Domitianus

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This article is about the 3rd century Roman usurper. For the 1st century Roman Emperor, see Domitian. For another usurper (296-297) based in Egypt, see Domitius Domitianus.

Domitianus (Latin: Imperator Caesar Domitianvs Pivs Felix Avgvstvs, "Emperor Caesar Domitianus, the Pious, the Fortunate, the Augustus") was a Roman military commander who declared himself emperor of the secessionist Gallic Empire (the provinces of Gaul and Britain) for a short time in about 271. His life has been recorded by Zosimus (i 49) and in the Historia Augusta ([12.14]).

Non-literary evidence for Domitianus' existence and rule is limited to two coins, one discovered in the Loire area of France in 1900 and which was thought at the time to be a forgery, and one discovered fused in a pot with some 5,000 other coins of the period 250-275 — thus providing incontrovertible provenance — in Oxfordshire, England, in 2003The coin, and its accompanying hoard, have been acquired by the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. On the revese, it shows Concordia, and has the legend CONCORDIA MILITVM, a propagandistic claim that the army was united behind Domitian..

It is thought that Domitianus' rule may have lasted as little as a few days. He appears to have been liquidated for treason by the emperor Aurelian, perhaps for having the coins made.

Notes

External links

[Coin unearths new Roman emperor], BBC News, 25 February 2004
[British museum analysis of the coin]

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