Solidus, Eastern Roman Empire, Ravenna, Galla Placidia, 421–450

This coin features Empress Galla Placidia. She was the sister of Western Roman Emperor Honorius and was captured by the Visigoths, a Germanic people, when they sacked the city of Rome in 410 AD.

King Athaulf of the Visigoths married her in the hope of combining the wealth of the Visigoths and the Romans. The plan failed, and Galla Placidia was sent back to Rome after her brother Honorius paid a high ransom for her. Back in Rome, he married her off to Constantius III, his future co-emperor.

When the couple’s son, Valentinian III, became emperor, he was under age and so Galla Placidia became the ruler of the Western Roman Empire for a time.

Image rights: Helena Bonnevier, Ekonomiska museet - Kungliga myntkabinettet/SHM (CC BY 4.0)

Object number: 206947_KMK

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