Roma Numismatics Ltd
E-Sale 26 30 April 2016
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Visigoths in Southern Gaul, AV Solidus in the name of Julius Nepos. Uncertain mint, AD 474-475. DN IVLIVS NEPOS, pearl-diademed, cuirassed and helmeted bust facing, spear over shoulder / VITVRIA AVGGG (sic), Victory standing left, holding jewelled cross; COMOB in exergue. Unpublished in the standard references; for general types cf. RIC X 3245-7 (Uncertain mints); for obverse type and style cf. Lacam pl. 37, 6 = DOC, Late Roman Coins 938 = RIC X p. 428 note; for another Visigothic Gallic solidus in the name of Julius Nepos cf. Italo Vecchi Sale 14, 1999, lot 20. 4.32g, 22mm, 6h.
Test punch on obv., otherwise Extremely Fine. Lustrous. Very Rare.
Found on the Isle of Wight.
Taking advantage of the power vacuum in the strife-wracked and dying Western Empire, the Visigothic king Euric in Gaul had cemented his grasp on the former Roman territories under his control, and defeated several other Visigothic kings and chieftains to become the first ruler of a unified Visigothic nation. He extended Visigothic power in Hispania, driving the Suevi into the northwest of Iberia, and in 470 defeated an attempted invasion of Gaul by the Romano-British king Riothamus, expanding his kingdom even further north, possibly as far as the Somme River.
While previous Visigothic kings had officially ruled only as legates of the Roman emperor, Euric's power was now so great that in 475 the legitimate but ineffective emperor Julius Nepos, nominal ruler of the now much reduced rump-state of the remaining Western Empire, was forced to recognise the full independence of Euric's kingdom which now straddled both Gaul and Hispania, thus making Euric the first king of a truly independent and united Visigothic Kingdom.
The early coinage of the Visigothic kingdom emulated that of the Romans in so far as that it copied their types and legends, though this was often somewhat unfaithfully done, and so it is not entirely surprising that we see in this coin an otherwise unrecorded use of Julius Nepos' full name.
The importance of this coin therefore is that it represents one of the very first issues of coinage of the unified Visigothic Kingdom, being struck either shortly before or after the recognition of Euric's independence by Julius Nepos.
Test punch on obv., otherwise Extremely Fine. Lustrous. Very Rare.
Found on the Isle of Wight.
Taking advantage of the power vacuum in the strife-wracked and dying Western Empire, the Visigothic king Euric in Gaul had cemented his grasp on the former Roman territories under his control, and defeated several other Visigothic kings and chieftains to become the first ruler of a unified Visigothic nation. He extended Visigothic power in Hispania, driving the Suevi into the northwest of Iberia, and in 470 defeated an attempted invasion of Gaul by the Romano-British king Riothamus, expanding his kingdom even further north, possibly as far as the Somme River.
While previous Visigothic kings had officially ruled only as legates of the Roman emperor, Euric's power was now so great that in 475 the legitimate but ineffective emperor Julius Nepos, nominal ruler of the now much reduced rump-state of the remaining Western Empire, was forced to recognise the full independence of Euric's kingdom which now straddled both Gaul and Hispania, thus making Euric the first king of a truly independent and united Visigothic Kingdom.
The early coinage of the Visigothic kingdom emulated that of the Romans in so far as that it copied their types and legends, though this was often somewhat unfaithfully done, and so it is not entirely surprising that we see in this coin an otherwise unrecorded use of Julius Nepos' full name.
The importance of this coin therefore is that it represents one of the very first issues of coinage of the unified Visigothic Kingdom, being struck either shortly before or after the recognition of Euric's independence by Julius Nepos.