Sponsian & Silbannacus: The New Roman Emperors You've Never Heard Of!

According to a recent numismatic study, we have a new Roman Emperor, Sponsian! He's not the only one we know of strictly by coins however. Silbannacus is another obscure emperor from the third century, roughly contemporaneous with Sponsian.

[@TheFallofRome]

I do realize I included it as a meme in the video but the fact that Rome might have a new emperor before GRRM finishes A Song of Ice and Fire drives me nuts. Who else has been waiting ten years for The Winds of Winter??? Jamie better end up being Azor Ahai!

[@TheFallofRome]

Fight me on this one. Come on nerds

[@Zogerpogger]

As I neared the end of the 5th book I realized I better not become too attached or bad things would happen to me mentally if GRRM decided to croak before he has any right to or for whatever reason the remainder of the series never came out (hence me forgetting the 5th book's name... A Dance of Dragons?). I definitely plan to read it when it comes out, but I've decided to be pleasantly nonplussed by the new emperors/GRRM book timetable rather than begin planning a peasant uprising.

[@TheFallofRome]

@@Zogerpogger Absolutely agree. After finishing it I picked up the Wheel of Time. I was shocked it was fourteen books but thrilled such an epic series was actually complete

[@Zogerpogger]

@@TheFallofRome I'll have to check that out! The last book I read was The Plague by Camus so perhaps something a bit more cheerful is in order, although I have no idea if The Wheel of Time fits the bill for that.

[@XSpamDragonX]

Blame HBO, he would have finished the book by now if he wasn't getting a cameo on every television show and movie every week.

[@bendackins7211]

Friendship ended with Aurelian, now Sponsian is my new Imperator

[@TheFallofRome]

Mine too. I hope this gigachad actually existed

[@InAeternumRomaMater]

I feel the same as a Romanian, he is my new Imperator. Even tho we don't know for sure if Sponsian really existed, but if he did, he is dead by now but we can proclaim him now as Caesar.

[@makutas-v261]

It just sounds like someone made an oc for a Rome roleplay and made an impression of how Latin names sound like and was like "there" XD

[@ashharris7293]

Because they did.

[@TheFallofRome]

I would not be surprised if the coins really did end up being fakes, but we can hope! Certainly I don’t think it’s outside the realm of possibility that small players were simply forgotten about in the third century

[@TheFallofRome]

Rome: Total War-Usurpers and Barbarians. 10/10 would play

[@rayvenkman2087]

I’ll have you know that I was Sponsian while I was on that holiday trip.

[@EasternRomanHistory]

I think it is not unreasonable to consider that quite a few usurpers slipped through the historical record in the Third century, considering or sources are imperfect and that those we do have were largely written later or are lost. Zosimus is another example where, he was using the early part of Eunapius' history and Dexippus' history both of which only survive in fragments. The historical record is also not that reliable for the emperors it does mention, such as Marius who supposedly only reigned for a day and Quintillus who reigned for 17 days, both of which are almost certainly wrong due to the extensive minting and inscriptional work that survives. The Gallic usurper Domitian for example is only vaguely known from a couple of coins and a couple of mentions in the works of Zosimus and the HA.

[@TheFallofRome]

Yeah I wouldn’t be surprised if, given everything going on in the third century, more than one usurper or local player slipped through the crackw

[@jamescobban857]

For the Silbannacus coin note that Mercury was the interpretatio of the Germanic god Woden. The dies Mercurii is Wednesday in English and Odinstag in Norse. The popularity of Mercury in Lorraine, the eastern bank of the Rhine, could represent the increasing role of Germans in Roman society along the Limes.

[@TheFallofRome]

I suppose that’s possible yeah. But at the same time if this was really an emperor in rome and not Gaul, it’s possible that these coins could’ve been minted in Italy and sent out to the province

[@edwemail8508]

What a hoot. Just when I think I know who ruled when we get a new player. I LOVE IT. Always something new. Thanks.

[@TheFallofRome]

Glad you enjoy it!

