Nummus - Valentinianus II VIRTVS EXERCITI, ☧; Constantinopolis

Valentinian II was eleven years old when his half-brother Gratian elevated him to co-emperor following their father's sudden death in 375 — a purely political arrangement designed to neutralize rival factions in the western army. Real power sat with generals and court officials throughout most of his reign. His death in 392, officially ruled a suicide, was almost universally disbelieved in antiquity; the Frank commander Arbogast, who had effectively controlled the western court for years, was the obvious suspect, though nothing was ever proven.

The Constantinopolis mint attribution places this piece in the eastern production stream, struck under arrangements that outlasted Valentinian's actual political authority in the west.