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Roman Empire. Diocletian. Quinarius 284-294, Æ 1.48g.

Currency:CHF Category:Coins & Paper Money / Coins: Ancient Start Price:3,200.00 CHF Estimated At:4,000.00 CHF
Roman Empire. Diocletian. Quinarius 284-294, Æ 1.48g.
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The Roman Empire. Diocletian, 284–305. Quinarius, Ticinum 284-294, Æ 1.48g. DIOCLET–I–ANVS AVG Jugate busts l. of Diocletianus, cuirassed, holding spear and shield, and Jupiter, laureate. Rev. ADVENTVS AVG Emperor riding l., raising r. hand and holding sceptre in l., preceded by Victory leading horse and holding palm branch, and followed by Virtus, holding shield. C –. RIC –. King -, cf. 1 (for this reverse type). An apparently unrecorded variety. An extremely interesting portrait and reverse composition, good very fine. The precise dating of this quinarius is not aided by the obverse inscription, though if Ticinum is in fact the mint, the adventus type would suggest it was struck in the summer of 285, when Diocletian visited Northern Italy in person, as is recorded on an inscription that notes his visit to Ticinum. While in Milan (or perhaps Ticinum), Diocletian founded the Dyarchy by adopting his comrade Maximian as his son (filius augusti) and appointing him nobilisimus caesar. Eutropius is our only source for Maximian having been hailed Caesar, and if he did receive that subordinate rank, there are no coins that record it. Diocletian's business in Northern Italy was urgent and brief, and he did not have the luxury (or perhaps even the desire) to journey southward to Rome to have the senate formally confer upon him the rank of Augustus. Instead, he quickly returned to the Balkans to continue his campaign against barbarian nations on the Danube. In the meantime his new imperial colleague returned to Gaul to fight Germans and to stamp out the Bagaudae, a group of bandits, displaced workers and soldiers terrorizing the countryside. Portrayed beside Diocletian on this quinarius is the new emperor's divine colleague, Jupiter, the supreme god of the Roman pantheon. Scholars disagree about when Diocletian formalized his association with Jupiter, but upon his taking his oath on November 20, 284, he seems to have openly assumed the role as “the new Jupiter on earth”.