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Tremissis - Aelia Pulcheria Cross within wreath, Constantinopolis
| Issuer | Eastern Roman Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | 450-453 |
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| Value | 1 Tremissis (⅓) |
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| Obverse description | Diademed, draped, and mantled bust of Aelia Pulcheria facing right, adorned with an elaborate pearl diadem and pendilia falling to either side of the face. The empress is depicted with carefully rendered hair dressed in the late antique court fashion, wearing imperial robes with visible fibula and jewelled ornaments at the shoulder. A fine beaded border frames the design. The surrounding Latin legend reads AEL PVLCHERIA AVG, identifying the Augusta in the customary abbreviated court titulature of the Eastern Roman imperial coinage. |
|---|---|
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| Obverse lettering | AEL PVLCH-ERIA AVG |
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| Additional information |
Aelia Pulcheria was no passive Augusta. She engineered the elevation of Marcian to the throne in 450 following her brother Theodosius II's riding accident, marrying him in a formal but celibate union — she had taken a vow of virginity decades earlier. The arrangement was explicitly political, lending Marcian the dynastic legitimacy he otherwise lacked entirely.
She died in 453, which brackets this issue tightly to the opening years of Marcian's reign. RIC X 521 is among the fewer attested tremissis types of this co-reign, struck at Constantinople.