Constantine is veiled here in what some have claimed to be
his death shroud, though more than likely it is symbolic of
his role as a priest of the Religio Romana, which was intimately tied to politics, as no doubt was
his embracing of Christianity. Although
Constantine was the son of a
Christian mother, legalized Christianity, and indeed embraced that faith to a substantial degree, he never completely abandoned the old religious ways, either. The coin is a commemorative of
his deification by the Senate, a fact that in itself -- as with the coin's mix of
Roman and
Christian iconography -- demonstrates that the role of Christianity was
still ill-defined at the time.
