Owner Comments:
The history of the late Western Roman Empire is often a chaotic web of usurpers fighting other usurpers, and this incredibly rare silver siliqua of Maximus of Spain is a perfect physical artifact of that confusion. Minted in Barcino (modern-day Barcelona), this coin represents an obscure but fascinating chapter in the permanent disseverance of the Roman West. Modern estimates, accounting for recent hoards and metal detector finds, place the total number of known specimens globally at perhaps forty. The majority of those are locked away in permanent museum collections, making this NGC-graded example an exquisite rarity in private hands.
Maximus was a complete non-entity, thrust onto the imperial stage as a puppet. He was likely a household manager (
domesticus) and possibly a relative of the powerful general Gerontius. In AD 409, Gerontius — who was stationed in Hispania — revolted against his own commander, the British usurper Constantine III (the subject of the previous coin in this collection). Rather than claiming the purple for himself, Gerontius elevated Maximus to the rank of Augustus.
Similar to the previous coin in this collection depicting Constantine III, the reverse inscription on this coin reads VICTOR-A AAVGGG. The three "G"s and three matching "A"s simply three legitimate Roman Augusti. But the political arithmetic had changed. It would seem that Gerontius and his puppet were effectively crossing out Constantine III's name and inserting Maximus into the imperial ledger alongside the legitimate emperors Honorius (in the West) and Theodosius II (in the East). It was a desperate, calculated piece of propaganda meant to legitimize a rebellion against a rebellion.
The strategy failed. In AD 411, Gerontius was cornered by Honorius’s brilliant general Constantius III and committed suicide. Left completely defenseless, Maximus abdicated. Reportedly, since he was recognized as a mere pawn, he was surprisingly spared and allowed to retire into quiet private life.
However, Maximus' story likely has a grim coda. Roughly a decade later, around AD 420, another usurper referred to as Maximus tyrannus unsuccessfully attempted to seize power in Spain once again. Historians posit that this was the very same Maximus, whose good fortune and quiet retirement had finally run out. He was captured, dragged to Ravenna, and publicly executed in AD 422 as the bloody centerpiece of the gladiatorial games celebrating Emperor Honorius’s tricennalia (30th anniversary of rule) — a brutal warning to any other would-be traitors in a fracturing Empire.
Coin Details: WESTERN ROMAN EMPIRE, Maximus of Spain, Usurper, AD 409-411, AR Siliqua (14.5mm, 1.20 g, 6h), Barcino (Barcelona) mint, struck AD 410-411, NGC Grade: VF, Strike: 4/5, Surface: 3/5, Obverse: Pearl-diademed, draped, and cuirassed bust right, D N MAXIM-VS P F AVG, Reverse: Roma seated left on cuirass, holding Victory on globe right and reversed spear; VICTOR-A AAVGGG SMBA in exergue. RIC 1601; King, Fifth, p. 291; ACIP 4437; RSC 1b.
Image: NGC Photo Vision Plus.