A Roman emperor unknown to history may have been uncovered thanks to recent archaeological work on an ancient coin once believed to have been a forgery, a recent study suggests.
Researchers compared the coin with a handful of genuine coins of the same design, unearthed in 1713 in Transylvania, Romania.
The peer-reviewed study was published in the Plos One scientific journal, lead author Prof. Paul N. Pearson (UCL Earth Sciences).
Although this coin and others associated with it have long been regarded as 18th century fakes, the team were surprised to see apparent superficial wear scratches and "earthen deposits" that seemed to warrant further investigation.
"If the coins proved to be fakes, they would make a particularly interesting case study in antiquarian forgery; if authentic, they would be of clear historical interest," the team said.
Historical evidence suggests that the Romanian region, known then as the province of Dacia, was cut off from the rest of the Roman empire in the 260s CE under the reign of Emperor Gallineus, only being evacuated between 271 CE and 275 CE under the reign of Emperor Aurelian.
The significance of coinage
Coinage has always signified power and authority. Understanding this, and considering he was unable to receive official issues from the mint in Rome, Sponsian likely authorized the creation of coins produced locally, with some even depicting an image of his face, in an attempt to keep a functioning economy in his isolated frontier territory.
Supporting this is the fact that this would have taken place during the Crisis of the Third Century, a period defined by civil wars, multiple usurpers, an economic crisis, Germanic invasions and currency debasement.
“Scientific analysis of these ultra-rare coins rescues the emperor Sponsian from obscurity. Our evidence suggests he ruled Roman Dacia, an isolated gold mining outpost, at a time when the empire was beset by civil wars and the borderlands were overrun by plundering invaders,” Professor Pearson said.
“Scientific analysis of these ultra-rare coins rescues the emperor Sponsian from obscurity. Our evidence suggests he ruled Roman Dacia, an isolated gold mining outpost, at a time when the empire was beset by civil wars and the borderlands were overrun by plundering invaders.”
Professor Paul N. Pearson
Only four coins featuring Sponsian are currently known to have survived, all which are most likely from the 1713 hoard. Another is in Brukenthal National Museum in Sibiu, Romania.
“This has been a really exciting project for The Hunterian and we’re delighted that our findings have inspired collaborative research with museum colleagues in Romania. Not only do we hope that this encourages further debate about Sponsian as a historical figure, but also the investigation of coins relating to him held in other museums across Europe,” Curator of Numismatics at The Hunterian, Jesper Ericsson, said.
Since the study's findings emerged, many researchers have responded with both praise and criticism.
"They've gone full fantasy," British Museum Roman and iron age coins curator Richard Abdy said, according to the Guardian. "It's circular evidence. They're saying because of the coin there's the person, and the person therefore must have made the coin."
Was Sponsian real? Researchers dispute the findings
Writing for the Times Literary Supplement, Ancient Rome scholar Mary Beard argued that the evidence can still be explained as being an 18th-century forgery.
However, Beard argues that even if the coins were real, that doesn't necessarily mean much. This is because of how hard it is to define who was a Roman emperor, specifically which usurpers counted - and there were many usurpers.
"Supposing the coins are real, we have an otherwise unknown man from the province of Dacia... who briefly and unsuccessfully claimed the Roman throne in the mid-third century CE," Beard wrote. "That's interesting. But there are probably plenty more where he came from, equally unknown. It doesn't exactly overturn the historical narrative."
Ultimately, while the study does seem to indicate that there may be more truth to the existence of "emperor" Sponsian than previously believed, the history of Rome remains unchanged, and the truth of the identity of this figure in a chaotic time, if he even existed, remains murky.