Julian II, 360-363. Solidus (Gold, 20 mm, 4.48 g, 12 h), Lugdunum, 360-361. FL CL IVLIA-NVS P P AVG Pearl-diademed, draped and cuirassed bust of Julian II with short beard to right. Rev. VIRTVS EX-ERC GALL / LVG Roman soldier advancing right, head to left, holding trophy over his left shoulder and dragging bound and kneeling captive with his right hand; in field to right, star. Bastien 267 var. (no star). Depeyrot 6/1 var. (no star). RIC 226. Extremely rare. A sharply struck and lustrous example with an attractive early portrait. Virtually as struck.


This extremely rare solidus from Lugdunum was struck early in Julian’s sole reign. The much-discussed bearded portrait is rendered here with considerable restraint: unlike the eastern issues, particularly those of Antioch, which portray the emperor with the long and at times decidedly unkempt philosopher’s beard for which he was well known, the present coin shows him with a distinctly shorter, neatly trimmed beard. The more individualized eastern portraits may in part reflect firsthand familiarity with Julian’s appearance, whereas the engraver at Lugdunum remained closer to the restrained imperial portrait tradition of the West.

Julian had been proclaimed Augustus by his troops in Gaul in 360, in open defiance of Constantius II, after his celebrated campaigns against the Alamanni and Franks. In 361 he marched east to confront Constantius, but the latter’s unexpected death in November left Julian as sole emperor without a decisive civil war. From that point onward, the political and military focus of his reign lay firmly in the East, first at Constantinople and Antioch and ultimately in the preparations for his Persian expedition of 363. Gold issues of his sole reign from the western mints are correspondingly very rare.