Maxentius. A.D. 306-312. Bronze Follis. CONSERV VRB SVAE.
Maxentius was born around A.D. 283 to the Emperor Maximian who ruled the Roman Empire with Diocletian in the Tetrarchy system. They retired in A.D. 305 and Maxentius was ignored by the new senior emperor, Galerius, in the reshuffle, so in A.D. 306 he seized power in Rome, eventually coaxing his father from retirement for support. He formed an alliance with Constantine (the Great) leaving him in control of Italy and North Africa and Constantine in Britain, France & Spain. Maxentius seized power in A.D. 306 because Galerius tried to disband the Praetorian Guard and tax Rome for the first time in 400 years; Maxentius said he would protect tradition and he was made emperor with an army! We offer his bronze coin in Very Fine which states this directly on the reverse with ‘CONSERV VRB SVAE’ meaning ‘the Preserver / Protector of His City’ around the goddess Roma in a six-column temple. These coins were struck in Rome between A.D. 307-311 and found in Cambridgeshire in the 1970s, museum conserved, and later sold to a dealer who sat on them for years until he sold them to us. It always amazes us that you can buy a coin knowing where and when it was made, who by and why, and a direct link to someone in Britain over 1700 years ago.