[@LannisterFromDaRock]

2:52 Imperator (IMP) is fairly often used as well, but only with CAES and such and never alone as far as I know. (I'm a newbie as well.)

[@robbabcock_]

It's amazing on one level that we're still discovering major things about Rome, but on the other hand there's a ton of stuff we still don't know for sure. Lots of stuff is lost in 2,000 years.

[@shaq6976]

You’re right, a month or so ago a city in eastern Turkey found 100+ coins of Ancient Rome and Byzantium. Lots of infos on these coins

[@TheFallofRome]

Absolutely. While I can’t read the languages, I’d be particularly interested as to what is contained in all of the Bronze Age Akkadian and Sumerian clay tablets that archaeologists have uncovered. From what I understand there are so many of them just being held in university libraries that no specialist has really gone through yet. It’s amazing that they survive from so far back

[@qboxer]

I was quite shocked about this. I wonder how the reigns came to an end, and it also made me think about what happened in Dacia after the evacuation. Did Roman soldiers and civilians stay and try to defend it?

[@taesu8]

In my head, it might mirror withdraw from Britain.

[@TheFallofRome]

Some likely stayed yes, though I’m unaware of any actual records

[@ashharris7293]

@@TheFallofRome People of the region still speak a romance language. Of note, during the Gothic uprising under Valens, Ammianus talks about roman miners joining the Goths. I think those mines were in Dacia. I speculate that the Romans had establish some activity back across the river under Constantine.

[@Transilvanian90]

@@ashharris7293 Constantine did reestablish a presence there in the early 4th century, and there were Byzantine Expeditions around Julian's time, and likely during Basil II's time in the 11th century (when the Balkan border was the Danube). And yes, Romanians are descended from the Roman and Dacian populations which remained there after the 3rd century.

[@TheFallofRome]

@@ashharris7293 it’s been a while since I’ve read Ammianus, but I suppose that’s possible. Under Constantine there was some presence reestablished in Dacia, at the very least just across the Danube, but under later emperors that control fluctuated. It’s also possible that miners Ammianus talks about could have been in more formally controlled Roman territory. I’ll have to go back and double check the text to see if there is more detail

[@benchild1339]

Another interesting video, excited for some more news on these coins

[@TheFallofRome]

You and me both!

[@SkyFly19853]

History is full of surprises, isn't it?... 😏

[@TheFallofRome]

Yes it is!

[@SkyFly19853]

@@TheFallofRome Indeed... 😏✅✅✅

[@brandongarcelon8476]

You never disappoint! Love your content l, know matter the topic keep it up.

[@TheFallofRome]

I appreciate that!

[@duncansmith3931]

Very interesting video. I live in Edinburgh(Scotland) and I recently visited the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow University to look at the collection of Roman artifacts and stone sculpture from forts along the Antonine Wall. I was very surprised to see a small display about these coins and the possibility of the discovery of a new emperor. Perhaps there were many regional strongmen, unmentioned in the written sources, who were minting their own coins in the twilight of the empire.

[@mrAMMW]

Hi, im romanian and here is something i noticed written in the news here about it that i didn't notice any english source mentioning (translated) :"The four coins were studied under a powerful microscope, and scientists confirmed in the journal PLOS 1 that the scratches appeared to have been produced while the coins were held together in the money pouch." . If this is true then there must have been more coins somewhere and also the pouch must exist, the question being where are they and why haven't they appeared lends credence in my mind that it may be a fake.

[@ohistoriador4848]

The other coins were shown and the pouch likely fully decomposed

[@TheFallofRome]

That would certainly be intriguing if there were more coins

[@Jesse_Dawg]

Please do more videos on ancient coins and precious metals! Please make more

[@grahamturner1290]

Most intriguing...

[@TheFallofRome]

Glad you enjoyed!

