The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• The Works of Edward Gibbon
• The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
• Chapter Xxvii
• Chapter Xxviii
• Chapter Xxix
• Chapter Xxx
• Chapter Xxxi
• Chapter Xxxii
• Chapter Xxxiii
• Appendix Additional Notes By the Editor
• 1.: Theology In the Market-places of Constantinople — ( P. 13 )
• 2.: Did Theodosius Visit Rome In 394? — ( P. 66 )
• 3.: The Libraries of Alexandria — ( P. 85 , 87 ) 1
• 4.: Worship of Relics — ( P. 98 , 99 )
• 5.: Stilicho In Inscriptions — ( P. 119 , 134 , 159 )
• 6.: The Two Eastern Expeditions of Stilicho and His Illyric Policy — ( P. 122 , 144 )
• 7.: Alaric In Greece — ( P. 140-143 )
• 8.: Penetrabis Ad Urbem — ( P. 148 )
• 9.: Alaric’s First Invasion of Italy — ( P. 148 , 151 Sqq. )
• 10.: Radagaisus — ( P. 167 )
• 11.: The Second Carausius — ( P. 178 )
• 12.: The Tyrant Constantine — ( P. 178 )
• 13.: “the Statue of a Poet Far Superior to Claudian” — ( P. 191 )
• 14.: Death of Maximus — ( P. 266 )
• 15.: Septimania — ( P. 286 )
• 16.: Rate of Travelling By Sea — ( P. 289 )
• 17.: Armenian Affairs — ( P. 331 , 333 )
• 18.: Procopian Legends — ( P. 354 , and Vol. Vi . P. 80 )
• 19.: The “egyptian” of Synesius — ( P. 304 )

11.

THE SECOND CARAUSIUS — (P. 178)

A new tyrant in Britain at the beginning of the fifth century was discovered by Mr. Arthur Evans through a coin found at Richborough (Rutupiae). See Numismatic Chronicle, 3rd ser. vol. vii. p. 191 sqq., 1887. The obverse of this bronze coin “presents a head modelled in a somewhat barbarous fashion on that of a fourth century Emperor, diademed and with the bust draped in the paludamentum.” The legend is: DOMINO CARAVS IO CES. “The reverse presents a familiar bronze type of Constans or Constantius ii. The Emperor holding phoenix and labarum standard stands at the prow of the vessel, the rudder of which is held by Victory. In the present case, however, in place of the usual legend that accompanies this reverse — FEL. TEMP. REPARATIO — appears the strange and unparalelled inscription: —

This coin cannot be ascribed to the well-known Carausius of Diocletian’s reign; for the type of the reverse is never found before the middle of the fourth century. The DOMINO (without a pronoun — nostro) on the obverse is quite unexampled on a Roman coin. Mr. Evans conjectures that CONSTANTINO is to be read on the reverse and makes it probable that this obscure Carausius was colleague of Constantine iii., left behind by him, with the title of Caesar, to hold the island while he was himself absent in Gaul; and would refer the issue of the coin to 409. “The memory of the brave Carausius, who first raised Britain to a position of maritime supremacy, may have influenced the choice of this obscure Caesar, at a moment when the Romano-British population was about to assert as it had never done before its independence of Continental Empire.” Whether chosen by Constantine or not the coin “may at least be taken as evidence that the new Caesar stood forth as the representative of the interests of the Constantinian dynasty in the island as against the faction of the rebel Gerontius and his barbarian allies.”