Wednesday, May 20, 2015

The coins shown are minted in the name of Vabalathus of Palmyra, who ruled under the authority of the Roman Emperor Aurelian. The first is a tetradrachm intended for Egypt, while the second is an antoninianus, or double denarius coin. Both feature Vabalathus and Aurelian. Vabalathus would end up rebelling against Aurelian, and would be defeated and Palmyra sacked. Vabalathus and his mother Zenobia were taken to Rome, and paraded through the city as captives according to the old tradition. Afterward, they were most likely freed and allowed to live out their lives as private citizens, as Aurelian was known to be one of the more merciful emperors in Roman history.










It appears that IS has captured Palmyra, one of the most extensive and well preserved ancient ruins on the planet. If they remain true to form, they will likely sell off whatever they can and destroy the rest. And the more the world protests against such atrocities, the more likely they are to do it. I'm not sure what the answer is, and there's probably nothing that can be done to stop them from destroying the the ancient city. Very sad. This post is just my way of calling attention to what is likely to be a horrible crime against our ancient heritage.