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Gladiators Of Rome Help

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mikev50's Avatar
United States
1862 Posts
 Posted 10/06/2025  8:41 pm Show Profile   Bookmark this topic Add mikev50 to your friends list Get a Link to this Message Number of Subscribers
does anyone have any info about this coin--- Gladiators of Rome Bronze Centenionalis Coin of Constantius II---opinions---
Gladiators-Of-Rome-Help
Gladiators-Of-Rome-Help
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Spence's Avatar
United States
34393 Posts
 Posted 10/06/2025  8:50 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Spence to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
My opinion is that this coin isn't from Rome, but rather Greece (Elymais specifically). Compare yours to the one in this acsearch link:

https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=14945786
"If you climb a good tree, you get a push."
-----Ghanaian proverb

"The danger we all now face is distinguishing between what is authentic and what is performed."
-----King Adz
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mikev50's Avatar
United States
1862 Posts
 Posted 10/06/2025  9:42 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add mikev50 to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
i bowed out at 80 clams---
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Sap's Avatar
Australia
16806 Posts
 Posted 10/07/2025  7:57 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Sap to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
The coin you have pictured is not Roman, as note by Spence. An actual "Gladiators of Rome Bronze Centenionalis Coin of Constantius II" would look like this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/393350401806

Using "gladiators" to sell such coins is just a marketing gimmick, and the wrapper in the ebay link I just gave is from a mass-marketing coin dealership that doesn't actually convey much of the important information you'd want to know about this specific coin - such as catalogue reference numbers, or even that the mintmark is TSE (Thessalonica). The advertising blurb is actually quite wrong, in that a centenionalis does not "depict the exciting end of a gladiatorial contest" but rather depicts Rome symbolically spearing Rome's Parthian enemies on the battlefield. The soldier on the coin is in full Roman battle armour; Roman gladiators rarely dressed up as actual soldiers - gladiatorial armour was designed for spectacle and bloodshed, rather than for actual practical military use. Gladiatorial depiction on coinage is excessively rare, and when it does occur, it's normally quite obvious. http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/rsc/didia/i.html

I've also never heard of Constantius II being particularly fond of gladiatorial combat; it's not mentioned on his Wikipedia page. That entire blurb reads like something a keen but clueless AI would write.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Russian Federation
5172 Posts
 Posted 10/08/2025  7:13 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add january1may to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
Elymais indeed! Strange that someone would misidentify it that much - it doesn't look even slightly Roman.

A very interesting coin; much more so than your typical Fallen Horseman bronze (which is one of the most common coin types of the 4th century).
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