Sponsianus

In the mid- third century CE, many rebellions broke out throughout the Roman Empire.  Although mostly contained by 250 CE under the Emperors Philip I and Trajan Decius, some of the military leaders proclaimed emperor at this time (like Silbanicus and Domitian II) are only known from a single coin) it is thought that Sponsian proclaimed himself emperor sometime in the 260s, after Dacia was cut off from the rest of the Empire during the reign of Gallienus (260 - 268 CE).

The only evidence for the existence of Sponsian is his name on some (Two or Four, its not currently clear) double-aurei coins from a coin-hoard found in Transylvania in 1713. 

Subject ID: 140191

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In the mid- third century CE, many rebellions broke out throughout the Roman Empire.  Although mostly contained by 250 CE under the Emperors Philip I and Trajan Decius, some of the military leaders proclaimed emperor at this time (like Silbanicus and Domitian II) are only known from a single coin) it is thought that Sponsian proclaimed himself emperor sometime in the 260s, after Dacia was cut off from the rest of the Empire during the reign of Gallienus (260 - 268 CE).

The only evidence for the existence of Sponsian is his name on some (Two or Four, its not currently clear) double-aurei coins from a coin-hoard found in Transylvania in 1713. 

In the 19th Century, these coins were dismissed as modern forgieries by the French numismatist Henry Cohen, as he was compiling his catalague of Roman Imperial Coins.   In 2022, additional study that the coin was in circulation about 2,000 years ago and had been buried in soil for hundreds of years.  On the basis of the new analysis, Sponsian is now considered to have been an actual ruler of the Roman Empire

Subject ID: 140191

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