The Nursery

Marcus Antonius Gordianus Pius Augustus was Roman Emperor from 238-244 CE. He was the grandson of Gordian II and the nephew of Gordian II who were Senate-backed emperors for a short while before being killed by soldiers loyal to Maximinus Thrax.

In the civil war between the Senate and Maximinus Thrax, Gordian III was proclaimed emperor alongside two senior senators, Balbinus and Pupienus. They were wildly unpopular, though, despite nominally defeating Maximinus and after four weeks they were murdered by the Preatorian Guard and Gordian was proclaimed sole emperor. And so, at the age of 13, he became the youngest emperor to rule the united Roman Empire. Due to Gordian's age, the imperial government was initially surrendered to the Senate.

In 241, Gordian was married to Furia Sabinia Tranquillina, daughter of the newly appointed praetorian prefect, Timesitheus. As chief of the Praetorian Guard and father in law of the Emperor, Timesitheus quickly became the de facto ruler of the Roman Empire.

During an otherwise successful campaign against the Sassanid Empire, Gordian III died – either in battle or via treason – and was succeeded by Marcus Julius Philippus, also known as Philip the Arab.

My Coins

I don't have a lot of coins of Gordian III – not because they're rare or anything, in fact they are quite common. But for some reason I don't really find them that appealing.

#	Reference	Obverse	Reverse	Notes
1	Sear 8612		Fortvna Redux
2	Sear 8626		Oriens Avg

I think writefreely – nice as it is – might be too limited for a digital garden with many subject and large bodies of interconnected work. I'm missing a navigation for one...

Some possible alternatives for a more structured digital garden are:

• https://www.11ty.dev/docs/
• https://www.getzola.org/

Ideally I'd like to just use a static website generator and markdown, in some form or another. I would probably like to avoid having to use Apache to serve it – but I need to look into what my options are, I guess.

I'll keep this writefreely instance, though – but I'll use it more as a regular blog. Time will tell if it'll live or die.

This coin is an antoninianus struck in Rome in 245 CE. It weighs 4.82g and measures 23.3mm.

Obverse: IMP M IVL PHILIPPVS AVG, radiate, draped, cuirassed bust of Philip I right

Reverse: ADVENTVS AVGG, emperor on horseback left, holding spear

Reference: Sear 8916

I bought this coin from Steve Santore when I was still on Facebook.

This digital garden is – at least for now – created using a self-hosted instance of writefreely.

• I like it because it's minimalist
• I like it because it's FOSS
• I like it because you write using markdown
• I like it because it's federated

What I don't know is whether or not it's too simple. I want to eventually be able to group my notes together, so that there is at least some sort of non-bloglike structure to the garden. I also tend to create large interconnected bodies of writing, and I am not sure it's going to be easy to navigate them using the standard theme.

Here are some possible avenues to I am planning to look into:

• Maybe I can do some simple css-tweaks? I'll check out some of the write.as themes and the css.horse tool
• Maybe tags will work as an acceptable navigation? Right now they don't work for me at all
• Maybe I can set up several blogs – divided by subject – but with a single landing page

Since I self-host I have a little more options than most people, I guess. I could also look into other software, but writefreely is just so nice to use as a writer that I am reluctant to use something more complicated.

Marcus Iulius Philippus Augustus – also commonly known by his nickname Philip the Arab – was Roman emperor from 244 CE to 249 CE. He was born in 204 CE in what is now Syria, as the son of a local citizen called Julius Marinus.

Philip had a brother, Gaius Julius Priscus, who was of equestrian rank and was a member of the Praetorian Guard during the reign of Gordian III. He helped Philip out, it is assumed, and Philip also joined the guard.

In 243 CE, Gordian III was campaigning against the Persians. His father in law, Timesitheus, died under unclear circumstances during the campaign, and at the suggestion of Priscus, Philip was made the new Praetorian prefect, commander of the body guard.

In February 244, Gordian III was killed in battle against the Persians, and Philip assumed the throne with the help of his brother. At this point in time they had been the de-facto regents for young Gordian III for several years and it seemed like a logical choice. He quickly struck a peace deal and proclaimed himself Persicus Maximus, although it was an expensive peace indeed costing 500.000 denarii.

Philip was determined not to repeat the mistakes of his predecessors and put a great deal of effort into gaining the support of the Senate and the Roman people. He also started many building projects and paid off the army. All in all he was soon desperately short of money and had to increase taxes, and stopped paying tribute to the tribes north of the Danube. A few years later the tribes invaded, and although Philip and his generals pushed them back, tax rebellions broke out in Egypt and elsewhere. Philip offered to resign, but the Senate strongly supported him, especially a powerful senator called Gaius Messius Quintus Decius, who was soon dispatched to defeat the barbarians.

He was very successful, and the more and more discontent Legions decided to proclaim him emperor. He refused, but was told in no uncertain terms that it would mean death to refuse. He reluctantly accepted, and tried to strike a deal with Philip to allow him to resign, but Philip's troops would have none of it. There was a battle, and Philip was defeated and killed, either in battle or by his own troops.

One reluctant emperor replaced by another, such was the way of the 3rd century.

My coins

I have a lot of coins struck under Philip I, for no particular reason. I guess it's be because they are readily available in good grades without costing a fortune and have interesting reverses.

In addition, the Ludi Saeculares took place during his reign, a festival which took place every 100 years or so, and at this particular point in time coincided with the thousandth anniversary of the founding of Rome. Many commemorative coins celebrating this were struck, some of which are in my collection.

