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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;ValiantKnight, post: 1877972, member: 44210&quot;]Justinian, like many others of his time, grew up on the stories of Rome&#039;s former greatness, how she had been the master of the known world and ruled many territories and peoples. By the time Justinian achieved the purple, only half of the classical Roman Empire remained, and it no longer even controlled it&#039;s namesake city, Rome. This was considered disgraceful by many in the empire, and was completely unacceptable to Justinian. A very ambitious man, he dreamed of reconquering the Western territories lost to the migrating barbarians in the last century, and so he sent out his armies and best generals to do just that. It wasn&#039;t until the end of the Gothic War in 552 AD that the Roman Empire finally was in control of Rome, by then a depopulated and rundown city, which had, along with the rest of Italia, suffered greatly during the war.</p><p><br /></p><p>This decanummium of Justinian was struck in the imperial city itself. From looking at the chronology of events of this time, this was made either anytime from the early 540s to around 550 AD ( when the Ostrogoths briefly retook the city), or in the years following the end of the Gothic War until Justinian&#039;s death in 565 AD. It very much resembles my Baduila (Totila) decanummium (minted 550-552 AD) in size and style (also in chunkiness), and so if it was struck after the war it probably would have been made not too long afterwards, perhaps even as early as within a couple of years after. I don&#039;t know for certain but I&#039;m pretty sure I have the general time ranges of minting down though.</p><p><br /></p><p>Its definitely in better shape than a lot of the smaller denominations from this period are. The best part is the portrait, no doubt about it IMO. It happens to be the highest spot on the whole coin, too, so I thought that was really fortunate.</p><p><br /></p><p>I waited almost a month and a half for it, but seeing it in hand, I now think it was definitely worth the wait.</p><p><br /></p><p><u><b>Justinian</b></u>, Byzantine emperor</p><p>AE Decanummium</p><p>Obv: DN IVSTINIANVS P AVG, helmeted, cuirassed bust facing, holding cross on globe in left hand and shield in right hand</p><p>Rev: Large I, star in left and right fields, all within wreath</p><p>Rome mint</p><p>Ref: SB 308, MIB 228</p><p><img src="http://i1197.photobucket.com/albums/aa429/LurkingNinja/JustinianRome_zps50f17cce.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Here&#039;s a larger photo of the obverse to better show the details:</p><p><img src="http://i1197.photobucket.com/albums/aa429/LurkingNinja/JR2_zps5e653666.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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