Aureus - Maximian VIRTVS MILITVM, Rome

Maximian's VIRTVS MILITVM aurei of 298–299 belong to a moment of genuine military urgency. While Maximian held the western empire, his co-emperor Constantius I was pressing the campaign to reclaim Britain from the usurper Allectus, and the Rhine frontier demanded constant garrisoning. The VIRTVS MILITVM type — virtue of the soldiers — was not decorative ideology; it was directed at troops who needed paying and whose loyalty under the tetrarchic system was never assumed.

RIC VI 7b distinguishes this emission by its reverse officina and mint control marks, details that place it firmly within Rome's reorganized post-reform output under Diocletian's coinage rationalization of the 290s.