[@HistoricalPerspectiveRBr]

The media reporting on this is very misleading. The coins are cast, so not official productions, but numismatists have broadly favoured them being ancient objects rather than modern fakes (not universally, I spoke to a very experienced colleague this morning who still thinks its a fake - note 'still' because these things are not as forgotten as the reporting suggests - I'd lean more to ancient rather than modern concoctions). The article by Pearson et.al. is interesting but it doesn't answer the key question of why the coin is cast rather than struck (and their production model makes no sense). At minimum casting would seem to rule out the subject having any serious pretensions of aspiring to be an emperor. I made my own response primarily to the way popular media distorts these sorts of incremental advances in academia, which is actually the more interesting aspect of this.

[@TheFallofRome]

I do agree that the casting raises suspicions, but it’s possible that it was just a local military commander. I’ll be keeping an eye on this in the future

[@seanbissett-powell5916]

@@TheFallofRome I've done a bit of work over the years making repro items for re-enactment. From a manufacturing perspective, making matched pairs of dies hard enough and durable enough to stamp the faces of silver coins can be quite challenging if you're just a local commander. Making a mould to cast into is far easier, cheaper and quicker. I can also see a really "quick and dirty" solution (and one I've used when making repro regimental buttons) which they might have used. It would be to get an old coin, scrape the front off to use solder, resin or even clay to make a new obverse, but don't bother doing the same with the reverse if it looks pretty enough to be passable, then use that re-faced coin as the master to form new moulds.

[@sjoerdpasterkamp9826]

maybe in the flavian period an underground opposition/resistance movement who wanted to continue the formal clothi dynsaty re-minted these coins by casting them. They may have lacked the proper tools to struck them. With these illegal coins they remembered the romans to their true rulers. Kind of a propaganda coin ?

[@sjoerdpasterkamp9826]

reminting is very cheap if you lower the weight or containment of gold, it could even be profitable. Of course this was illegal and would be punished by death. but it can also explain why they are cast and why the M is so poorly constructed.

[@HistoricalPerspectiveRBr]

@@sjoerdpasterkamp9826 The short answer is no, that is not how ancient coins work. The long answer still begins with a no, but won't fit in KZbin comment. These are fantasies not any sort of ancient attempt to produce something that would pass as a coin.

[@WagesOfDestruction]

thank you for this summary of the facts about it

[@TheFallofRome]

You’re welcome!

[@casualyoutubeviewer9198]

Knew about Silbannacus, do I get something?

[@TheFallofRome]

Yeah, a heart!

[@EasternRomanHistory]

A good thing is that with public interest, the academic world might invest some time in actually trying to investigate further.

[@TheFallofRome]

Yeah hopefully! The disconnect between academia and the general public is not a good thing and really needs to be rectified. We need more channels and people in general like Jackson Crawford and Jonathan Spence

[@EasternRomanHistory]

@@TheFallofRome Unfortunately, many universities and professors quite like being ivory towers. Though, I think that trend is slowly changing.

[@TheFallofRome]

@@EasternRomanHistory I think it is too, at least from my own experience in university. Yeah there were a few academics who wanted to be shut away but many younger ones have made efforts to do things like public outreach. Eventually when I do my own PhD, while I’d love to be a professor, I also want to continue doing things like KZbin to help with the outreach

[@FlameQwert]

the casting is the weird bit. the weird design, even the use of "Sponsiani" (which would be grammatically wrong) can be chalked up to issues here and there of ad-hoc smith design, but casting is really strange because every other roman coin, even barbarous imitations, were struck. I like the narrative of a beleaguered left-behind commander having to keep dacia afloat but that's my bias for cool stories, we'll have to see if further analysis (especially the other sponsian coins!) proves or disproves it

[@TheFallofRome]

All valid points. For what it’s worth I like this idea too

[@sjoerdpasterkamp9826]

Sponsiani (plural) is saints, forsaid, fortold or divine predestinated called ones, a prestigious title. The only candidate are the Clothi, persecuted and almost wiped out by Tiberius. They made a comeback with Caligula, Claudius and Nero. The portrayed general is their stemfather GERMANICUS. Of course he didnt issue the coins himself, it are later remembrance coins to honor this martyr imperator.

