Carausius: Hedging His Bets (Part II)

[guy]

As mentioned in Part I, Carausius (AD 286-293) was one of the many usurpers who threatened the stability of the Roman Empire during the turbulent third century.

In AD 286, Carausius was a fleet commander under the Caesar of the West, Maximian. He had been put in charge of clearing the Saxon and Frankish raiders who threatened Roman rule, commerce, and property in the English Channel and North Sea. Maximian, however, came to believe that Carausius was stealing bounty for himself.

It seems that Maximian believed Carausius attacked the raiders only after the raiders had completed their raids, allowing Carausius to more easily enrich himself on the plunder without returning the stolen goods.

Maximian condemned Carausius to death. Having been forewarned of his death sentence, Carausius decided to form a breakaway republic of Britain and Northern Gaul.

After Maximian's initial failures by against Carausius, the legitimate rulers Diocletian and Maximian were forced to ignore Carausius as they struggled to stabilize other borders throughout the empire.

Carausius made a gesture of his loyalty with this coin.


CARAUSIUS, DIOCLETIAN and MAXIMIANUS. 287-293 AD.  Antoninianus (4.16 gm). Camulodunum mint, struck circa 292-293 AD. CARAVSIVS ET FRATRES SVI, jugate radiate and cuirassed busts of Maximianus, Diocletian and Carausius left / PAX AVGGG, Pax standing left, holding olive-branch and vertical sceptre.

Note the inscription "CARAVSIVS ET FRATES SVI" meaning "Carausius and his brothers (Diocletian and Maximian)."

 

Few Roman coins are more wishful in their iconography than the "three brothers" issue of Carausius, the fleet commander who late in 286 revolted against Maximian, emperor in the West, and took control of Britain and the northern coast of Gaul. As damaging as this defection was for Maximian, it perhaps was taken harder by Diocletian, the senior emperor in the East, for it revealed a weakness in the new imperial dyarchy that might inspire other would-be rebels. Fortunately, no other rebellions found such success during their two decades at the helm. This type was an invention of Carausius and we have no reason to believe either of the legitimate emperors approved, despite their being portrayed on the coin and being described as brothers of the usurper. It is impossible to know whether Carausius issued this type in the naive hope that the goodwill might have a softening effect on his rival emperors, or, more likely, that he wished to convince his own subjects of a fictional concord between the three emperors. A similar message is echoed in a less dramatic fashion on a variety of Carausius' issues with reverse inscriptions ending in AVGGG (indicating three emperors) and with coins struck entirely in the names of Diocletian and Maximian.
This issue is dated to 292 by Carson, meaning it was struck as the future Caesar Constantius Chlorus was making his final preparations to eject Carausius from his coastal strongholds in Gaul.

As numismatic expert and writer Doug Smith reminds me, some of Carausius's coins have no obvious mention of Carausius at all. Instead, they bear the name of either Diocletion or Maximian. On the reverse, however, the inscriptions end in AVGGG. The triple "GGG" signifies Carausius's hope for recognition as one of the three Augusti (Maximian, Diocletian, and Carausius)



http://www.acsearch.info/record.html?id=197549

By AD 293, however, Diocletian had formed the tetrarchy. He had earlier made Maximian his co-Augustus. Each Augustus then took on a Caesar who served as his adoptive son and heir.

Constantius was assigned to the Western Roman Empire as Maximian's Caesar and was instructed to regain the territory lost to Carausius. As Constantius relentlessly regained control of the breakaway territories for the Roman Empire, Carausius was assassinated by his own minister, Allectus. Allectus survived for only three years till AD 296, when he was killed by the forces of Constantius.

This is how the reign of Carausius ended along with his short-lived independent empire. Numismatics give insight into the futile attempts of the usurper Carausius to curry favor from the legitimate powers of Rome. They also shed light on poorly documented chapters of Roman history.

guy also known as gaius Edited June 25, 2016 by guy