Philip the Arab 244 - 249 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: IMP M IVL PHILIPPVS AVG
	Reverse: ROMAE AETERNAE
	Fieldmarks: -
	Exergue: -

      Marcus Julius Verus Philippus was born around 204 AD in a very small town in southwestern Syria. He was the son of an Arab chieftain called Julius Marinus who held Roman citizenship, nothing is known about his mother. His ethnicity earned him the nickname Philip the Arab. Philip had an older brother named Julius Priscus and was married to Marcia Otacilia Severa they had a son named Marcus Julius Severus Philippus who was born around 238 AD. There aren't to many details known about his life, earlier career or even his reign.

      Julius Priscus served as a praetorian prefect under Gordian III and its very likely that he helped advance his younger brother's career. During Gordian III's campaign in Mesopotamia his other praetorian prefect, Timesitheus (Gordian III's father-in-law) died. Priscus convinced Gordian III to raise Philip (who was the vicarius or deputy of the praetorian prefect Timesitheus at the time) to his position and so Philip joined his brother as praetorian prefect. During the Mesopotamian campaign, in February of 244 Gordian III was killed near Circesium by his soldiers. Philip is thought to have been responsible for causing Gordian III's death, either directly or indirectly by creating discontent with the emperor by cutting off the troops' supplies (and blaming the lack of supplies on Gordian's inexperience and youth). Philip was hailed as Gordian III's successor by the army and reported to the senate that the 19-year-old emperor had died of natural causes and asked to have him deified. Why Philip was chosen over his older brother Priscus is not known.

      Philip wanted to move to Rome as quickly as possible to get his status as emperor confirmed. To accomplish this he needed to make an immediate peace treaty with the Sassanide king Shapur, although the terms weren't to favorable of course (500,000 denarii and an annual tribute) they weren't that bad either as he remained in control of Mesopotamia up till Singara and lower Armenia. Philip put his brother in charge of Mesopotamia and later gave him full command of the eastern provinces as rector Orientis with supreme authority over the eastern provinces and their armies with his headquarter based in Antioch. Back in Rome the senate confirmed Philip as emperor. Philip understood the importance of loyal people in the right places and with his brother in control of the east he granted his father-in-law (or brother-in-law) Severianus the governorship of Moesia, putting him in charge of part of the influential Danubian legions. To further increase his grip on power he declared his infant son Philippus Caesar and his wife was declared Augusta. Philip also deified his father Marinus and raised his insignificant home town in Syria to the status of a Roman colony and renamed it Philippopolis (City of Philip, some tourist info here) all in an attempt to legitimize his claim to the throne.

      Soon after his arrival in Rome a new threat to the empire emerged as a barbarian tribe called the Dacian Capri crossed the Danube and started to wreak havoc on the upper part of the province of Moesia. Severianus and his generals weren't able to deal with the problem so in 245 Philip gathered his armies and went to deal with the problem himself. His campaign lasted nearly two years but he defeated the Capri and and even moved into Dacia forcing the Capri to sew for peace. With this victory under his belt he raised his son Philippus to the rank of Augustus. In 248 AD the thousand year anniversary of the founding of the City of Rome was celebrated with large and elaborate feasts, secular games, chariot races and gladiatorial spectacles. In the same year no less then 4 usurpers made an attempt for the throne. A certain Silbannacus on the Rhine and a man named Sponsianus on the Danube were declared emperor by their troops but both of these revolts fizzled out as quickly as they started. A more serious threat came from a general named Tiberius Claudius Marinus Pacatianus who was hailed as Augustus by several of the Danubian legions. All these uprisings caused the disgruntled tribe of the Goths (who had been promised an annual tribute by Gordian III, but didn't receive a Denarius) to seize their opportunity and cross the Danube into Moesia. They managed to raise a force of nearly 300000 barbarians, their main focus was the city of Marcianopolis which was fiercely defended and they failed to take it causing their invasion to lose its punch. To make matters worse for Philip another usurper raised his head in the east by the name of Iotapianus. This revolt was directed at Philip's brother Priscus who was ruling the east with an iron fist collecting exorbitantly high taxes. On hearing all this bad news Philip began to panic, convinced the empire was falling apart. In a unique move, he addressed the senate offering to resign. However a senator by the name of Gaius Messius Quintus Decius rose to speak and convinced the house that all was far from lost. Pacatianus and Iotapianus were, so he suggested, bound to be killed by their own men soon. The senate and emperor took heart from Decius' rousing speech but they must have been very impressed, when his predictions came true. Both Pacatianus and Iotapianus were shortly afterwards murdered by their own troops.

      But this didn't solve the situation on the Danube, Severianus was struggling to regain control. Many of his soldiers were deserting to the still rampaging Goths. In an attempt to rectify the situation Philip replaced Severianus with the steadfast Decius and gave him control of the provinces Moesia and Pannonia. This appointment looked like a brilliant strategy, before the end of 248 AD Decius had restored full discipline to the armies and kicked all the barbarians back across the Danube. Then the appointment backfired when the Danubian troops, who were extremely impressed by their new leader, proclaimed him emperor in 249 AD. Decius had no desire to be emperor and protested, but Philippus gathered his troops and moved north to destroy him. Left with no choice but to fight Decius led his troops south to meet him. In September or October of 249 AD the two armies met at Verona. Philip was no great general and his larger, but inexperienced, army met with a crushing defeat and Philip was killed. When the news reached Rome the praetorian guard murdered his son and his associates and Decius became the new emperor.

For a huge collection of Philip I coins and his family look here.

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.