(someone had at last to do a video in german, I was missing such by myself...) //cc @histodons
Nachdem (logischerweise) einige englischsprachige Videos zu dem Thema seit November aufgekommen sind, habe ich mich auch mal (auf deutsch) dem #Sponsianus -Rätsel angenommen:
"Ein Beweis für Kaiser Sponsianus???"
(31min.) neue Folge der #ChefVorlesung: https://youtu.be/ktNIKR40Ljc #Römer #romans #Archäologie #archaeology #Numismatik #romans #coins
#Archaeology #Romans #coins @histodons
#Sponsianus
the lately "Sponsianus-coin(s) from Romania (now in Glasgow) gazetted as "true" instead of "fake" - might be still fakes. Guy de la Bedoyere does a very good examination in his both videos!
Hmmm, it seems that the #RomanEmperor #Sponsianus that I told you about last week didn't exist, and his coins are 18th-century forgeries after all. The research that declared them genuine was sloppy, and proved nothing.
So scrap Sponsianus off of your list of Roman Emperors. Fake news.
Pity, it was a good story. And some 3rd-century Emperors *are* only known by their coins, so it was not inherently unbelievable.
Do we have a new Roman emperor #sponsian / #sponsianus?
As for the current debate, I am more concerned with the notion of 'authenticity'.
some thoughts, short thread here:
https://twitter.com/WienandJohannes/status/1596528438143488001
@antiquidons #antiquidon #antiquidons #histodon #histodons #ancientworld #classics #antiquity #numismatics #archaeology
@alessa_ed So many open questions here, and a very clumsy use of the term Emperor, in my opinion. Wouldn't even call someone an usurper if he neither challenged the Empire nor was perceived as a challenge.
So the gist is: the coins are not recent. Everything else remains to be debated.
#noxp @antiquidons #Sponsianus #RomanDacia #RomanHistory
The reaction to the #Sponsianus story has been mixed. #Numismatists and others have raised concern that the conclusion may be an overreach. Do these #coins really "prove" the existence of an emperor named #Sponsian? The press has tended to take the announcement at face value, though some reporting includes comments from skeptics:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/gold-coins-ancient-rome-emperor-sponsian-11669229082
A newly-released study suggests that a small group of gold #coins long considered to be 18th-century fantasies may in fact belong to an otherwise unknown 3rd-century #Roman usurper named #Sponsianus. Reaction is mixed. The open access paper can be found here: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0274285
#numismatics #Sponsian #aureus
Image below courtesy Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sponsianus_Aureus.PNG#globalusage
The ‘Roman emperor’ Sponsian is known only from an assemblage of coins allegedly found in Transylvania (Romania) in 1713. They are very unlike regular Roman coins in style and manufacture, with various enigmatic features including bungled legends and historically mixed motifs, and have long been dismissed as poorly made forgeries. Here we present non-destructive imaging and spectroscopic results that show features indicative of authenticity. Deep micro-abrasion patterns suggest extensive circulation-wear. Superficial patches of soil minerals bound by authigenic cement and overlain by oxidation products indicate a history of prolonged burial then exhumation. These observations force a re-evaluation of Sponsian as a historical personage. Combining evidence from the coins with the historical record, we suggest he was most likely an army commander in the isolated Roman Province of Dacia during the military crisis of the 260s CE, and that his crudely manufactured coins supported a functioning monetary economy that persisted locally for an appreciable period.
Martin Mundorf 
ppk 🇪🇺
Johannes Wienand
Thomas G. M. Blank
Sebastien 🌍 🇵🇸🇺🇦 
grumpyoldmarxist
David L Tranbarger
IsWacky