Domitianus II

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Domitianus II
Usurper of the Gallic Empire
Domitianus II obverse ashmolean 2014.JPG
Coin of Domitian II. Caption: IMP. C. DOMITIANVS P. F. AVG.
Reignc. 271
Predecessor Victorinus
Successor Tetricus I
Diedc. 271
Full name
Domitianus (Full name unknown)
Regnal name
Imperator Caesar Domitianus Pius Felix Augustus

Domitianus was probably a Roman soldier of the mid 3rd century who was acclaimed emperor, probably in northern Gaul in late 270 or early 271, and struck coins to advertise his elevation. It is now generally assumed that this man is to be equated with the Domitianus who is twice mentioned in the literary sources as a significant figure in the politics of the age, but on neither occasion as an outright contender for the Imperial throne.

Roman emperor ruler of the Roman Empire

The Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman Empire during the imperial period. The emperors used a variety of different titles throughout history. Often when a given Roman is described as becoming "emperor" in English, it reflects his taking of the title Augustus or Caesar. Another title often used was imperator, originally a military honorific. Early Emperors also used the title Princeps Civitatis. Emperors frequently amassed republican titles, notably princeps senatus, consul and pontifex maximus.

Roman Gaul

Roman Gaul refers to Gaul under provincial rule in the Roman Empire from the 1st century BC to the 5th century AD.

Contents

Given that his reign lasted for, at best, only a few weeks after his acclamation and he does not seem to have secured significant military or political support, Domitianus is more properly categorized as a Roman usurper rather than an emperor. His attempted coup should also be understood in the context of the troubled later history of the Gallic Empire rather than that of the Empire as a whole.

Roman usurpers were individuals or groups of individuals who obtained or tried to obtain power by force and without legitimate legal authority. Usurpation was endemic during the Roman imperial era, especially from the crisis of the third century onwards, when political instability became the rule.

Gallic Empire Defunct European country

The Gallic Empire or the Gallic Roman Empire are names used in modern historiography for a breakaway part of the Roman Empire that functioned de facto as a separate state from 260 to 274. It originated during the Crisis of the Third Century, when a series of Roman military leaders and aristocrats declared themselves emperors and took control of Gaul and adjacent provinces without attempting to conquer Italy or otherwise seize the central Roman administrative apparatus.

Numismatic evidence

The only evidence for the existence and rule of an Imperial claimant named Domitianus derives from two coins. The first was part of a hoard discovered at Les Cléons, in the commune of Haute-Goulaine in the Loire area of France in 1900. The authenticity/significance of this particular item was much debated and as late as 1992 Domitianus was widely considered "at best a conjectural figure". [1] The other coin was found fused in a pot with some 5,000 other coins of the period 250–275 — thus providing incontrovertible provenance — in the village of Chalgrove in Oxfordshire, England, in 2003. The hoard was acquired by the Ashmolean Museum in 2004. [2] [3]

Haute-Goulaine Commune in Pays de la Loire, France

Haute-Goulaine is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France.

Loire Longest river in France

The Loire is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of 1,012 kilometres (629 mi), it drains an area of 117,054 km2 (45,195 sq mi), or more than a fifth of France's land area, while its average discharge is only half that of the Rhône.

France Republic with majority of territory in Europe and numerous oversea territories around the world

France, officially the French Republic, is a sovereign state whose territory consists of metropolitan France in Western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The metropolitan area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is bordered by Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany to the northeast, Switzerland and Italy to the east, and Andorra and Spain to the south. The overseas territories include French Guiana in South America and several islands in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. The country's 18 integral regions span a combined area of 643,801 square kilometres (248,573 sq mi) and a total population of 67.02 million. France is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Other major urban areas include Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Lille and Nice.

The design of both coins is typical of those associated with the Gallic Empire. They are of the radiate type and depict Domitianus as a bearded figure wearing a spiky or radiate crown representing the rays of the sun, in reference to Sol Invictus (i.e. the sun perceived as a deity lit. "the Unconquered Sun"). The representation is not realistic, but standardized and stereotypical and is very similar to that of the later coins of the Gallic Emperor Victorinus (269–271) and the earliest of Tetricus I, the last Gallic Emperor (271–274).

Sol Invictus Late Roman solar god

Sol Invictus was the official sun god of the later Roman Empire and a patron of soldiers. On 25 December AD 274, the Roman emperor Aurelian made it an official cult alongside the traditional Roman cults. Scholars disagree about whether the new deity was a refoundation of the ancient Latin cult of Sol, a revival of the cult of Elagabalus, or completely new. The god was favored by emperors after Aurelian and appeared on their coins until the last third-part of the reign of Constantine I. The last inscription referring to Sol Invictus dates to AD 387, and there were enough devotees in the fifth century that the Christian theologian Augustine found it necessary to preach against them.

