DN ARCADI-VS P F AVG, pearl-diademed, draped and cuirassed bust right / GLORIA ROMANORVM, emperor walking right, holding labarum and dragging a captive behind him, SMAQP in exergue. Aquileia mint, struck 383-388 CE. RIC 45c.

Scarcer type.

Honorius (r. 393–423 CE) was Western Roman Emperor during one of the most turbulent periods of the empire’s collapse. Ascending the throne at age nine, he relied heavily on generals - most notably Stilicho, whose leadership held the West together until his execution in 408. Honorius’ reign saw mounting crises: invasions by Goths under Alaric, the Sack of Rome in 410, and the gradual loss of effective control over Britain, Gaul, and Spain. Politically timid and often isolated in his capital at Ravenna, Honorius struggled to assert authority amid rival warlords and breakaway regimes. By his death in 423, the Western Empire remained intact only in name, its long decline already irreversible.