★ Aulus Vitellius Germanicus ★

★ Usurper Eugenius ★

Eugenius, AD. 392-394. AE Nummus. 0.72 g. - 14.42 mm. Aquileia, 393-394 AD.
Obv.: D N EVGENIVS P F AVG. Bearded, pearl-diademed, draped and cuirassed bust of Eugenius to right.
Rev.: SPES ROMANORVM. Victory advancing left, holding wreath in her right hand and palm frond in her left; AQP in exergue.
Ref.: RIC 59; Paolucci & Zub 805.; cf. Leu Numismatik, Web Auction 20 (2022), lot 2823 (700 CHF); Numismatik Naumann, Auction 113 (2022), lot 870, (550€).
aEF.
Flavius Eugenius was a Roman usurper who briefly ruled as emperor in the Western Roman Empire. He was a teacher of rhetoric and grammar before becoming involved in politics. Eugenius was elevated to the position of emperor in 392 AD by Arbogast, a powerful Frankish general who had effectively controlled the Western Roman Empire after the death of Emperor Valentinian II.
Eugenius's reign was marked by his attempts to restore pagan practices and reverse the Christianization of the empire, which had been advancing under previous Christian emperors. This brought him into conflict with the Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius I, who was a devout Christian.
In January 393, Theodosius promoted his eight-year-old son Honorius to the rank of Augustus of the West, indicating he considered Eugenius' elevation illegitimate. Following the news of Honorius' elevation to Augustus, Eugenius and Arbogast marched their army, stripped from the Rhine frontier,into Italy in the spring of 393. Theodosius then moved from Constantinople with his army, and met Eugenius and Arbogast at the Battle of the Frigidus in the Vipava Valley, on 6 September 394.The bloody battle lasted two days, and was marked by unusually strong winds, and ended with a victory for Theodosius' forces. Eugenius was captured and executed, and his head was displayed in Theodosius' camp.Arbogast committed suicide the next day.
His defeat marked the end of significant pagan resistance to Christianity in the Roman Empire and solidified Theodosius's control over both the Eastern and Western Roman Empires, albeit briefly, as the empire was permanently divided after his death in 395 AD.
Repatinated-tooled