Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T12:41:46.031Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Carausius and His Brothers: The Construction and Deconstruction of an Imperial Image in the Late Third Century AD

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 December 2019

Caillan Davenport
Caillan Davenport*
Affiliation:
Macquarie Universitycaillan.davenport@mq.edu.au
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article examines the public image of the emperor Carausius, a Roman army officer who claimed authority over Britain and parts of Gaul between 286 and 293, in opposition to Diocletian and his Tetrarchic colleagues. Carausius’ coinage celebrated his fleet, his naval prowess, and his divine support from Neptune and Oceanus. These designs were created as part of a strategy to refashion Carausius’ humble background as a sailor into a statement of imperial suitability. However, Carausius’ claims were undermined by the orators who delivered speeches in praise of his Tetrarchic rivals, Maximian and Constantius, in the years 289, 291, and 297. Their panegyrics subverted Carausius’ naval experience and claim to control the Ocean, instead portraying him as a pirate, brigand, and threat to the people of Gaul. After the reconquest of Britain, the medallions and monuments of the Tetrarchic regime commemorated their own naval success and control over the Ocean, suppressing the claims of Carausius. The propaganda campaign against Carausius was driven by the fact that he was an emperor of undistinguished origin, who had risen up through the ranks of the army, just like the Tetrarchs themselves. The emperors wished to distance themselves from their former colleague in order to discourage further rebellion from within the officer corps.

Keywords

CarausiusTetrarchsRoman emperorsRoman panegyricRoman imperial imagery
Type
Research Article
Information
Antichthon , Volume 53 , 2019 , pp. 108 - 133
Copyright
Copyright © The Australasian Society for Classical Studies 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abdy, R. (2006), ‘In the Pay of the Emperor: Coins from the Beaurains (Arras) Treasure’, in Hartley, E. et al. (eds.), Constantine the Great: York's Roman Emperor. York, 52–58.Google Scholar
Ando, C. (2000), Imperial Ideology and Provincial Loyalty in the Roman Empire. Berkeley.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnes, T. D. (1982), Constantine and Eusebius. Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Bastien, P. (1980), ‘The Iantinum Mint’, ANSMN 25, 77–85.Google Scholar
Bastien, P. and Metzger, C. (1977), Le Trésor de Beaurains (dit d'Arras). Wetteren.Google Scholar
Birley, A. R. (1980), The People of Roman Britain. Berkeley.Google Scholar
Birley, A. R. (2005), The Roman Government of Britain. Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brock, R. (2013), Greek Political Imagery from Homer to Aristotle. London.Google Scholar
Burnett, A. (1984), ‘The Coinage of Allectus: Chronology and Interpretation’, BNJ 54, 21–40.Google Scholar
Casey, P. J. (1977a), ‘Carausius and Allectus—Rulers in Gaul?’, Britannia 8, 283–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Casey, P. J. (1977b), ‘Tradition and Innovation in the Coinage of Carausius and Allectus’, in Munby, J. and Henig, M. (eds.), Roman Life and Art in Britain: A Celebration in Honour of the Eightieth Birthday of Jocelyn Toynbee. Oxford, 217–29.Google Scholar
Casey, P. J. (1994), Carausius and Allectus. The British Usurpers. London.Google Scholar
Casey, P. J. (2000), ‘Liberalitas Augusti: Imperial Military Donatives and the Arras Hoard’, in Alföldy, G., Dobson, B., and Eck, W. (eds.), Kaiser, Heer und Gesellschaft in der römischer Kaiserzeit. Gedenkschrift für Eric Birley. Stuttgart, 445–58.Google Scholar
Christol, M. (1977), ‘La carrière de Traianus Mucianus et l'origine des protectores’, Chiron 7, 393–408.Google Scholar
Christol, M. (1982), ‘Les réformes de Gallien et la carrière sénatoriale’, in Panciera, S. (ed.), Epigrafia e ordine senatorio I. Rome, 143–66.Google Scholar
Christol, M. (2014), ‘Autour des travaux d'Hercule: Postume et Gallien’, RN 6e série 171, 179–93.Google Scholar
Clay, C. L. (1976), ‘Roman Imperial Medallions: the Date and Purpose of their Issue’, in Cahn, H. A. and le Rider, G. (eds.), Actes du 8ème congrès international de numismatique. Paris, 253–65.Google Scholar
