Follis - Arcadius VOT V, Constantinopolis

Arcadius received the title of Augustus in January 383, aged perhaps five or six, elevated by his father Theodosius I in a deliberate move to secure dynastic succession following the usurpation of Magnus Maximus in the West. The VOT V vows coinage — pledging the completion of five-year vow cycles — was a formulaic instrument of legitimacy, here applied to a child emperor who held no independent authority whatsoever. Constantinople's mint was the natural issuing point; Theodosius had made the city his administrative base after Adrianople left the Danubian frontier in ruins.