Aureus - Diocletianus CONSVL IIII P P PROCOS

Diocletian held his fourth consulship in 290 AD, the year this aureus was struck — a moment when he was consolidating the tetrarchic system but had not yet formally proclaimed it. The title PROCOS, proconsular, is technically anomalous for a reigning emperor and reflects a deliberate legal fiction the imperial chancery used to frame absolute power within republican constitutional forms.

RIC V.2 285 is a scarce type. Diocletian's aurei generally survive in lower numbers than his prolific antoninianus output, and the consulship series in gold is among the thinner represented.