MARTINIAN (Usurper, 324). Follis. Nicomedia.

Obv: D N M MARTINIANVS P F AVG.
Radiate, draped and cuirassed bust right.
Rev: IOVI CONSERVATORI / (X/IIΓ) / SMNB.
Jupiter standing left, holding crowning Victory on globe and sceptre; to left, eagle standing right, with wreath in beak; to right, bound captive seated right.
RIC 45.
Very rare.
Choice Very Fine
Weight: 2.94 g.
Diameter: 18.41 mm.

Sextus Marcius Martinianus occupied one of the briefest and most precarious thrones of the Late Roman Empire. Elevated in July AD 324, he served as co‑emperor (Augustus) alongside Licinius during the final and decisive phase of the civil war against Constantine I. His promotion was not ceremonial: Licinius appointed Martinian, formerly magister officiorum and a trusted senior commander, in a desperate attempt to reinforce his military position after suffering a heavy defeat at Hadrianopolis on 3 July 324.
As newly created Caesar, Martinian was dispatched to Lampsacus on the Hellespont, tasked with blocking Constantine’s advance the moment he crossed the Bosporus. The plan was bold but ultimately ineffective. Constantine moved with overwhelming speed and strategic clarity, and on 18 September 324, at the Battle of Chrysopolis, he crushed Licinius’ remaining forces. With the defeat of Licinius, Martinian’s short reign ended almost as abruptly as it had begun.

Both Licinius and Martinian were captured alive. In a rare gesture of clemency for the period, Constantine initially spared them: Licinius was confined in Thessalonica, while Martinian was placed under house arrest in Cappadocia. Yet this mercy proved temporary. Within a year, Constantine reversed his decision, and both former emperors were executed — a final act that eliminated any lingering threat to his newly consolidated rule.

Martinian’s coinage, struck during only a few months and under extreme political pressure, is consequently exceptionally rare. Each surviving specimen is a tangible witness to the last flicker of resistance against Constantine’s rise to sole power and the end of the Licinian dynasty.

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