Very Rare Eugenius Solidus
Pedigreed to 1913

CNG 108, Lot: 691. Estimate $30000. Sold for $25000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Eugenius. AD 392-394. AV Solidus (22mm, 4.40 g, 12h). Lugdunum (Lyon) mint. Struck circa AD 392-393. D N EVGENI-VS P F AVG, pearl-diademed, draped, and cuirassed bust right / VICTOR-IA AVGG, two emperors seated facing on double throne, both supporting globe between them, that on the right also holding mappa; above, Victory facing, with wings spread; palm branch between legs; L-D//COM. RIC IX 45; Lyon 229j (this coin, illustrated on pl. XXIII); Depeyrot 18/1. Good VF, toned, very slight wave in flan, small edge crack and a couple minor marks. Very rare and with a wonderful pedigree.

Ex Hess-Divo 329 (17 November 2015), lot 188; G. de Manteyer Collection (Florange & Ciani, 22 February 1932), lot 370; L. Vierordt Collection (Part I, J. Schulman, 5 March 1923), lot 2878; Manuel Vidal Quadras y Ramón Collection (Bourgey, 16 December 1913), lot 745.

Following the death of Valentinian II in May AD 392, his Frankish magister militum, Arbogast, hailed Eugenius emperor of the West. The newly acclaimed emperor, a professor of grammar and rhetoric, seemed a suitable selection as he posed little threat to Arbogast’s military ambitions. Eugenius, however, antagonized the eastern emperor Theodosius I by replacing Theodosius’ officials with his own loyalists, greatly hampering the eastern ruler’s control over the West. Moreover, Eugenius’ sympathetic attitude toward pagans and the old Roman religion was completely at odds with Theodosius’ persecution of paganism. By May of AD 394, Theodosian forces were advancing west, with the two imperial armies meeting in combat at the Battle of Frigid River in September of AD 394. Theodosius’ forces were victorious, with Eugenius being captured and executed, while Arbogast committed suicide. The victory left Theodosius as sole ruler over the whole empire (the last emperor to hold this position), and greatly hastened the decline of paganism in the West.