Victorinus politician

Marcus Piavonius Victorinus was emperor in the Gallic provinces from 268 to 270 or 269 to 271, following the brief reign of Marius. He was murdered by a jealous husband whose wife he tried to seduce.

Tetricus I Gallic emperor

Gaius Pius Esuvius Tetricus was the emperor of the Gallic Empire from 271 to 274. He was originally the praeses (governor) of Gallia Aquitania, and became emperor after the murder of Emperor Victorinus in 271, after receiving the support of Victorinus's mother Victoria. During his reign, he faced external pressure from Germanic raiders, who pillaged the eastern and northern parts of his empire, and the Roman Empire, from which the Gallic Empire had seceded. He also faced increasing internal pressure, which led him to declare his son, Tetricus II, caesar in 273 and possibly co-emperor in 274, although this is debated. The Roman emperor Aurelian invaded in 273 or 274, which culminated in the Battle of Châlons, at which Tetricus surrendered. Whether this was the result of a secret agreement between Tetricus and Aurelian or necessary after his defeat is debated. Aurelian spared Tetricus, and even made him a senator and corrector (governor) of Lucania et Bruttii. He died of natural causes a few years after 274.

Both coins bear the same legend, IMP C DOMITIANUS P F AUG, an abbreviation for Imperator Caesar Domitianus Pius Felix Augustus. An unusual feature here is the absence of any reference to Domitianus's nomen or praenomen. Gallic Empire coins usually bear the full tria nomina of the prince celebrated the better to carry out their propagandist function. On the reverse, the coins show Concordia, and have the legend CONCORDIA MILITVM, a propagandistic claim that the army was united behind Domitianus. Again this is a standard slogan for the Gallic Emperors.

The nomen gentilicium was the part of a Roman citizen’s name that identified them as Roman. Originally, it had also identified their membership of a particular Roman family or clan (gens) according to their patrilineal descent. However, as Rome expanded its frontiers and non-Roman peoples were progressively granted Roman citizenship and along with it an existing Roman nomen, the nomen lost its value in indicating patrilineal ancestry.

The praenomen was a personal name chosen by the parents of a Roman child. It was first bestowed on the dies lustricus, the eighth day after the birth of a girl, or the ninth day after the birth of a boy. The praenomen would then be formally conferred a second time when girls married, or when boys assumed the toga virilis upon reaching manhood. Although it was the oldest of the tria nomina commonly used in Roman naming conventions, by the late republic, most praenomina were so common that most people were called by their praenomina only by family or close friends. For this reason, although they continued to be used, praenomina gradually disappeared from public records during imperial times. Although both men and women received praenomina, women's praenomina were frequently ignored, and they were gradually abandoned by many Roman families, though they continued to be used in some families and in the countryside.

Concordia (mythology) goddess in ancient Roman religion

In ancient Roman religion, Concordia is the goddess who embodies agreement in marriage and society. Her Greek equivalent is usually regarded as Harmonia, with musical harmony a metaphor for an ideal of social concord or entente in the political discourse of the Republican era. She was thus often associated with Pax ("Peace") in representing a stable society. As such, she is more closely related to the Greek concept of homonoia (likemindedness), which was also represented by a goddess.

The design of the Chalgrove coin and its Les Cléons counterpart is typical of others struck under the Gallic Empire. This suggests that it was struck by the mint (or mints) which serviced that regime – at Trier in the province of Gallia Belgica or Cologne in Germania Inferior – or, at least, from a die produced by artisans who were strongly influenced the design-ethos of those mints. It also suggests that the date of the coin was prior to 274 when the Emperor Aurelian suppressed the Gallic regime.

Trier Place in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

Trier, formerly known in English as Treves and Triers, is a city on the banks of the Moselle in Germany. It lies in a valley between low vine-covered hills of red sandstone in the west of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, near the border with Luxembourg and within the important Moselle wine region. Karl Marx, philosopher and founder of the theory that would become known as Marxism, was born in the city in 1818.

Gallia Belgica Roman province

Gallia Belgica was a province of the Roman empire located in the north-eastern part of Roman Gaul, in what is today primarily France, Belgium, and Luxembourg, along with parts of the Netherlands and Germany.

Cologne City in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Cologne is the largest city of Germany's most populous federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the fourth most populous city in Germany after Berlin, Hamburg, and Munich. With slightly over a million inhabitants within its city boundaries, Cologne is the largest city on the Rhine and also the most populous city both of the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Region, which is Germany's largest and one of Europe's major metropolitan areas, and of the Rhineland. Centered on the left bank of the Rhine, Cologne is about 45 kilometres (28 mi) southeast of North Rhine-Westphalia's capital of Düsseldorf and 25 kilometres (16 mi) northwest of Bonn. It is the largest city in the Central Franconian and Ripuarian dialect areas.

