Diocletian AD 284-305 Bronze Follis London

Diocletian AD 284-305 Bronze Follis

Laureate and cuirassed bust right/ Genius wearing modius standing left and holding patera and cornucopiae

London

RCV12760; 27mm, 10.18g

This coin comes with a previous handwritten collector’s label.

 

Diocletian was of humble birth but became a highly respected general. He was appointed head of the imperial bodyguard under Numerian. When Numerian was found dead Diocletian was proclaimed emperor by his troops. He accused Arrius Aper, the praetorian prefect, of the murder and had him executed. He then moved against Carinus who he defeated in a closely fought battle at Margum, near Belgrade. This left Diocletian in uncontested possession of the imperial throne.
Diocletian wanted to save the empire from the political and economic turmoil that had afflicted it for the previous 50 years. To do this he instituted a series of reforms ending the Augustan traditions of regarding the emperor as being all powerful. In place he created a Tetrachy whereby the empire was to be governed by a flexible team of rulers each responsible for part only of the empire. In government he greatly increased the number of provinces by dividing them into smaller units. Roman Britain for example was split into 4 units each with a separate governor. The frontiers of the empire were also strengthened. Diocletian administered the eastern provinces.
Diocletian also reformed the coinage. Whilst the gold aureus was retained. A new pure silver coin, the Argenteus, and bronze coin, the Follis, replaced the old denarius and antoninianus both of which by now contained little if any silver. The number of provincial mints was also increased.
Unusually in AD 305 Diocletian, by now in declining health, abdicated retiring to a palace he had built for himself near Split. Here he eventually died around AD 316.