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Constantine the Great died in 337 AD, survived by four Caesars: his sons Constantine II, Constantius II, and Constans, and his nephew Delmatius. Soon afterward, Constantius II either ordered, or at least sanctioned, the massacre of numerous relatives to consolidate power. This violent purge claimed the lives of two uncles and six cousins, including Delmatius. The three remaining co-Augusti met to decide on the division of the Roman Empire. Constantius II gained the eastern provinces, including Constantinople, Thrace, Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, and Cyrenaica; Constantine II settled on Britannia, Gaul, Hispania, and Mauretania; and Constans, initially under the supervision of his eldest brother, received Italy, Africa, Illyricum, Pannonia, Macedonia, and Achaea.
For the next dozen years, Constantius II battled the Sasanian Empire, led by King Shapur II. Eventually, the Sasanian king agreed to a fragile truce, temporarily withdrawing his forces to deal with nomadic incursions on his own eastern frontier. Yet, the absence of a foreign threat did not bring stability; instead, it only laid bare the fatal dissonance among the heirs of Constantine. While Constantius II was occupied in the East, his eldest brother, Constantine II, sought to aggressively expand his influence over Constans's realm. This bitter territorial dispute rapidly deteriorated into open civil war. In 340 AD, Constantine II was lured into an ambush and killed, leaving only Constans and Constantius II to rule the West and East, respectively, for the next decade.
Near the end of that period, the current coin of Constantius II was struck in Lugdunum (modern-day Lyon, France) located in the province of Gaul, under the governance of Constans. This origin is discerned from the mintmark on the reverse in exergue: SLG. These letters reveal the coin was struck at the
secunda (second) mint workshop at Lugdunum. Beside the letters is a star, presumably an internal control mark. Because the
Felix Temporum Reparatio coins were minted over several years in massive quantities, mint officials needed a way to tell different batches apart for accounting and quality control purposes. Another indication of pedigree is that the Lugdunum mint engravers were renowned for their fine obverse portraiture, and this coin does not disappoint, with its highly detailed and sharply struck rosette-diademed, draped, and cuirassed bust of the Emperor.
This particular piece was struck between 348 and 350 AD, after the brothers enacted a major coinage reform. The reform was designed to replace the rapidly declining nummus, which had shrunk from about 12.5 g to 1.5 g in weight (and 30 mm to 15 mm in diameter) during the first half of the 4th century AD. The new standard, colloquially referred to as a centenionalis, weighed in at about 5 g. These coins declared a bold new message on the reverse: FEL TEMP REPARATIO. This corresponds to
Felix Temporum Reparatio, translating roughly to “Happy Days are Here Again.” Several motifs were employed alongside this legend, but the most famous design utilized by Constantius II has become universally known as the "Fallen Horseman." The sheer scale of its use across all fifteen imperial mints is a testament to its massive appeal in antiquity, an enduring legacy that continues to captivate ancient coin enthusiasts to this day.
The basic concept behind the Fallen Horseman motif is devastatingly kinetic: a Roman soldier spears a barbarian enemy dislodged from his horse. It might represent a return to the glory days for the soldier, but the enemy is meeting his doom at the point of a spear. There are myriad variations of this motif depending on multiple variables, such as the stance and attire of the figures and the horse’s and rider's position. It has been cited that, given all the various permutations, there are over 2,000 possibilities for Fallen Horseman reverse varieties.
According to one analysis, the Fallen Horseman can be broadly grouped into four distinct types, and this particular coin is classified as a Fallen Horseman Type 1 (FH1). On the FH1 variety, the barbarian has already been dislodged from his steed and is kneeling on the ground facing away from the Roman soldier. Meanwhile, the horse slumps behind its former rider. On this particular coin, the Roman soldier, who is completing an impressively athletic leap, is just a fraction of a second away from impaling the unfortunate fallen horseman in the back.
This coin was minted shortly before the fragile stability of the Empire shattered. By 350 AD, Constans’s reputation for avarice and cruelty resulted in the Western troops declaring the usurper Magnentius as their Emperor. With this news, Constans’s support completely collapsed; he fled, only to be cornered and slain by Magnentius’s assassins. Although his background and social standing officially disqualified him, Magnentius soon secured the endorsement of Britannia, Gaul, and Hispania, and struck his own adaptations of the Fallen Horseman design at Lugdunum and other mints across the Western territories.
Constantius II, however, refused to accept Magnentius’s claim to the throne. He mustered his armies and launched an extensive campaign to deal with the Western usurper. Before his departure, Constantius II appointed his cousin, Constantius Gallus, as Caesar to govern the Eastern provinces, solidifying the alliance by having Gallus marry his sister, Constantina. In 351 AD, the forces of the East and West clashed at Mursa in Pannonia, resulting in one of the bloodiest battles in Roman history. Magnentius was ultimately forced to retreat back to Gaul, which remained the last stronghold of his influence. Acknowledging the inevitable, Magnentius fell on his own sword in 353 AD.
Constantius II was now sole Augustus over the entire Roman Empire from West to East, a feat last accomplished three decades earlier by his father. However, he had to immediately deal with internal threats. After receiving highly critical reports regarding Gallus’s brutal and paranoid mismanagement of the Eastern Empire, an enraged Constantius ordered his Caesar’s arrest and execution in 354 AD. In his place, Constantius declared his cousin and only remaining male relative, Julian, as Caesar in 355 AD, tasking him with defending the West while Constantius returned his attention eastward towards a renewed invasion by Sasanian King Shapur II that had captured several Roman-controlled cities in the far East.
As the Sasanian conflict raged on, Constantius demanded military reinforcements from Julian’s troops. The Western legions fiercely resisted leaving Gaul and boldly elevated Julian from Caesar to Augustus in 360 AD. So preoccupied was Constantius II with Shapur II that he did not have the opportunity to immediately deal with Julian's insurrection. As soon as there was a break in the action in 361 AD, Constantius II gathered up his travel-weary troops and reversed direction to deal with his rebellious cousin. Along the way, however, Constantius II fell gravely ill with a fever. Accepting that his death was imminent, the last remaining son of Constantine arranged to be baptized into the Christian faith. In a final, pragmatic decree, Constantius II reaffirmed his rebellious cousin, Julian, as his rightful successor, ending an era defined by constant war and some of the most dynamic coinage in Roman history.
Additional Reading: D Smith, “FEL TEMP REPARATIO. The common coins of the mid-4th century,” and “Falling Horsemen. A ‘Mint’ set.”
Coin Details: ROMAN EMPIRE, Constantius II, AD 337-361, Pre-Magnentian Revolt, AE Centenionalis (6.18 g), Lugdunum (Lyon) mint, first officina, AD 348-350, NGC GRADE: Ch MS, Strike: 4/5, Surface: 5/5, Obverse: Rosette-diademed, draped, and cuirassed bust of the Emperor right, DN CONSTAN-TIVS PF AVG, REVERSE: Helmeted soldier spearing fallen horseman, FEL TEMP REPARATIO, SLG star in exergue, Reference: RIC Lyons 79; Ex-Bridgnorth hoard.
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