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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;zumbly, post: 1840675, member: 57495&quot;]Here&#039;s another one I&#039;ve recently managed to strike off the ol&#039; want list.&nbsp; The obverse doesn&#039;t look very different from the average LRB, but flip it over and this 4th century AE4 could almost pass off as a 2nd or 3rd century Thracian provincial issue with a river god reclining reverse.&nbsp; I get a real kick when I imagine this unusual and rare little coin being minted in Constantinople right alongside a gajillion &#039;Soldiers and Standards&#039;.</p><p><br /></p><p>This particular example has a fair bit of wear on it, but the sandy surfaces really bring the portrait and reverse into bold relief.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]305684[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><b>HANNIBALLIANUS </b>as Rex Regum</p><p>AE4</p><p>1.48g, 16mm.&nbsp; Constantinople mint, 336 - 337 AD.</p><p>RIC VII 147, LRBC 1034, Cohen 2.</p><p>O: FL HANNIBALLIANO REGI, bare-headed, draped, cuirassed bust right.</p><p>R: SECVRITAS PVBLICA, Euphrates seated right on ground, holding sceptre, overturned urn at his side, from which waters flow, reed in background. Mintmark CONSS.</p><p><br /></p><p>It&#039;s also always interesting for me when a coin illuminates a small pocket of history (or in this case, a small ball of lint in a small pocket of history) : </p><p><br /></p><p>Flavius Hanniballianus was Constantine I&#039;s nephew, and along with the hand in marriage of Constantine&#039;s eldest daughter Constantina, also received the title Rex Regum et Ponticarum gentium (King of Kings of Pontus and its Peoples) and rule over Armenia and Pontus.</p><p><br /></p><p>Apart from being abit much, the title of Rex Regum seemed designed to provoke the neighbouring Sasanian ruler Shapur II (who bore the traditional title of Persian emperors <i>shahanshah</i>, or King of Kings), as did the reverse of Hanniballianus&#039;s coin showing the personification of the River Euphrates.&nbsp; Whatever Constantine&#039;s plans for Hanniballianus were, they came to nothing.&nbsp; Shapur II would break a forty year peace with the Romans and proceed to invade and eventually recapture Armenia.&nbsp; Soon after Constantine died, his three bloodthirsty sons had Hanniballianus murdered along with his brother Dalmatius.</p><p><br /></p><p>Z.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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