Corcoran, S. (2004), ‘The Publication of Law in the Era of the Tetrarchs—Diocletian, Galerius, Gregorius, Hermogenian’, in Demandt, A., Goltz, A. and Schlange-Schöningen, A. (eds.), Diokletian und die Tetrarchie: Aspekte einer Zeitenwende. Berlin, 56–73.Google Scholar
Davenport, C. (2012), ‘Soldiers and Equestrian Rank in the Third Century A.D.’, PBSR 80, 89–123.Google Scholar
Davenport, C. (2015), ‘Inscribing Senatorial Status and Identity, A.D. 200–350’, in Kuhn, A. (ed.), Status and Prestige in the Graeco-Roman World. Stuttgart, 269–89.Google Scholar
Davenport, C. (2016), ‘Fashioning a Soldier Emperor: Maximian, Pannonia, and the Panegyrics of 289 and 291’, Phoenix 70, 381–400.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davenport, C. (2019), A History of the Roman Equestrian Order. Cambridge.Google Scholar
de la Bédoyère, G. (1998), ‘Carausius and the Marks RSR and I.N.P. C.D.A.’, NC 158, 79–88.Google Scholar
de Souza, P. (1999), Piracy in the Graeco-Roman World. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Drinkwater, J. F. (1987), The Gallic Empire: Separatism and Continuity in the North-Western Provinces of the Roman Empire, A.D. 260–274. Stuttgart.Google Scholar
Drinkwater, J. F. (2007), The Alamanni and Rome, 213–496 (Caracalla to Clovis). Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunkle, J. R. (1971), ‘The Rhetorical Tyrant in Roman Historiography: Sallust, Livy and Tacitus’, CW 65, 12–20.Google Scholar
Evans, J. (1861), ‘Silver Coin of Carausius’, NC 1, 36–37.Google Scholar
Flaig, E. (1997), ‘Für eine Konzeptionalisierung der Usurpation im Spätrömischen Reich’, in Paschoud, F. and Szidat, J. (eds.), Usurpationen in der Spätantike. Stuttgart, 15–34.Google Scholar
Gnecchi, F. (1912), I Medaglioni Romani. 3 vols. Milan.Google Scholar
Grandvallet, C. (2007), ‘L'affrontement ideologique entre Gallien et Postume: l'exemple des bustes casques et des bustes à attributes Herculeens’, in Hekster, O., de Kleijn, G., and Slootjes, D. (eds.), Crises and the Roman Empire. Leiden and Boston, 337–51.Google Scholar
Grünewald, T. (2004), Bandits in the Roman Empire: Myth and Reality, trans. Drinkwater, J. F.. London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Habinek, T. (1998), The Politics of Latin Literature: Writing, Identity, and Empire in Ancient Rome. Princeton.Google Scholar
Heil, M. (2008), ‘Der Senat’, in Johne, K.-P., Hartmann, U., and Gerhardt, T. (eds.), Die Zeit der Soldatenkaiser: Krise und Transformation des Römischen Reiches im 3. Jahrhundert n. Chr. (235–284), 2 vols. Berlin, 715–36.Google Scholar
Hekster, O. (2015), Emperors and Ancestors: Roman Rulers and the Constraints of Tradition. Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hekster, O. and Manders, E. (2006), ‘Kaiser gegen Kaiser: Bilder der Macht im 3. Jahrhunderts’, in Johne, K. P., Gerhardt, T., and Hartmann, U. (eds.), Deleto paene imperio Romano: Transformationsprozesse des Römischen Reiches im 3. Jahrhundert und ihre Rezeption in der Neuzeit. Stuttgart, 135–44.Google Scholar
Hope, V. (2003), ‘Trophies and Tombstones: Commemorating the Roman Soldier’, World Archaeology 35, 79–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kalas, G. (2015), The Restoration of the Roman Forum in Late Antiquity. Austin.Google Scholar
Kolb, F. (2001), Herrscherideologie in der Spätantike. Berlin.Google Scholar
Lassandro, D. (1981), ‘La demonizzazione del nemico politico nei Panegyrici Latini’, in Sordi, M. (ed.), Religione e politica nel mondo antico. Contributi dell'Istituto di storia antica dell'Università Cattolica del Sacro Cruore 7. Milan, 237–49.Google Scholar
Lassandro, D. (2000), Sacratissimus Imperator: L'immagine del princeps nell'oratoria tardoantica. Bari.Google Scholar
Loriot, X. (1981), ‘Les aurei de Dioclétian et Maximien à la marque IAN’, BSFN 36, 88–92.Google Scholar
Lyne, M. (2003), ‘Some New Coin Types of Carausius and Allectus and the History of the British Provinces, A.D. 286–296’, NC 163, 147–68.Google Scholar
Lyne, M. (2008), ‘Observations on the Earliest Coinage of Carausius’, NCirc. 116.5, 257–59.Google Scholar
MacCormack, S. (1981), Art and Ceremony in Late Antiquity. Berkeley.Google Scholar
MacMullen, R. (1963), ‘The Roman Concept: Robber–Pretender’, RIDA 10 (3e série), 221–25.Google Scholar
