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Æ33 - Hadrian L Β
| Issuer | Alexandria (Egypt) |
|---|---|
| Year | 117-118 |
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| Composition | Bronze |
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| Reverse description | The god Nilus, personification of the River Nile, reclines to the left atop a hippopotamus, his body semi-draped in the Hellenistic tradition. He holds a long reed in his right hand and a cornucopia in his left arm, symbolising the river's life-giving fertility. The regnal date in Greek numerals appears in the field, designating the second year of Hadrian's reign in the Alexandrian calendar. The composition is characteristic of Alexandrian provincial bronzes, which frequently employed Nilus imagery to celebrate Egypt's agricultural abundance. |
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| Reverse lettering | L Β (Translation: of year 2) |
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| Additional information |
This piece dates to Hadrian's first regnal year in Egypt — a moment of genuine administrative uncertainty. Trajan died in August 117 before formally adopting Hadrian, and the succession was managed by Plotina under disputed circumstances. Egyptian bronze coinage for Year 2 (L Β) was struck while that political ambiguity was still resolving itself in Rome. The Alexandrian mint operated on its own regnal calendar anchored to the Egyptian new year, which is why Year 2 issues appear so early in what the Roman calendar would still consider Hadrian's first year of rule.