A name may be missing from the annals of imperial Rome

chance may erase all trace of even those who have been great in their day. And there were many opportunities for greatness, albeit fleeting, in the Roman empire of the third century . Between the reigns of Septimius Severus, who died in 211, and Diocletian, who came to power in 284, 33 men are known to have had their claim to rule—and with that, the title “Imperator”—recognised by the Senate of Rome. On top of those, a further 18 individuals (one was a woman) awarded themselves this title, set themselves up as local rulers, and coined money to prove the point, without engaging in the dangerous business of marching on the capital itself. Or was it 19? In 1713 a hoard of gold and silver coins was allegedly found in Transylvania—now in Romania, then part of Habsburg-ruled Hungary, and also overlapping what was once Dacia, a province of the Roman empire. Many bore portraits of well-attested emperors, Gordian III and Philip the Arab (or possibly his son, Philip II). Some, however, carried a likeness of one “Sponsian”, a man otherwise unknown to history, who nevertheless claimed in the coins’ legends to be “”, as well.