275, Lot: 259. Estimate $1000. Sold for $1200. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

OSTROGOTHS. Athalaric. 526-534. AV Solidus (21mm, 4.42 g, 6h). Rome mint. Struck in the name of Justinian I. Helmeted, diademed, and cuirassed bust facing slightly right, holding spear and shield / Victory standing left, holding jeweled cross; star to left. COI 34; MEC 1, 119. Good VF.

Property of Princeton Economics acquired by Martin Armstrong. Ex European Private Collection (Sotheby’s, 9 October 1995), lot 374.

In AD 493, the Ostrogoth Theoderic was sent by the emperor Zeno to remove the then-ruler of Italy, the Skiric Odoacer (who had had dismissed the last Roman emperor of the West), and to then serve as Zeno’s imperial representative there. While the Ostrogoths were technically subordinates of the Byzantine emperor, for which reason they struck coinage in his name, they were, in reality, the de facto rulers of the Italian peninsula.