Diocletian, 284-305. Aureus (Gold, 20 mm, 5.70 g, 6 h), Siscia, April-end 286. IMP C DIOCLE-TIANVS P F AVG Laureate and cuirassed bust of Diocletian to left, raising his right hand. Rev. IOVI CO-NSERVATORI Jupiter standing front, head to right, holding long scepter in his right hand and thunderbolt in his left. Calicó 4498 (same dies as illustration). Cohen -. Depeyrot 1/5. RIC -. Trau 3338. Triton I (1997), 1656 (same dies). Very rare. Lustrous, boldly struck, perfectly centered and beautifully preserved. A magnificent early aureus of Diocletian and undoubtedly among the finest known. Very light rubbing and hairlines in the fields, otherwise, virtually as struck.


The murder of Carinus by his own officers during the initially victorious Battle of Margus in the summer of 285 made his opponent, Diocletian, the new sole ruler of the empire. After the battle, Diocletian temporarily closed the nearby mint in Siscia but reopened it the following year to supply the Roman Danube troops with money. Our magnificent Aureus is part of this reopening issue. The obverse depicts the emperor in a greeting gesture, often mistaken for the Adventus gesture, though it likely represents a general alignment with the salvific Sol. The same issue also features consular and military busts. As this is a joint issue for Diocletian and his new co-Augustus Maximian, it can be dated to after 1 April 286. On the occasion of Maximian's elevation to Augustus, the two emperors also adopted new epithets: after their divine companions, Jupiter and Hercules, they began calling themselves Diocletianus Iovius and Maximianus Herculius. It is therefore hardly surprising that the supreme god and the greatest of heroes appear on the reverses of these splendid Aurei from Siscia.