Constantine I, 307/310-337. Follis (Bronze, 23 mm, 4.50 g, 6 h), Rome, late 312. IMP CONSTANTINVS P F AVG Laureate and cuirassed bust of Constantine I to right. Rev. LIBERATORI VRBIS SVAE / R S Roma seated facing within hexastyle temple, holding globe in her right hand and long scepter in her left; at her side, shield; in pediment, wreath. RIC 303. Extremely rare and of the greatest historical importance. Very well struck and clear, with a lovely brown patina and undoubtedly among the finest known examples. Extremely fine.



This issue, perhaps more than any other, embodies the epochal change brought about by Constantine’s victory at the Milvian Bridge on 28 October 312. While Christianity might well have become the dominant religion regardless of the battle’s outcome, one may still wonder what course Roman history would have taken had Maxentius defeated and killed Constantine, thereby preventing his rival from becoming the future sole emperor and great patron of the Christian Church. Yet history is not written in counterfactuals, and so we are left with this remarkable example of Constantinian self-representation, struck in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of the Milvian Bridge.

Its reverse copies a type of Maxentius bearing the legend CONSERVATOR VRBIS SVAE ('preserver of his city') and depicting the great Temple of Venus and Roma on the Velia, which Maxentius had restored earlier in his reign. The Constantinian adaptation, however, replaces CONSERVATOR with LIBERATORI, thereby hailing Constantine as the liberator of Rome. This subtle play on words formed part of the victor’s effort to portray his former rival Maxentius - whose head was paraded through the city on a spear - not merely as a usurper, but as a tyrant from whom the Senate and People of Rome had been delivered.

Constantine would then go on to display an ostentatious clementia towards the city, helping to secure good relations with the influential senatorial aristocracy. One group, however, was shown no such leniency: the Praetorian Guard, which had formed the backbone of Maxentius’ power. After the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, its remnants were disbanded, and the surviving soldiers were reassigned individually to distant garrisons throughout the empire.