Nummus - Julianus II VOT X MVLT XX, Cyzicus

Julian's VOT X MVLT XX coinage presents an inherent contradiction: vows for ten years fulfilled and twenty years anticipated, struck for an emperor who died in Persia after barely two years of sole rule. The legend was formulaic, inherited from the vow-renewal machinery of the late Roman state, not a prediction anyone expected to test. Julian was killed in June 363 during the retreat from Ctesiphon, making every coin bearing this legend something of an inadvertent irony.

The Cyzicus mint was one of several eastern workshops activated under Julian's brief reign, producing the small AE3 nummus that had become the workhorse of late Roman bronze circulation by the 360s.