Constantius II, as Augustus (AD 337-361). AV solidus (21mm, 4.43 gm, 5h). NGC AU 4/5 - 3/5, Fine Style, edge marks, flan deficit. Antioch, 5th officina, AD 355-361. FL IVL CONSTAN-TIVS PERP AVG, pearl-diademed, helmeted, cuirassed bust of Constantius II facing, head slightly right, spear in right hand over shoulder, shield in left decorated with horseman motif / GLORIA-REI-PVBLICAE, Roma (on left) enthroned facing, spear in left hand, and Constantinopolis (on right) enthroned facing left, scepter in left hand, jointly holding between them with their right hands a shield inscribed VOT/XXX/MVLT/XXXX; SMANЄ in exergue. RIC VIII 165. Depeyrot 10/1. A truly impressive portrait of Constantius struck in high relief. Beautiful in hand. From the Historical Scholar Collection The armored three-quarter facing bust type seen on this solidus was an innovation by Constantius II that became the archetype for Late Roman and early Byzantine coinage struck at Eastern mints. Later die engravers took less care to produce a distinctive portrait, however, and from the reign of Arcadius onward the three-quarter imperial busts of this style became generic and virtually interchangeable, which was consistent with the evolution of the imperial image that occurred during the fourth century. During the Constantinian period (but one could argue this change began under Diocletian), the emphasis in imperial portraiture changed, both in sculpture and on coins, from the realism of the early empire to a focus on the trappings of power and the position of emperor itself, and thus imperial images grew ever more stylized. The shift of the portraiture on the coinage was a microcosm of the greater changes occurring in the empire, where the old Republican façade created by Augustus was discarded in favor of a new, more explicit version of absolute power that historians have labeled the Dominate.

HID09801242017

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