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Trajan Decius
–
Roman Emperor: 249-251 A.D. –
Bronze ‘Sestertius’ 28mm (18.16 grams) of the province of
Dacia
, struck circa 251 A.D.
Reference: RIC 101b; sear5 #9398; Cohen 22.
IMP CAES C MESS Q DECIO TRAI AVG – laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right
DACIA S-C, Dacia standing left holding draco standard, or staff surmounted
by
a donkey’s head.
This local era for Dacia begins in 246 AD, the year Philip expelled barbarian
invaders from the province.
The lion and the eagle were the emblems of the
legions stationed in the province.
You are bidding on the exact item pictured,
provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of
Authenticity.
In ancient geography, especially in
Roman
sources,
Dacia
was the land inhabited by the
Dacians
and
Getae
– the North-Danubian branches of the
Thracians
. Dacia had in the middle the
Carpathian Mountains
and was bounded
approximately by the
Danubius
river, in Greek sources Istros
(the Danube
) or, at its greatest extent, by the
Haemus Mons
(the
Balkan Mountains
) to the south–Moesia
(Dobrogea),
a region south of the Danube, was a core area where the Getae lived and
interacted with the Ancient Greeks–Pontus
Euxinus (the
Black Sea
) and river Danastris, in Greek
sources Tyras (the
Dniester
) to the east (but several Dacian
settlements are recorded in part of area between Dniester and Hypanis
river (the Bug
), and
Tisia
(the
Tisza
) to the west (but at times included areas
between Tisza and middle Danube). It thus corresponds to modern countries of
Romania
and
Moldova
, as well as smaller parts of
Bulgaria
,
Serbia
,
Hungary
, and
Ukraine
.
Dacians and Getae were North
Thracian
tribes. Dacian tribes had both
peaceful and military encounters with other neighboring tribes, such as
Celts
,
Ancient Germanics
,
Sarmatians
, and
Scythians
, but were most influenced by the
Ancient Greeks and
Romans
. The latter eventually conquered, and
linguistically and culturally assimilated the Dacians. A Dacian Kingdom of
variable size existed between 82 B.C. until the Roman conquest in 106 A.D. The
capital of Dacia,
Sarmizegetusa
, located in modern Romania, was
destroyed by the Romans, but its name was added to that of the new city (Ulpia
Traiana Sarmizegetusa) built by the latter to serve as the capital of the
Roman province of Dacia
.
Gaius Messius Quintus Decius (ca. 201- June 251) was
the
Emperor of Rome
from 249 to 251. In the last year of his reign, he co-ruled
with his son
Herennius Etruscus
until both of them were killed in the
Battle of Abrittus
.
//
 Early
life and rise to power
Decius, who was born at
Budalia
, now
Martinci
,
Serbia
near
Sirmium
(Sremska
Mitrovica), in
Lower Pannonia
was one of the first among a long succession of future Roman
Emperors to originate from the provinces of
Illyria
in
the Danube.
Unlike some of his immediate imperial predecessors such as Philip the Arab or
Maximinus
, Decius was a distinguished senator who had served as
consul
in 232,
had been governor of
Moesia
and
Germania Inferior
soon afterwards, served as governor of
Hispania Tarraconensis
between 235-238, and was
urban prefect
of Rome during the early reign of Emperor
Philip the Arab
(Marcus Iulius Phillipus).
Around 245, Emperor Philip entrusted Decius with an important
command on the Danube
. By the end of 248 or 249, Decius was sent to quell the revolt of
Pacatianus
and his troops in Moesia and Pannonia[3];
the soldiers were enraged because of the peace treaty signed between Philip and
the
Sassanids
. Once arrived, the troops forced Decius to assume the imperial
dignity himself instead. Decius still protested his loyalty to Philip, but the
latter advanced against him and was killed near
Verona
,
Italy
. The
Senate
then recognized Decius as Emperor, giving him the attribute Traianus as a
reference to the good emperor
Trajan
. As the
Byzantine historian
Zosimus
later
noted:
Decius was therefore clothed in purple and forced to
undertake the [burdens of] government, despite his reluctance and
unwillingness.
Political
and monumental initiatives
Decius’ political program was focused on the restoration of
the strength of the State, both military opposing the external threats, and
restoring the public piety
with a program of renovation of the
State religion
.
