Numismatica Ars Classica
Auction 138 18-19 May 2023
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Aelia Flaccilla, wife of Theodosius I.
Solidus, Constantinopolis 383-388, AV 4.51 g. AEL FLAC – CILLA AVG Draped bust r., with elaborate headdress, necklace and mantle. Rev. SALVS REI – PVBLICAEH Victory seated r. on throne, engraving Christogram on shield set on small column; in exergue, CONOB. C 1. Depeyrot 40/1. RIC 72.
Very rare. Minor traces of restoration on cheek and on edge, otherwise extremely fine
Ex Gorny & Mosch 195, 2011, 497 and NAC 92, 2016, 813 sales.
Like her husband, the emperor Theodosius, Aelia Flaccilla was born to a good family in Spain, and when she married in about 376 it may never have occurred to her that Theodosius' career would draw her far from her homeland. After a year or less of marriage Flaccilla gave birth to her first son, Arcadius, and about six years later (long after she had moved to Constantinopolis and been hailed Augusta) to her second son, Honorius. Throughout her life – even as an empress – she bore a reputation for her piety and her generosity to the poor. Her coins were the first struck for an empress since the 330s and they reinstated the practice, which soon took an especially firm hold in the East. On her coins it is easy to see the iconographic connection to earlier issues of Fausta, Helena and Theodora, and to observe how they influenced future empress coinages. Additionally, her name Aelia, which is abbreviated AEL on her coin inscriptions, apparently was assumed to have been part of her title, for it was adopted as a title by later Augustae.
Solidus, Constantinopolis 383-388, AV 4.51 g. AEL FLAC – CILLA AVG Draped bust r., with elaborate headdress, necklace and mantle. Rev. SALVS REI – PVBLICAEH Victory seated r. on throne, engraving Christogram on shield set on small column; in exergue, CONOB. C 1. Depeyrot 40/1. RIC 72.
Very rare. Minor traces of restoration on cheek and on edge, otherwise extremely fine
Ex Gorny & Mosch 195, 2011, 497 and NAC 92, 2016, 813 sales.
Like her husband, the emperor Theodosius, Aelia Flaccilla was born to a good family in Spain, and when she married in about 376 it may never have occurred to her that Theodosius' career would draw her far from her homeland. After a year or less of marriage Flaccilla gave birth to her first son, Arcadius, and about six years later (long after she had moved to Constantinopolis and been hailed Augusta) to her second son, Honorius. Throughout her life – even as an empress – she bore a reputation for her piety and her generosity to the poor. Her coins were the first struck for an empress since the 330s and they reinstated the practice, which soon took an especially firm hold in the East. On her coins it is easy to see the iconographic connection to earlier issues of Fausta, Helena and Theodora, and to observe how they influenced future empress coinages. Additionally, her name Aelia, which is abbreviated AEL on her coin inscriptions, apparently was assumed to have been part of her title, for it was adopted as a title by later Augustae.