LARGITIO, a bountiful largess. This word, indicative of the Liberalitas Imperatorum, occurs on a brass medallion on Constantine II (son of Constantine the Great), on the obverse of which is DN CONSTANTIVUS P F AVG; and on the reverse, the emperor, crowned with a tiara, sitting between two figures standing, the one helmeted and in military dress, the other wearing a radiated crown, and extending the right hand to |Constantine|, from whom it appears to be receiving something, with the epigraph of LARGITIO.
The learned differ in their explanations of this very rare |medallion|. Eckhel, however, adopts, and apparently on the better grounds, the opinion of Gori, the Florentine numismatist, that Constantinople is personified by the type of the woman with radiated head; that the female with a helmet is intended to represent Ancient Rome; and that the whole relates to donations on an extensive scale distributed to the troops and people by |Constantine|. The word LARGITIO is introduced in this instance for the first time on coins, instead of the Liberalitas, and the Congiarium previously in use. "In fact (adds Eckhel) this was the term peculiar to the period in question, whence the expression Comites privatarum, or sacrarum largitionum, etc." (Vol |viii| p. 117) See ABVNDANTIA LIBERALITAS.