Roman Empire AD 248-249 AR Double-Denarius Pacatian NGC Ancients AU

Category: Roman Empire AD 248-249 AR Double-Denarius Pacatian
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Pacatian, c.AD 248-249. The year AD 248 marked the Roman Empire's celebration of Rome's millennium, traditionally dated from 753 BC, with Emperor Philip I "the Arab" (r. 244–249) hosting lavish Secular Games in April to project unity amid escalating crises. However, barbarian incursions by Goths, Carpi, and other tribes ravaged the vulnerable Balkan provinces along the Danube, exacerbating provincial unrest. In late 248, disgruntled legions in Pannonia and Moesia proclaimed their commander Tiberius Claudius Pacatianus (Pacatian) emperor, sparking a brief revolt. Philip dispatched Senator Gaius Messius Quintus Decius to suppress the uprising; by early 249, Pacatian was killed by his own troops. Decius, having repelled invading Goths, Germans, and Dacian Carpi while earning the soldiers' loyalty, was acclaimed emperor by the same Danubian legions in spring 249. He marched on Rome, defeating Philip at the Battle of Verona in September 249, where Philip perished—ending his five-year reign marred by internal strife and ineffective border defenses.


The only known coinage for Pacatian consists of double-denarii (antoniniani), crudely overstruck on earlier Roman silver issues to fund his troops quickly. Find spots and stylistic parallels strongly attribute these to a mint in Moesia, most likely Viminacium (a key legionary base in Moesia Superior near the Danube). Viminacium, established under Gordian III, had long produced prolific provincial bronze coinage, but none survives for Pacatian—possibly because barbarian invasions and the revolt disrupted operations, or the mint prioritized striking these imperial overstruck issues for the legions.

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