Sisebut, 612 – 621. Baetica, Barbi.
Tremissis circa 612-621, AV 1.41 g. + SISEBVTVSRE Facing bust. Rev. + VICTORBARBI Facing bust. Miles –. CNV 213. MEC I, –. MV 268.2 (this coin).
Of the highest rarity, apparently only two specimens known. Extremely fine
Barbi was the Roman city of Singilia Barba located near a strategic pass leading from Malaga over the costal range into the Guadalquivir river basin and would have been on the border of the Byzantine enclave. In the first years of his rule, Sisebut attacked the Byzantine province and recovered the entire coasts in the South leaving only a small area in the North around Cartagena. The coins bearing VICTORBARBI can be attributed to the very beginning of the campaign due to an important official document of Sisebut, written before July 612, mentioning Barbi, and the fact that he became king on the death of Gundemar in February or March 612 leaving only a few months for the Victory. It is also possible that conflict occurred at the end of the reign of Gundemar in 611 and the coins were minted after his death. However, Isidore states that Gundemar had little success against the Byzantines. The coin is in the style of the early series of Sisebut in Eliberri (see 30,466) as well as the style of Gundemar in Eliberri and may have been cut by the same hand.