The GLORIA ROMANORVM maiorina of Theodosius I was struck during a politically fractured moment: from 383 onward, Magnus Maximus controlled Britain, Gaul, and Spain after murdering Gratian, leaving Theodosius ruling the East while Valentinian II nominally held Italy. The coinage of this period reflects a deliberate assertion of imperial continuity across a court that had just lost a third of the western empire. RIC IX 59c places this piece among the Constantinopolitan issues, struck as Theodosius was quietly consolidating the alliances that would eventually allow him to crush Maximus at the Battle of the Save in 388.
The GLORIA ROMANORVM maiorina of Theodosius I was struck during a politically fractured moment: from 383 onward, Magnus Maximus controlled Britain, Gaul, and Spain after murdering Gratian, leaving Theodosius ruling the East while Valentinian II nominally held Italy. The coinage of this period reflects a deliberate assertion of imperial continuity across a court that had just lost a third of the western empire. RIC IX 59c places this piece among the Constantinopolitan issues, struck as Theodosius was quietly consolidating the alliances that would eventually allow him to crush Maximus at the Battle of the Save in 388.