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Civil Wars. AD 68-69. AR Denarius (3.55 g, 5h). Revolt of Vindex issue. Vienna (Vienne) mint. Struck March-May AD 68. Victory standing left on globe, holding wreath and palm frond / S P Q R within laurel wreath. Cf. RIC I 72 var. (oak wreath); cf. AM 77 var. (same); cf. RSC 420 var. (same).

Gaius Julius Vindex (37-69): Roman senator, governor of Gallia Lugdunensis, first to revolt against the emperor Nero.
Gaius Julius Vindex was a member of the former royal family of Aquitania, which had lost its throne when Julius Caesar had subdued their country. However, it was still an influential family, and the father of Julius Vindex became a Roman senator after the emperor Claudius had permitted noblemen from Gaul to enter the august college (48).

His son was a senator too, and after his praetorship, he was appointed governor of Gallia Lugdunensis (Central France). Since senator's sons usually held the praetorship at the age of thirty, we may assume that Vindex was 31 years old when he arrived in his new capital Lyon (68). According to the great historian Cassius Dio, he "was powerful in body and of shrewd intelligence, was skilled in warfare and full of daring for any great enterprise; and he had a passionate love of freedom and a vast ambition" (Roman History, 63.22.1?).

He had been in Rome for several years, and had seen how the emperor Nero had indulged in his cultural passions and odd love for the Greek way of life. Like many other senators, he thought that it would be better to overthrow the ruler, and he invited representatives of the communities of Gaul to discuss the subject.

Vindex called together the Gauls, who had suffered much by the numerous forced levies of money and were still suffering at Nero's hands. And ascending a tribunal he delivered a long and detailed speech against Nero, saying that they ought to revolt from the emperor and join the speaker in an attack upon him, "because," as he said, "he has despoiled the while Roman world, because he has destroyed all the flower of the senate, because he debauched and then killed his mother, and does not preserve even the semblance of sovereignty. Many murders, robberies and outrages, it is true, have often been committed by others; but as for the other deeds committed by Nero, how could one find words fittingly to describe them? I have seen him, my friends and allies -believe me- I have seen that man [...] in the circle of the theater, that is, in the orchestra, sometimes holding the lyre and dressed in loose tunic and buskins, and again wearing in general-soled shoes and mask. I have often heard him sing, play the herald, and act in tragedies. I have seen him in chains, hustled about as a miscreant, heavy with child, aye, in the travail of childbirth - in short, imitating all the situations of mythology by what he said and what was said to him, by what he submitted to and by what he did. Will anyone, then, style such a person Caesar and emperor and Augustus? Never! Let no one abuse those sacred titles. They were held by Augustus and by Claudius, whereas this fellow might most properly be termed Thyestes, Oedipus, Alcmeon, or Orestes; for these are the characters that he represents on the stage and it is these titles that he has assumed in place of the others. Therefore rise now at length against him; succour yourselves and succour the Romans; liberate the entire world!"
[Cassius Dio, Roman history 63.22.2-6;
tr. Earnest Cary]
Vindex was a Roman senator and a nobleman, and behaved according to the principle that nobility obliges. He did not fight to get the empire for himself, but started to search for a distinguished and decent man. In April 68, he found Servius Sulpicius Galba, the governor of Hispania Tarraconensis, an honest man who was skilled in warfare, and by common consent possessed the makings of a ruler.


Galba (Musei Vaticani, Rome)
Now, Vindex revolted. He recruited soldiers and announced that he no longer obeyed the orders of Nero. We don't know what he said to inspire his people, but a late source that sometimes contains reliable information, the Life of Apollonius by Philostratus, says:
He declared in it that Nero was anything rather than a harpist, and a harpist rather than a sovereign. And he taxed him with madness and avarice and cruelty and wantonness of every kind, though he omitted to tax him with the cruelest of crimes; for he said that he had quite rightly put to death his mother, because she had borne such a monster.
[Philostratus, Life of Apollonius, 5.10;
tr. F.C. Conybeare]
The emperor responded by sending the First legion Italica, which had recently been constituted, to Lyon. When it arrived, however, the revolt had already been suppressed by another force: the legions XXI Rapax, IIII Macedonica and XXII Primigenia of the army of the Upper Rhine, commanded by Lucius Verginius Rufus.
Rufus, the governor of Germania Superior, set out to make war on Vindex; but when he reached

A page of history in a bosky bower”. The surrounding countryside today replaced the distant sea of about fifteen kilometers. At the time Roman, the sea going up the estuary reached the site of Montreuil. The first ramparts were built as of the 9th century by Helgaud, count de Ponthieu. It makes city a sure place which attracts Breton monks. As of the 10th century Montreuil has an important place in the history: the city is then the first seaport of Capetiens and single access to the sea. The transit of food and goods made it possible the town of thrive, and the city becomes the seat of the county of Ponthieu in 1200. Just like Arras, Montreuil passes to be a rich person quoted clothier of 11th at the 13th century. Its industries and its tanneries are famous in Europe. The eight churches attract the pilgrims thanks to the relics of the holy bodies. The population will exceed the 10.000 inhabitants… a charter is granted by Philippe Auguste in 1186, during his reign, the royal castle is built. The conquest of other ports by the king of France, the stranding of Canche and finally the taking possession of the city by English, contributed to his decline and the city leaves ruined War One hundred years. But the city suffered during the reign from Charles Quint which delivers the city to plundering and roof the port, and in 1537 Montreuil faced many fires, then with the plague in 1596. The right blank of the Camp of Boulogne is installed in Montreuil in 1803 and gives again at the city a little animation, the marshals Soult and Ney has their district general there. Victor-Hugo passes to Montreuil only one half-day, on September 4, 1837 at the time of a voyage in North, in company of his mistress Juliette Drouet. He goes immortasiser the city by inventing Mr Madelaine, ex Jean Valjean, convict who becomes mayor of the city in “the Poor wretches”. Today it is charming a small flowered city recognized beyond the limits of the area like a pearl of beauty in an ecrin of History.