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Marcus Aurelius Mausaeus Carausius (died 293) was a military commander of the Roman Empire in the 3rd century. He was a Menapii from Gallia Belgica, who Roman usurper power in 286, during the Carausian Revolt, declaring himself emperor in Roman Britain and northern Gaul (Imperium Britanniarum). He did this only 13 years after the Gallic Empire was ended in 273. He held power for seven years, fashioning the name "Emperor of the North" for himself, before being assassinated by his finance minister Allectus.
British historian and archaeologist Sheppard Frere wonders how Carausius was able to win support from the army when his command had been sea-based, and speculates that he had perhaps been involved in an unrecorded victory in Britain, connected with Diocletian's assumption of the title Britannicus Maximus in 285, and signs of destruction in Romano-British towns at this time.Sheppard Frere, Britannia: a History of Roman Britain, third edition, Pimlico, 1987, pp. 326-327 The campaign against the Bagaudae, however, was evidently land-based and may have been responsible for Carausius's popularity with the army. Equally, if the accusations of larceny are true, he could perhaps have afforded to buy their loyalty.
Maximian prepared an invasion of Britain in 288 or 289 to oust him, Panegyrici Latini 10:12.1 but it failed. A panegyric delivered to Constantius Chlorus attributes this failure to bad weather, but notes that Carausius claimed a military victory. Panegyrici Latini 8:12.2 Eutropius says that hostilities were in vain thanks to Carausius's military skill, and peace was agreed.Eutropius, Abridgement of Roman History Carausius began to entertain visions of legitimacy and official recognition.
It has been suggested that Carausius may have been responsible for the series of fortifications on both sides of the English Channel known as the Saxon Shore, another factor that could explain the failure of Maximian's invasion. (2025). 9781846030949, Osprey Publishing. ISBN 9781846030949
In April 2010 a large Frome Hoard of over 52,500 Roman coins was unearthed in a field near Frome, Somerset. 766 of these coins were determined to have been produced during Carausius's reign, of which only 5 were silver denarius. This find roughly equates to four years' pay for a Roman legionary, but the presence of later coin issues implies that the group was not deposited until after Carausius's death.
Carausius also had himself depicted as a member of the Tetrarchy's college of emperors, issuing coins with the legend CARAVSIVS ET FRATRES SVI, 'Carausius and his brothers' with portraits of himself with Diocletian and Maximian.Sear, D.R., (2011), Roman Coins and Their Values Volume IV, nos.13767-74, pp.218-19.
Some of the silver coins bear the legend RSR in the exergue (an area on a coin below the legend). This was considered a mystery for some time. Three Carausian copper-alloy medallions, now in the British Museum, have also survived. One has the reverse legend VICTOR CARAVSIUS AVG GERM MAX with RSR in the exergue; the second has the reverse legend VICTOR CARAVSI AVG ('The Victory of Carausius Augustus') with INPCDA in the exergue; and the third is too damaged for an exergue legend to be visible but bears the reverse legend PACATOR ORBIS 'Peace-bringer to the world'. The medallions depict Carausius in consular garb and are around 34-35 mm, weighing ~22 g. The medals appeared on the market in the twentieth century and reached the British Museum in 1972, 1967 (this one was first shown to the Museum in 1931) and 1997 respectively. All bear evidence of chemical corrosion resulting from burial of some sort as can be seen from their present appearance.For images, see http://www.forumancientcoins.com/lateromancoinage/carausius/medallions/medallions.htmlSear, D.R., (2011), Roman Coins and Their Values Volume IV, nos.13765-66A, pp.217.
