Licinia Eudoxia. Augusta, circa AD 439-490. AV Solidus (21.5mm, 4.48 g, 6h). Constantinople mint. Struck under Theodosius II and Valentinian III, AD 439-440. AEL EVDO XIA AVG, pearl-diademed and draped bust right, wearing earring and necklace; being crowned by manus Dei above / IMP • XXXXII • COS XVII • P • P •, Constantinopolis, helmeted and draped, seated left, holding globus cruciger in extended right hand and transverse scepter in left, right foot on prow; d to left; shield beside throne to right; COMOB. RIC X 306; Depeyrot 84/5; Biaggi –; Mazzini –. Attractively toned, slight doubling. EF. Very rare. A particularly high grade example.
Licinia Eudoxia was the only surviving child of the Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II, and in 424 AD, at the age of two, was betrothed to her four-year-old cousin, the future Emperor of the Western Roman Empire Valentinian III, in order to reunify the two halves of the Roman world. Their marriage produced two daughters, but was abruptly terminated when Valentinian was killed by two Scythians, Optelas and Thraustelas, at the behest of the usurper Petronius Maximus. After buying off the military and palace officials, Maximus cemented his claim to the throne by forcibly marrying Eudoxia only a few days after her husband’s murder. At least one historian theorized that Maximus’ marriage to Eudoxia was motivated by revenge against the late Valentinian in return for the Emperor’s rape of Maximus’ first wife. Maximus also married his son Palladius to Eudoxia and Valentinian’s daughter Eudocia, thereby severing her engagement to Huneric, the son of the Vandal king Gaiseric.
Deeply unhappy, Eudoxia somehow managed to contact Gaiseric to beseech him to depose Maximus. The Vandals successfully besieged Rome and carried Eudoxia off to Carthage, along with her daughters; Maximus perished amidst the siege and his body thrown into the Tiber. In 462 AD, after seven years in Carthage, Eudoxia and her daughter Placidia were ransomed by Leo I and moved to Constantinople, while Eudocia remained in Carthage and married Huneric as her parents had originally intended. The rest of Eudoxia’s life passed unrecorded; even her exact date of death is unknown.
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