VALENS
AD 364-378AE3. 2.22g, 17.5mm
MINTED: Siscia mint, AD 367-375
REF: RIC IX Siscia 14b xbOBVERSE: D N VALEN-S P F AVG, pearl-diademed, draped and cuirassed bust right.
REVERSE: GLORIA RO-MANORVM, emperor dragging captive with right, standard inscribed with chi-rho in left; R in right field, •ΓSISC in exergue.
Notes:
Well-centered and with good portrait. Scattering of green mineral hoard deposits.
Historical Notes:
Valens was made co-emperor by his elder brother Valentinian I, and governed the eastern provinces. He contended ineffectually against the Sassanid empire in the east as well as a flow of Gothic refugees encroaching into Roman territory. This latter affair eventually resulted in a war against a huge confederation of Gothic tribes, Ostrogoths, Huns and Alans. At the disastrous Battle of Adrianople in 378, two-thirds of the eastern Roman army was destroyed and Valens himself killed.
