Crispus was Caesar, not Augustus — a distinction that mattered enormously in the Tetrarchic hierarchy and explains the PRINCIPIA IVVENTVTIS reverse type assigned to him. He was Constantine's eldest son, almost certainly illegitimate, elevated to Caesar in March 317 alongside his half-brother Constantine II and cousin Licinius II as part of the peace settlement following Constantine's first war with Licinius. The Aquileia mint was one of the primary western workshops activated for this coordinated multi-mint issue. Crispus would go on to prove himself an exceptional general before his father ordered his execution in 326 — the reasons for which remain historically unresolved.
Crispus was Caesar, not Augustus — a distinction that mattered enormously in the Tetrarchic hierarchy and explains the PRINCIPIA IVVENTVTIS reverse type assigned to him. He was Constantine's eldest son, almost certainly illegitimate, elevated to Caesar in March 317 alongside his half-brother Constantine II and cousin Licinius II as part of the peace settlement following Constantine's first war with Licinius. The Aquileia mint was one of the primary western workshops activated for this coordinated multi-mint issue. Crispus would go on to prove himself an exceptional general before his father ordered his execution in 326 — the reasons for which remain historically unresolved.