Either as a concession to the Senate, or perhaps with the
idea of improving public morality, Decius endeavoured to revive the separate
office and authority of the
censor
. The choice was left to the Senate, who unanimously selected
Valerian
(afterwards emperor). But Valerian, well aware of the dangers and
difficulties attaching to the office at such a time, declined the
responsibility. The invasion of the
Goths
and Decius’ death put an end to the abortive attempt.
During his reign, he proceeded to construct several building
projects in Rome “including the Thermae Deciane or Baths of Decius on the
Aventine” which was completed in 252 and still survived through to the
16th
century
; Decius also acted to repair the Colosseum, which had been damaged
by lightning strikes.
Persecution
of Christians
In January 250, Decius issued an edict for the suppression of
Christianity
. The edict itself was fairly clear:
All the inhabitants of the empire were required to
sacrifice before the magistrates of their community ‘for the safety of the
empire’ by a certain day (the date would vary from place to place and the
order may have been that the sacrifice had to be completed within a
specified period after a community received the edict). When they sacrificed
they would obtain a certificate (libellus) recording the fact that they had
complied with the order.
While Decius himself may have intended the edict as a way to
reaffirm his conservative vision of the Pax Romana and to reassure Rome’s
citizens that the empire was still secure, it nevertheless sparked a “terrible
crisis of authority as various [Christian] bishops and their flocks reacted to
it in different ways.” Measures were first taken demanding that the bishops
and officers of the church make a sacrifice for the Emperor,
a matter of an oath of allegiance that Christians considered offensive.
Certificates were issued to those who satisfied the
pagan
commissioners during the persecution of Christians under Decius. Forty-six such
certificates have been published, all dating from 250, four of them from
Oxyrhynchus
.
Christian followers who refused to offer a pagan sacrifice for the Emperor and
the Empire’s well-being by a specified date risked torture and execution.
A number of prominent Christians did, in fact, refuse to make a sacrifice and
were killed in the process including
Pope
Fabian
himself in 250 and “anti-Christian feeling[s] led to pogroms at
Carthage and Alexandria.”
In reality, however, towards the end of the second year of Decius’ reign, “the
ferocity of the [anti-Christian] persecution had eased off, and the earlier
tradition of tolerance had begun to reassert itself.”
The Christian church though never forgot the reign of Decius whom they labelled
as that “fierce tyrant”.
At this time, there was a second outbreak of the
Antonine Plague
, which at its height in 251 to 266 took the lives of 5,000 a
day in Rome. This outbreak is referred to as the “Plague of
Cyprian
” (the
bishop of Carthage
), where both the plague and the
persecution of Christians
were especially severe. Cyprian’s biographer
Pontius
gave a vivid picture of the demoralizing effects of the plague
and Cyprian moralized the event in his essay De mortalitate. In Carthage
the “Decian persecution” unleashed at the onset of the plague sought out
Christian scapegoats. Decius’ edicts were renewed under Valerius in 253 and
repealed under his son,
Gallienus
,
in 260-1.
Military
actions and death
The
barbarian
incursions into the Empire were becoming more and more daring and frequent
whereas the Empire was facing a serious economic crisis in Decius’ time. During
his brief reign, Decius engaged in important operations against the
Goths
, who
crossed the Danube to raid districts of Moesia and
Thrace
. This is
the first considerable occasion the Goths — who would later come to play such an
important role — appear in the historical record. The Goths under King
Cniva
were
surprised by the emperor while besieging
Nicopolis
on the Danube; the Goths fled through the difficult terrain of the
Balkans
, but
then doubled back and surprised the Romans near Beroë (modern
Stara
Zagora
), sacking their camp and dispersing the Roman troops. It was the
first time a Roman emperor fled in the face of Barbarians. The Goths then moved
to
Philippopolis attack
(modern
Plovdiv
),
which fell into their hands. The governor of Thrace,
Titus Julius Priscus
, declared himself Emperor under Gothic protection in
opposition to Decius but Priscus’s challenge was rendered moot when he was
killed soon afterwards.
The siege of Philippopolis had so exhausted the numbers and
resources of the Goths that they offered to surrender their treasure and
prisoners, on condition of being allowed to retire.[
neededcitation] Decius, who had succeeded in surrounding them and hoped to
cut off their retreat, refused to entertain their proposals. The final
engagement, in which the Goths fought with the courage of despair, under the
command of Cniva, took place during the second week of June 251 on swampy ground
in the Ludogorie
(region in northeastern Bulgaria which merges with Dobruja plateau
and the Danube Plain to the north) near the small settlement of Abrittus or
Forum Terebronii (modern
Razgrad
): see
Battle of Abrittus
.
