NUMERIAN 283AD Alexandria Egypt Tetradrachm Athena Ancient Roman Coin i48698

Item: i48698

Authentic Ancient

Coin of:

Numerian –

Roman Emperor
: December 283 – November, 284 A.D.
–
Potin Tetradrachm 20mm (8.79 grams) of

Alexandria in

Egypt
Struck Regnal Year 2, 283/284 A.D.
Reference: Dattari 5607; Sear GIC 4782 var.; Milne 4699, BMC 16.319.2465,
Försch.1235
A. K. M. A. NOYMЄPIANOC CЄB., Laureate, draped and
cuirassed bust right.
Athena seated left, holding Nike and spear, shield at side; L B (= regnal year
2) across fields.

You are bidding on the exact item pictured,

Authenticity.

Athena
or Athene (Latin:

Minerva
),
also referred to as Pallas Athena, is the goddess of war, civilization,
wisdom, strength, strategy, crafts, justice and skill in
Greek mythology
.
Minerva
,
Athena’s Roman incarnation, embodies similar attributes. Athena is also a shrewd
companion of heroes

and the goddess

of heroic

endeavour. She is the
virgin

patron of Athens
.
The Athenians built the
Parthenon

on the Acropolis of her namesake city, Athens, in her honour (Athena Parthenos).
Athena’s cult as the patron of Athens seems to have existed from the earliest
times and was so persistent that archaic myths about her were recast to adapt to
cultural changes. In her role as a protector of the city (polis),
many people throughout the Greek world worshiped Athena as Athena Polias
(“Athena of the city”).
Athens

and Athena bear etymologically connected names.

Alexandria was founded
by
Alexander the Great
in April 331 BC as
Ἀλεξάνδρεια (Alexándreia).
Alexander’s
chief architect
for the project was
Dinocrates
. Alexandria was intended to
supersede Naucratis
as a
Hellenistic
center in Egypt, and to be the link
between Greece and the rich

Nile Valley. An Egyptian city,
Rhakotis
, already existed on the shore, and
later gave its name to Alexandria in the
Egyptian language
(Egyptian *Raˁ-Ḳāṭit,
written rˁ-ḳṭy.t, ‘That which is built up’). It continued to exist as the
Egyptian quarter of the city. A few months after the foundation, Alexander left
Egypt and never returned to his city. After Alexander’s departure, his viceroy,
Cleomenes
, continued the expansion. Following a
struggle with the other successors of Alexander, his general
Ptolemy
succeeded in bringing Alexander’s body
to Alexandria.

Although Cleomenes was mainly in charge of overseeing Alexandria’s continuous
development, the Heptastadion and the mainland quarters seem to have been
primarily Ptolemaic work. Inheriting the trade of ruined
Tyre
and becoming the centre of the new
commerce between Europe and the
Arabian
and Indian East, the city grew in less
than a generation to be larger than
Carthage
. In a century, Alexandria had become
the largest city in the world and, for some centuries more, was second only to
Rome. It became Egypt’s main Greek city, with
Greek people
from diverse backgrounds.

Alexandria was not only a centre of
Hellenism
, but was also home to the largest
Jewish community in the world. The
Septuagint
, a Greek translation of the
Hebrew Bible
, was produced there. The early
Ptolemies kept it in order and fostered the development of its museum into the
leading Hellenistic center of learning (Library
of Alexandria), but were careful to maintain the distinction of its
population’s three largest ethnicities: Greek, Jewish, and
Egyptian
. From this division arose much of the
later turbulence, which began to manifest itself under
Ptolemy Philopater
who reigned from 221–204 BC.
The reign of
Ptolemy VIII Physcon
from 144–116 BC was marked
by purges and civil warfare.

The city passed formally under Roman jurisdiction in 80 BC, according to the
will of
Ptolemy Alexander
, but only after it had been
under Roman influence for more than a hundred years. It was captured by
Julius Caesar
in 47 BC during a Roman
intervention in the domestic civil war between king
Ptolemy XIII
and his advisers, and the fabled
queen
Cleopatra VII
. It was finally captured by
Octavian
, future
emperor
Augustus on 1 August 30 BC, with the
name of the month later being changed to August to commemorate his
victory.

In AD 115, large parts of Alexandria were destroyed during the
Kitos War
, which gave
Hadrian
and his architect,
Decriannus
, an opportunity to rebuild it. In
215, the
emperor

Caracalla
visited the city and, because of some
insulting satires
that the inhabitants had directed at
him, abruptly commanded his troops to
put to death
all youths capable of bearing
arms. On 21 July 365, Alexandria was devastated by a
tsunami
(365
Crete earthquake),
an event still annually commemorated 17 hundred years later as a “day of
horror.”
In the late 4th century, persecution of
pagans
by newly Christian Romans had reached
new levels of intensity. In 391, the Patriarch
Theophilus
destroyed all pagan temples in
Alexandria under orders from Emperor
Theodosius I
. The
Brucheum
and Jewish quarters were desolate in
the 5th century. On the mainland, life seemed to have centred in the vicinity of
the Serapeum and
Caesareum
, both of which became
Christian churches
. The
Pharos
and Heptastadium quarters,
however, remained populous and were left intact.

In 619, Alexandria
fell
to the
Sassanid Persians
. Although the
Byzantine Emperor

Heraclius
recovered it in 629, in 641 the Arabs
under the general
Amr ibn al-As
captured it during the
Muslim conquest of Egypt
, after a siege that
lasted 14 months.

