115: Rome. Didius Julianus, March 28 to about mid-June - eBay (item 320247625185 end time May-26-08 12:15:18 PDT) Back to My eBayCatalog:The Pre Long Beach Sale - World Sale eBay Live Auctions:Coins > World Coins > Live Auction Seller eBay:Coins & Paper Money > Coins: Ancient > Roman: Imperial 115: Rome. Didius Julianus, March 28 to about mid-JuneItem number: 320247625185 Bidder or seller of this item? Sign in for your status Bidding has ended for this item This item has been added to My eBay for Guests. As a guest, you can: Track up to 10 items on this computer in My eBay Receive an email reminder for this item a few hours before it ends View larger picture Closed at:US $70,000.00 Estimate:US $35,000.00 - US $40,000.00 History:26 bids Lot number:115 (View all lots) Auction Date:May-26-08 10:00:00 PDT Auction Currency:US $ (U.S. dollar) Currency Calculator High Bid:Live Auction Floor Bidder Item location:Beverly Hills, CA 0% APR until 2009 with new eBay MasterCard You can also: Email to a friend Meet the seller Seller:i-lgoldbergcoinsandcollectibles( 2235) Feedback:99.4 % Positive Member:since May-09-01 in United States See detailed feedback Ask seller a question Add to Favorite Sellers View seller's other items Buy safely 1. Check the seller's reputation Score: 2235 | 99.4% Positive See detailed feedback 2. Check how you're protected If paying with a credit card, see your card issuer's terms Description (revised) Prev LotNext Lot Hover thumbnail to view large image below. Click thumbnail to view full image in new window. Rome. Didius Julianus, March 28 to about mid-June 193 AD. Gold Aureus (6.65 g), Rome mint. Laureate and draped bust of Didius Julianus right. Reverse: Togate Didius Julianus stands left, holding globe and roll; RECTOR ORBIS. Fr-362; RIC 3; C. 14; BMCRE 7; Calicó 2399. An excellent portrait in the best style of the period, struck in high relief. A wonderful example of this historical and very rare gold piece. NGC graded Choice About Uncirculated. The reign of Didius Julianus ranks among the shortest of all of Rome's ephemeral emperors, but his story is nevertheless the most singular in the annals of the Empire. He remains as the only wearer of the imperial purple to have purchased outright his way to the throne. His predecessor, Pertinax, had, rather like Galba over a hundred years earlier, tried to reform too quickly the corruption and dissolution that had seriously infected the throne and the highest levels of government and military under the increasingly deranged tyranny of Commodus. After several attempted coups, Pertinax finally fell victim to a revolt by the Praetorian Guards on the 86th day of his reign. In the chaos following his assassination two persons of stature approached the Praetorians (who envisioned themselves more and more the "king makers" with regard to the throne) to seek the position of the next emperor. Earliest was Flavius Sulpicianus, the father-in-law of Pertinax, who made an immediate appeal for his being chosen, but who found suddenly that he was in competition with one senator, Didius Julianus, one of the wealthiest men in Rome. What initially may have been a plan of flattery and simple bribery on the part of Sulpicianus escalated so that the two, caught up in the moment, began a bidding war against each other with the Praetorians in order to secure their vote. Julianus won, with a final offer of 25,000 sestertii per guard. Drunk with their power and b linded by their promised windfall, the Guards escorted Julianus to the senate house where the terrified senators had no choice but to ratify his new position. If the senators' fear at the time was great, even greater was the rage of the public at this shameful state of affairs. They promptly sent out deputations to the frontier commanders requesting them to free them from the "tyranny" of Didius Julianus and the Praetorian Guards. Since the leading commanders had all been comrades-in-arms with Pertinax, they were eager to avenge his murder (along with being equally mindful of the opportunity of perhaps seizing the title of Augustus). Thus began the civil war, which would last until 195. General Septimius Severus had the upper hand, being the closest to Rome, along with having three regiments under his control. He promptly began a forced march to the city. Julianus realized he was doomed. To forestall the inevitable, he sent assassins to hopefully intervene ag ainst Severus, while at the same time offering to share power with him. As Severus and his legions neared Rome, and hoping to avoid serious bloodshed, Severus put forth a generous offer to the Praetorians: immunity would be given to the whole of the Guard if they turned over those few individuals who were actually responsible for the death of Pertinax. Since the Guard had yet to receive their largesse from Julianus, they quickly acquiesced and notified the Senate of their decision. The Senate then promptly deified the late Pertinax, condemned Julianus as a criminal, and declared Septimius Severus the new emperor. Whatever giddy visions Julianus had of himself as ruler were cut short. On the 1st or 2nd of June, he was captured and beheaded like a common criminal. Estimated Value $35,000 - 40,000. Ex Gorny & Mosch, Auction 71 (March 1995), lot 698. Illustrated in Money of the World, coin 47. Our item number 115769 Notices This item is an "eBay Live Auction". This means that each item will not close at a specific time like a regular ebay auction. Because this is a live auction the lot will be opened in a format like a real auction house floor. Bids can be placed real-time during the auction via ebayliveauctions.com and icollector.com. Please note, bidders may place bids before the auction up to 1 hour prior to the start of the auction. This is the recommended method of bidding if you have a slow internet connection or do not have the experience bidding in a "live" sale. Due to the speed of the auction, we highy recommend a DSL or cable connection . Once the auction has started, only live bids are accepted. Please do not call to place bids during the auction as they will not be accepted. The "Auction date and time" displayed by ebay has been known to be wrong. Please check our auction information page for actual start times on ebayliveauctions.com. These start times pertain to when the auction opens, not the individual lot. We typically run approximately 150 items per hour, so you can estimate from that when your item may be displayed. We will not be held responsible for ebay down time or internet problems. If ebay goes down, we will try our best to wait a sufficient amount of time for it to come back up. In the event that we cannot require ebay, all ebay bids during that downtime will not be honoured. There is a 20% commission charge added to each and every lot. Images & text re-used by permission, courtesy of Ira & Larry Goldberg Auctioneers, Beverly Hills, CA