Roman Empire

Philip I, Emperor AD 244-249

RIC -; Calicó -, Mint State

Rome. IMP M IVL PHILIPPVS AVG, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust of Philip I right. Reverse: FIDES MILIT, Fides standing facing, head left, holding scepter and vexillum.

Ex NAC 87 (8 October 2015), 323; Gorny & Mosch 141 (10 October 2005), 336

Following the death of Gordian III, the Praetorian Prefect, M. Julius Philippus, was acclaimed Emperor as Philip I. As he was of Arab descent he is sometimes known simply as Philip the Arab. He immediately negotiated a humiliating peace treaty with Shapur I and made for Rome to be recognized by the Senate. Philip I next campaign against Germanic Carpi, but then made the serious policy mistake of discontinuing all subsidy payments to barbarian peoples on the Danube frontier. In AD 247, Philip I celebrated a magnificent Ludi Saeculares, but the new age of happiness that they were intended to herald failed to appear. Instead, in multiple usurpers rose in Pannonia and Moesia followed by a major Germanic invasion acrosss the Danube. The beleaguered Philip I offered to resign and the Senate threw its support behind Trajan Decius, who defeated and killed the hapless Arab Emperor near Verona in AD 249.