Catalog
1/2 Siliqua In the name of Anastasius I, Rome
| Issuer | Ostrogothic Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Year | 493-518 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 1.50 g |
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| Obverse description | Right-facing effigy of Emperor Anastasius I, depicted with a pearl diadem, draped shoulders, and cuirassed bust in the late Roman imperial tradition. The bust is rendered in a stylized, flat hammered technique characteristic of Ostrogothic silver coinage. A circular Latin legend surrounds the bust within the coin's field. |
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| Reverse description | A six-pointed star, closely resembling a chi-rho or asterisk motif, occupies the central field of the reverse, displayed in high relief against a flat, unadorned background. The central device is encircled by a beaded or rope-style wreath border, a hallmark of late antique and early medieval Ostrogothic coinage. The design is bold and simple, with no legend or exergual inscription, reflecting the anonymous subsidiary silver denomination conventions of the period. |
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| Additional information |
Theoderic the Great struck coinage in the name of the Eastern emperor as a deliberate constitutional statement — his kingdom was framed, at least officially, as a delegation of Roman authority rather than a conquest. Anastasius I, reigning in Constantinople, tolerated this arrangement largely because Theoderic had done him the considerable favor of removing Odoacer, whose own decade-long hold on Italy had been an ongoing embarrassment to the Eastern court.
The half siliqua was the workhorse of small silver transactions in Ostrogothic Italy, and Rome as mint city carried obvious symbolic weight for a regime anxious to present itself as Roman continuity rather than Germanic replacement. Theoderic's formal recognition by Anastasius came in 497.