Constantine I 307-337 AD - AE Follis - Constantine formalized alliance with King Tiridates III, autumn 314 AD

ANRO-2019; RIC-unlisted

Constantine I 307-337 AD
Rome Mint, 314 AD

AE Follis

Obverse: IMP CONSTANTINVS P F AVG Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust of Constantine I to right.
Reverse: SOLI IN-VI-CTO COMITI / R Q Sol, radiate, nude but with chlamys over the left shoulder, standing facing, head left; he raises his right hand in salutation and holds a globe in his left. At his feet to the left sits a captive identified by the tall, pointed Armenian tiara as King Tiridates III of Armenia, shown in a posture of submission.

Comment
The inscription translates to “To Sol the Unconquered, Companion (of the Emperor).” By pairing Sol with a subjugated, Armenian-capped figure, the type proclaims Constantine’s divine favour and his claim to protect—and, when necessary, dominate—the eastern frontier.

Leu Numismatik Web Auction 28 Lot 4662 (12-Dec-2023)
(Bronze, 18 mm, 3.25 g, 6 h)

Set against the legendary 301 AD conversion of Armenia, this Roman bronze—dated by Weiser to the autumn of 314 AD—functions less as a record of Tiridates’ baptism and more as Constantine’s visual endorsement of a kingdom that was already Christian. By substituting the usual bound captive with a dignified, unshackled figure in the flat-topped Armenian tiara, the engraver signals that the sitter is Tiridates III himself, whose portrait—perhaps supplied to the mint by a small Armenian delegation—allowed the type to double as a recognisable royal likeness. Yet the king’s position at Sol’s feet preserves Rome’s ideological hierarchy: even a Christian ally appears beneath the imperial guardian of victory, affirming Constantine’s claim to arbitrate Armenia’s throne and, by extension, to project Roman supremacy deep into the Persian frontier. Thus the coin simultaneously commemorates a newly formalised political-religious partnership and advertises the emperor’s dominion over an eastern client long contested between Rome and Persia—a message all the more resonant during Constantine’s struggle with Licinius.

Weiser, Wolfram. Zum Gründungsdatum der Armenischen Kirche: Eine Bronzemünze von Constantinus I. dem Großen, geprägt im Herbst 314, während des Kibalesischen Krieges, in Rom, mit dem Bild des Königs Tiridates des Großen von Armenien [“On the Date of the Foundation of the Armenian Church: A Bronze Coin of Constantine I the Great, Struck in Rome in Autumn 314 During the Cibalae War, Depicting King Tiridates the Great of Armenia”]. Kölner Jahrbuch 43 (2010): 817–837.