Nicomedia, Bithynia (hippocamp coll.)

[B]Nicomedia, Bithynia (reign of Antoninus Pius; 138-161 AD.) AE 18[/B] [U]Obv[/U]: Bust of Antoninus Pius, facing right; AVTKAICAP ANT[WNINOC] legend in exerge. [U]Rev[/U]: Hippocamp, facing right; NIKOMHDEI / MHT[KAITH]POTHC legend above & below hippocamp. [u]Attribution[/u]: Lindgren III, 202; Mionnet Suppl.10, 1036 [u]Provenance[/u]: ex. David Connors (#rf5b), 7.13.06 [u]Weight[/u]: gm [u]Maximal Diameter[/u]: mm [u]Axis[/u]: 6 [u]Note[/u]: Titus Aurelius Fulvus Boionius Arrius Antoninus Pius (September 19, 86–March 7, 161) was Roman emperor from 138 to 161. He was the fourth of the Five Good Emperors and a member of the Aurelii. He did not possess the sobriquet "Pius" until after his accession to the throne. Almost certainly, he earned the name "Pius" because he compelled the Senate to deify Hadrian. On his accession, Antoninus' name became "Imperator Caesar Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Augustus Pontifex Maximus". One of his first acts as Emperor was to persuade the Senate to grant divine honours to Hadrian, which they had at first refused; his efforts to persuade the Senate to grant these honours is the most likely reason given for his title of Pius (dutiful in affection; compare pietas). Two other reasons for this title are that he would support his aged father-in-law with his hand at Senate meetings, and that he had saved those men that Hadrian, during his period of ill-health, had condemned to death. He built temples, theaters, and mausoleums, promoted the arts and sciences, and bestowed honours and salaries upon the teachers of rhetoric and philosophy. His reign was comparatively peaceful; there were several military disturbances throughout the Empire in his time, in Mauretania, Iudaea, and amongst the Brigantes in Britannia, but none of them are considered serious. The unrest in Britannia is believed to have led to the construction of the Antonine Wall from the Firth of Forth to the Firth of Clyde, although it was soon abandoned. He was virtually unique among emperors in that he dealt with these crises without leaving Italy once during his reign, but instead dealt with provincial matters of war and peace through their governors or through imperial letters to the cities such as Ephesus (of which some were publicly displayed ). This style of government was highly praised by his contemporaries and by later generations. Of the public transactions of this period we have scant information, but, to judge by what we possess, those twenty-two years were not remarkably eventful in comparison to those before and after his; the surviving evidence is not complete enough to determine whether we should interpret, with older scholars, that he wisely curtailed the activities of the Roman Empire to a careful minimum, or perhaps that he was uninterested in events away from Rome and Italy and his inaction contributed to the pressing troubles that faced not only Marcus Aurelius but also the emperors of the third century. He maintained good relations with the Senate (in contrast to Hadrian). (source - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoninus_Pius) ------------------------------ Nicomedia was founded by Nicomedes I of Bithynia at the head of the Gulf of Astacus (which opens on the Propontis) in 264 BC. The city has ever since been one of the chief towns in this part of Asia Minor. It was the metropolis of Bithynia under the Roman empire (see Nicaea), and Diocletian made it the chief city of the Eastern Roman empire. Owing to its position at the convergence of the Asiatic roads to the new capital, Nicomedia retained its importance even after the foundation of Constantinople and its own capture by the Turks (1338). See C. Texier, Asie mineure (Paris, 1839); V. Cuenet, Turquie d'Asie (Paris, 1894). RI229