I have a number of Roman coins. All low value, low end ones that I have picked up for cheap. But this one is a bit special. It is one of two coins I bought in a small shop in Trier, Germany on our honeymoon. Or "Hochzeitreise" in the local lingo. If you are curious that translates to "high times trip". Ah, the psychology of the Teuton...
Here we see the emperor Hadrian. In addition to building the Wall across northern England he is generally regarded as the best and most capable of the Roman emperors. Scholars of course have a thing for the Republic over the Empire, but in the latter Hadrian was as good as things got.
We tend to think of ancient empires as being timeless. But if you look at the 37 years (and let the spousal record be written as 37 Wonderful Years) since I got this coin, and see what happened to Hadrian's Rome over the same span, well consider what the erudite Gibbon had to say in the first lines of his magnus opus "Decline and Fall":
IN the second century of the Christian era, the Empire of Rome comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and the most civilised portion of mankind. The frontiers of that extensive monarchy were guarded by ancient renown and disciplined valour. The gentle but powerful influence of laws and manners had gradually cemented the union of the provinces. Their peaceful inhabitants enjoyed and abused the advantages of wealth and luxury.
Yes, life was good. But if we arbitrarily set the issue of my coin at perhaps 135 AD, how were things 37 years down the road?
No longer could the Emperor live in the luxury of the Palace, or in the case of the remarkable Hadrian, conduct an inspection tour of his peaceful domains*. The Emperor now was Marcus Aurelius, and he was off in Germany suppressing a revolt, then importing the temporarily behaving Germans into the empire to repopulate areas decimated by the Antonine Plague. This smoldered on for 15 years and in places killed a third of the populace.
Elsewhere it was just more troubles. Sarmatians attacking across the Danube, a peasant uprising in Egypt.
And worse lay ahead. Marcus was the last of the decent Emperors for a long while. His son, the venomous Commodus, succeeded him and proved so evil and debauched that he was eventually slain** and the Empire thrown into a civil war of such chaos that five emperors rose and fell in a single year.
A few historical howlers aside, the feel of this is pretty well depicted in the Russell Crowe movie Gladiator.
Happy to be living in less troubled times....
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*Hadrian's famous tour of the Empire was commemorated in a series of fabulous coins with personifications of various provinces. I'm surprised that he is not better known these days as an early gay icon, his relationship with his wife being distant in more ways than one, but his constant companion Antinoos is widely considered to have been his real love.
**Speaking of love, Commodus ended up being strangled in his bathtub by a wrestler. The conspiracy that was thus realized included prominently his mistress Marcia. I'll never think of Marcia Brady the same way again....
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