#	Reference	Obverse	Reverse	Notes
1	Sear 8916		Adventvs Avgg		Link
2	Sear 8918		Aeqvitas Avgg
3	Sear 8918		Aeqvitas Avgg		Link
4	Sear 8921		Aeternitas Avgg
5	Sear 8922		Annona Avgg
6	Sear 8933		Fortuna Redux
7	Sear 8935		Laetit Fvndat
8	Sear 8937		Liberalitas Avg II
9	Sear 8938		Nobilitas Avgg
10	Sear 8943		PM TRP II COS PP
11	Sear 8944		PM TRP III COS PP
12	Sear 8944		PM TRP III COS PP
13	Sear 8946		PM TRP IIII COS II PP
14	Sear 8946		PM TRP IIII COS II PP
15	Sear 8950		PM TRP VI COS PP
16	Sear 8952		Romae Aeternae
17	Sear 8952		Romae Aeternae
18	Sear 8956		Saecvlares Avgg	Lion
19	Sear 8958		Saecvlares Avgg	Stag
20	RIC 20		Saecvlares Avgg	Stag left
21	Sear 8961		Saecvlares Avgg	Cippus COS III
22	Sear 8963		Saecvlvm Novvm
23	Sear 8963		Saecvlvm Novvm
24	Sear 8966		Secvurit Orbis
25	Sear 8966		Secvurit Orbis
26	Sear 8967		Spes Felicitas Orbis
27	Sear 8969		Victoria Avg
28	Sear 8972		Victoria Avgg
29	Sear 8972		Victoria Avgg
30	Sear 8975		Virtus Avg
31	Sear 8976		Virtus Avgg

I also have a few coins of his dependents:

Otacilia Severa – his wife

#	Reference	Obverse	Reverse	Notes
1	Sear 9147		Concordia Avg

Philip II – his son and co-emperor from july/august 247-249

#	Reference	Obverse	Reverse	Notes
1	Sear 9240		Principi Ivvent
2	Sear 9240		Principi Ivvent

The Severan dynasty was a Roman imperial dynasty, which ruled the Roman Empire between 193 and 235 CE. The dynasty was founded by the Roman general Septimius Severus, who rose to power as the victor of the 193-197 civil war.

Septimius Severus was from Libya – not only by birth but also by ethnicity – and after the death of his first wife he married Julia Domna, a woman from an important Arab Syrian family. They would prove to be a formidable couple, and after a civil war following the murder of Commodus ascended to the throne.

Although largely a peaceful time, the Severan Period was plagued by constant political turmoil and warfare – foreshadowing the imminent total collapse which followed the murder of Alexander Severus in 235 AD, and which we know as the Crisis of the 3rd Century.

One of the characteristic phenomena of this period of Roman history was the very active role played by the empresses and other female family members. This is also reflected in an abundance of coins struck in their name.

The Severans emperors were:

• Septimius Severus (193-211)
• Caracalla (198-217)
• Geta (209-211)
• Elagabalus (218-222)
• Severus Alexander (222-235)

In between Geta and Elagabalus, a single non-Severan emperor ruled for a year, the lawyer and bureaucrat Macrinus with his son Diadumenian as Caesar.

My coins

I have some coins from the Severan dynasty – although not many from each person.

Septimius Severus

#	Reference	Obverse	Reverse	Notes
1	Sear 6319		Paci Aeternae
2	Sear 6354		Provid Avgg

Julia Domna – wife of Septimius Severus

#	Reference	Obverse	Reverse	Notes
1	Sear 6584		Fortvnae Felici
2	Sear 6601		Pietas Pvblica

Caracalla

#	Reference	Obverse	Reverse	Notes
1	RIC 194		PM TRP XV COSIII PP	cf. S6829
2	Sear 6895		Vict Part Max

Plautilla – unfortunate wife of Caracalla

#	Reference	Obverse	Reverse	Notes
1	Sear 7074		Venus Victrix

Geta

#	Reference	Obverse	Reverse	Notes
1	Sear 7174		Felicitas Tempor

Elagabalus

#	Reference	Obverse	Reverse	Notes
1	RIC 13		PM TRP II COS II PP
2	Sear 7520		Laetitia Publ	Fake

Julia Maesa – grandmother of Elagabalus & Severus Alexander

#	Reference	Obverse	Reverse	Notes
1	Sear 7757		Saeculi Felicitas	RIC 272

Julia Mamaea – mother of Severus Alexander

#	Reference	Obverse	Reverse	Notes
1	Sear 8212		Ivno Conservatrix

I think I've found a decent candidate for replacing (or supplementing) this #writefreely blog with something where I can more easily build and maintain larger interconnected bodies of work.

It's called TypeMill.

The main attraction for me is:

• There's a web-interface so I don't have to do local development and deploy
• It's markdown-based
• Since it's a full CMS-system, I don't have to manually move images to my server and then include them in the markup, I can use the built-in asset manager
• There are some basic themes available out of the box to start with

The only thing that worries me slightly is that it requires..

A webserver (Apache)

...and I'd really prefer to stay on #nginx. There's a basic config file example, but it's not updated for the most recent versions of #typemill so I don't know if it'll work.

Still, worth a shot.

I've been struggling a bit with getting my #jellyfin instance to recognize an external harddrive, I kept getting a The path could not be found. Please ensure the path is valid and try again.-error.

Turns out it was two things:

1. Jellyfin doesn't like it when a drive is mounted to /media/my_usr/drivename, so I added an entry to my fstab-file to auto-mount to my /srv/-directory which is where I put most of my stuff anyway.

2. Once the drive was mounted, I hadn't given 'read'-permission to the 'other' role on my system, only to my own user. Jellyfin doesn't connect as you, obviously, so it can't see the files unless given explicit permission.

Anyway, this is all quite new to me, but I am enjoying myself and warming up to the point where I make the switch from windows to #linux some time in the coming year.