Delmatius (Caesar)  335 - 337  A.D.

By clicking on the pictures you'll be linked to a more complete description of the coin. At the bottom of this page there is a more elaborate biography of the emperor.

	Obverse: FL DELMATIVS NOB C
	Reverse: GLORIA EXERCITVS
	Fieldmarks: -
	Exergue: SMTSΓ

Delmatius (Caesar)  335 - 337  A.D.

      Flavius Julius Delmatius (most coins show the spelling Delmatius but a few coins show his name as Dalmatius) was the son of Dalmatius the Censor a half-brother of emperor Constantine I. So Delmatius was a nephew of Constantine I, he had a brother named Hannibalianus. It is not known (at least to me ) where or when he was born.

      Constantine put a lot of emphasis on a good education for his potential successors. Delmatius and his brother Hannibalianus were educated at Tolosa by the famous Gallic rhetorician Exuperius, who, in reward for his services, was made governor of Spain. On the 19th of September 335 AD, Delmatius was made Caesar. Earlier in his reign Constantine had started to prepare his successors (His nephews Delmatius and Hannibalianus and his own three sons, Constantius II, Constantine II and Constans) for the transfer of power after his death. He gave each of them administrative control of a part of the empire. When Delmatius was raised to the rank of Caesar he got control of Greece, Thrace and Macedonia.

      Constantine the Great died in May 337 but the succession after his death wasn't as peaceful as he might have hoped. The first thing Constantius and his two brothers did was to get together and massacre all of their relatives who were considered potential traitors and a threat to the security of their thrones. This included the fourth Caesar and their cousin Delmatius who was executed by his soldiers late in the summer of 337 AD. Eutropius a historian who wrote a book entitled Historiae Romanae Breviarium (A Concise History of Rome) around 370 AD said the following about these events:

He left for his successors three sons and one nephew, the son of his brother. But DALMATIUS CAESAR, a man of happy genius, and not unlike his paternal uncle, was soon after cut off by a mutiny among the soldiers, Constantius, his cousin, sanctioning the act, rather than commanding it.

For this biography I've used the texts from the following websites:
http://www.imperiumromanum.com/
http://www.roman-emperors.org/
http://www.roman-empire.net/
And from: Gibbon's Decline and fall of the Roman empire.