[@sjoerdpasterkamp9826]

The few inscriptions found with a name like Sponsian(i) do all originate in rome and date back to 1st century, giving us an indication. Pope Leo lll paid an hughe price to the huns to provide rome from destruction and looting. Huns brought their treasure to hungary, transsylvania where the coins circulated. Could you make an episode on Germanicus the martyr ?

[@PC-lu3zf]

I am a historian and coin collector it was very common to have usurpers pop up in this period. I say the coin may well be real. I own a Roman coin of a usurper Pacatian a very worn radiate found in a hoard in France long ago. Pacatian was a commander but was killed by his men he briefly declared against Philip the Arab. Silbannicus I think was likely a commander of the Garrison left at Rome after Hearing the emperor was dead, he tried to seize the throne but his rebellion lasted weeks not months hence Hes lost from the historical records and his coins are extreme rarities now as Valerian had them melted down. If he had succeeded his coins would be common now least the radiate ones. Sadly on re looking at this I now conclude this Usurper is not real and the coin is a fake it just is too far away from how coins where made then. the reverse is a copy of a republican Denarius I had not seen that before hmm no I don't think Sponsian existed. The legend is all wrong and why is AVG not in it? If a rebel emperor was trying to gain support he 1 needed to have a proper title on his coins 2 needed to mint debased silver ones to pay his men fast not a high value but very poor quality double aureus makes no sense.

[@willempasterkamp862]

Probably Caligula reminted some republican coins in remembrance/honoring of his father Germanicus. We also have the Pantera-stone in germany and the huqqoq-mosaic in israel both depicting Germanicus. A would be emperor but never a real AVG. A Camillus would rather go through the eye of a needle. Zacharias barachai was slain between the altar and the temple iow, rather then entering the highest office/entering heavens doors.

[@self-transforming_machine-elf]

What happened with previous mintings when another emprah took power? Did they redo them? Did it matter if it was a new dynasty? Or did they just keep making more coins?

[@TheFallofRome]

My understanding is that they stayed in circulation. At least for a little while, unless the new emperor attempted debasement

[@self-transforming_machine-elf]

@@TheFallofRome Interesting. Cheers, Ive been wondering about that!

[@aylabennett4781]

Do you have any sources? this is really interesting!

[@TheFallofRome]

This is the initial paper journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0274285

[@aylabennett4781]

@@TheFallofRome thank you

[@andrejmucic5003]

excellent work again my friend! Add a money donation button thingie

[@TheFallofRome]

Thanks, will do!

[@HomeRudeGirlz]

So what are the issues with the Historia Augusta?

[@Nova-lz2yz]

It is full of satire and fiction.

[@ashharris7293]

Oh, There is nothing wrong with the Silbannacus coins. They are real from an official mint. Stylistically, right on for around the death of Decius. Edit: Someone did some alloy analysis, so maybe a few years later, Teb. Gallus and Amellian.

[@theskycavedin9592]

The Sponsian coins are made from a mould. Doesn't sound like an official mint. Not that it's not authentic.

[@ashharris7293]

@@theskycavedin9592 The other coins found with it in the horde are actually worse fakes.

[@HomeRudeGirlz]

Are there any other "emperors" that might've fallen through the cracks like Sponsian?

[@TheFallofRome]

Possibly. The third century crisis is notoriously poorly documented

[@sjoerdpasterkamp9826]

Germanicus is definitly overlooked, the saint-emperor. Sponsiani is forsaid, called ones. sponse is saying, response is reply, Sponsiani is a plural because his sons also became victims, martyrs.

[@thejustifier5566]

Emperor Sponsian: Last of the Romans

[@TheFallofRome]

We’ll have to add him to the list of “Last of the Romans”!

[@juhomattimannisto6575]

When do we get the "Soissons" merch?

[@TheFallofRome]

Ha. If you guys want it i guess I can design a shirt

[@amandajstar]

According to Guy de la Bédoyère, there is no such new rebel emperor. See his recent KZbin videos : )

[@sjoerdpasterkamp9826]

he completely overlooks germanicus, removed my comments, seems to not like the idea.

