Gold coin proving the existence of a Roman emperor who was thought to be fictional

An ancient gold coin proves that a third-century Roman emperor, erased from history as a fictional character, really existed, scientists say.

This profile-faced gold coin was found over 300 years ago in Transylvania, a remote outpost of what was then the vast Roman Empire.

At that time it was considered false and kept in the museum storeroom.

But now scientists say the scratch marks seen under a microscope are evidence that the coin was in circulation some 2,000 years ago.

Professor Paul Pearson of University College London, who led the study, told the BBC he was amazed by the discovery.

“What we found is the emperor. It was a figure that experts considered fictitious and excluded, ”he said.

“But we think it was real and played a role in the story.”

The coin in question was among a small hoard discovered in 1713. Until the middle of the 19th century, it was believed that this was a real Roman coin, when experts they suspected it might have been produced by counterfeiters of the daybecause of the rough design.

The final blow came in 1863 when Henry Cohen, then the leading examiner at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, considered the problem for his large catalog of Roman coins. He stated that these were not only “modern” forgeries, but poorly made and “ridiculously made up”. Other specialists agreed, and to this day Esponsiano is not mentioned in academic catalogs.

However, Professor Pierson suspected otherwise when he saw photographs of the coin while researching for a book on the history of the Roman Empire. could see surface scratches which he believed could have been produced when the coin was in circulation.

He contacted the Hunterian Museum at the University of Glasgow, where the coin was kept in a cabinet along with three others from the original hoard, and asked if he could work with researchers at the institution.

They examined four coins under a powerful microscope and confirmed in the peer-reviewed research publication PLOS ONE that they were in fact scratches. models corresponded to currencies What hitprohibition against others inside the wallet.

Chemical analysis also showed the coins had been buried for hundreds of years, according to Jesper Eriksson, the museum’s numismatic curator who collaborated with Professor Pearson on the project.

Who was Sponsiano?

The researchers’ task now was to answer who was the emperor they had just rediscovered.

Experts believe that he was a military leader forced to be crowned Emperor of Dacia, the most remote and hard-to-defend province of the Roman Empire..

Archaeological research has established that Dacia was cut off from the rest of the empire around 260. There was a pandemic, there was a civil war, and the empire was falling apart.

Surrounded by enemies and cut off from Rome, Sponsianus probably assumed supreme command during a period of chaos and civil war, protecting the military and civilian population of Dacia until order was restored and the province was excluded. evacuated between 271 and 275 AD. in.according to Jesper Eriksson.

“Our interpretation is that he was responsible for maintaining control over the army and the civilian population, because they were surrounded and completely isolated,” he explained. “In order to create a functional economy in the province, they decided to mint their own coins.”

This theory explains why the coins are different from the Roman ones.

“Perhaps they did not know who the then emperor was because there was a civil war going on,” says Professor Pearson.

“But what they needed was a supreme commander in the absence of any real authority from Rome. He took command at a time when it was necessary to command“.

Once the researchers established that the coins were genuine and that they had discovered what they thought was a forgotten Roman emperor, they alerted experts at the Brukenthal Museum in Sibiu, Transylvania, which also has a Sponson coin.

It is part of the legacy of Baron Samuel von Brukenthal, the Habsburg governor of the Grand Duchy of Transylvania. The Baron was studying the coin when he died and, according to legend, the last thing he did was write a note that read: “authentic”.

The specialists of the Brukenthal Museum, like other experts, classified the coin as a historical fake. But they changed their mind after seeing a study done in the UK.

According to the interim administrator of the Brukenthal National Museum, Alexandru Constantin Chituta, the discovery is of particular interest for the history of Transylvania and Romania.

“For the history of Transylvania and Romania in particular, but also for the history of Europe in general, if these results are accepted by the scientific community, they will mean adding another important figure to our history,” he said.

Coins found Exhibited at the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow.Scotland.

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