For three centuries, the Roman leader Sponsian, who was first discovered on a set of coins found in Transylvania, was believed to be fake. Unearthed in 1713, the coins depicted him as an emperor — but in the absence of other information, the unconventional coins were widely dismissed as forgeries.
However, a new study on four ancient gold coins from The Hunterian collection at the University of Glasgow and the Brukenthal National Museum in Sibiu, Romania, has revealed that not only were the coins authentic, but they shed light on an obscure figure, and his role in the Crisis of the Third Century.
Professor Paul N Pearson, professorial research associate at UCL's Earth Sciences department, who led the project, says it began during the first Covid lockdown in 2020. “During the first covid lockdown, I decided to write a new history of the Third Century crisis in the Roman empire, which began with a viral pandemic in 248 AD and was a time of anxiety, economic decline, inflation, political instability and war, so seemed grimly appropriate.”
His book, The Roman Empire in Crisis, 248–260: When the Gods Abandoned Rome, spans a period of time when the Roman empire was overrun with civil strife and rebellion, as successive leaders attempted to seize power for themselves, only to be murdered and overthrown.
“The empire suffered a series of escalation disasters until it broke into warring chunks around 259-260 AD,” Pearson tells The National. “I came across the story of the 'fake emperor' Sponsian while researching this — ‘fake’ because he is known only from coins that were pronounced fakes in the 1860s and by every specialist since.
“I discovered one of the coins was in The Hunterian museum in Glasgow and asked the curator of coins and medals, Jesper Ericsson, for a photo for the book, as only grainy black-and-white images were available. Both of us were intrigued by what appeared to be wear scratches on the surface and dirt in the crevices among the lettering, so we decided to use modern scientific methods to decide if the coin really was fake or perhaps was authentic from the ancient world, despite being so unusual.”
The Sponsian coins are “extremely” rare, he says, with only four depicting him known to exist today. They form part of a larger group of unusual gold coins, which also feature the well-known emperors, Gordian III and Philip the Arab. Adding further confusion, two of the Sponsian coins feature mid-third century style on the front, with a reverse design copied from a Republican issue that would have been more than 370 years old at the time of manufacture.
“They are very obviously not of the high standard expected from the mint at Rome, instead they look distinctly home-made, and have been cast in clay moulds rather than struck between dies as was normal. So it is little wonder that experts have written them off as fakes,” says Pearson.
However, Pearson’s team concluded that rather than fakes, they were probably minted in the isolated province of Dacia — perhaps in the city of Apulum — by jewellery artisans, because the area had no regular coin mints at the time.
Europe’s richest gold field, Dacia had an abundance of gold and silver buried in its mountains, which was usually processed and exported to Rome as ingots — though this became increasingly difficult as the crisis deepened. Archaeological studies show that the area was cut off from the rest of the Roman empire in around 260 AD.
Encircled by enemies, Sponsian may have been a local military officer who was forced to step up and assume supreme command to protect the local military and civilian population until order was restored.
“At the same time, the flow of money from Rome dried up. The obvious thing for the stranded authorities to do would be to use the gold themselves and turn it to money. Gold was universally regarded as a high-value metal in Roman times as it is today and could be traded as bullion by weight.”
In Rome, coinage was also an important source of power and authority, and Sponsian may have authorised the creation of coinage to promote stability and support the economy of his isolated frontier territory.
Although little is known of who Sponsian was, the team has been able to draw some deductions from the coins themselves, along with “the very abbreviated historical summaries, and the fact they were found in Transylvania, in an area the Romans called Dacia”.
Pearson adds: “If our interpretation of the Emperor Sponsian is correct, he was a marginal figure for the history of the Empire as a whole and certainly never ruled in Rome. But he is of potentially of great interest for understanding the end days of Roman rule in Dacia, and for the history of Romania he might be a particularly interesting figure.”
Pearson says the biggest mysteries are why the coins are so deeply worn and only yet known locally.
“The best explanation, we suggest, is that they come from a time around 260 to early 270s, when the province became isolated from the rest of the Empire and the borderlands and neighbouring districts south of the Danube were devastated by invaders. The authorities in the province could have made their own high-value money to prevent rebellion and keep the self-sufficient money economy going.
"But this is just a hypothesis, and we would love to develop and discuss these ideas with historians now that our work is published.”