Jordanes
records that Decius’ son
Herennius Etruscus
was killed by an arrow early in the battle, and to cheer
his men Decius exclaimed, “Let no one mourn; the death of one soldier is not a
great loss to the republic.” Nevertheless, Decius’ army was entangled in the
swamp and annihilated in this battle, while he himself was killed on the field
of battle.
As the historian
Aurelius Victor
relates:
The Decii (ie. Decius), while pursuing the
barbarians across the Danube, died through treachery at Abrittus after
reigning two years….Very many report that the son had fallen in battle
while pressing an attack too boldly; that the father however, has
strenuously asserted that the loss of one soldier seemed to him too little
to matter. And so he resumed the war and died in a similar manner while
fighting vigorously.
One literary tradition claims that Decius was betrayed by his
successor
Trebonianus Gallus
, who was involved in a secret alliance with the Goths but
this cannot be substantiated and was most likely a later invention since Gallus
felt compelled to adopt Decius’ younger son, Gaius Valens Hostilianus, as joint
emperor even though the latter was too young to rule in his own right.
It is also unlikely that the shattered Roman legions would proclaim as emperor a
traitor who was responsible for the loss of so many soldiers from their ranks.
Decius was the first Roman emperor to die in battle against a foreign enemy
The sestertius, or sesterce, (pl. sestertii) was an
ancient Roman
coin. During the
Roman Republic
it was a small,
silver
coin issued only on rare occasions.
During the
Roman Empire
it was a large
brass
coin.
Helmed Roma head right, IIS behind
Dioscuri
riding right, ROMA in linear frame
below. RSC4, C44/7, BMC13.
The name sestertius (originally semis-tertius) means “2 ½”, the
coin’s original value in
asses
, and is a combination of semis
“half” and tertius “third”, that is, “the third half” (0 ½ being the
first half and 1 ½ the second half) or “half the third” (two units
plus half the third unit, or halfway between the second unit and
the third). Parallel constructions exist in
Danish
with halvanden (1 ½),
halvtredje (2 ½) and halvfjerde (3 ½). The form sesterce,
derived from
French
, was once used in preference to the
Latin form, but is now considered old-fashioned.
It is abbreviated as (originally IIS).
Example of a detailed portrait of
Hadrian
117 to 138
History
The sestertius was introduced c. 211 BC as a small
silver
coin valued at one-quarter of a
denarius
(and thus one hundredth of an
aureus
). A silver denarius was supposed to
weigh about 4.5 grams, valued at ten grams, with the silver sestertius valued at
two and one-half grams. In practice, the coins were usually underweight.
When the denarius was retariffed to sixteen asses (due to the gradual
reduction in the size of bronze denominations), the sestertius was accordingly
revalued to four asses, still equal to one quarter of a denarius. It was
produced sporadically, far less often than the denarius, through 44 BC.
Hostilian
under
Trajan Decius
250 AD
In or about 23 BC, with the coinage reform of
Augustus
, the denomination of sestertius was
introduced as the large brass denomination. Augustus tariffed the value of the
sestertius as 1/100 Aureus
. The sestertius was produced as the
largest brass
denomination until the late 3rd century
AD. Most were struck in the mint of
Rome but from AD 64 during the reign of
Nero (AD 54–68) and
Vespasian
(AD 69–79), the mint of
Lyon (Lugdunum), supplemented production. Lyon sestertii can
be recognised by a small globe, or legend stop), beneath the bust.[citation
needed]
The brass sestertius typically weighs in the region of 25 to 28 grammes, is
around 32–34 mm in diameter and about 4 mm thick. The distinction between
bronze
and brass was important to the Romans.
Their name for brass
was
orichalcum
, a word sometimes also spelled
aurichalcum (echoing the word for a gold coin, aureus), meaning
‘gold-copper’, because of its shiny, gold-like appearance when the coins were
newly struck (see, for example
Pliny the Elder
in his Natural History
Book 34.4).
Orichalcum
was considered, by weight, to be
worth about double that of bronze. This is why the half-sestertius, the
dupondius
, was around the same size and weight
as the bronze as, but was worth two asses.
Sestertii continued to be struck until the late 3rd century, although there
was a marked deterioration in the quality of the metal used and the striking
even though portraiture remained strong. Later emperors increasingly relied on
melting down older sestertii, a process which led to the zinc component being
gradually lost as it burned off in the high temperatures needed to melt copper (Zinc
melts at 419 °C, Copper
at 1085 °C). The shortfall was made up
with bronze and even lead. Later sestertii tend to be darker in appearance as a
result and are made from more crudely prepared blanks (see the
Hostilian
coin on this page).
