Solidus - Constantine II PRINCIPI IVVENTVTIS, Thessalonica

Struck at Thessalonica in 335 AD, this solidus was issued as part of the celebration surrounding the elevation of Constantine II and his brothers to the rank of Caesar — a dynastic arrangement Constantine I formalized in the lead-up to his death in 337, dividing the empire among his three surviving sons and two nephews. The PRINCIPI IVVENTVTIS ("Prince of Youth") title was a deliberate archaism, reviving Augustan-era honorifics to signal continuity with Rome's foundational imperial tradition.

Thessalonica's mint was among the more active in the Tetrarchic and Constantinian periods, benefiting from its strategic position on the Via Egnatia.