The Valour Of Our Emperors.

Whilst watching Stanley Kubrick's epic film Spartacus this afternoon, I was reminded of a remarkanle something that I had received as a birthday gift from my good friend Chas; a small artefact from the last decades of the Roman Empire.

He gave me this bronze coin, roughly the size of a 'new' five pence, bearing the likeness of the Emperor Constantine, who ruled between 307 and 337 AD. This particular example was minted - possibly at Arles - between 326 and 329AD, with the reverse depicting a star above a 4-turreted camp gate, with the insciption VIRTVS AVGG: "the valour of our Emperors."