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Valentinian III. AD 425-455. AV Solidus (20mm, 6h). Ravenna mint. Struck AD 426-circa 430/455. Rosette-diademed, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Valentinian, wearing military attire, standing facing, foot on human-headed serpent coiled below, holding long cross and Victory on globe left; R|V//COMOB. RIC X 2010; Ranieri 95; Depeyrot 17/1. Toned. In ICG encapsulation 2912630156, graded MS 60.
From the W. Toliver Besson Collection. Ex Property from an English Private Collection (Classical Numismatic Group Electronic Auction 589, 18 June 2025), lot 714; Heritage 3012 (2 January 2011), lot 24760.
Son of the brief-reigning Constantius III and the formidable Galla Placidia, daughter of Theodosius I, Valentinian III spent his early years in the care of his uncle, the Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II. After the death of Honorius in AD 425, the Western throne was seized by a military cabal who placed a relative nonentity, the Chamberlain Johannes, on the throne. Theodosius II found this intolerable and sent a military task force to install the six-year-old Valentinian III as Emperor of the West, with Galla Placidia acting as regent. After a number of misadventures, the Eastern army succeeded and Valentinian was formally crowned in Rome on 23 October, AD 425. Valentinian would go on to "reign" for nearly 30 years, although he grew into an ineffectual and pleasure-loving ruler who left the actual governing to a succession of court eunuchs while a series of powerful generals, chiefly Bonafatius and Flavius Aetius, fought against each other to secure dominance over the rapidly shrinking West Roman Empire. As with his similarly long-reigning but ineffectual uncle Honorius, the few acts Valentinian undertook on his own initiative turned out to be disastrous, chiefly the murder, by his own hand, of his chief general, Flavius Aetius, on 21 February AD 454. A year later, Valentinian was himself assassinated by two followers of Aetius. Poor leader that he was, Valentinian’s long reign was the only form of stability the western empire possessed and his sudden removal proved predictably catastrophic, with the West Roman Empire surviving his murder by only 21 years.
Closing Date and Time: 22 July 2026 at 11:32:20 ET.
Winning bids are subject to a 22.5% buyer's fee for bids placed on this website, 25% for all others.
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