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- Barbarians, Captives & Enemies on Roman Coins (to this coin)
Constantius II AE Maiorina (4.79g, 22mm, 1h). Antioch mint, 5th officina, 348-351 CE.
Obverse: DN CONSTANTIVS PF AVG. Pearl-diademed, draped, and cuirassed bust left, holding globe in right hand.
Reverse: FEL TEMP REPARATIO / Star (left) / ANЄ (exergue). Constantius II in military garb standing left, spurning a captive with foot while holding standard, a cross decorating its banner, and resting hand on shield set on ground. To left, two bearded captives kneeling vis-à-vis, wearing Phrygian caps, hands bound behind their backs.
References: RIC (VIII) 127; LRBC 2616. (Misidentified in Peus as RIC 125, absent the star.)
Provenance: Ex Dr. Busso Peus Nachf. e-Auction 10 (18 Jan 2020), Lot 592; aus Norddeutscher Privatsammlung (“North German Private Collection”). Nummus Bible 85614 (this coin).
Coin-in-hand video (1st coin shown, along with two others) & additional photographs.
Alt. term: Labarum or Vexillum.
Hist. Notes: From the “BCE” Collection (Barbarians, Captives & Enemies on Roman Coins): Though not a rare coin, a remarkable and important scene, depicting Constantius, triumphant with a standard bearing Christian symbolism standing over two defeated and bound captives of distinctively Eastern/Persian appearance (Sassanid or Parthian). Not only does it represent the conquest of the Empire over its Eastern enemies — typical of the FEL TEMP REPARATIO series as well as the previous century and a half of Roman Imperial coinage — but also the triumph of the newly-favored Christian religion over non-Roman, non-Christian Pagans.
Constantius II’s father Constantine was famously the first Christian Emperor of Rome. But the popularity and political supremacy of the new religion were not yet achieved. Over time, though, the Byzantine concept of the “barbarian” came to connote not only an uncivilized foreigner, but a religious outsider, especially Pagan. Here we see that process taking shape in the visual medium of coinage.
In the long history of European Imperial propaganda using Christianity to justify attacking foreigners and political enemies, this coin is surely among the first.