07-08-2010, 12:46 PM
Does anybody know whether the portrait of Avidius Cassius, the usurper, has survived? I would have expected coins, but they apparently do not exist.
Quote:I would have expected coins, but they apparently do not exist.The circumstances of his elevation suggest to me that there would have been no thought of striking coinage. It seems to me that he was a loyal servant of Marcus Aurelius whose "usurpation" was based on the misinformation that Marcus was dead. I would guess that, as soon as he learned the truth, he realised his mistake. His murder may even have been occasioned by the frustration of his subordinates, when they realised that he did not intend to "go all the way". Or have I gone too far in attempting to exonerate him? :wink:
Quote:have I gone too far in attempting to exonerate him? :wink:At least Marcus himself wanted to believe this.
Quote:Birley in his biography of Marcus states that Cassius had an extraordinary command of some sort over almost the entire east. Does anyone know any details about this?I only know what Birley writes: that the special command was first given to Lucius Verus and that Pescennius Niger also had special righs. I do not know whether the man in Antioch had some kind of imperium maius, but it sounds plausible.
Quote:Birley in his biography of Marcus states that Cassius had an extraordinary command of some sort over almost the entire east. Does anyone know any details about this?Dio 71.3: "Marcus ordered Cassius to govern the whole of Asia". He (and his senatorial officers) will have needed special permission to enter Egypt (Dio 71.4).
Quote:It's remarkable that there are no coins of Avidius Cassius, isn't it?Unless he was half-hearted about the whole thing, which leads me back to my suggestion that it had been a mistake.
Quote:Unless he was half-hearted about the whole thing, which leads me back to my suggestion that it had been a mistake.Yup. And this is a remarkable, rare example of "absence of evidence" being useful "evidence of absence" (of intentions).
Quote:This is indeed interesting. How old was Commodus? 14? If Marcus had died at this time, his wife turning to the most powerful man in the empire to protect her son would make sense.This is indeed what Dio writes (here). It would make her act like Trajan's wife Plotina, who saw to the hand-over of power to Hadrian.
Quote:So we here have the first Roman emperor who did not mint coins.
Quote:We have one possible parallel for a provincial revolt occurring, which did not result in any coinage in the name of the rebelling officer. That would be the revolt of Julius Vindex in Nero's reign. Vindex claimed he was rebelling against Nero on behalf of the Senate and People and apparently did not claim the title of Imperator or Augustus for himself (indeed he later apparently offered to back Galba). But for some weeks or months, he was the head of a rebelling province, and yet struck no coins in his own name (as Clodius Macer did in Africa some months later). It is clear coins were struck in Gaul during this period, the so called "Civil War" issues, which strike an interestingly noncommital tone, depicting generic images of Roman military loyalty and the safely dead and deified Divus Augustus.
If there were a similar class of "neutral" coins struck in the East during Cassius' tenure, it might indicate he saw himself as another Vindex. But no such coinage exists that I am aware of. And there are surviving documents that name Cassius as Augustus, so it doesn't seem likely that he started a revolt in the manner of Vindex-- i.e. as a Roman officer acting on behalf of the Senate and People, without claiming the purple for himself. It is clear something withheld Cassius from going "all the way" and striking coins of himself. Did he see himself as protecting the "legitimate" regime of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus against other powerful Romans who might be tempted to seize the throne (say, Claudius Pompeinus)? Was he hoping to marry the widow Faustina (and had she given some indication of willingness to do this?), thus legitimizing himself as Marcus' successor?
Quote:This is simply speculation, but is it conceivable that Cassius struck coins as Commodus as Emperor and they haven't been recognised for what they are?
Quote:to speak of another rebellion which did not mint coins, the uprising of Flavius Civilis also has no coins in his or other tribal name, while the Jewish revolt almost immediately led to new coins.Good point, but would we recognize them? The coins commonly attributed to the Batavians, look - to me - very hard to date.