Manders, E. (2012), Coining Images of Power: Patters in the Representation of Roman Emperors on Imperial Coinage, A.D. 193–284. Leiden.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayer, E. (2002), Rom ist dort, wo der Kaiser ist. Untersuchungen zu den Staatsdenkmälern des dezentralisierten Reiches von Diocletian bis zu Theodosius II. Mainz.Google Scholar
McCormick, M. (1986), Eternal Victory: Triumphal Rulership in Late Antiquity, Byzantium, and the Early Medieval West. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Moorhead, S. (2014), ‘The Gold Coinage of Carausius’, RN 181 (6e série), 221–45.Google Scholar
Nixon, C. E. V. (1983), ‘Latin Panegyric in the Tetrarchic and Constantinian Period’, in Croke, B. and Emmett, A. M. (eds), History and Historians in Late Antiquity. Sydney, 88–99.Google Scholar
Nixon, C. E. V. and Saylor Rodgers, B. (eds.) (1994), In Praise of Later Roman Emperors: The Panegyrici Latini. Berkeley.Google Scholar
Nock, A. D. (1947), ‘The Emperor's Divine comes’, JRS 37, 102–16.Google Scholar
Noreña, C. (2011), Imperial Ideals in the Roman West: Representation, Circulation, Power. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Pond Rothman, M.S. (1977), ‘The Thematic Organization of the Panel Reliefs on the Arch of Galerius’, AJA 81, 427–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rees, R. (2002), Layers of Loyalty in Latin Panegyric. Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rees, R. (2010) ‘Panegyric’, in Dominik, W. and Hall, J. (eds.), A Companion to Roman Rhetoric. Oxford and Malden, MA, 136–48.Google Scholar
Richard, F. (1979) ‘La Félicitas impériale à l’épreuve des flots: types monétaires’, BSFN 34, 465–66.Google Scholar
Richard, F. (2006) ‘Réalisme et symbolisme de l'image du navire de guerre sur les monnaies impériales romaines’, CCG 17, 247–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roueché, C. (1989), Aphrodisias in Late Antiquity. London.Google Scholar
Rowan, C. (2012), Under Divine Auspices: Divine Ideology and the Visualisation of Imperial Power in the Severan Period. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Roymans, N. (1996), ‘The Sword or the Plough. Regional Dynamics in the Romanisation of Belgic Gaul and the Rhineland Area’, in Roymans, N. (ed.), From the Sword to the Plough. Amsterdam, 9–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shiel, N. (1973), ‘The opes Legend on Coins of Carausius’, RN 15 (6e série), 166–68.Google Scholar
Shiel, N. (1977), The Episode of Carausius and Allectus: The Literary and Numismatic Evidence. Oxford.Google Scholar
Smith, R. R. R. (1988), ‘Simulacra gentium: the ethne from the Sebasteion at Aphrodisias’, JRS 78, 50–77.Google Scholar
Stella de Trizio, M. (2009), Panegirico di Mamertino per Massimiano e Diocleziano (Panegyrici Latini 2 [10]). Bari.Google Scholar
Stevenson, T. (2008), ‘Tyrants, Kings and Fathers in the Philippics’, in Stevenson, T. and Wilson, M. (eds.), Cicero's Philippics. Auckland, 95–113.Google Scholar
Sutherland, C. H. V. (1937), ‘An Unpublished Naval Type of Carausius’, NC 17, 306–9.Google Scholar
Syme, R. (1971), Emperors and Biography: Studies in the Historia Augusta. Oxford.Google Scholar
Tomlin, R. S. O. (2006), ‘The Owners of the Beaurains (Arras) Treasure’, in Hartley, E. et al. (eds.), Constantine the Great: York's Roman Emperor. York, 59–64.Google Scholar
Webb, P. (1907), ‘The Reign and Coinage of Carausius’, NC 7, 1–88, 156–218, 291–338, 373–426.Google Scholar
Weiser, W. (2006) ‘Die Tetrarchie—Ein neues Regierungssystem und seine mediale Präsentation auf Münzen und Medallions’, in Boschung, D. and Eck, W. (eds.), Die Tetrarchie: Ein neues Regierungssystem und seine mediale Präsentation. Wiesbaden, 205–27.Google Scholar
Welch, K. (2012), Magnus Pius. Sextus Pompeius and the Transformation of the Roman Republic. Swansea.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, H. P. G. (2004), Carausius: A Consideration of the Historical, Archaeological and Numismatic Aspects of his Reign. Oxford.Google Scholar
Williams, J. H. C. (1999), ‘Septimius Severus and Sol, Carausius and Oceanus: Two New Roman Acquisitions at the British Museum’, NC 159, 307–13.Google Scholar
Woods, D. (2012), ‘Carausius and “The Crab”’, NCirc. 120, 66.Google Scholar