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Carausius: Britannia’s forgotten usurper


guy

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Carausius, AV aureus. London mint, 286-287, 4.20 g. IMP CARAVSIVS P F AVG, laureate, draped, cuirassed bust right. PAX CARAVSI AVG, Pax standing left, holding olive-branch and vertical sceptre.

 

Here is an interesting book about Carausius, the Roman usurper of Britannia (AD 286-293) by the prolific writer Simon Elliott.

 

Quote

So just why is a man who ruled the nation for longer than many prime ministers and thought to have masterminded the Saxon Shore Forts which still dot our coastline today, all but a footnote in history?”


 

https://www.kentonline.co.uk/kent/news/the-forgotten-man-who-shaped-british-history-270480/

 

 

 

Here is nice background information on Carausius:

http://www.kenelks.co.uk/coins/carausius/carausius.htm

 

A wonderful video on Carausius by the excellent numismatist and historian Guy de la Bédoyère.

 

 

Edited by guy
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What strikes me is the inspiration of Augustus in all of this. Not because of a job title, the much misunderstood imperator, but his auctoritas, the authority of which Augustus himself claimed was his trump card (Augustus states in his Res Gestae that he wielded no more actual power than anyone else because all his privileges were still based on the same republican titles and themes). It's rather like if Henry Tudor had claimed to be the restorer of an Arthurian Age rather than simply defeating Richard III in battle.

Edited by caldrail
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