Filled A Tough Hole - Clodius Albinus As Augustus

It's pretty beat up, but I feel that this one is a better tribute than his coins as Caesar.

Clodius Albinus, as Augustus (Autumn 196 - February 19, 197)
AR Denarius
Lugdunum (Lyons) mint
IMP CAES D CLO ALBIN AVG
GEN LVG COS II, Genius of Lugdunum standing with scepter and cornucopia, eagle at feet.




Decimus Clodius Septimius Albinus Augustus was born about the year 150 to a prestigious and old family in Roman Africa. It was said he was given the name "Albinus" because he was impressively pale. He came to prominence as a young general when he proved instrumental in defeating the usurper Avidus Cassius against the emperor Marcus Aurelius. Aurelius was deeply appreciative of his actions, and under Commodus he was given control of legions in Gaul and later Britannia. Albinus was not fond of Commodus, and was only spared of being stripped of his command when the latter was assasinated. Commodus was succeeded by Pertinax, who didn't last long in office. Pertinax was succeeded by Didius Julianus, who also had an impressively short reign before being killed.

In the civil war that followed the unstable rule of Julianus, Albinus was one of three men declared emperor by the troops. He allied with Septimius Severus, accepting the title of Caesar, and the two waged war on Pescennius Niger in Syria. They were victorious in 196, over a year after Niger himself had been killed. Severus soon revealed his intent to create a dynasty out of his family, elevating his son Antoninus Pius (Caracalla) as his successor. Albinus narrowly escaped assasination and retreated to Lugdunum where he was hailed as emperor in the fall (possibly November) of 196. He mustered the ~150,000 troops loyal to him, and prepared to make a last stand. He met Severus in battle on February 19, 197, and was defeated.

Severus had the body of Clodius Albinus stripped and laid on the ground before him, then trampled it with his horse. He ordered Lugdunum plundered for harboring the usurper, then ordered Albinus' wife and children hunted down, beheaded and thrown into a river. Albinus' body was beheaded, and his head rode back to Rome on a pike.

(Don't you just love happy endings? )

At any rate, I took a slightly lesser quality portrait for the trade off of having a more historically significant coin. In his coins as Augustus, he finally looks different from Severus, growing a full bushy beard while Severus grew that gross spiky thing on his chin. The coin is also of very poor artistic wormanship, showing firmly that it was made at a renegade provincial mint, far removed from Rome's talented celatores.