Nummus - Constantius II Phoenix, FEL TEMP REPARATIO, Arelate

The FEL TEMP REPARATIO ("happy times are returning") coinage was launched in 348 AD to mark the 1,100th anniversary of Rome's founding, a massive empire-wide issue struck simultaneously across nearly every mint. Arelate — modern Arles — was one of the western mints that produced this phoenix type, symbolically chosen to evoke Rome's cyclical renewal at a moment when the empire was anything but stable: Constans controlled the west, Constantius II the east, and the two brothers were already drifting toward the confrontation that would end with Constans' murder in early 350.