After the death of Constantine the Great in 337 AD, the Roman Empire fell into a deep internal crisis. Constantine's sons fought over power and besides, in 350 AD, a Frankish officer called Magnentius usurped the throne of the Western Roman Empire. Constans, the legitimate emperor of West Rome, found no support among his people; he had to flee and was killed on the run. But Magnentius' success was only temporary, too: In September 351, the Eastern emperor Constantius crushed him in battle and thus became sole emperor of the Roman Empire. From this time dates this coin. It is an imitation of the coins of Constantius', as the "barbarian" peoples used to issue them at that time. Diverse Germanic tribes took advantage of the fact that there was no recognized central power within the Western Roman Empire during the struggles over succession. They overrun the frontiers and settled within the empire – and they minted their own money by imitating the circulating Roman coins.