Valentinian I came to power in February 364 after being selected by the army following the sudden death of Jovian, and within hours of his acclamation he appointed his brother Valens co-emperor — one of the few succession decisions of the late empire that went entirely without bloodshed. The VRBS ROMA siliqua type was struck at Rome in the first years of his reign, a period when the western court was still establishing administrative footing while simultaneously managing serious pressure on the Rhine frontier from Alamannic incursions.
RIC IX 11a places this issue firmly within the earliest Rome mint sequence under Valentinian, before the mint's output diversified substantially after 367.
Valentinian I came to power in February 364 after being selected by the army following the sudden death of Jovian, and within hours of his acclamation he appointed his brother Valens co-emperor — one of the few succession decisions of the late empire that went entirely without bloodshed. The VRBS ROMA siliqua type was struck at Rome in the first years of his reign, a period when the western court was still establishing administrative footing while simultaneously managing serious pressure on the Rhine frontier from Alamannic incursions.
RIC IX 11a places this issue firmly within the earliest Rome mint sequence under Valentinian, before the mint's output diversified substantially after 367.