Coin-set pendant

Late Antique, 4th century AD
Probably from Constantinople (modern Istanbul, Turkey)

An openwork gold pendant set with a coin and six medallion busts

This special double solidus of the Roman emperor Constantine I 'the Great' (reigned AD 306-37) is set in a hexagonal gold sheet, pierced with heart-shaped scrolls and set with six male and female busts in high relief. The beautifully chased small busts are very expressive and individualized, but difficult to identify. One, wearing a Phrygian cap, may represent Attis, a solar deity, or Orpheus, the mythical lyre player and singer. The others may be Greek gods, philosophers, muses or satyrs.

This remarkable coin pendant was originally part of a single necklace that was hung with four other pierced-work pendants set with double solidi surrounded by busts. The coins were issued in AD 321 and 324 to commemorate the second and third consulships of Constantine's sons, Crispus (died 326) and Constantine II (emperor, 337-340). Four were struck at the imperial mint at Sirmium (modern Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia) and one at Nicomedia (modern Izmit, Turkey). The owner of these valuable multiple issues probably had them all mounted close to the same time, either in the 320s or later in the fourth century. Sirmium was Constantine's imperial residence from 320 to 324, before he moved permanently to Constantinople. Therefore, the pendants could have been made in either the Western or Eastern Empire.

D. Buckton (ed.), Byzantium: treasures of Byzant (London, The British Museum Press, 1994)

B. Deppert-Lippitz, 'Late Roman splendor: jewelery from the age of Constantine', Bulletin of the Cleveland Muse, 1 (1996)