Constantine III, 407-411. Solidus (Gold, 22 mm, 4.46 g, 12 h), Lugdunum, 408-411. D N CONSTAN-TINVS P P AVG Pearl-diademed, draped and cuirassed bust of Constantine III to right. Rev. VICTORI-A AVGGG A / L - D / COMOB Constantine III standing front, head to right, holding vexillum in his right hand and Victory on globe in his left and placing his left foot on captive below. Depeyrot 22/2. RIC 1512. Very rare. An exceptional example with a bold and spectacular portrait. Faint marks on Constantine's cheek and with a small graffito on the reverse, otherwise, good extremely fine.


The usurpation of Constantine III is closely connected to the so-called Crossing of the Rhine on 31 December 406 (or 405), which saw the invasion of Roman Gaul by large groups of barbarian warriors and resulted in the destruction of numerous limitanei garrisons along the border and the collapse of civic order in the hinterland. Amidst this turmoil, the few remaining Roman troops in Britain appointed their own Augustus, Flavius Claudius Constantinus, hoping that he would be willing (and able) to defend the endangered and neglected province when the imperial court in Ravenna clearly was not. The new emperor, whom we call Constantine III today, was reportedly a common soldier of humble background, but this is likely a later defamation by hostile sources and it has been suspected that he was in fact the comes britanniarum, the highest commanding officer in the province. In any case, Constantine's ambitions went beyond Britain and he invaded Gaul in 408, taking with him the last remaining comitatenses of the province and leaving behind only the locally recruited limitanei on the vallum hadriani and the Saxon Shore, who had no interest in fighting a civil war far from home. The usurper was initially quite successful, as he secured the Rhine frontier and captured Lugdunum and Arelate, the latter of which became his capital in May 408. In 410, Constantine III invaded Italy, but he was defeated and withdrew to Arelate. There he surrendered in 411, after a series of rebellions, to Flavius Constantius, the future emperor Constantius II, who had him beheaded shortly thereafter.