The gradual impact of
inflation
caused by
debasement
of the silver currency meant that
the purchasing power of the sestertius and smaller denominations like the
dupondius and as was steadily reduced. In the 1st century AD, everyday small
change was dominated by the dupondius and as, but in the 2nd century, as
inflation bit, the sestertius became the dominant small change. In the 3rd
century silver coinage contained less and less silver, and more and more copper
or bronze. By the 260s and 270s the main unit was the double-denarius, the
antoninianus
, but by then these small coins
were almost all bronze. Although these coins were theoretically worth eight
sestertii, the average sestertius was worth far more in plain terms of the metal
they contained.
Some of the last sestertii were struck by
Aurelian
(270–275 AD). During the end of its
issue, when sestertii were reduced in size and quality, the
double sestertius
was issued first by
Trajan Decius
(249–251 AD) and later in large
quantity by the ruler of a breakaway regime in the West called
Postumus
(259–268 AD), who often used worn old
sestertii to
overstrike
his image and legends on. The double
sestertius was distinguished from the sestertius by the
radiate crown
worn by the emperor, a device
used to distinguish the dupondius from the as and the antoninianus from the
denarius.
Eventually, the inevitable happened. Many sestertii were withdrawn by the
state and by forgers, to melt down to make the debased antoninianus, which made
inflation worse. In the coinage reforms of the 4th century, the sestertius
played no part and passed into history.
Sestertius of
Hadrian
, dupondius of
Antoninus Pius
, and as of
Marcus Aurelius
As a unit of account
The sestertius was also used as a standard unit of account, represented on
inscriptions with the monogram HS. Large values were recorded in terms of
sestertium milia, thousands of sestertii, with the milia often
omitted and implied. The hyper-wealthy general and politician of the late Roman
Republic,
Crassus
(who fought in the war to defeat
Spartacus
), was said by Pliny the Elder to have
had ‘estates worth 200 million sesterces’.
A loaf of bread cost roughly half a sestertius, and a
sextarius
(~0.5 liter) of
wine anywhere from less than half to more than 1 sestertius. One
modius
(6.67 kg) of
wheat
in 79 AD
Pompeii
cost 7 sestertii, of
rye
3 sestertii, a bucket 2 sestertii, a tunic 15 sestertii, a donkey 500 sestertii.
Records from Pompeii
show a
slave
being sold at auction for 6,252
sestertii. A writing tablet from
Londinium
(Roman
London
), dated to c. 75–125 AD, records the
sale of a Gallic
slave girl called Fortunata for 600
denarii, equal to 2,400 sestertii, to a man called Vegetus. It is difficult to
make any comparisons with modern coinage or prices, but for most of the 1st
century AD the ordinary
legionary
was paid 900 sestertii per annum,
rising to 1,200 under
Domitian
(81-96 AD), the equivalent of 3.3
sestertii per day. Half of this was deducted for living costs, leaving the
soldier (if he was lucky enough actually to get paid) with about 1.65 sestertii
per day.
Perhaps a more useful comparison is a modern salary: in 2010 a private
soldier in the US Army (grade E-2) earned about $20,000 a year.
Numismatic value
A sestertius of
Nero
, struck at
Rome
in 64 AD. The reverse depicts
the emperor on horseback with a companion. The legend reads DECVRSIO,
‘a military exercise’. Diameter 35mm
Sestertii are highly valued by
numismatists
, since their large size gave
caelatores (engravers) a large area in which to produce detailed portraits
and reverse types. The most celebrated are those produced for
Neroro (54-68 AD) between the years 64 and 68 AD, created by some of
the most accomplished coin engravers in history. The brutally realistic
portraits of this emperor, and the elegant reverse designs, greatly impressed
and influenced the artists of the
Renaissance
. The series issued by
Hadrian
(117-138 AD), recording his travels
around the Roman Empire, brilliantly depicts the Empire at its height, and
included the first representation on a coin of the figure of
Britannia
; it was revived by
Charles II
, and was a feature of
United Kingdom
coinage until the
2008 redesign
.
Very high quality examples can sell for over a million
dollars
at auction as of 2008, but the coins
were produced in such colossal abundance that millions survive.
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<span class="mw-headline" id="Conflict_in_the_Balkans_and_EgyptConflict
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<span class="mw-headline" id="Invasion.2C_counterinvasionInvasion,
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