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40 Nummi - Justinian I Antioch, tHЄЧP, Bust Facing
| Issuer | Byzantine Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | 559-565 |
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| Value | 1 Follis = 40 Nummi (1⁄180) |
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| Obverse description | Facing helmeted and cuirassed bust of Emperor Justinian I rendered in the frontal Byzantine imperial style, with the emperor depicted wearing a plumed helmet and military cuirass. The right hand holds a globus cruciger, symbolizing Christian imperial authority over the world, while the left arm supports a large decorated shield. A cross appears in the upper right field. The bold peripheral legend in Latin capitals proclaims the emperor's full titulature. The portrait conveys the majestic, hieratic quality characteristic of mid-sixth-century Byzantine coinage from the Antioch mint. |
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| Reverse script | Latin/Greek |
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| Additional information |
By the time this issue was struck, Antioch had endured decades of catastrophe: sacked by the Sasanians under Khosrow I in 540, devastated by plague in 542, and then leveled by earthquake in 526 and again in 528. The city Justinian resettled and rebuilt was substantially renamed Theopolis — "City of God" — which accounts for the mint signature on this coin. Production here was fitful, dependent on a recovering urban infrastructure and a population that had been reduced to a fraction of its former size.
The regnal years covered by this emission correspond to Justinian's final years, when the great legislative and military programs had largely exhausted the treasury.