Constantine The Great - His Life Seen Through His Coins

Constantine the Great, a man of humble origins, rose to become emperor of Rome 306-337 AD. Being one of several emperors and pretenders in 306, he successively eliminated all the contenders until in 324 he was sole ruler of the entire Roman Empire. His way there was a combination of strong determination, personal conviction and ruthlessness, and military leadership. In combination with his long time as emperor and his role in paving the way for Christianity, it makes his rule one of the more fascinating ones. That his personal development is reflected in his coinage makes it no less interesting (for a numismatist, at least).

If you already know what you want to know about Constantine and his path to power, skip the *-delimited background text in purple below and go directly to the coin section.

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To set the scene, we need to start with one of Constantine's predecessors - Diocletian. Diocletian, finding the Roman Empire to vast to be ruled effectively by a single man, introduced the tetrarchy. The Empire was partitioned into two administrative parts, the West and the East. Each part had a senior emperor, the augustus, and a junior one, the caesar. The augustus and the caesar in turn divided their part of the Empire into two. When the augustus died or retired, the caesar was to take over as augustus (and appoint a new caesar). Constantine's father, Constantius "Chlorus," was caesar in the West when Diocletian and his co-augustus Maximian retired in 305, making Constantius augustus in the West. To Constantine's disappointment, he is not made caesar at this time, that title instead goes to Severus II. Constantius dies already in 306, while campaigning with Constantine in Britain. Constantine is hailed as augustus by the troops, but was granted the title caesar by Galerius, Diocletian's successor as augustus in the East. Severus becomes augustus in the West .

So now begins Constantine's path to single rule. In the turmoil following Diocletian's abdication, Severus died fighting Maximian, who attempted a come-back together with his usurper son Maxentius. Maxentius claimed Severus's augustus title but was not recognized - except by Constantine, who hoped to gain Maxentius's support for his own claims. In 308 however, Galerius declared that his military companion Licinius was augustus in the West. Constantine continued to call himself augustus, while the other emperors still referred to him as caesar. It was a real mess.

In 310 Constantine was finally accepted as augustus in the West, but sharing the title with Licinius. He further strengthened his position after defeating Maximian, who rebelled after some years of dissatisfied muttering in the political backyard.

By 312, the scene had changed again. Constantine and Licinius were allies against the troublemaker Maxentius, who was still aiming for more power (like everyone else). At the decisive battle at the Milvian bridge, he was defeated by Constantine and died during his army's retreat. After Licinius on his side had fought off the new augustus in the East, Maximinus, he and Constantine divided the empire between them: Constantine sole augustus in the West, Licinius in the East. Constantine appointed his sons Crispus and Constantine II as caesars.

Now at last some order had been restored. Not to last for long, though. Constantine and Licinius, having different views on how an empire should be ruled (not least when it came to the treatment of Christians), soon launched war on each other. In 317 Constantine defeated Licinius at Mardia. The ensuing peace gave Constantine control over half of Licinius's territories in the East. Their antagonism was not over, however, and civil war broke out, ending with a number of land and sea battles in 324, with Constantine and Crispus victorious. Licinius was sent off (later killed) and Constantine became sole augustus over the entire Roman Empire. Now he also appointed his third son, Constantius II, as caesar.

The rest of Constantine's rule was relatively peaceful. Barbarians had to be fought off at the borders now and then, but Constantine could focus on his big project: The foundation of Constantinople, the new capital of the empire, which was dedicated in 330.

In 337 Constantine fell ill and died. His three surviving sons, Constantine II, Constantius II and Constans, divided the empire between them, each becoming augustus over their part. They soon became at odds with each other, but that is another story.
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I will show coins from my collection of Roman bronzes that illustrate various events, phases, and aspects of Constantine's life. Roughly in chronological order.

Feel free to add your coins to the thread! You can fit them into my chronological order if you like, but that is not a requirement. I am sure there are many Constantinian coins out there, and there will be many that I do not have. With my main collection theme being France through all epochs, I restrict myself to collect coins only from the "French" part of Rome, i.e., Gaul. That means coins minted in Lugdunum, Arelate/Constantina and Treveri (Lyon, Arles and Trier) during this period. That excludes certain interesting types minted only in Eastern mints, for instance.

Coin #1: My first coin can be seen as Constantine's first propaganda piece. It was minted from his first year at power, 306 AD.

309-10 AD, Lugdunum (1st officina). 4.7 g, 23 mm. RIC 306.
Obv: Constantine I, laureate, draped, cuirassed.
IMP CONSTANTINVS P F AVG
Rev: Constantine standing, holding spear and globe.
PRINCIPI IVVENTVTIS (The Prince of Youth)



While there was controversy over whether Constantine after his father's death in 306 would be allowed the title augustus or merely caesar, no one objected to him styling himself as principi iuventutis, the "prince of youth." Showing himself as a powerful warrior with the world (cosmos globe) in his hand was good propaganda for his cause. Just to be clear about his ambitions, he also uses the title augustus on this coin minted in Lyon, a mint under his control. Mints outside his control over Gaul also minted this type, but with caesar in the inscription. Only after 310, when he was officially recognized as augustus in the West, did the other mints follow.

Note: While princeps is usually translated as prince, the Roman meaning of the title was different. In Rome, princeps was the "first leader," a title going back to the Senate of the Roman Republic, whose leader held the title. After that, emperors used princeps as an unofficial title. Constantine's use of it should therefor not be interpreted as him seeing himself as a coming leader, he is already there in his own eyes.

Another coin from me soon. Do post yours in the meantime!


For further study
An indispensable source of information on Constantine and his coins is Victor Clark's extensive web site www.constantinethegreatcoins.com . Highly recommended.