Constantine I, 307/310-337. Solidus (gold, 21 mm, 4.58 g, 6 h), Siscia, 335/6 or later. CONSTANTI-NVS MAX AVG Laurel-and-rosette-diademed, draped and cuirassed bust of Constantine I to right. Rev. VICTORIA CONSTANTINI AVG / SIS Victory standing right, her left foot set on bound captive seat right, head to left, and writing shield with VOT / XXX in two lines. Depeyrot I, 23/3 and II, 1/2. RIC 244. Rare. A very attractive piece, perfectly centered and with an impressive portrait. A few fade marks and with a thin the break on the reverse, otherwise, extremely fine. Ex Leu 15, 4-5 May 1976, 393. Struck at the very end of Constantine, this magnificent solidus extends to the celebrations of his tricennalia, marking three decades since his accession in 306. The VOT / XXX enrolled by Victory on the shield records the bows associated with this extraordinary anniversary, which was celebrated with particular splendor in 335/6; Eusebius himself delivered his famous Tricennial Oration before the Emperor at Constantinople. The imagery, however, is anything but merely commemorative: Victory plants her foot upon a bound captive while recording Constantine such as thirty years on what is itself a martial trophy. The legendary VICTORIA CONSTANTINI AVG makes the message strongly personal – this is not Victory in the abstract, but the 'Victory of Constantine Augustus.' By this point Constantine had been sole ruler of the Roman world for more than a decade, and the type presents his long reign as one sustained and divinely favored sequence of Victories. Struck only briefly before his death in 337, it is a fittingly emphatic image of Constantine at the summit of his power. This lot can be shipped to a US address.