Literary sources

There are only two literary references for Domitianus's existence, neither of which names him as an emperor:

Historia Augusta also suggests that Domitianus was descendant of the Emperor Domitian, the son of Vespasian and his wife Domitilla the Elder. The intention here may be to suggest that Domitianus was of senatorial rank. It is possible that his motive in doing this was to deflect some of the glory accruing to the low-born Aureolus from his suppression of the Macrianic rebellion. The text's author cannot bring himself to say anything that might appear to denigrate the achievement of Aureolus in this connection in comparison to the supine effeminacy of his bête noire, the unworthy Gallienus. However, he was probably happy to be able suggest that his associate, Domitianus, was "one of us". One might remark that if Domitianus had been a senator he would probably have fallen foul of the decision taken by Gallienus early in his sole reign to strip all aristocratic army officers of their commissions. He would not, therefore, have been allowed to command the forces sent against the Macriani.

Suggested interpretation

The evidence is not sufficient to confirm that the associate or protégé of Aureolus mentioned in the HA, the obscure rebel of Aurelian’s reign mentioned by Zosimus and the Imperial claimant celebrated in the coins were one and the same man. However, academic opinion is inclined to the view that, more likely than not, they were one and the same.

It is quite possible that, as a client of Aureolus, Domitianus would later have become associated with the Gallic regime given what is suspected and known about his patron's relations with Postumus. If Historia Augusta’s assertions as to his military reputation are correct it is not unlikely that he would have been welcomed into the entourage of the Gallic Emperor and his successors. However, the evidence is too vague and circumstantial.

The evidence of his coins suggests that the Domitianus was almost certainly a military figure associated with the rebel Gallic Empire who commanded troops close enough to one of the mint cities of Trier or Cologne to ensure that his Imperial pretensions were proclaimed in the traditional manner. It was very difficult for would-be Emperors in regions where there was no established mint to issue coins. [note 1]

Given what is known of the chronology of the Gallic Empire his bid for Empire is most probably associated with the period of confusion following the officers’ coup against the Gallic Emperor Victorinus early in 271. The men who murdered Victorinus seem to have had no political agenda and it is not surprising that there should have been period of confusion after his death. In this circumstance it would not have been surprising that a faction may have been tempted to put forward a figure such as Domitianus who had an established military reputation – particularly if he was, indeed, the same man as the conqueror of the Macriani mentioned in Historia Augusta. On the other hand, the literary evidence does suggest that the forces favouring Tetricus I as the new Emperor were able to assert themselves so swiftly and decisively that Domitianus’s elevation was hardly remarked outside the provinces controlled by the Gallic Empire.

The most likely interpretation of the evidence of the coins is that Domitianus was involved in the officers' coup that overthrew Victorinus and managed to secure temporary control of one of the Gallic mints. It is thus more likely that he was suppressed by Tetricus I than by the central Roman Emperor Aurelian as the Zosimus reference would appear to suggest.

The use of the cognomen alone in the Imperial title is sufficiently unusual to raise questions about the circumstances in which the coins were produced. The circumstances in which the Chalgrove specimen was discovered leaves no doubt that it was, indeed, struck by somebody in the early 270s, but we have to consider that it might have been produced by a faction of the Rhine army officer cadre which hoped to use Domitianus as a figurehead, possibly without his knowledge or approval.

Domitianus's fate is unknown. One possibility is that he was either executed by Tetricus or, more likely, that he was murdered by his own troops when the main Rhine army garrisons declared for Tetricus. A second possibility is that he was defeated by Placidianus, a general loyal to Aurelian who had been stationed to guard the lower Rhône valley during Victorinus' assault on Autun in 270. This would suggest that his rebellion took place in southern Gaul, near enough to the central empire's provinces to be of concern to Aurelian. [5]

Notes

  1. ↑ So far as is known Domitianus’s contemporary Septiminus in Dalmatia did not issue coins (having no mint) and the Illyrian rebel, Ingenuus, had similarly failed twenty years before because Gallienus had removed his mint when he transferred his main theatre of operations in the defence of the west from the Danube to the Rhine. Regalianus too had only produced limited editions of overstrikes even though he survived for some considerable time after making his bid for power in 260.

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References

  1. ↑ Okamura, Lawrence (1992). "Forging a Usurper in Late Roman Aquitania". Hermes. 120 (1): 105.
  2. 1 2 Leins, Ian. "Domitianus II – the forgotten emperor". Current Archaeology (194): 76–79.
  3. ↑ Abdy, Richard (2009). "The Domitian II coin from Chalgrove: a Gallic emperor returns to history". Antiquity. 83 (321): 751–757.
  4. ↑ Watson, A. (1999). Aurelian and the Third Century. Routledge. p. 52.
  5. ↑ Watson, Alaric (2004). Aurelian and the Third Century. p. 167.
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