Saturninus
Usurper in Syria  AD 280

Sextus Julius Saturninus.

Julius Saturninus was most probably of Arab descent and native of Alexandria. He served as governor of Syria under Probus and owed his brief promotion to the imperial office more to the dissatisfaction of his troops than to his own ambition. As a later historian records, he was quite reluctant to accept the purple, but in the end acquiesced, as a gold coin in his name attests. Probus, who was busy at the time suppressing the revolt of Bonosus and Proculus on the Rhine, was slow to move against Saturninus. In the end it turned unnecessary, for Saturninus's own soldiers grew disillusioned and murdered him.

Mints: Alexandria.

List all Saturninus coins in the Catalog.

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