Eudoxia, Wife Of Arcadius, Augusta 400-404

I have repeatedly posted on the joy of assembling "mini-theme" collections. I love the idea of completing, or almost completing, a small type-set. I did it with Eudoxia (Augusta, 400-404).

Eudoxia has only two AE types. A type-set can hardly be smaller than that! Here is a recent acquisition:




18-16 mm. 2.50 grams.
AEL EVDOXIA AVG
Bust right draped and with pearl-diadem. Hand of God crowning her.

GLORIA ROMANORVM, empress enthroned facing with arms crossed before her breast, being crowned by the Hand of God.
Cross in left field.
CONB for Constantinople, with an uncertain officina number, perhaps B (Γ is the other possibility listed in RIC).
RIC X Arcadius 78, page 247. Struck 401-2. Sear V 20877. DOC 291 "403-404"

I already had the other type, so I was able to put together a short web page on her history and coin types:

http://augustuscoins.com/ed/ricix/Eudoxia.html

If you like coins of that time period, I recommend the reference works I cited. The Holum and Norwich history books are lots of fun. It is interesting that wikipedia, Holum, Norwich, and other sources have many points of disagreement which made it difficult to find a single story line that all could agree was "true." For example, Eudoxia managed to get the archbishop of Constantinople exiled and I found four different places mentioned as the place of exile. And that would be a fact and presumably not controversial. In contrast, motivations for behavior, which cannot be known in the same way facts can, are also given with great differences by different historians, ancient and modern.

I think I detect a contribution of the time in which the historian was writing. The more recent modern historians seem to think she was a strong woman unfairly treated in those misogynistic times. Historians from long ago seem to think she was an evil woman who got power with her great beauty and willingness to use sex.

So, in looking at many sources to try to write a web page, I saw lack of reliable evidence replaced by best-guesses and even "spin." I think we need to realize that history has always been "spun," ancient sources used spin as much as modern sources, and there is no certain way to know what really happened 1600 years ago. Even the coins yield controversies. There are only two AE types and Grierson and Kent do not even agree on which was issued first! That makes dates for them different in their two books.

Take a look at the site for other coins of Eudoxia, a Byzantine seal depicting her nemesis, and a "Hand of God" coin of her husband.

Show us anything related!