Front Cover: The emperor Aurelian (270–275), discussed in two of the contributions in this issue, was said to have been nicknamed “manu ad ferrum” (“With Hand on Sword”) before becoming emperor. Subsequently, he gained the epithet “Restitutor orbis” (“Restorer of the World”) for having defeated the Palmyrene Empire in the east and the Gallic Empire in the west and thus restored the Roman Empire to its full extent—save for the abandonment of the transdanubian province of Dacia. Along with recovering lost territory, Aurelian also did his bit to bring the “Imperial Crisis” to an end in other ways, and to deal with some of the problems that had accumulated during the Principate. For example, he began the construction of the first new wall around Rome; he favored Sol Invictus, “the Unconquered Sun,” as the primary deity of the Roman state; and he instituted reforms intended to restore the value of the debased coinage. All for nought, however, as he was murdered by some of his own officers in 275. During the ensuing interregnum, his wife Severina may have briefly held power. Aurelian appears here on a debased-silver antoninianus, or double denarius. The obverse depicts a severe and serious looking bust Aurelian, cuirassed, draped, and wearing a radiate crown, facing right. The legend reads “IMPerator Caius AVRELIANVS AVGustus.” Numismatically, the radiate crown on an emperor was the sign of a double denomination, as in the case of the copper dupondius, valued at two asses, and the debased silver antoninianus, valued at two denarii. No clear explanation has been adduced as to why the radiate crown indicated double value, except insofar as the divine association with Sol, Helios, or some manifestation of a sun god would have implied an added value, significance, or importance. For women of the imperial family, a double value was indicated by a upward facing crescent moon on which the obverse portrait bust rested. More specifically, the radiate crown consists of a white silk ribbon (that is, a diadem), with metal spikes attached to it, bound around the head and tied at the back, with two clearly depicted ribbon ends, or lemnisci, dangling behind. Although the radiate nature of the crown clearly suggests some kind of connection with the sun god, debate continues about what the significance of the radiate crown was, that is, did it suggest the actual divinity of the emperor if not even a shared identity with Sol, or was it, in the words of Hijmans (p.526), “a purely symbolic, honorary attribute with solar and divine connotations.” It also remains unclear whether the radiate crown was something that was actually worn, as might be suggested by the very practical tied-ribbon arrangement, or, whether, as proposed by Bergmann (p.278), it was merely a conventionalized method for indicating a double denomination—although there would seem to be little reason to depict it as a real object if it were purely symbolic. In the Late Roman Empire, a cloth ribbon, either alone or encrusted with pearls and precious stones, served as the diadem that was bound on the heads of Roman emperors. See M. Bergmann, Die Strahlen der Herrscher: Theomorphes Herrscherbild und politische Symbolik im Hellenismus und in der römischen Kaiserzeit (Mainz, 1998); Steven E. Hijmans, Sol: The Sun in the Art and Religions of Rome (PhD dissertation, Univ. of Groningen, 2009); David Shotter, “Gods, Emperors, and Coins,” Greece and Rome 26 (1979), 48–57 at 50.
