Valentinian II
388 - 392 AD
MS - 62
Roman Bronze Coin, Slabbed and Graded
Flavius Valentinianus was born to Emperor Valentinian I and his second wife, Justina. He was the half-brother of Valentinian’s other son, Gratian, who had shared the imperial title with his father since 367. He had three sisters Galla, Grata and Justa. The elder Valentinian died on campaign in Pannonia in 375. Neither Gratian (then in Trier) nor his uncle Valens (emperor for the East) were consulted by the army commanders on the scene. Instead of merely acknowledging Gratian as his father’s successor, Valentinian I’s generals acclaimed the four-year old boy augustus on 22 November 375. The army, and its Frankish general Merobaudes, may have been uneasy about Gratian's lack of military ability, and so raised a boy who would not immediately aspire to military command.
Valentinian himself seems to have exercised no real authority, and was a figurehead for various powerful interests: his mother, his co-emperors, and powerful generals. Since the Crisis of the Third Century, the empire had been ruled by powerful generals, a situation formalised by Diocletian and his collegiate system. While Constantine and his sons had been strong military figures, they had also re-established the practice of hereditary succession, adopted by Valentinian I. The obvious flaw in these two competing requirements came in the reign of Valentinian II, a child.[13] His reign was a harbinger of the fifth century, when children or nonentities, reigning as emperors, were controlled by powerful generals and officials.
The reverse of the coin depicts the pearl diademed, draped, cuirassed bust of Valentinian II facing right, with the obverse depicting Victory walking to the left, holding a trophy on her shoulder and dragging captive beheind her.
AE4 from Contantinople Mint
Reverse legend : "AD. DN VALENTINIANVS PF AVG"
Obverse Legend : "SALVS REI-PVBLICAE"
The coin is listed in the following major references :
RIC 86a
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