Izvorni znanstveni članak
Roman coins marking the battle of Mursa in 351
Hermine Göricke-Lukić
; Muzej Slavonije Osijek
Sažetak
The Museum of Slavonia Osijek has a small number of relatively rare bronze Roman coins of the maiorina size minted exclusively in Siscia and Sirmium. They illustrate an emperor being crowned by a victory holding a standard with the legend that reads HOC SIGNO VICTOR ERIS - by this sign thou shalt conquer. As it has been said in the title of the article, the mintage of such coins represent an interesting occurrence related to historical events and the battle of Mursa in 351.
On 28 September 351, Roman emperor Constantius II (337 — 361) defeated Magnentius in a fierce battle at the foot of fortified Mursa, the area which is known today as the quarter of Donji Grad in Osijek, (350 -353). This battle in which both armies lost more than 50 000 people was of great importance for the later development of historical events. According to Roman historian Eutropius, the battle took away the lives of a great part of the Roman army which subsequently resulted in difficulties with resisting barbarian attacks. The fact that this type of coins have been poorly represented at the Museum of Slavonia as well as at other European museums was once pointed out by numismatist Georgije Orlov who classified them on the basis of a sample of a small group of coins from the Kunsthistorische Museum in Vienna, the Magyar Nemzeti Museum in Budapest, the National Museum in Belgrade as well as his personal collection (0 ROLOV 1967:213-215)
This type of coinage was fairly unknown to numismatists even though it was described by A. Banduri in the beginning of the 18th century and J. Eckhel in 1744. The first catalogue edition of Cohen does not mention it whatsoever whereas the second edition describes it but without the mintmark
In recent literature, catalogues published in London and other cities, the coins have been typologically classified and presented with the interpretation of legends pointing out their Christian orientation and symbolism but without providing detailed interpretations of compositional and historical elements of their origin on the reverse, which is quite relevant.
The mintages of the coins in question occurred in the periods before the battle (350 — 351) and after it (351 —354) and commemorate the victory in the battle of Mursa and the end of fights against Magnentius (3 August 353). Those are the only two periods in which they occur. They were produced in the nearest mints, at Siscia and Sirmium, in limited mintages. They represent chronicles of the turbulent times caused by the simultaneous attempt of several usurpers to seize the reins of the empire.
Apart from the Siscia and Sirmium mintages, the same illustrations on the reverse could be found only on rare golden mintages of Constantius Galus in Thessalonica.
Numismatic collections at Croatian museums hold relatively few such coins as opposed to coins from the same period, which were minted in millions. Especially rare are single finds of coins whose number is reduced to several dozen. The type can be found in greater number at the Museum of Slavonia Osijek and the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb as a result of the finds of Roman coins in Aljmaš where it was buried due to war circumstances before the battle of Mursa in 351. The finds have remained unpublished and they were discovered in 1903 in a pot that contained 3800 bronze coins that belonged to Constantius II, Constans and Vetranio. The coins bear inscriptions on the reverse: Tel temp reparation; Concordia militum; Hoc signo victor eris. A small number of the finds (71 pieces) was purchased and donated to the Osijek and Zagreb Museum by count Ivan Dragkovio and Oskar Friml. About 30 pieces of the coins bearing the inscription Hoc signo victor eris are owned by the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb.
The 1904 finds donated to the Osijek museum by Oscar Friml comprises 146 coins (Inv. No. 8123 — 8269) 17 of which have the inscription Hoc signo victor eris and show an emperor being crowned by y victory as well as a big earthenware pot which contained the coins.
The catalogue chronologically presents single finds of coins from the wider area of Mursa (Cat. No. 1 — 19) and the hoard from Aljmaš, which form a separate group (Cat. No. 1 — 14).
Bronze coins of Constantius II (337 361) of the majorine size is represented in the corpus of single finds with 17 pieces, 15 of which were minted in five mints in Siscia and two in Sirmium, whereas all the coins from the Aljmaš hoard (Cat. No. 1 — 11; 13; 14) were minted in Siscia.
The obverse design of the mintage shows the bust of the emperor wearing a mantle and diadem and in the field above his head there is the letter A or A and a star in front of his face. On the reverse design the emperor, standing on the left side of the coin wearing a military uniform and holding a sceptre and labarum, is crowned by a victory; the letter A is inscribed in field and SIS in exergue. These examples are similar to the previous having only different exergue inscriptions: ASIS, BSIS, rsis, ASIS, ESIS.
Coins minted in Sirmium during the reign of Constantius II (Cat. No. 16 — 17) have the same design and the letter A in the field above the emperor's head. The reverse has the same design in relief; III in field; a star and SIRM in exergue.
Bronze coins of Constantius Gallus (351 354) minted in Sirmium are only variants of the previous coins.
The reign of Vetranio is represented with only one coin (Cat. No. 12) minted in Siscia. The obverse: the emperor's portrait; left field: A and inscription: DN VETRANIO PF AVG. The reverse, in exergue: . ASIS, star and the mentioned legend — the most evident expression of Vertanio's loyalty to Constantine the Great and expectations of new triumphs (RIC 8: 344-345)
Surely, the war had considerable consequences for the people in the interfluve of the Sava and Drava rivers since that part of Pannonia was a place of most fierce battles.
The likelihood of such a statement can be attested by the coin hoards dating from the same period found in Pofrgka Kot 1 ina (Vrania; Tre§anovci) and still unpublished finds from Aljmaš (today in the coin collections the Museum of Slavonia Osijek and the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb)
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
154386
URI
Datum izdavanja:
5.12.2007.
Posjeta: 839 *