Justa Grata Honoria, Augusta, circa 426-450. Solidus (Gold, 21 mm, 4.45 g, 7 h), Ravenna. D N IVST GRAT HO-NORIA P F AVG Pearl-diademed and draped bust of Justa Grata Honoria to right; above, crowned by manus dei appearing above. Rev. BONO REI PVBLICAE / R - V / COMOB Victory standing front, head to left, holding long jeweled cross in her right hand; above, small star. Depeyrot 15/1. RIC 2022. Very rare and in exceptional condition for the issue. Very light scratch on the reverse, otherwise, nearly extremely fine.


Honoria was the daughter of Constantius III and Galla Placidia (see lot 1845 above) and as such the older sister of the western emperor Valentinian III (425-455). She was not an influential figure, but her family ties made her a coveted marriage candidate. In 449, it was discovered that she had an affair with her procurator Eugenius, who was promptly executed. To reduce the risk of an usurpation, Valentinian III and his magister militum Aëtius betrothed her to an unimportant Roman senator in 450, but Honoria sent a plea for help to Attila the Hun, who asked for her hand and half of the western empire as dowry. As was to be expected, Valentinian refused, prompting the Huns to invade Gaul, where Aëtius and a coalition of foederati defeated him in the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains on 20 June 451. The fate of Honoria, on the other hand, is unclear: deprived of the protection of her influential mother Galla Placidia, who had died in 450, some sources indicate that she may have been arrested for treason. In any case, her name does not appear among the imperial relatives carried off from Rome by Gaiseric's Vandals in 455, so she may have been dead by then.