Welcome to the best ancient Greek, Roman, Biblical, Medieval, Byzantine
online coin store. Up above are pages you can click on that give you great
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men and women. As a numismatist, I believe ancient coins make one of the
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old money. Ancient coins come in both bronze and precious metals such as
silver and gold. What is great is that you can great value as these types of
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an amazing feeling to hold historical currency from thousands of years ago.
These coins are worth money not just for their intrinsic, but also
historical, numismatic and collector value. Investing money into an ancient
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that make up this great hobby. You may be looking for advice on how or where
to start. There are many great links available in my eBay store that cover
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value, especially for the long term and the short term. The prices you can
buy coins here are negotiable via the 'make offer' feature that is available
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selection of rarities not found anywhere else. The collecting guide above is
a great list that can be used as a tool to collect almost every emperor or
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Greek and Roman Commemorative coins deals with the most interesting
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with you for a lifetime. Some of the oldest, most valuable ancient coins
that you may find here are that of Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great.
Exchange your modern money for ancient money by buying an amazing ancient
coin today. A great gift for yourself and others.
Not much is known about Balbinus before his elevation to emperor. It
has been conjectured that he descended from Publius Coelius Balbinus
Vibullius Pius, the
consul ordinarius of 136 or 137, and
wife Aquilia. If this were true, he was also related to the family of
Q. Pompeius Falco, which supplied many
politicians of consular rank throughout the 3rd century, and to the
1st-century politician, engineer and author
Julius Frontinus, as well as a
descendant of a first cousin of
Trajan. He was a
patrician from birth, and was the son
(either by birth or adoption) of ... Caelius Calvinus, who was legate of
Cappadocia in 184. According to
Herodian he had governed provinces, but the list of seven
provinces given in the Historia Augusta, as well as the statement
that Balbinus had been both
Proconsul of
Asia and of
Africa, are likely to be mere invention. He had certainly
been twice consul; his first consulate is not certainly known but is
believed to have been about 203 or in July 211; he was consul for the
second time in 213 as colleague of
Caracalla, which suggests he enjoyed that emperor's favour.
Reign
According to Edward Gibbon (drawing upon the narratives of Herodian
and the Historia Augusta):
Balbinus was an admired orator, a poet of distinguished fame, and
a wise magistrate, who had exercised with innocence and applause the
civil jurisdiction in almost all the interior provinces of the
empire. His birth was noble, his fortune affluent, his manners
liberal and affable. In him, the love of pleasure was corrected by a
sense of dignity, nor had the habits of ease deprived him of a
capacity for business. (...) The two colleagues [Pupienus and
Balbinus] had both been consul (Balbinus had twice enjoyed that
honourable office), both had been named among the twenty lieutenants
of the senate; and, since the one was sixty and the other
seventy-four years old, they had both attained the full maturity of
age and experience.
Gordians were proclaimed Emperors in
Africa, the Senate appointed a committee of twenty men, including
Balbinus, to co-ordinate operations against
Maximinus Thrax. On the news of the
Gordians' defeat, the Senate met in closed session in the Temple of
Jupiter and voted Pupienus and Balbinus as co-emperors, though they were
soon forced to co-opt the child
Gordian III as a colleague. Balbinus
was probably in his early seventies: his qualifications for rule are
unknown, except presumably that he was a senior senator, rich and
well-connected. While Pupienus marched to
Ravenna, where he oversaw the campaign against Maximinus,
Balbinus remained in Rome, but failed to keep public order. The sources
suggest that after Pupienus's victorious return following Maximinus'
death, Balbinus suspected Pupienus of wanting to supplant him, and they
were soon living in different parts of the Imperial palace, where they
were later assassinated by disaffected elements of the
Praetorian Guardd.
Sarcophagus
sarcophagus made for himself and his
wife (whose name is unknown). Discovered in fragments near the
Via Appia and restored, this is the
only example of a Roman Imperial sarcophagus of this type to have
survived. On the lid are reclining figures of Balbinus and his wife, the
figure of the Emperor also being a fine portrait of him.
Although in accounts of their joint reign Balbinus is emphasized as
the civilian as against Pupienus the military man, on the side of the
sarcophagus he is portrayed in full military dress.