Marcus Aurelius Numerius Numerianus (d. November, 284), known in
English as Numerian, was a
Roman
Emperor
(December 283 – November, 284), together with his brother
Carinus
. They
were sons of Carus
,
a Gaul
raised to
the office of
praetorian
prefect
under Emperor
Probus
in 282.

//

In 282, the legions of the upper Danube in
Raetia
and
Noricum

proclaimed Numerian’s father, the
praetorian
prefect
Marcus Aurelius
Carus
, emperor,
beginning a rebellion against the emperor Probus. Probus’ army, stationed in
Sirmium
(Sremska
Mitrovica, Serbia
), decided they did not wish to fight Carus, and assassinated Probus
instead. Carus, already sixty, wished to establish a dynasty; and immediately
elevated Carinus and Numerian to the rank of
Caesar
.

In 283, Carus raised Carinus to the title Caesar, left him in charge of the
West, and moved with Numerian and his praetorian prefect
Arrius Aper
to the East, to wage war against the
Sassanid Empire
.
(The Sassanids had been embroiled in a succession dispute since the death of
Shapur
, and
were in no position to oppose Carus’ advance.) According to
Zonaras
, Eutropius
, and
Festus
, Carus won a major victory against the Persians, taking
Seleucia

and the Sassanid capital of
Ctesiphon

(near modern
Al-Mada’in
,
Iraq), cities on
opposite banks of the
Tigris
. In
celebration, Numerian, Carus, and Carinus all took the
title
Persici maximi. Carus died in July or early August, reportedly
due to a strike of lightning.

Carus’ death left Numerian and Carinus as the new Augusti. Carinus quickly
made his way to Rome from Gaul, and arrived in January 284. Numerian lingered in
the East. The Roman retreat from Persia was orderly and unopposed, for the
Persian King, Bahram II
, was still struggling to establish his authority. By March 284
Numerian had only reached Emesa (Homs)
in Syria
; by
November, only Asia Minor. In Emesa he was apparently still alive and in good
health, as he issued the only extant
rescript
in
his name there. (Coins are issued in his name in
Cyzicus
at
some time before the end of 284, but it is impossible to know whether he was
still in the public eye by that point.) After Emesa, Numerian’s staff, including
the prefect Aper, reported that Numerian suffered from an inflammation of the
eyes, and had to travel in a closed coach. When the army reached
Bithynia
,
some of Numerian’s soldiers smelled an odor reminiscent of a decaying corpse
emanating from the coach. They opened its curtains. Inside, they found Numerian,
dead.

Aper officially broke the news in
Nicomedia

(İzmit) in
November. Numerian’s generals and tribunes called a council for the succession,
and chose Diocles
, commander of the cavalry arm of the imperial bodyguard, emperor, in
spite of Aper’s attempts to garner support. On November 20, 284, the army of the
east gathered on a hill 5 km
(3.1 mi) outside
Nicomedia. The army unanimously saluted their new Augustus, and Diocles accepted
the purple imperial vestments. He raised his sword to the light of the sun, and
swore an oath denying responsibility for Numerian’s death. He asserted that Aper
had killed Numerian and concealed it. In full view of the army, Diocles drew his
blade and killed Aper.

According to
Historia Augusta
,
Numerian was a man of considerable literary attainments, remarkably amiable and
known as a great orator and poet. However, no other sources, apart from the
unreliable Historia, report anything about his personality.

Marcus Aurelius Carus (c. 230 – late July/early

August, 283) was a

Roman

Emperor
(282-283). During his short reign, Carus tried to follow the path of

restoration of the empire strength marked by

Aurelian

and Probus
. His

sons Carinus

and Numerian

formed, with Carus, a short lived dynasty, which granted further stability to a

resurgent empire. He also had a daughter Aurelia Paulina.

//

 Biography

Carus, whose name before the accession may have been Marcus

Numerius Carus, was born, probably, at

Narbo (modern

Narbonne)
in Gaul,^[1]

but was educated at Rome

. He was a

senator
,

and had filled various civil and military posts before he was appointed

prefect
of

the

Praetorian Guard

by the emperor Probus in 282. After the murder of Probus at

Sirmium
,

Carus was proclaimed emperor by the soldiers. Although Carus severely avenged

the death of Probus, he was himself suspected of having been an accessory to the

deed. He does not seem to have returned to Rome after his accession, but

contented himself with an announcement of the fact to the Senate.

Bestowing the title of

Caesar

upon his sons Carinus and Numerian, he left Carinus in charge of the

western portion of the empire, and took Numerian with him on the expedition

against the

Persians

which had been contemplated by Probus. Having defeated the

Quadi
and

Sarmatians

on the Danube
,

Carus proceeded through

Thrace
and

Asia Minor

, annexed

Mesopotamia

, pressed on to

Seleucia

and

Ctesiphon
,

and carried his arms beyond the

Tigris
. The

Sassanid Emperor

Bahram II

limited by internal opposition, could not effectively defend his territory. For

his victories, which avenged all the previous defeats suffered by the Romans

against the Sassanids, Carus received the title of Persicus Maximus.

Carus hopes of further conquest were cut short by his death. One day, after a

violent storm, it was announced that he was dead. His death was variously

attributed to disease, the effects of

lightning
,

or a wound received in a campaign against the

Persians

. The facts that he was leading a victorious campaign, and that his

son Numerian succeeded him without opposition, suggest that his death may have

been due to natural causes.