Year five of Hadrian's reign corresponds to his first great tour of the provinces — a journey that would eventually take him across nearly every corner of the empire, but which in 120–121 AD had not yet reached Egypt. Alexandria's mint marked the regnal year with the lunate epsilon, a dating convention unique to Egyptian coinage that allows unusually precise placement within Hadrian's twenty-one-year reign. Elpis, the personification of hope, appears on provincial bronzes with particular frequency during the early Hadrianic period, likely reflecting official messaging around a reign that had opened with the controversial execution of four senior senators — an episode Hadrian spent years attempting to distance himself from politically.
Year five of Hadrian's reign corresponds to his first great tour of the provinces — a journey that would eventually take him across nearly every corner of the empire, but which in 120–121 AD had not yet reached Egypt. Alexandria's mint marked the regnal year with the lunate epsilon, a dating convention unique to Egyptian coinage that allows unusually precise placement within Hadrian's twenty-one-year reign. Elpis, the personification of hope, appears on provincial bronzes with particular frequency during the early Hadrianic period, likely reflecting official messaging around a reign that had opened with the controversial execution of four senior senators — an episode Hadrian spent years attempting to distance himself from politically.