[@TheFallofRome]

I’ll check it out. For what it’s worth this probably isn’t a new emperor but it’s a fun idea

[@sjoerdpasterkamp9826]

@@TheFallofRome A few inscriptions of the name sponsian(i) date back to1st century and are found in rome. imho the clothi (as martyrs, saints) and Germanicus are the best candidates. Sponsiani (plural) meaning forsaid, called ones.

[@ChrissieBear]

Sponsian was a local "imperator" but that doesn't mean he was an Emperor, Roman Emperors held the title of "Caesar Augustus", not "Imperator". Imperator just meant "Supreme Leader", it was not the title of the Emperor of Rome.

[@hiddenhist]

Good clickbait, respectable

[@TheFallofRome]

Need money lol

[@Zogerpogger]

@@TheFallofRome This reasoning and the quality of the video combined with the refined nature of the clickbait in question makes it a civilized and respectable example as opposed to the rampant barbarism of most clickbait on KZbin.

[@TheFallofRome]

@@Zogerpogger Thanks, I appreciate that

[@Zogerpogger]

@@TheFallofRome Haha I'm glad. A lot of KZbin videos are nothing more than filler to slap ads over, so I think using a bit of tasteful clickbait to increase viewership of your educational work is completely justified.

[@onemoreminute0543]

Oh yeah... its Sponsian time

[@Historyguy509]

For the algorithm!

[@willempasterkamp862]

Hello there, Sponsian = Germanicus (the heir of Tiberius) aka Klopas (the famous), Zebedeus (who dwells with god ; celestial that is Mercury, closest to the sun aka the Messenger). Imran or Amram (the prosperous) father of the 'twin' (dioskouroi or Nikolaitans). Aka the Egyptian, Helios (Elias), the Rich or the blessed Zacharias barachai aka Pantera aka Kamtza. The recent discovery of a mosaic in Huqqoq (Israel) shows the meeting between Germanicus and Hymenaeus (Seneca) what in the book of Acts is described as the meeting between st Paul and Ananias or Cornelius and st Peter. The mosaic depicts Germanicus as a roman general wearing a 'germanic' braid or hairlock.

[@usurparemagnus]

Praise the memes

[@8bitorgy]

My pawn shop will give you $5 for that

[@TheFallofRome]

I’ll sell it for $4.00!

[@Historyguy509]

$5.50 final offer

[@sjoerdpasterkamp9826]

could be worth tens of thousends if it depicts Germanicus. There are only four ydk.

[@sjoerdpasterkamp9826]

If they are produced by opposition groups that will tell us a lot about the reign of domitian. A weak emperor that was only emperor in name untill he was removed by the senate. the historical value is priceless.

[@8bitorgy]

@@sjoerdpasterkamp9826 hey the that bob... He's got mouths to feed.

[@vladimirvovk8284]

wow, new roman emperors just dropped. can we just pretend that this coin is still fake though? I am really not looking forward to re-memorizing roman history all over again

[@TheFallofRome]

Ha! Me either! Although I personally would love if the coin was actually real. The third century has so many twists and turns I wouldn’t be surprised at all if there were local power players that history just forgot

[@alexwatts1064]

A B S O L U T E L Y B A R B A R I C

[@vladradu4114]

Would it have been possible for Sponsian to have created a local "state" that persisted, after the Roman retreat from Dacia in 271, well into the 4th century? A state similar to the ones created, later on, in France by Franks and in Spain by Visigoths? And so the local population would have continued speaking Latin as they regarded themselves as being "true Romans". Even the name of "Romania" resembles a very strong link with Rome. This discovery impacts Romania`s history the most and can shed some light into what happened to Dacia in the 4th and 5th centuries.

[@TheFallofRome]

Well, we don’t really have much evidence of anything quite like that. What we DO have evidence of, after about 300, is Dacia becoming increasingly dominated by the Goths, who appear to have been one ethnic group among a few in the region, and they appear to have been politically dominant

[@petrurares8300]

Împăratul Sponsian a domnit în provincia Dacia romană !

[@simritnam612]

Jeremy ?

