★ The restoration of the Colosseum? ★

Albinus, 484 (?). 'Tessera Monumenti' (Bronze, 13x17 mm, 4.15 g), Rome. SALVIS DD / NN ALBIN/VS S C FECIT in three lines; all inlaid in silver. Rev. Blank. Bendall -. CIL XV, 7117. CPAI -. MAH -. Pondera -. Of the highest rarity, apparently the second known example. A beautifully produced and very well preserved piece. Very few inlays missing, otherwise, good very fine.

Unfortunately, this 'tessera monumenti' only provides a single name, Albinus, whereas similar pieces also record the name Basilius on the reverse (BASILIVS REPARAVIT, CIL XV 7116). These are common names in late antiquity, and while a Flavius Albinus is recorded as praefectus urbi in 426, so is Decius Marius Venantius Basilius, who shared the consulship with Theoderic 'the Great' in 484. The latter is an especially interesting figure, as he is known from an inscription to have repaired the Colosseum after an earthquake:

DECIVS MARIVS VENANTIVS
BASILIVS V[IR] C[LARISSIMVS] ET INL[VSTRIS] PRAEF[ECTVS]
VRB[I] PATRICIVS CONSVL
ORDINARIVS ARENAM ET
PODIVM QVAE ABOMI
NANDI TERRAEMO
TVS RVINA PROS
TRAVIT SVM[P]TV PRO
PRIO RESTITVIT

'Decius Marius Venantius Basilius, vir clarissimus and inlustris, praefectus urbi, patricius, consul ordinarius, restored at his own expenses the arena and the podium, destroyed by a terrible earthquake.' (CIL VI, 1716)

As the 'tesserae monumenti' in the name of Albinus and Basilius say that the latter reparavet/reparavit, 'repaired', it is tempting to assign them to the Basilius who was prefect of Rome and consul in 484 and repaired the Colosseum. If this is true, the Domini named on our tessera are Zeno (474-491), the emperor in the East, and Odoacer (476-493), the ruler of the West. Albinus, on the other hand, might then not have been prefect of Rome, but the praefectus praetorio, which had turned into the highest civil office of the empire in the 5th century.