timeline

Time Line -- Who issued coins when? (A.D. 364-455)

This page lists in chronological order the events that affected who issued coins, and gives the emperors who issued coins between those events.
This information is the primary criteria for dating coins of this period. Types issued in common by two emperors were probably issued in time intervals when they were both ruling, and types not issued by all rulers ruling in a time interval were probably not issued in that time interval.

Key:
x    The first "x" in a row gives the initial date of that emperor's coins, and
        subsequent events after which the emperor continued to issue coins are also marked with x's.
e    The final "e" in each row denotes the terminal date of that emperor's coins ("e" for "end").
xx In the lower right corner, the issues of Honorius and Theodosius II continue until 423 and 450 respectively.

In any given column, the x's mark emperors who issued coins from that date to the next date. Generally, all emperor's with x's in a column will be issuing the same types in that time interval. Because there are few further indications on the coins that might allow us to date them more precisely, almost all types are dated to time intervals bounded by the events in this table.

event number: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

emperor\date 364 364 365 366 367 375 378 379 383 383 387 388 392 392 393 394 395 402 408

Valentinian I x x x x x e

Valens x x x x x e

Procopius x e

Gratian x x x x x e

Valentinian II x x x x x x x e

Theodosius x x x x x x x x x x e

Arcadius x x x x x x x x x x e

Magnus Maximus x x e

Flavius Victor x e

Eugenius x x e

Honorius x x x x xx

Theodosius II x xx

emperor/date 364 364 365 366 367 375 378 379 383 383 387 388 392 392 393 394 395 402 408

event number: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

Event number
/    date                       event                     RIC IX page-number references
1    364    26 Feb 364 Valentinian Augustus   [p. xli]
2    364    28 Mar 364   Valens Augustus   [p. xli]
3    365    28 Sept 365 Procopius Augustus [p. 209]
4    366    27 May 366 Procopius defeated and executed   [p. xlii]
5    367    24 Aug 367   Gratian Augustus   [p. 14, p. 216]
6    375    17 Nov 375    Valentinian dies   [p. xlii]
                 22 Nov 375    Valentinian II succeeds him    [Sear p. 30]
7    378    9 Aug 378   Valens dies at the battle of Adrianople (Hadrianopolis) [p. xlii]
8    379    19 Jan 379   Theodosius Augustus   [p. xlii]
9    383    19 Jan 383   Arcadius Augustus   [p. xliii]
10   383       July 383   Magnus Maximus Augustus   [Sear p. 31]
                 25 Aug 383   Gratian killed at Lugdunum [p. xliii]
11   387      mid 387       Flavius Victor Augustus ["towards the end of the period [383-388]" p. 49, RIC. Sear p. 31]
12   388    28 Aug 388   Magnus Maximus surrenders and is executed   [p. xliii] [Sear says 28 July 388]
                                        Flavius Victor executed too, very shortly thereafter.
13   392    15 May 392   Valentinian II dies   [p. xliii]
14   392        fall             Eugenius Augustus   [p. xliii]    22 Aug 392 [Sear, p. 31, "after a 3 month interregnum in
                                                                                                        the West following the death of Valentinian II"]
15   393    22 Jan (?) 393   Honorius Augustus   [p. xliii]   [Sear says 10 Jan 393]
16   394    6 Sept 394    Eugenius defeated and executed   [p. xliii]
17   395   17 Jan 395   Theodosius dies   [p. xliii]
18   402    10 Jan 402   Theodosius II Augustus   [Sear p. 33]
19   408   1 May 408   Arcadius dies   [Sear p. 31]

Later dates:                             event                       [RIC X citation]
407    Early 407- Aug/Sept 411   Constantine III Augustus [p. 347]
409    409-410 (Rome)    Priscus Attalus Augustus [p. 343] (His rule AD 414-415 in Gaul produced no AE coins.)
410    410-411            Maximus of Barcelona Augustus (deposed and permitted to retire in 411 [Sear]) [p. 351]
414    4 July 414          Pulcheria Augusta   [p. 253]
421    8 Feb 421 - early 423     Galla Placidia Augusta   [p. 317]
                                                     (not to be confused with another Placidia, daughter of Valentinian III)
423    2 Jan 423            Eudocia Augusta   [p. 253]
423    15 Aug 423         Honorius dies   [p. 317, Sear says 25 Aug 423]
423    20 Nov 423         Johannes Augustus   [p. 157, Sear says 25 Aug 423, on the death of Honorius]
425    May 425              Johannes dies [p. 157, Sear says October 425]
424    23 Oct 424          Valentianian III Caesar at Thessalonica   [p. 160]
425    23 Oct 425          Valentianian III Augustus at Rome   [p. 160, Sear p. 33]]
437    29 Oct 437          Eudoxia, daughter of Theodosius II, married Valentinian III, but had no AE coins [p. 160]
                                          (not to be confused with the earlier Eudoxia, the wife of Arcadius)
450    28 July 450          Theodosius II dies   [p. 253]
455    16 Mar 455         Valentinian III assassinated [p. 363]

There is a more-complete and annotated chronological table in RIC IX, pages xli-xliii. David Sear's book, The Emperors of Rome and Byzantium, is a chronogical table giving dates of these events. If Sear and RIC agree, only the RIC citation is given.

Note on precision: Information did not travel instantaniously in the ancient world. The news of the death of a ruler might have taken a month or so to reach distant regions of the empire. Therefore, all the precise dates given above cannot be regarded as the actual dates on which the corresponding coin types changed. Factor in a substantial delay for the mints to react.

Return to the main page on late Roman AE types.