[@sjoerdpasterkamp9826]

Paul not Hieronimy

[@stupidminotaur9735]

1. i thought their was 5-6 coins. 2. the sib guy coins i thought 1 of his coins was from 1990's but again i can be wrong.

[@TheFallofRome]

There may be 5 coins….from what I understand one is actually lost

[@ashharris7293]

There are a couple of Ants of Silbannacus. From the articles, there are two SPONSIANS. I've only seen the one, but I believe it is a 1700s fake. The Sib coins are real from some very short lived usurper.

[@stupidminotaur9735]

@@TheFallofRome ok. another youtubers says from catlogs there's 4 and 2 more lost gold coins and 1 lost silver coin

[@stupidminotaur9735]

@@ashharris7293 yes it looks like he was a general who won a lost major battle during the third centery crisis.

[@josephpercente8377]

It would be a stretch to consider them emporers. More like zenobia local rulers.

[@TheFallofRome]

This is more or less what I lean towards, provided this is all genuine. I’m excited to see what happens over the next few months

[@gandalfstormcrow2486]

I absolutely love learning completely useless information.

[@XSpamDragonX]

I wanna believe this is just a very long joke

[@tonyoliver2750]

It's an obvious fake. The fact that Sponsianus’ name is in the genitive, not the nominative as it would be on a genuine coin is all the proof you need.

[@mabeSc]

What if Sponsian was a military commander that needed some gold coins to distribute to his troops really fast? Moreover, he was in Dacia, which was completely abandoned by the Romans - as such, it could be possible that correct Latin might not have been given much thought (people were talking Vulgar Latin and many did, most likely, NOT know how to write or read). Just my 2 cents, it doesn't make much of a difference for me whether it's real or fake - it's just that both sides have really good points.

[@tonyoliver2750]

@@mabeSc If you needed money to pay your troops you're unlikely to pay them with gold coins. Just imagine paying one legion with an estimated 6,000 men (not counting auxiliaries etc). I think you have to judge this case according to how probable it is that there was once a Roman Emperor, of whom nothing is known and about whom nothing has been written from antiquity to the present, who cast rather than stamped his own coins, having an inscription from Republican Rome on the reverse side and terrible Latin on the obverse. As for your 2 cents, I'd need to see them. If they have a portrait of Elizabeth III on the obverse and a union shield with 13 vertical stripes and the USA national motto in a horizontal bar above and if they're made from aluminium, then I'm going to declare them fakes.

[@mabeSc]

@@tonyoliver2750 You got me, I stamped these 2 cents myself, do you think they're worth a bit more this way? I mean, they're not casted... But anyways, on a more serious note, everything that you pointed out is completely and absolutely valid, no doubt here. One point that I'd like to expand on is that there were definitely Roman "Emperors" of whom either nothing is known about, little is known about or the book/inscriptions etc. were destroyed, lost or in too bad of a condition. This is even more likely during the 3rd Century Crisis, which is known for how little information (compared to the rest of Roman History) is present. I would also say that the word "Emperor" might not be appropriate here, the people that am referring to can better be defined as "people with significant regional power". For what it's worth I do think that, once Dacia was abandoned, some sort of centralised authority remained there... And it would also not be anything too hard to imagine, plenty of rump states were created/existed after the fall of the West and East. Now, maybe this coin is indeed fake and I would not even be surprised if further research confirms it - I would also not be surprised if the opposite is true. Gold coins could have been used by the administration in Dacia to trade, buy large amount of equipment, bribery and so much more. Maybe some Romans over the Danube only accepted gold coins due debasement happening in the 3rd century, who knows? Honestly, I would like to see what conclusions further research into these particular coins comes to. Am sure it would be interesting nonetheless, whether fakes from a long time ago or if casted during the Roman period.

[@sjoerdpasterkamp9826]

Germanicus is the imperator (general) of saints. Its a plural, his family was persecuted, martyred.

[@crimsonterror5795]

Probably just a couple of usurping clowns who got killed 3 minutes into revolting.

[@ullupdrost4740]

mondo interesting brother

[@TheFallofRome]

Very!