Owner Comments:
When Constantine the Great breathed his last in 337 AD, he left behind a fundamentally transformed world—and a massive ideological dilemma. How does a Roman state, still deeply rooted in centuries of pagan tradition, mourn its first Christian emperor? For nearly four hundred years, deceased emperors had been subjected to apotheosis—a state-sponsored deification declaring them a pagan god. Yet, Constantine had died wearing the white robes of a newly baptized Christian. The resulting run of Constantine's posthumous coinage flawlessly conveys the juxtaposition of these two opposing worlds.
This nummus, struck at Antioch, is a stunning example of a coin struck in the name of Divus Constantine. On the obverse, Constantine is depicted with a veiled head, a classical symbol of piety and death. The legend proudly proclaims him DV CONSTANTINVS PT AVGG (Divine Constantine, Father of the Augusti). By retaining the title Divus, the state acknowledged his ascension to the heavens in a manner palatable to the pagan Senate, while carefully avoiding any overt references to the old Roman pantheon.
However, it is the reverse of this coin that stands as one of the most remarkable and ideologically complex images in all of Roman numismatics. Constantine is depicted ascending to the heavens in a galloping quadriga (four-horse chariot). To a pagan citizen, this imagery perfectly mirrored Sol Invictus, the sun god, driving his celestial chariot across the sky. Notably, this same pagan deity was a popular motif on Constantine's early coinage. But to a Christian citizen, the chariot immediately evoked the biblical ascension of the prophet Elijah in a chariot of fire. Constituting the literal zenith of the design, an enormous hand reaches down from the heavens to welcome the veiled Emperor, whose outstretched hand reaches upward to embrace his divine destiny. This
manus Dei, the "Hand of God," is widely considered the very first appearance of God the Father on a Roman coin. For the final touch, as if a nod both to Sol and an allusion to the Christian god, the unknown master engraver placed a singular star hovering over the pair of outstretched hands.
Ultimately, this coin is a perfect reflection of Constantine himself. Just as his life was a calculated, brilliant syncretism of ancient Roman power and new Christian theology, his posthumous coinage remains a flawless, ambiguous blending of two worlds. It serves as the ultimate conclusion to his numismatic legacy: ascending to the heavens, claimed by both the old world that he had conquered and the new world that he had transformed.
Coin Details: ROMAN EMPIRE, Divus Constantine I, Died AD 337, BI Nummus (15.5mm, 1.76 g, 6h), Antioch mint, 5th officina, Struck AD 337-340, NGC Grade: MS★, Strike: 5/5, Surface: 5/5, Obverse: Veiled head of Constantine right, DV CONSTANTI-NVS PT AVGG, Reverse: Constantine in quadriga right, extending hand toward manus Dei above; star above; SMANЄ, References: RIC VIII 37; LRBC 1372.
Image: NGC Photo Vision Plus.