Next club meeting Monday 3rd June 2019.
·
Subject - Annual General
Meeting and Display Competition
Monday 1st July 2019.
The club's AGM and
Annual display Competition for the Michael Broome Cup is the meeting where the
officer's report the status of the club and the membership voice their
concerns/ideas. It is also the time where the club committee is elected for the
forthcoming year. It is also time to renew your membership.
As
last year, with this newsletter is a single Committee Report with contributions
from all the officers and the financial balance sheet (appended at the end of
this newsletter). We will not be repeating the content verbatim at the meeting.
After the formalities, the agenda points that the Committee requires membership
feedback will be discussed. Then there will be the opportunity for members to
raise any issues, so please take time to read the report and gather your thoughts
prior to the meeting. The election of officers will follow.
If
you are willing to stand for election to the Committee
please contact the chairman (tel 01276 65663) or the
secretary at the number at the top of this newsletter.
The second part of
the evening will be devoted to the annual display competition, with the winner
being awarded the Michael Broome Memorial Trophy for 1 year. Please bear in
mind that all the displays should be treated respectfully, these are members
own pieces and all should be handled carefully. The
competition is open to all members and can cover any topic connected to
numismatics. So to all members, please have a go and
enter a display.
Because the formalities
of the AGM now take very little time, there WILL be some time available at the end of the meeting for dealing
but ONLY AFTER the Display
Competition has finished. Dealers can put their coins out but should COVER THEM till the competition has
completed. Note that Displays have priority over the use of tables.
Meetings are held
at the Abbey Baptist Church, Abbey Square, commencing at 7.00 p.m.
May Meeting
This was a talk by
Richard Noble entitled AD 69 (The Romans). Richard’s
talk spanned just 28 years but, in that time, seven Roman Emperors died:- two suicides, three assassinations, one from fever
and one from ‘old age’. We are fortunate to have both literary sources and coin
evidence to allow us to piece together the power struggles that led to five of
the deaths.
The
last of the Julio-Claudians, Nero
had ruled from AD54 but in AD68 his extravagance and vanity alienated him from
most provincial governors and the army, leading to a rebellion by Vindex in Gaul. Although this was put down, his praetorian
guard deserted him and, in despair, he committed suicide. In the uncertainty, Galba, the experienced governor of Terraconensis (Spain), had been elevated to Emperor by his
legion in June AD68. The Senate agreed and he went to Rome.
Galba
found the State coffers almost empty and introduced strict controls over the
economy; this was very unpopular with the praetorian guard and when the Legions
of Lower Germany proclaimed Vitellius
as Augustus, the Praetorian Prefect, Otho, organised a conspiracy and Galba was assassinated in
the Forum in January AD69.
Otho was supportive of Vitellius and
hope to succeed him, but when it became clear that Vitellius intended to
appoint his general Calpurnius Piso
as successor, he proclaimed himself Emperor, executing Piso.
Otho’s rule lasted 100 days - until he was defeated in
battle by Vitellius’ Legions in Northern Italy and committed suicide.
Vitellius
was a glutton and enjoyed a lavish lifestyle. He had a reputation for borrowing
money and executing his creditors. However, at the time of Galba’s murder, Vespasian, who was an experienced
general (he had commanded the Second Legion during the invasion of Britain back
in AD43, and was now quelling the Jewish uprising) was proclaimed Emperor by
the Legions in Alexandra in July AD69 and made his way, via the Balkans, to
Rome. Vitellius was defeated at the Battle of Cremona and Vespasian reached
Rome in AD70.
He
immediately set about repairing the damage caused by the civil wars and was
regarded as a fair and industrious ruler until his death in June AD79. In this
time, he rebuilt the Temple of Jupiter, which had been burned down during the
rioting, and started the construction of the Coliseum in Rome (the Flavian
amphitheatre). He was succeeded by his eldest son Titus, who ruled well until his early death from a fever in AD81.
His
younger son, Domitian, had been kept
out of public affairs by Vespasian. In his early days he had shown promise.
However, he became very unpopular with the Senatorial nobility and this led to
numerous plots and conspiracies. Domitian, who was suspicious by nature,
reacted with a reign of terror, which led in AD96 to his assassination by a
palace plot involving, among others, the Praetorian Prefect and his wife, Domitia.
Overall,
the fighting was done by some of the 30 Legions (about 150,000 soldiers) created
by Augustus. Outside Rome, the Empire’s population of about 5 million was
largely unaffected. Domitian was succeeded by the veteran Nerva and the Empire
was then ruled by a series of gifted men – Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus
Pius and Marcus Aurelius until AD180.
Future Events.
·
London Coin Fair at Holiday Inn, Bloomsbury 1st
June
·
Midland Coin Fair – National Motorcycle Museum 9th
June
Past Events
·
10 years ago David Powell spoke on The Evolution of the English Coinage from the
End of the Civil War
·
20 years ago in May 1999 Alistair
McKay ran the Numismatic Brains Trust
·
40 years ago was a Member’s
Evening and coin fair
Club
Secretary.