In 312, Licinius and Constantine were nominal co-rulers in an increasingly unstable arrangement. The SOLI INVICTO type — dedicating coinage to the Unconquered Sun — was a deliberate ideological choice shared across multiple mints at this moment, projecting a solar monotheism palatable to both pagan and proto-Christian audiences before the political and religious alignments of the tetrarchy fully collapsed. Within months of this issue, Constantine would defeat Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge, beginning a shift that would eventually render Sol Invictus politically inconvenient.
The Antioch mint in this period operated under considerable administrative pressure, supplying coinage across the eastern provinces. RIC VI 167a is among the better-documented Licinian issues from the workshop.
In 312, Licinius and Constantine were nominal co-rulers in an increasingly unstable arrangement. The SOLI INVICTO type — dedicating coinage to the Unconquered Sun — was a deliberate ideological choice shared across multiple mints at this moment, projecting a solar monotheism palatable to both pagan and proto-Christian audiences before the political and religious alignments of the tetrarchy fully collapsed. Within months of this issue, Constantine would defeat Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge, beginning a shift that would eventually render Sol Invictus politically inconvenient.
The Antioch mint in this period operated under considerable administrative pressure, supplying coinage across the eastern provinces. RIC VI 167a is among the better-documented Licinian issues from the workshop.