Galla Placidia, 425-435. Ae 11 mm., 1.0 gm. Rome. Obv: D N GALLA PLA-CIDIA P F AVG, Bust diademed, draped right. Rev: SALVS REIPVBLICAE Cross, [RM] in exergue. RIC 2113. Repatinated. Galla Placidia lived one of the most eventful lives of late antiquity. Daughter of the Roman emperor Theodosius I and his second wife, Galla (herself daughter of the Emperor Valentinian I), Galla Placidia was half sister of the emperors Honorius and Arcadius. Captured by Alaric, king of the Visigoths in 410, she was held as a hostage, and in 414 was married to Alaric’s successor Athaulf. After the murder of Athaulf in 415, she was at first ill-treated but was returned in 416 to her brother Honorius. In 417, she married her second husband, Constantius, a general who was made co-emperor, as Constantius III, in 421. She bore a son, who became Valentinian III, and his more strong-willed sister, Honoria. In 423 she quarreled with Honorius and fled to the court of Theodosius II. After the death of Honorius, she became regent in the West for her son Valentinian III, whom Theodosius placed on the throne after overthrowing the usurper John in 425. It was for this occasion that the above issue was struck. She had great personal influence over her son, but she was forced to leave the government largely in the hands of general Aetius. Her final years were devoted to the erection of churches and other sacred buildings in Ravenna, and she died at Rome on November 27, 450.