DescriptionROMAN EMPIRE, Philip I, 244-249 AD, silver antoninianiusPhilip the Arab became Praetorian Prefect when his predecessor died, possibly under suspicious circumstances. He proceeded to undermine the political position of the Emperor, Gordian III, and succeeded in deposing and executing him. Philip ruled for five years, mostly at war. An uprising in Dacia (Romania) raised Trajan Decius to the throne, and Philip and his son, Philip II, were killed in battle.The Roman Republic was founded in response to tyrannical kings. It functioned for several centuries in a kind of balance of rich and poor people (slaves didn’t count). The general idea was that laws would constrain personal power. During the days of Julius Caesar, et al, powerful people became too powerful, and a new system of slightly constrained autocracy, the Empire, developed. The main catalog we use on this web site for Roman coins is Roman Coins and their Values, by David Sear.“Ancient Coins” includes Greek and Roman coins and those of neighbors and successors, geographically from Morocco and Spain all the way to Afghanistan. Date ranges for these begin with the world’s earliest coins of the 8th century BC to, in an extreme case, the end of Byzantine Empire, 1453 AD.
