AR24 - Hadrian ΠΡΟΝΟΙΑ, L ΚΒ

Year 22 of Hadrian's reign in Egypt (137–138 AD) fell during his final years, when the emperor was gravely ill at his villa in Tivoli and the question of succession had become urgent. The ΠΡΟΝΟΙΑ type — divine Providence — was not accidental messaging. Hadrian had already adopted Lucius Aelius Caesar in 136, a choice that proved disastrously short-lived when Aelius died on January 1, 138. Antoninus Pius was adopted within weeks. Alexandrian civic coinage of this regnal year thus sits at the precise pivot of that dynastic crisis.