base-silver things with just the Emperor's name and regnal year.

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