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Carinus – Roman Emperor: 283-285 A.D.
Bronze Antoninianus 21mm (2.70 grams) Rome mint, 3rd officina. 4th emission, struck 283 A.D.
Reference: RIC V 248; Pink VI/2, p. 37; Sear 12341
IMP CARINVS P F AVG, Radiate and cuirassed bust right.
AETERNIT AVGG, Aeternitas standing left, holding phoenix on globe, lifting hem of robe with left hand; mintmark KAΓ in exergue.
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I n ancient Roman religion, Aeternitas was the divine personification of eternity. She was particularly associated with Imperial cult as a virtue of the deified emperor (divus). The religious maintenance of abstract deities such as Aeternitas was characteristic of official Roman cult from the time of the Julio-Claudians to the Severans.
Like the more familiar anthropomorphic deities, Aeternitas and other abstractions were cultivated with sacrifices and temples, both in Rome and in the provinces. The temple of Aeternitas Augusta at Tarraco in Roman Spain was pictured on a coin.
The divinity sometimes appears as Aeternitas Imperii (the “Eternity of Roman rule”), where the Latin word imperium (“command, power”) points toward the meaning “empire,” the English word derived from it. Aeternitas Imperii was among the deities who received sacrifices from the Arval Brethren in a thanksgiving when Nero survived conspiracy and attempted assassination. New bronze coinage was issued at this time, on which various virtues were represented.
Aeternitas was among the many virtues depicted on coinage issued under Vespasian, Titus, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Septimius Severus. The coins issued 75-79 AD under Vespasian show Aeternitas holding a head in each hand representing Sol and Luna. On the coins of Titus (80-81 AD), Aeternitas holds a cornucopia, leans on a scepter, and has one foot placed on a globe, imagery that links the concepts of eternity, prosperity, and world dominion. From the 2nd to the mid-3rd century, the iconography of Aeternitas includes the globe, celestial bodies (stars, or sun and moon), and the phoenix, a symbol of cyclical time, since the phoenix was reborn in flames every 500 years. Aeternitas sometimes holds the globe on which the phoenix perches.
In The Marriage of Philology and Mercury, Martianus Capella says that Aeternitas is among the more honored of Jupiter’s daughters. He mentions her diadem, the circular shape of which represents eternity.
The male equivalent of Aeternitas is Aion, the god of limitless time.
 Carinus (Latin: Marcus Aurelius Carinus Augustus; died 285) was Roman Emperor from 283 to 285. The elder son of emperor Carus, he was first appointed Caesar and in the beginning of 283 co-emperor of the western portion of the empire by his father. Official accounts of his character and career have been filtered through the propaganda of his successful opponent, Diocletian.
Reign
He fought with success against the Germanic Quadi tribes, but soon left the defence of the Upper Rhine to his legates and returned to Rome, where the surviving accounts, which demonize him, assert that he abandoned himself to all kinds of debauchery and excess. More certainly, he celebrated the annual ludi Romani on a scale of unexampled magnificence.
After the death of Carus, the army in the east demanded to return to Europe, and Numerian, the younger son of Carus, was forced to comply. During a halt at Chalcedon, Numerian was found dead. Diocletian, commander of the body-guards, claimed that Numerian had been assassinated, and he was proclaimed emperor by the soldiers.
Carinus left Rome at once and set out for the east to meet Diocletian. On his way through Pannonia he put down the usurper Sabinus Julianus and in July 285 he encountered the army of Diocletian at the Margus River in Moesia.
Death in 285
Historians differ on what then ensued. At the Battle of the Margus River (Morava), according to one account, the valour of his troops had gained the day, but Carinus was assassinated by a tribune whose wife he had seduced. Another account represents the battle as resulting in a complete victory for Diocletian, and claims that Carinus’ army deserted him. This account may be confirmed by the fact that Diocletian kept in service Carinus’ Praetorian Guard commander, Titus Claudius Aurelius Aristobulus.
Character
Carinus has a reputation as one of the worst Roman emperors. This infamy may have been supported by Diocletian himself. For example, the (unreliable) Historia Augusta has Carinus marrying nine wives, while neglecting to mention his only real wife, Magnia Urbica, by whom he had a son, Marcus Aurelius Nigrinianus.
After his death, Carinus’ memory was officially condemned in the Roman proceeding known as Damnatio Memoriae. His name, along with that of his wife, was erased from inscriptions.
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