The Almost Forgotten Roman Emperor !

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This is something cool I learnt today.

Apparently, there was this Roman emperor called Silbannacus the existence of whom was totally forgotten by history records.

The only reason we know he actually existed is thanks to two coins discovered in modern times.

The first coin was discovered in the 1930s and bears the inscription IMP SILBANNACVS AVG, identifying him as an emperor. The obverse has a portrait of him and the obverse features Victory, a common symbol of military success.

The second coin was held in a private collection and its existence became known sometime in 1996. Again, it features a portrait of Silbannacus but depicts Mars on the reverse, the Roman god of war.

Both coins were found in what was once known as Gaul and are the only proof we have that this guy existed. Actually, it was only thanks to the discovery of the second coin that any doubts of him being a real figure were cleared.

Both coins depict him as a relatively young man with small head, a slightly elongated face and a slightly aquiline nose.

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(Public Domain)

Since there are no other records of him, it is believed that he reigned for only a brief time of a few weeks, maybe months.

The prevalent theory is that he rose to power sometime in the Crisis of the Third Century (235–284 CE), one of the most unstable periods in Roman history. A time of characterized by the frequent change of emperors, civil wars, barbarian invasions, and economic collapse. In short, fun times 😄

Wikipedia has a thorough entryon him.

The facts and speculations historians have come up about him from just two coins is really amazing! Worth a read imo.

And that's the quick story of Silbannacus, the almost forgotten Emperor!

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29 comments
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That’s pretty interesting. I studied Roman history for several years, his name was never mentioned like you said. Pretty crazy
!pimp

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(Edited)

The interesting thing about history is that for a surprising number of events and people, we only have a single primary source. Some things, we don't even have that. When you study history you realize that much of what we think we know about the past could all be wrong and is as much story (albeit story based on fragments of what we think are true primary sources) as movies. It's really a little mind-boggling.

Personally I think that's why all history teachers are a little crazy.

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Heh, we often can't get modern history right 😄😂

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all history teachers are a little crazy

No. We're crazy because nobody cares about history 😄

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Even if he was an Emperor for a short period of time, it still would've sucked real bad to be lost to history. It's not like it was a common thing to become an Emperor 😅

But if we discovered Silbannacus in modern times thanks to these coin finds, it's quite likely there are multiple Emperors and other powerful figures from History that we haven't found out about yet, or will never find out about.

!BBH

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It's strange because usually it's always left something like a written, a paper, a paint or something... He must have been really unlucky to have just few coins and that's it

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(Edited)

He's probably up there laughing back at all the other emperor's who mocked him for being forgotten.
"I told you they'd find the coins!" He says😂😂😂

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I guess nobody thought he was important enough to be stored in the history books. So I guess those coins were the last things remembering him.

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wow, cool info.. those coins look just like those used in this series I am watching now.. 'Rome'.. it covers the time of ceasar. (julius and octavian) 😎🤙

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Surprising indeed, since the Romans used to write down a lot of what happened politically. But may be this guy was kind of a one hit wonder and his fame was short lived - perhaps literally. And of course, also this writing would be almost 2000 years old, and not everything has survives this long time.
Sometimes the expression "during the time of the Romans" can be misleading, and one assumes its a few hundred years. But in fact its almost 1000 years, and a lot of stuff happened and a lot of people came and went in that long time.

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Apparently they killed him off pretty fast, bad time to have been the emperor! Very cool coin though!
!BBH
!LOL
!DOOK

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