Maybe we'll have to disagree on the
SALVS and
SPES types. I just don't see the poignancy of the
Fausta types... Why look for special meaning there and not on the SECVRITAS
type for
Helena? Surely these are all entirely generic 4thC
Rome wishes, and
Fausta or the caesars have no more to do with the
health of the empire than, for example,
Isis does when paired with the same
legend on
Claudius II's coinage. I really think the appearance of Fausta/Helena is simply due to their appointment as
augustae and the overall celebratiojn of Constantine's sole rule.
Fausta is just being depicted as she is, a worthy model of fecundity and motherly virtues. I agree in presuming that the (otherwise entirely generic)
SPES legend is meant to assume some dynastic overtone when paired with this image of
Fausta, but this is a loose projection at best.
By the way, another dynastic milestone, the elevation of Crispus and Constantine II to caesar AD 317, prompted the first emergence of Fausta on coinage, together with Helena and Constantine's real and fictitious forefathers.I think these events are too far apart to assume any connection. The special
Thessalonica issues incl. Fausta/Helena as NF coincided with the introduction of the
centenionalis (higher silver content coinage) in 318-319 alongside the
VLPP at other mints. The caesars
had been appointed 1-2 years earlier c.317 while the
follis was
still being issued.
Fausta had incidently made her first appearaence in 307 on a
half-argenteus with
Venus reverse.
Grandpa
Claudius had been invented c.309-310 and first mentioned in a paneyric dated by content to 310. The necessity of this was the embarassing disappearance of Constantine's auctor imperii
Maximianus, and thus the need for some alternate claim to legitimacy.
Ben