Scroll through images of 1,000-year-old coins discovered in Sharjah below
War 2
Director: Ayan Mukerji
Stars: Hrithik Roshan, NTR, Kiara Advani, Ashutosh Rana
Rating: 2/5
Timeline
1947
Ferrari’s road-car company is formed and its first badged car, the 125 S, rolls off the assembly line
1962
250 GTO is unveiled
1969
Fiat becomes a Ferrari shareholder, acquiring 50 per cent of the company
1972
The Fiorano circuit, Ferrari’s racetrack for development and testing, opens
1976
First automatic Ferrari, the 400 Automatic, is made
1987
F40 launched
1988
Enzo Ferrari dies; Fiat expands its stake in the company to 90 per cent
2002
The Enzo model is announced
2010
Ferrari World opens in Abu Dhabi
2011
First four-wheel drive Ferrari, the FF, is unveiled
2013
LaFerrari, the first Ferrari hybrid, arrives
2014
Fiat Chrysler announces the split of Ferrari from the parent company
2015
Ferrari launches on Wall Street
2017
812 Superfast unveiled; Ferrari celebrates its 70th anniversary
How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
Indoor Cricket World Cup Dubai 2017
Venue Insportz, Dubai; Admission Free
Day 1 fixtures (Saturday)
Men 1.45pm, Malaysia v Australia (Court 1); Singapore v India (Court 2); UAE v New Zealand (Court 3); South Africa v Sri Lanka (Court 4)
Women Noon, New Zealand v South Africa (Court 3); England v UAE (Court 4); 5.15pm, Australia v UAE (Court 3); England v New Zealand (Court 4)
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
UAE SQUAD
Omar Abdulrahman (Al Hilal), Ali Khaseif, Ali Mabkhout, Salem Rashed, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Khalfan Mubarak, Zayed Al Ameri, Mohammed Al Attas (Al Jazira), Khalid Essa, Ahmed Barman, Ryan Yaslam, Bandar Al Ahbabi (Al Ain), Habib Fardan, Tariq Ahmed, Mohammed Al Akbari (Al Nasr), Ali Saleh, Ali Salmin (Al Wasl), Adel Al Hosani, Ali Hassan Saleh, Majed Suroor (Sharjah), Ahmed Khalil, Walid Abbas, Majed Hassan, Ismail Al Hammadi (Shabab Al Ahli), Hassan Al Muharrami, Fahad Al Dhahani (Bani Yas), Mohammed Al Shaker (Ajman)
RESULTS
6.30pm UAE 1000 Guineas Trial Conditions (TB) US$100,000 (Dirt) 1,400m
Winner Final Song, Christophe Soumillon (jockey), Saeed bin Suroor (trainer).
7.05pm Handicap (TB) $135,000 (Turf) 1,000m
Winner Almanaara, Dane O’Neill, Doug Watson.
7.40pm Handicap (TB) $175,000 (D) 1,900m
Winner Grand Argentier, Brett Doyle, Doug Watson.
8.15pm Meydan Challenge Listed Handicap (TB) $175,000 (T) 1,400m
Winner Major Partnership, Patrick Cosgrave, Saeed bin Suroor.
8.50pm Dubai Stakes Group 3 (TB) $200,000 (D) 1,200m
Winner Gladiator King, Mickael Barzalona, Satish Seemar.
9.25pm Dubai Racing Club Classic Listed Handicap (TB) $175,000 (T) 2,410m
Winner Universal Order, Richard Mullen, David Simcock.
Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor Cricket World Cup - Sep 16-20, Insportz, Dubai
16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side
8 There are eight players per team
9 There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.
5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls
4 Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership
Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.
Zones
A Front net, behind the striker and wicketkeeper: 0 runs
B Side nets, between the striker and halfway down the pitch: 1 run
C Side nets between halfway and the bowlers end: 2 runs
D Back net: 4 runs on the bounce, 6 runs on the full
The Bio
Favourite vegetable: “I really like the taste of the beetroot, the potatoes and the eggplant we are producing.”
Holiday destination: “I like Paris very much, it’s a city very close to my heart.”
Book: “Das Kapital, by Karl Marx. I am not a communist, but there are a lot of lessons for the capitalist system, if you let it get out of control, and humanity.”
Musician: “I like very much Fairuz, the Lebanese singer, and the other is Umm Kulthum. Fairuz is for listening to in the morning, Umm Kulthum for the night.”
HIJRA
Starring: Lamar Faden, Khairiah Nathmy, Nawaf Al-Dhufairy
Director: Shahad Ameen
Rating: 3/5
GAC GS8 Specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 248hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 400Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 9.1L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh149,900
THE CLOWN OF GAZA
Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
Starring: Alaa Meqdad
Rating: 4/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
Founders: Ines Mena, Claudia Ribas, Simona Agolini, Nourhan Hassan and Therese Hundt
Date started: January 2017, app launched November 2017
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Private/Retail/Leisure
Number of Employees: 18 employees, including full-time and flexible workers
Funding stage and size: Seed round completed Q4 2019 - $1m raised
Funders: Oman Technology Fund, 500 Startups, Vision Ventures, Seedstars, Mindshift Capital, Delta Partners Ventures, with support from the OQAL Angel Investor Network and UAE Business Angels
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
RESULT
Argentina 0 Croatia 3
Croatia: Rebic (53'), Modric (80'), Rakitic (90' 1)
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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