CONSTANTIUS GALLUS, Caesar
AD 351-354
AE2. 4.25g, 21.8mm
MINTED: Alexandria mint, AD 351-354
REF: RIC VIII Alexandria 81
OBVERSE: DN CONSTANTI-VS NOB CAES, barehead, draped and cuirassed bust right.
REVERSE: FEL TEMP RE-PARATIO, helmeted soldier carrying shield, spearing fallen horseman; ALEΓ in exergue.
 
Notes: 
Bold, sharp portrait.  Well-centered on a slightly compact flan. Warm brown patina with green highlights. 
 
Provenance:
Ex Giovanni Dattari Collection of Late Roman Bronzes (CNG E-471, 1 Jul 2020, lot 661)
Giovanni Dattari (1853-1923) was a well-known numismatist and antiquities dealer who lived in Cairo between the 1890s and his death in 1923.  For decades, he monopolized the trade in Egypt of Roman provincial coins of Alexandria, selling tens of thousands of Alexandrian coins to museums and collectors and buying many more.  He once even claimed that two-thirds of all the coins in Egypt passed through his hands.  In addition to being a collector and a dealer, Dattari was also a scholar, and the catalog of his vast collection of Alexandrian coins that he published in 1901 remains one of the standard reference works for the series.  Dattari, however, did not only collect Roman Provincial coins, and writing in 1903, he noted that his collection not only included 6,835 Alexandrian coins, but also 19,320 Roman (Imperial) coins, 91 Archaic Greek coins, and 230 coins of Alexander the Great.  Today, coins from Dattari's famous collection can be found in the coin cabinets of numerous museums and public institutions, as well as the private collections of ancient coin collectors all over the world. 
 
Historical Notes: 
Constantius Gallus, nephew of Constantine the Great and half-brother of the future emperor Julian, was appointed to the position of Caesar during the reign of his cousin, Emperor Constantius II. He was charged with the protection of the East and took up court at Antioch in 351 with his wife Constantina, the sister of the emperor. He had some successes on the military front, suppressing a revolt in Palestine and holding off Persian aggression at the borders of the Empire, but by 354, Gallus began to lose the favour of a suspicious and jealous Constantius. When it was suggested to the emperor that Gallus had overstepped his authority when he viciously prosecuted a series of treason trials at Antioch, Gallus was summoned to Constantius's court to give an account of his actions. While en route, he was met by officers of the emperor and arrested. After an interrogation and trial, he was sentenced to death and beheaded.