Constantius II. AD 337-361. AV Solidus (22mm, 4.50 g, 12h). Rome mint, 5th officina. Struck AD 357. FL IVL CONSTAN TIVS PERP AVG, pearl-diademed bust left, wearing consular robes and holding mappa in right hand and short scepter in left / FELICITAS RO MANORVM, Roma and Constantinopolis, with right foot on prow and holding scepter in left hand, enthroned facing, holding between them a shield inscribed VOT/XXXV/MVLT/XXXX in four lines; RSMЄ(palm). RIC VIII 298; Depeyrot 15/3. Lustrous, some graffiti and slight double strike on obverse. Good VF. Very rare.
Ex Numismatica Ars Classica 78 (26 May 2014), lot 1182.
In AD 357, Constantius II entered his 20th year of rule as Augustus, a milestone rarely attained by Roman emperors. Furthermore, he had outlasted his imperial brothers and overcome the usurpers Magnentius, Decentius and Vetranio, leaving him sole master of the Roman Empire, a situation not seen since the death of Constantine I the Great in AD 337. To mark the the occasion, Constantius made his first an only visit to Rome, entering the city on April 23 with a magnificent triumphal parade. He also accepted his ninth consulship, in partnership with his cousin Julian II, now serving as his subordinate Caesar in the west. This rare solidus, issued at the Rome mint for the occasion, depicts him as consul, wrapped in the toga picta, an elaborately embroidered garment, and holding the ancient symbols of the office: the mappa, a white kerchief used to signal the start of a chariot race, and the scipio consularis, a short ivory scepter.
