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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;hotwheelsearl, post: 4653356, member: 75143&quot;]Hello all! This will be the first of hopefully many small writeups featuring lovely coins obtained from [USER=95247]@tenbobbit[/USER].</p><p><br /></p><p>Constantine I is often considered the &quot;first Christian emperor&quot; although I do not believe that is entirely accurate. He <i>did</i> halt the vicious persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire, but I believe he wasn&#039;t <i>really</i> a true, card-carrying Christian himself for a two reasons.</p><p><br /></p><p>1. In these days, it was not necessarily uncommon for emperors to adhere to multiple religions, and worship multiple gods.</p><p>2. He was not baptized until death.</p><p><br /></p><p>1. Legends say that Constantine had a dream in which a deity instructed him to paint the Chi-Rho symbol on the shields of his troops for a guaranteed battle victory. <i>In hoc signo vinces&nbsp; </i>- &quot;by this sign you will conquer.&quot;</p><p>He did so, and won, and figured that maybe worshipping a Christian deity would be beneficial.</p><p>However, he did also patronize and adhere to some beliefs of the Roman religion; statues and artwork under him still featured a plethora of Pagan gods. </p><p>Thus, it seems like he was a pragmatic type of guy and would worship whatever god helped him out.</p><p><br /></p><p>2. In most Christian religions, one is not considered a member of that sect until their baptism, either at birth or during adulthood. </p><p>Constantine, however, was not baptized until he was on his deathbed, due to a strange belief that holding off on baptism would expunge more sins than an earlier baptism.</p><p>Thus, in most modern Christian beliefs, he was not a card-carrying member until he died, which doesn&#039;t really &quot;count.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>This brings us to his death. Apparently he died of some sort of terminal illness and was laid to rest in the Church of the Holy Apostles.</p><p>Unfortunately this church is no longer extant, but probably looked much like this:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1148940[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Within this church, his body was laid inside a magnificent Imperial Porphyry sarcophagus, befitting a powerful and wealthy emperor. Remember that Imperial Porphyry was often worth more than its weight in gold, and was considered the supreme expression of imperial power and wealth.</p><p>Unfortunately, this coffin is also no longer extant, save for one small fragment in an Istanbul museum:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1148941[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>However, we can assume that his coffin looked at least somewhat similar to the sarcophagus of his daughter, Constantina. You can see the resemblance in the vegetal structures on the fragment. The style of Constantine&#039;s tomb was probably somewhat more refined than that of his daughter, especially in the rendering of Cherub bodies.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1148942[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Now, the coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>After his death, his sons deified him and issued a series of commemorative coins featuring an obverse bust of Constantine with a veiled headwear, signifying deification. Although they are not marked as such, the coins were issued by Constantine II and Constantius, but curiously not his third son, Constans.</p><p><br /></p><p>These coins were all AE 3 and 4 sizes, with no clear reason why some of the same type are differently sized. They seem to range from 13mm to 18mm or so.</p><p>The coins come in three distinct reverse types:</p><p><br /></p><p>1. The quadriga. This is a really neat one since it features a lot of activity on a small flan. Constantine himself pilots the quadriga while reaching up towards the Hand of God that is reaching down to him. This is pretty clear Christian imagery, showing that God is basically taking him up to heaven. It seems that Constantine&#039;s link to Christianity was exagerrated somewhat post-death.</p><p>The reverse comes in several varieties, mainly different orientations of the horse front legs. Some of these, such as those from Antioch look very creepily spider-like. These Cyzican horses look more normal.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1148947[/ATTACH] </p><p>Obv: DVCONSTANTI-NVSPTAVG. Shrouded head of Constantine right.</p><p>Rev: Anepigraphic. Constantine in quadriga reaching up to hand of God.</p><p>Mint: Cyzicus, SMKD</p><p>Ref: Cyzicus RIC VIII 19 (probably)</p><p>Weight: 1.3g</p><p>Diam: 16mm AE4</p><p><br /></p><p>2. The standing shrouded figure. This one is quite simple, but pretty effective for the message it conveys. Apparently Roman rulers earned a shrouded outfit when they were deified. We can see this in the obverse of all of these coins. This one goes one step further and displays a full-length shrouded standing figure. These coins all seem to feature four letters, two on each side, but I don&#039;t know what they mean.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1148948[/ATTACH] </p><p>Obv: DVCONSTANTI-NVSPTAVG. Shrouded head of Constantine right.</p><p>Rev: Standing shrouded Constantine facing right. VN-MR.</p><p>Mint: Cyzicus SMK-</p><p>Ref: RIC VIII 54 (probably)</p><p>Weight: 1.6g</p><p>Diam: 15mm AE4</p><p><br /></p><p>The pose of the figure is actually quite similar to this over-lifesize statue of Faustina I from the Getty Villa:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1148944[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>This leads me to believe that this pose was a somewhat standardized one. Also, I believe that a slew of these statues would have been distributed amongst the Empire for cult worship and honorifics, although none seem to exist today.</p><p><br /></p><p>3. The last of the three reverse types issued features Aequitas standing, holding scales. I don&#039;t really know much about this symbology, nor do I own one of these coins, so I hope that someone else can chime in.</p><p><br /></p><p>Thanks for reading <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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