Abstract
One of the authors of the present article has recently made a systematic study of a rare type of portrait that shows the emperor holding weapons that turn out to be plumbatae (also known as mattiobarbuli - javelins with lead weights) that are usually described in numismatic literature as arrows. Numismatics provides the earliest evidence of this type of projectile that first appears on the coinage of Emperor Probus in 279 and seemed to appear for the last time on coins of Severus II between 306-307. The re-examination of a sole surviving half-nummus of Maxentius, minted in Rome between 310-311 where Maxentius is shown as a Mattiobarbulus, pushes back the terminus date. This discovery has prompted a review of busts that depict lead-weighted javelins (plumbatae) on coinage issued for victories and periodic jubilees, to determine the nature of the army units thus being honored (the Illyrian legions) during the conflicts that marked the end of the Tetrarchy.
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