Identification Torture Part II: Gloria Exercitus

Ok, last lazy ID question for the day. Really, I’m just looking for confirmation here. Two coins:

COIN 1: I think this is Constantine I; RIC VII Antioch 108. The problem is that I can’t really see the obverse legend well due to encrustations. It’s 15.56 mm.; 1.29 g.; 180°. I think the obverse is: CONSTANTI-NVS MAX AVG; rosette diademed draped and cuirassed bust right.

The reverse is unproblematic: GLOR-IA EXERC-ITUS; “Glory to the Army”; two helmeted soldiers standing facing one another, with spears and leaning on shields; one standard between; O in standard. SMANΔ; fourth officina of the Antioch mint.




COIN 2: I’m much more confident about this one, though it’s required some education on my part. My layman’s assumption was that the obverse title “MAX” would be reserved for Constantine I, “THE GREAT.” But apparently junior liked that title so well that he took it too. The Chi-Rho on the reverse seals the deal that it’s a coin of Constantine II, not Constantine I. I’ve got it ID’d as RIC VIII Siscia 89. Warren Esty’s pages are helpful here.



Can anyone please confirm or correct these two identifications?

 

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looks good to me..

 

When dad died IVN became MAX and some mints spelled it out that way. The cool ones to me are the ones where his brothers that never were IVN also became MAX, too.

 

Interesting. So was "Max" then a simple way of signifying "I am the eldest living representative of the Constantine line"? I thought Constantine adopted MAX to proclaim, like Muhammad Ali, "I AM THE GREATEST!" in the same sense that some call him "Constantine the Great" today. So it's mainly just a dynastic title?

 

Shortly after the defeat of Maxentius, Constantine I was awarded the title of maximus by the Roman senate. This title was not used on coinage in the East until 318- 319.

"The senate, in reward of the valor of Constantine, decreed to him the title of Maximus" Lactantius On the Deaths of the Persecutors 44:11