Since 1998 these letters have been recognised as representing the sixth and seventh lines of the Fourth Eclogue of Virgil, which reads Redeunt Saturnia Regna, Iam Nova Progenies Caelo Demittitur Alto, meaning "The Golden Ages are back, now a new generation is let down from Heaven above". Virgil's works, or at any rate quotations from them, were current in Roman popular culture. Suetonius cites three instances in which Virgilian lines were quoted.Suetonius, Augustus 40.5 (Aeneid VI.808-12), Nero 47.2 (Aeneid XII.646), Domitian 9.1 (Georgics 2.537). Cassius Dio cites an instance of a praetorian tribune quoting Virgil as a means of criticising Septimius Severus after an attack on Hatra went badly in 199.Dio 76.10.1-3; Aeneid XI.371-3
Copper-alloy medallions already existed in the contemporary repertoire of imperial Roman coinage so Carausius's production should not be considered exceptional. Numerian (283-4) and his brother Carinus (283-5) both issued copper-alloy medallions of similar size and weight to those of Carausius, often depicting the three Monetae (goddesses of the mint).For example Cohen 55 and 58 Another depicts Numerian in consular garb and on the reverse himself and his father Carus in a quadriga pulled by Victory with the legend TRIVNF.QVADOR, 'the triumph over the Quadi tribe', and is clearly similar in tone to the Carausian INPCDA medallion.Cohen 91
Although the Virgilian reference might seem remarkable in the context of late third century Roman Britain it is apparent from other contemporary literature that the Tetrarchy legitimist regime was utilising Virgilian allusions and references in its propaganda, and claiming itself to have restored a Golden Age.'The Golden Age was a recurrent leitmotif of the Tetrarchs' publicity'. O. O. Nicholson, 'The Wild Man of the Tetrarchy Galerius,' Byzantium 54 (1984) 266. 'The rule of Saturn over a golden age is a literary commonplace ... as is the association of any emperor's reign with the same thing'.Nixon, C. E. V., and Rodgers, B.S., (1994), In Praise of Later Emperors: the Panegyricii Latini, University of California Press, Berkeley, 170.
An imperial panegyric to Maximian states 'Indeed, as the fact is, those golden ages which once flourished briefly in the reign of Saturn, are now reborn under the perpetual guidance of Jove and Hercules.'Imperial Panegyrics IX (IV).13.1ff.and cited by Nixon and Rodgers, see previous note Lactantius, a Christian writer of the period and opponent of the Tetrarchs, makes a number of disparaging references to the Tetrarchs and their Saturnian pretensions which seem to be a refutation of official propaganda.Principally Divine Institutes 1 and 5, for example 5.5 'they repeat examples of justice from the times of Saturnus, which they call the golden times, and they relate in what condition human life was while it delayed on the earth. And this is not to be regarded as a poetic fiction, but as the truth.'
Carausius was claiming to represent a revival of traditional Roman virtues and the great traditions of the Empire as established by Augustus in the last decades of the first century BC, not in Rome but in Britain. However, he appears to have adopted a propaganda theme that was already current in Tetrarchal publicity which corresponds with the use of similar literary allusions.
An alternative school of thought exists which argues the medallions must be eighteenth-century fantasy pieces on the basis that such arcane literary allusions would have been too obscure to Carausius and his army. This argument contends that the antiquarian William Stukeley or someone like him found the RSR on Carausius's silver coinage, and noted that this matched the Redeunt Saturnia Regna (RSR) of the 6th line of the Fourth Eclogue. Thus inspired, the medallions were created with the next line of the Eclogue included on one of them. The central points of this argument are that Stukeley had published a detailed book on Carausius and his coinage,Stukeley, W., 1757, The Medallic History of Marcus Aurelius Valerius(sic) Carausius and that the medallions have no known provenance.Williams, H. P. G., (2004), Carausius. A consideration of the historical, archaeological and numismatic aspects of his reign. British Archaeological Reports (British Series) no. 378, pp. 81-82. However, this published argument does not offer any evidence to support Stukeley's involvement or motives (since Stukeley never mentions the medals or a Virgilian expansion of the RSR coins known to him), or include discussion of the literary evidence of the contemporary panegyrics or any of the scholarly publications concerning them, or explain why the medallions appear on the basis of their present appearance to have been buried and why they were unknown until 1931 when the INPCDA one was first brought to the British Museum.
Hector Boece later built on this to make "Carantius" a Scottish prince, exiled on suspicion of involvement in his brother's murder, who entered Roman service passing himself off as a commoner, and later allied with his nephew King Crathlinthus against the Romans.
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